Blog - The Quill

A single Area Meeting for London: A Quick Recap

The 7 Area Meetings (AMs) in London have agreed to merge at the end of this year to become a new single AM called Quakers in London (QiL). This followed 8 years of exploration and consultation.

Why?
Several of our Existing AMs can’t find people to serve as clerks, treasurers and trustees. No officers – no AM.

How?
All the AMs will merge into the existing charity, London Quakers Property Trust (LQPT). No need for expensive property transfers. LQPT will change its constitution to become an Area Meeting like any other, controlled by its members (us).

When?
QiL is Planned to start in January 2027.

Who is doing the work?
AMs appointed reps to the London Development Group which works up detailed proposals

Who takes the decisions?
Until QiL is formed the London AMs meet together as a Joint London Area Meeting (JLAM). JLAM takes the decisions (that’s us).

Won’t QiL be too big?
34 local meetings will form QiL. That is the largest AM in the UK. We will all have to work to make it succeed and become a true community. Newsletters like this will keep friends informed. Local meetings can continue to meet each other as friends or in new groups to pursue concerns or interests.

Get involved!

Come to the JLAM meetings. Offer service on a role.

Have a question? Send it in using quill@quakersinlondon.org. You can read an even more detailed history of the project at on the Quakers in London website.

14 May, 2026
Getting to Know: Bernadette, lDG Co-Clerk

This post is part of a short series on getting to know some of our newly appointed Friends to QiL committees.

Name: Bernadette

Role: Co-Clerk to London Development Group

Local Meeting: Brentford and Isleworth

What parts of your service are you looking forward to?: Worship and discernment with other LDG members (and the wider London Quaker community) on how best to bring forward this simplification project for London friends.

What do you wish more Friends understood about your role?: How many elements there are in the merger work and the delicate balance between getting on with it… and taking the necessary time to get it right.

What’s your favourite quote from QF&P?: “For a Quaker, religion is not an external activity, concerning a special ‘holy’ part of the self. It is an openness to the world in the here and now with the whole of the self. If this is not simply a pious commonplace, it must take into account the whole of our humanity: our attitudes to other human beings in our most intimate as well as social and political relationships. It must also take account of our life in the world around us, the way we live, the way we treat animals and the environment. In short, to put it in traditional language, there is no part of ourselves and of our relationships where God is not present.” – Harvey Gillman, 1988 (21.20)

Anything else to say?: My thanks for the upholding and the loving support.

14 May, 2026
Getting to Know: Kate Green, Co-Clerk

This post is part of a short series on getting to know some of our newly appointed Friends to QiL committees.

Name: Kate

Role: Area Meeting Co-Clerk

Local Meeting: Wanstead

What parts of your service are you looking forward to?: I just have a general “sense of adventure into the unknown”

What do you wish more Friends understood about your role?: That I wish to be a servant of the meeting.

What’s your favourite quote from QF&P?: Today it’s “Be still and cool in thine own mind …”

Anything else to say?: I’ll be doing my best, with the help of coclerks and the spirit of worship.

14 May, 2026
Now Recruiting: Property Administrator – The London Quakers Property Trust (LQPT)

LQPT is seeking a property administrator to support their work managing Quaker properties across London.

This is a full time London based role with hybrid working arrangements available.

The property administrator will be the first point of contact for enquiries relating to Quaker Meeting Houses and LQPT’s residential buildings. The property administrator will provide administrative support to a small property team and will work with staff and other Quaker volunteers to support venue hire and improve systems.

A successful candidate will have experience in an estate agency, housing association or other similar environment as well as experience in facilities management. The successful candidate will also be a strong communicator and highly organised with the ability to manage and adapt to a varied workload.

Closing Date 12 June 2026 12:00 PM.

For more information about the role and how to apply see the Job Description and Person Specification PDF below.

LQPT Property Administrator JD & PS 2026 Download

8 May, 2026
Now Recruiting: Executive Secretary for Quakers in London (QiL)

Could your next professional role be helping shape the future of Quakerism in London?

The role of executive secretary of Quakers in London will be London based, full-time, and on a continuing contract. The start date will be August/September 2026.

Following several years of consultation, discernment and planning, the seven London area meetings and London Quakers Property Trust are working together to form a London Area Meeting and charity at the end of 2026.

Much has already been carefully thought through and agreed, but this exciting role will help shape the practical details of how QiL will work, managing LQPT during its last months, and helping ensure the success of QiL.

You will build a staff team from some current LQPT staff, staff of the old AMs, and new appointments.

You will need to combine strategic judgement with practical delivery. You will need to be able to work with complexity, support Quakers in London and its trustees and Quaker committees well, bring people with you, and balance continuity with change: respecting the history and identity of existing communities while helping to build something new at a London-wide level.

