Category: Quakers in London

Elders and Pastoral Carers Committee Report on its First Year
Dugan Cummings, Clerk to EPCC reports on what the Committee has been up to in its first year.

A year ago it was decided to set up a committee of Elders and Pastoral Carers to serve Joint London Area Meeting (JLAM). The intention was to seek experienced people from each of the Area Meetings in London, plus someone from Young Friends, to provide:
- Eldership and Pastoral Care during JLAM and subsequently QIL in session
- support to other Elders and Pastoral Friends in Local Meetings (LMs) (including ensuring that support is provided from outside a LM in times of difficulty). This may include training, helping to build mutual support groups and responding to ideas for strengthening Eldership and Pastoral Friend work
- gatherings of all Elders and Pastoral Friends from across London Area Meeting at least once a year.
We were asked first to consider ways into membership. Quaker Faith and Practice (chapter 11) sets out principles and gives guidance but allows flexibility in how area meetings implement them. The seven current London AMs have each developed their own practices. As we come together, we have an opportunity to agree on a shared approach, drawing on the best of existing practice, but ultimately creating something exciting and new, future-facing, and suitable for the new Quakers in London.

We gathered leaflets on applying for membership and on what ought to be done when visitors are appointed to meet with an applicant. Not all the AMs in London had them. Together we marked up what seemed to us to be best practice and drafted new leaflets for JLAM to consider at its meeting in March. Friends present that day felt they needed more time to consider the issues and that will be done when JLAM meets in October. The EPCC paper on QiL Membership Process is available here.

We were also asked to draw up a job description for the new Membership Clerk. It was encouraging to learn that clerical support would be provided for this role.

In November 2025 Elders and Pastoral Carers across London were invited to spend a day at Friends House getting to know one another and thinking about how they carried out their responsibilities. This was so popular we planned another day together on 11July to consider the new relationship between JLAM and local meetings, support for smaller meetings, and support for families, children and young people. There were 40 of us, led by Josh Selfe in the morning and Julia Stacey in the afternoon. Friends were encouraged to write their questions and ideas on post-it notes and Josh collated them. They have drawn attention to areas of further work we need to do, including:
- How will the EPCC support Elders and Pastoral Carers in Local Meetings? We think it might be helpful to draw up a list of Es and PCs with appropriate experience which we could draw on to support meetings with difficulties.
- How can we learn from those meetings that are thriving and keeping their newcomers? We are seeking to collect their initiatives so they can be passed on to other meetings to help them ‘grow well’.
- Can we provide training for new Elders and Pastoral Carers in London? We are exploring how this might be run with help from Woodbrooke. It could be very useful to people newly appointed to these roles and would also help them to get to know one another.
We have met online 10 times so far and we have also provided Eldership at JLAM meetings, both in the room and on-line. We enjoy meeting together and trying to discern the way forward for QIL. There are only 8 of us on the committee and we have asked Nominations Committee to find us some more Friends to share the burden of our responsibilities at this key time in the development of Quakers in London.

Dugan Cummings, Clerk to JLAM EPCC

You can contact all of the QiL Committees on the contact page of this website.
21 September, 2026
Celebrating the Past In Transition

A Friend from South East London Area Meeting reflects on how SELAM are commemerating the past as they take their final steps toward London Area Meeting.

In SELAM we plan to commemorate the laying down of our AM; at our final meeting this year each of our three Meetings will present an item showing the flavour of each Meeting, and we will hear some stories from the past history of Quakers in the area, including the origin of each of the Meetings.

From the early days we recall the destruction of Horsleydown meeting house, and our past includes famous Quakers like Ada and Alfred Salter, so we have a lot to celebrate.

If you would like to tell Friends about how your AM is approaching the transition, please feel free to get in touch by emailing us at quill@quakersinlondon.org.

20 September, 2026
September JLAM Minutes

The minutes of our September JLAM are now available in the Documents Archive.

Our morning was shared exploring the theme “Maintaining the Beauty and Variety of the Natural World,” at Wanstead Meeting house and Online.

From the minutes:

This morning Friends of all ages met together from near and far to explore different aspects of this theme. These included Wild Prayer, a Family-Friendly chance to play with Natural Colour, and introductions to Climate Café Listening Circles, the History & Stewardship of Wanstead Burial Ground & Meeting House, Eco Church at Wanstead, and Sanctuary, Stewardship and Witness with Golders Green Meeting.

We thank our Friends from Wanstead and NETAM generally for their hospitality.

And we thank Wanstead and Golders Green Friends for their energy and creativity in offering these sessions.

It has been good to spend time together, playing and praying and reflecting on our responses to the climate crisis

Arrangements committee are so grateful for the enormous care and effort that Friends from across our Joint London Area Meeting put into their roles, responsibilities and service for our September gathering. It felt very special to be part of the creative, spiritual fun of the morning sessions and to be part of discernment that was given deep and careful consideration by Friends.

Do you have any feedback about our JLAMs? Contact arrangements@quakersinlondon.org

18 September, 2026
Book Recommendation: Before the Resurrection

A reader wrote in to recommend a book, Before the Resurrection by Emily Provance, to London Friends, they say:

I’m writing to recommend a book which has just come out. Emily Provance gave the Swarthmore Lecture in 2025 and she writes of a lot of experience which will be helpful to us in London and to other Friends looking at change in our Meetings. I am a quarter of the way through it and I’m recognising so many patterns and situations which I’ve seen! She writes from an American perspective so we need to translate some of the language but the essentials are the same.

