The Friend

Celebrating each other: Jennie Atherton & Juno Lee at YFGM

Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) had its first 2025 gathering at Edinburgh Meeting House from 14-16 February. A whopping ninety-two people attended, roughly thirty-five of whom were newcomers. This is almost fifteen more than the average number of attendees at our 2024 events, and the biggest turnout YFGM has seen in over two decades! We have not been to Scotland for a gathering since 2019, and were delighted to be returning. 

The deep web: Rosemary Field facilitates worship

For more than four years I’ve been a facilitator for online worship for Woodbrooke Europe & Middle East Section, for the thirty-minute Meetings at 7:00am on Tuesdays. That must mean that I’ve facilitated over 200 Meetings. 

Wait, and see: Matt Rosen on Quaker Spring

For a few years, I’ve been attending gatherings of Quaker Spring, a community of Friends from many countries and Quaker traditions who come together to listen to the inward Christ. Quaker Spring grew out of a concern of North American young adult Friends to know the depth of Christ’s presence and power. They had experienced the busyness of Yearly Meetings and conferences – the packed agendas, and intense responsibilities of role-holders – and they yearned for time left open to the Spirit’s movement. They hoped to be refreshed and renewed, and then led into a world in need of the healing power they had encountered. 

Mediation and Other Forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution

Restorative justice (RJ) is a subject that has been dear to Quaker hearts since the 1980s. It has either been conceived of ambitiously, as a non-punitive alternative to the prevailing criminal justice system, or, more commonly and mundanely, as an adjunct to existing criminal justice practices, whereby space is created for victim and offender (and sometimes their families) to engage in ways that adversarial processes deny them. 

Poem: A universe. A word.

Love but not the same love

as one sitting here at my side

as one standing there

as the sun caressing the water

brother, mother, father, daughter

the living and the dead.

The gentle wild cat that sits where she will

on my willing, unwilling lap.

The old woman begging at the corner

the unexpected kindness of the passer-by

the stranger starving, dying, unspoken to.