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Category: Quakers in London

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.

Please note that applications for this role are now closed.

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 Joint London 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
Our meeting Needs You!
Our Nominations Committee is looking for Friends to fill several roles in the life of Quakers in London – and we need your help to find them.

The roles we are currently seeking to fill are:
- Trustees/Trustees in Waiting – including a Treasurer. Friends who can help oversee the governance and stewardship of Quakers in London. We are particularly hoping to find someone with financial experience for the Treasurer role.
- Membership Clerk(s) – we are open to this being a role-share between two Friends, so please feel free to nominate one person or suggest a pair.
- Children and Young People’s Roles – Friends to support the spiritual nurture and wellbeing of children and young people in our meetings.
- Interfaith and inter-church involvement – we are gathering the names of Friends who feel led to engage in interfaith and inter-church matters. If you know someone (or feel this calling yourself), please let us know.
- Safeguarding Coordinator(s) – we are aware of this need and are liaising with LDG. If you know a Friend with relevant experience or interest, we would be glad to hear from you.
If a name comes to mind, whether it’s your own or someone else’s, please do use the form below. All nominations are handled with care and in confidence.

Nominate a Friend →

For more information, including links to role descriptions please visit the Nominations page on the Quakers in London Website here.
17 April, 2026
Friendly Welcome’s mission to support Palestinian students

Friendly Welcome was formed in 2021 by a group of North West London Quakers with a simple but powerful idea: that working together we can change lives.

Their first project saw them sponsor a Syrian refugee family to build a new life in the UK. Now, they’ve turned their attention to Gaza.

The situation there is heartbreaking – and for young people whose education has been shattered by conflict, the path forward can feel impossible. Their current project aims to change that, by supporting Palestinian men and women living amid the ruins of Gaza to take up university places in Europe and secure a brighter future.

They’ve already seen what’s possible. Working with a wider group of supporters, they helped a 17-year-old Palestinian woman take up her university place in Paris. That moment reminded them why this work matters.

Now they’re supporting Bashar, a Palestinian man with a place on a Masters in Digital Innovation at University College Dublin. To get him there and through his studies, they estimate they need around £40,000. They’re already halfway, and they’re working to raise the rest through grants, bursaries and private donations.

What makes Bashar’s story particularly remarkable is his determination. Despite living conditions most of us can barely imagine, he is actively pursuing every scholarship he can find – connecting whenever he manages to get internet access. He’s also committed to working the maximum permitted hours throughout his time in Ireland, doing everything in his power to reduce the funding needed.

They’re looking for people who believe, as they do, that education is hope. If you’d like to support Bashar, you can donate to the cause.

17 April, 2026
London Development Group update March 2026
This group has been working together on the development of the single London Area meeting since March 2024, all the minutes of our meetings can be found on the QiL website. We now have three part-time paid free-lancers supporting our work: Sarah Donaldson focusing on project management and legal matters; Linda Craig working on the financial aspects and Kayla Hemsley appointed to support the administration of QiL and the LDG work.

This short report highlights the main matters we are dealing with at the moment:
- Preparing a listing of the further matters for discernment in 2026 by JLAM.
- Preparation of legal documents for the merger of existing Area Meeting charities and a timetable for required discernment leading to merger.
- Preparation of guidance for friends on how we will assume individual membership within the new QiL charity.
- Preparation of plans for the consolidation of AM funds across London and the management of day to day costs and income generated.
- Planning for further briefing meetings with AM Clerks and AM Trustees.
The LDG consists of Friends from each of the current AMs and LQPT, who are here to answer your questions and pass on any concerns, please reach out to them.
9 April, 2026
Notices Copy & Paste – April
Clerks are busy people. To make their lives a little easier this page gives a list of up to date events and updates that can be copied and pasted into your own newsletters or after meeting notices.

Quaker dialogues

A series of events hoping to bring Quakers together from across London over shared interests. These could be one-off conversations, or could be the starting point for ongoing work and networking based on those topics.

Future Quaker dialogues:
- Online worship across London. Can we build an online worshipping community across the city?
~~22^nd April 7pm Online (Zoom details to follow)~~ Postponed! More details to follow.

With guest Ruth Moore Williams from North Wales AM, sharing her experience of setting up an entirely online Local Meeting.
- Working with universities. How do we best engage with universities and colleges?
21^st May 7pm Online (Zoom details to follow)

With guest Helen Chambers from Bristol AM, sharing her experience of Bristol’s thriving university engagement.
- A Gen Z Quaker revival? Why are so many young adults coming through our doors, and how do we provide a spiritual home?
TBC in June. In person. More details to follow.

With guest Lamorna Ash, author of Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A New Generation’s Search for Religion.

Being Quaker

A Quaker course for newcomers.

The course has now run four times across the city, providing space to explore the Quaker Way to around 60 new attenders. These have all been evening sessions so far, so we are trying out weekend day-long sessions. There will also be children’s provision at these events, so please do encourage newer families to sign up too!

There are two events “How do Quakers Worship?” and “How do Quakers Live?” Both will contain different material, but people are free to sign up to one, or the other, or both as they see fit.
- How do Quakers Live? What are the testimonies? What does it mean to live a Quaker life? How do Quakers organise themselves? How have Quakers lives out their faith in the past?
18^th April 10am – 4pm. Westminster meeting house.

To book places on this course, please email beingquaker@londonquakers.org.uk specifying which of the days you would like to attend, or whether you plan to attend both.

Also, this is the first time we are trying this format. If you hear any feedback from Local Quakers, eg, I’d love to go, but its too long etc. then please do feed that back. The plan is to put something on for people for whom the evening is difficult to make, so want it to be as accessible as possible.

The Future of the Being Quaker course

We are hoping to make the course a resource that would be easy for Local Meetings or Area Meetings to put on themselves. There is an online resource available to help with this, and Friends around London who have volunteered to help with hosting, speaking and organising events. If this is something your LM or AM would be interested in doing, then please get in touch.

The hope is that we can put on a rolling programme of courses so that we can offer the best welcome possible to those who are exploring Quakerism for the first time. (Often it seems the speakers and hosts get more out of the sessions that the participants, so I would definitely recommend giving it a go!)

Quakers in London mail list

I currently send these emails out as on a very ad hoc basis, mostly to clerks and other people in LMs that I know play a key role in sharing information. Eventually I’ll just be using the Quakers in London mailing list, so if you haven’t signed up to that and still want to keep up to date with events, then please do sign up here.
20 March, 2026