Category: Uncategorized

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.

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.

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.

Simply Joyful: Quaker Families Together at Walthamstow Meeting

Hello, I’m Julia, the London Children and Youth Development Worker. As part of my job I work with local meetings from across London to run Quaker Families Together Days (QFTD)  At these events families come together to enjoy all-age worship, shared lunch and fun activities, all while exploring the Quaker testimonies. Recently Walthamstow meeting welcomed nine families from across London for our third QFTD. Our ages ranged from 9 months to 11 years old (well besides all the adults who declined to share their exact ages). 

In the morning we shared a full hour of all-age worship. This was a first time experience for many adults and children alike, and it was embraced with open minds and souls. As we were exploring the simplicity testimony the children took turns reading the story “Too Much Stuff” and all were invited to create a collage about simple things they enjoy. Ffriends gave ministry in response to the all-age worship, and in afterword I thanked the meeting for warmly welcoming all-age worship. 

We then enjoyed a delicious shared lunch, accompanied by lots of jolly conversation and running around in the garden. After this refreshment we said goodbye to the local meeting and got ready for exploring the simplicity testimony through games and crafts. 

The afternoon activities were led by Laurie, who regularly facilitates the Walthamstow Children’s Meeting. We began by playing “the simplest games” which included tag and What Time is it Mr Wolf. Then we had to think about ways we could simplify the games further! Some suggestions included using a 24 hour clock for Mr Wolf or giving Mr Wolf a shorter working day of just 9:00 am – 9:00 pm (which feels very long still, Mr Wolf needs better working conditions).

After these games we played with “the simplest toy” which was a massive pile of cardboard boxes and our imaginations. Great fun was had, from building houses, rowing a boat down the stream, to crafting a dazzling crown. Plentiful fruit, biscuits and squash was available to fuel the hard working imaginations. 

Towards the end of the day everyone was invited to think of a “Family Journey through Meeting for Worship”. We plotted this out on paper, and thought of the challenges and obstacles families could face in coming to meeting, and what simple solutions there could be. One example was the difficulty of holding a baby and enjoying shared lunch at the same time. The solution is the parents will ask the meeting house to purchase a high chair. I would encourage every meeting to try this activity out, it showed that oftentimes the challenges are easily and simply remedied. 

Finally we got ready to say goodbye, cleaning up all together. We all left tired, but very happy. And we left excited that our next QFTD is confirmed for 5 July at Streatham and Brixton meeting! Sign ups are already open, so mark it in the calendar and share the event poster far and wide. 

We would like to host more QFTD this year. If your meeting is interested in hosting one of these events please get in touch at julias@quaker.org.uk You don’t have to have a children’s meeting to host, just an open heart and mind. 

In friendship,

Julia