Latest News
Stocksfield hosts green gathering
Carbon footprint reduction was top of the agenda for a recent weekend course at Stocksfield Meeting House in Northumberland. The Footpaths Facilitators course was designed to give participants the skills needed to manage group interactions around carbon footprint reduction. They would then take this learning back to their own communities....
Ceilidh time at Woodbrooke
More than twenty pupils from seven UK and Ireland Quaker schools gathered at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre recently. The Year Twelve students – sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds – travelled to Birmingham from Ackworth, Bootham, The Mount, Sibford, Saffron Walden, Lisburn and Newtown schools.
Meeting for Sufferings: From sustainability to memorial plans
Four minutes were received from Area Meetings (AMs) for consideration by Meeting for Sufferings, held at Friends House, London, on Saturday 4 July. Wensleydale & Swaledale AM raised issues regarding sustainability, particularly new energy technologies and the importance of climate change adaptation. The minute has been forwarded to the Britain Yearly...
Meeting for Sufferings: The beating heart
The first Meeting for Sufferings of the new triennium was held at Friends House, London on Saturday 4 July. The tone for the morning was set with an arresting image during opening worship, where a parallel was drawn between what the heart is to the body and what Meeting for Sufferings...
Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting minutes sent for action
Minutes from Britain Yearly Meeting 2015 have been sent to Meeting for Sufferings for action. The first of these was minute 25: Responding to social inequality and injustice: housing as a tested concern. The second was Minute 36: Living out our faith in the world – are we ready to meet the challenge? This...
Meeting for Sufferings: Concern for refugees
East Kent Area Meeting sent a minute to Sufferings regarding the need for a ‘policy on safe ways of allowing refugees to reach Europe to claim asylum’. The subject was introduced by Helen Drewery, general secretary of Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW). She said that there is a refugee...
Friends promote peace at military celebrations
Quakers across Britain marked Armed Forces Day, 27 June, by expressing their commitment to peace in a variety of ways. Members of South East Scotland Area Meeting produced a leaflet to distribute in Edinburgh. They handed it out during a parade and military ‘entertainment’, Jane Pearn explained to the Friend.
Blue Idol doors open once more
The Blue Idol Meeting House near Coolham, West Sussex, re-opened on 27 June following extensive renovation. One hundred and twenty guests attended the celebration, including actress Sheila Hancock, and local members of parliament Nick Herbert (Arundel and South Downs) and Jeremy Quin (Horsham).
Friends celebrate London Pride 2015 in the sun
Friends turned out in strength for London Pride on Saturday 27 June. Central London Quakers were joined by members of a number of Meetings, including Glasgow, Golders Green, Kingston, Oxford, Richmond, Sutton, Watford, Westminster and Winchmore Hill. Before the parade, some twenty Friends gathered for a Meeting for Worship in Paddington...
Refugee Week
Doncaster Quakers and the Northern Friends Peace Board, among others, support a weekly club for refugees and asylum seekers –the Doncaster Conversation Club. The Conversation Club celebrated the recent Refugee Week with a five-a-side football tournament.