Quaker News and Events From Across London
The Quill shares events and news submitted by London Friends with the rest of the community. Everyone is welcome to share content by emailing quill@quakersinlondon.org.
Featured Articles
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Reflection on Helping Run London Quakers
A reflection from our Friend Fred Ashmore We laid down London Quakers after our last QiL Meeting for business on…
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Getting to know: Gerry
Name: Gerry Millar Role: Member of Arrangements Committee for JLAM (not to mention other roles within Local and Area Meeting!)…
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Getting to know: Christine
Name: Christine Downes-Grainger Neither of these last names is the patriarchal name I was registered with at birth. My husband…
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QiL News Sheet 9
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Quakers in London welcomes Jane-Eve Straughton as new Executive Secretary
We’re delighted to announce that Jane-Eve Straughton has been appointed Executive Secretary of London Quakers Property Trust (LQPT), and will…
New to Quakers?
What is Quakers in London?
Quakers in London is the name that the Quaker community in London has discerned for the charitable body which will exist alongside our London Area Meeting. Quakers in London will be formed by merging the 7 Area Meetings, and “London Quakers,” into the existing structure for London Quakers Property Trust (LQPT). This single charity will be re-named “Quakers in London,” and become our Area Meeting.
London Quakers Property Trust (previously Six Weeks Meeting (SWM)) was established by George Fox in the seventeenth century, as the means by which Quakers in London jointly hold and manage their meeting houses on a basis of mutual help and responsibility through a system of pooled funds and assets. Six Weeks Meeting became London Quakers Property Trust in 2013 and is a registered charity (no. 1141797) and a company (no. 6942084), both registered in England and Wales. LQPT continues to hold the responsibility to maintain, repair, preserve and ensure the places of worship and their contents within its area, while also providing funding for improving, extending, and building new Meeting Houses.
Current LQPT trustees are appointed by the seven Area Meetings covering the London area: London West, North West London, North London, North East Thames, South East London, and Kingston & Wandsworth. These trustees are individually and collectively responsible under charity law for the proper management of the Trust and the safeguarding of its assets. The trustees of LQPT hold all their meetings in the manner of Friends and follow guidance for the holding of business meetings as set out in Quaker Faith and Practice (fifth edition).
More than Governance
The creation of a london-wide are a meeting is not only a project to simplify Quaker Governance in London, it is also a project to merge seven separate worshipping communities into a single spiritual home for 1500 Quakers in London. The new Area meeting’s role is “to develop and maintain a community of Friends, a family of local meetings who gather for worship and spiritual enrichment” (Quaker Faith and Practice 4.02).