Further information on the role and how to apply is contained in the application pack PDF below.

Executive Secretary – Application Pack – 6 May 2026 Download

3 May, 2026
Getting to Know: Sam

This post is part of a short series on getting to know some of our newly appointed Friends to QiL committees. The first post is from Sam – co-clerk to Arrangements Committee.

Name: Sam

Role: Co-Clerk to QiL Arrangements Committee

Local Meeting: Westminster local meeting

What parts of your service are you looking forward to?: I really care about making our Area Meetings feel, light, cheerful and fun. I hope they’re times we can come together and enjoy each other’s comapny as we tackle discernment together. For a long time, I’ve heard about lots of Friends feeling tired and fed up with the process of transitioning into a single London Area Meeting. I so so SO hope that we can soon become unburdened by many of the administrative tasks and that we can start to hear from Local Meetings about areas of real Quaker concern.

What do you wish more Friends understood about your role?: I’m here to offer my service to you, the Friends who have appointed me through a process of spiritual discernment into this role. Sometimes Friends will approach me ready for a bit of a fight. To mis-quote my testimony to peace, I’m a lover not a fighter… And I really want What’s best for our Quaker communities too.

What’s your favourite quote from QF&P?: “Creativity is the gift that we were given on the eighth day of creation. In naming and re-making the world we are co-workers with God, and whether we are making a garden or a meal, a painting or a piece of furniture or a computer program, we are sharing in an ongoing act of creation through which the world is constantly re-made.” – Jo Farrow, 1994. This is just a small excert but the whole section (21.38) is great! The mention of the eighth day of creation has left my mind in a tangle a thousand times and has occupied my mind in a lot of Meetings for Worship.

Anything else to say?: Please come and say hi if you see me at JLAM (or anywhere else!). One thing I love about Quakers in London is that it’s been a great source of new f(F)riendships.

29 April, 2026
Your voice shapes our meetings

Every item on a JLAM agenda begins with someone in our community being moved to bring something forward, weather they’re part of a local meeting, the London Development Group, or a committee that has been appointed by our Joint London Area Meeting. Here’s how that process works.

1. Raise it at your Local Meeting – If you feel led to bring a concern or leading forward, Quaker process starts closest to home. Bring it to your Local Meeting, where initial discernment can begin.

2. Your Local Meeting forwards a minute to Area Meeting – Once your Local Meeting has reached unity on the matter, it will record a minute and send it forward to Area Meeting – carrying the fruit of your meeting’s discernment into the wider community.

3. Send it to the co-clerks at least three weeks in advance – This gives the co-clerks the time they need to hold the agenda with care, and allows the Arrangements Committee to prepare the meeting to receive each item well.

Our next JLAM is on 13th June and the clerks hope to receive any papers or agenda items by 23rd May.

Ready to get involved? Get in touch with your local meeting Clerk

27 April, 2026
Getting to Know: Kayla

Greetings London Friends,

I am writing to introduce myself to you all.

My name is Kayla and I have been appointed to be the admin assistant supporting the work in establishing Quakers in London (QiL) through 2026. This is a part-time freelance role and I will be assisting on an as-needed basis.

This will include supporting the work of the London Quaker Property Trust (LQPT), the London Development Group (LDG) and QiL Committees to assist to ensure everything proceeds as smoothly as possible, and relieve some of the administrative burden on Friends who have taken on key roles in this process.

I am available via admin@quakersinlondon.org and can provide assistance answering questions or finding information you may need!

A bit more about me!

Local Meeting: Westminster local meeting (although I am originally from Canberra Northside Meeting in Canberra, Australia).

What do you see as the value of your role?: Often, administration is a significant burden on Friends’ service, and can take up time which may be more fruitfully employed elsewhere, enriching the spiritual life of the meeting and bringing our community together. My hope is that this role will allow me to lighten the load on role holders during this period of transition.

What about your role are you looking forward to?: I am looking forward to getting to know Friends across London to help ease the transition to QiL.

What’s your favourite Advice and Query? So hard to choose! However, a phrase I often return to is “attend to what love requires of you.” I think that this is an important direction toward deep reflection as to how we spend our finite time here at all stages of our lives. Asking simply what love requires of us – love of our community, our world, all life on earth, and also of ourselves can be an important grounding principle where so many different considerations contend to claim our days.

Your Friend,

Kayla

If you’d like to hear introductions from other role holders please let us know which roles you’d like to hear from in the comments!

27 April, 2026
QiL Newsheet 7

Quakers in London News Sheet 7 Download

25 April, 2026
QiL Newsheet 6

Quakers in London News Sheet 6 Download

24 April, 2026