The synopsis of the book explains some of the main topics:

How do Friends’ meetings and churches adapt to changing or shrinking communities? A smaller or older meeting is no less valuable to God than a larger one, but the “”more is better”” messaging of modern culture tells us otherwise. This book weaves together logistical suggestions with eternal spiritual principles to help meetings right-size their institutions. Whether a group is altering its committee structures, restructuring entirely, selling a building, or laying itself down, the steps are essentially the same: recognizing the need for change, discerning the will of God at this time, caring for one another, and stepping forward into a new thing. Friends are a resurrection people. We know there will always be a renewal of life. But resurrection is not the same as resuscitation. How do we best make space for what God may do next?

Interested?

The book is availble form the Quaker Bookshop in Friends House.

We’d love to hear from Friends about their reflections on this book or the topics it contains for future articles in the Quill. Email us as quill@quakersinlondon.org

31 August, 2026
QiL Nominations Committee Needs Your Help!

QiL Nominations Committee shares their need for nominations to fill crucial roles including (but not limited to) Treasurer, Trustees, and members of the Eldership and Pastoral Care Committee.

Twelve Friends from across London have the tasks of finding and nominating Friends and Attenders to serve in the key roles that will enable Quakers in London to function when it comes into being in 4 months’ time. Twelve Friends cannot possible know every Friend and Attender in London, nor how each Friend and Attender sees their own gifts and ability to serve the Area meeting. So, we’ve set up online Offers of Service forms for Friends and Attenders to complete to let us know about you and what you might be interested in doing. And if you know of anyone in your meeting that you feel has skills and experience that would be useful for the Area Meeting, then why not talk to them and encourage them to complete a form.

Currently, our most urgent need is for a Friend to serve as Treasurer, for 4 more Trustees, and 6 more Friends to serve on the Eldership and Pastoral Care Committee. But all sorts of roles will become available over the next few months.

Our Quaker communities can only exist and work if we all play our part in serving the community. Everyone has different strengths and Nominations Committees are tasked with discerning the right roles for the right people. But we can only do this if we know who these Friends and Attenders are – please help us.

27 August, 2026
QiL News Sheet 11

Quakers in London News Sheet 11 Download

24 August, 2026
Paddles Ahoy! A Report from London Link Group’s White Water Adventures

Our Friend Rebecca Fricker shares a report of London Link Group’s recent trip to Lea Valley White Water Centre, where teamwork and overcoming fear was the order of the day.

We are advised to Live Adventurously and that is what 13 Quaker affiliated teenagers, supported by 5 adult volunteers, did on a hot sunny day in the Lea Valley.

After successfully passing a challenging swimming test, involving jumping into a fast flowing body of water to prove we could swim to safety, we were divided into 2 crafts to experience Whitewater Rafting – down the course built for the 2012 London Olympics.

We learnt the importance of following instructions in order to prevent capsizing/falling out of a raft, how to work together as a team to move forward (and backwards), and how to overcome understandable fears and move out of our comfort zones.

We then hit the water again for Wipeout – cheerfully racing each other on an inflatable obstacle course, occasionally falling (or pushing someone else) in! While less scary, there was still a lot of laughter and screaming. Once we’d tired ourselves out we enjoyed bobbing blissfully in the lake under the hot sun.

For a full write up with pictures you can go to our website where you can also sign up to receive information about future events: https://londonlinkgroup.org.uk/

Rebecca Fricker

Clerk, London Link Group

London Link Group is a volunteer-run Quaker group that organises events to bring Young Quakers aged 11-18 together. It aims to: help young Quakers to develop their friendships; explore Quaker values; empower young Quakers; put into practice our Quaker ideals to create an egalitarian, safe, inclusive, caring and positive atmosphere at every event. Find out more on their website.

13 August, 2026
British Quaker, American Friend: Reflections on BYM from across the Atlantic

Teran Chapis: British Quaker; American Friend, shares an extract of their report to Hartford Monthly Meeting in Connecticut, United States regarding Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), which took place over four days in May.

A recurring theme in conversations between Friends [at BYM] was our different understandings of God. Friends identified themselves as atheist or theist Quakers, and asked each other about their individual unique beliefs. One Friend from North Scotland said goodbye to me in the wee hours of Saturday morning by passionately declaring that I should minister the next day because: “I am excited to hear the Lord speak through you.” When he left the room I thought about it for a moment and said: “He doesn’t believe in God.”

At Meeting for Worship at Friends House the Sunday before Yearly Meeting, a Friend ministered that when she described a conference about God to a fellow Quaker, where a group of Friends organised all their thoughts about how they understand God as a concept, he asked her: “Well does God understand you as a concept? Does God believe in you?”

The following evening, on the walk home from a British Sign Language event, a Friend asked me “why are you crying?”

And I told them: “I promise these are happy tears. I’ve just been thinking about how you said tonight that you don’t believe in God because you don’t believe that help will ever come. Because people like you are my proof of God. You are the help that came. You, my Friend, are my evidence for God.”

I thought about the ministry that I had heard at Friends House the previous morning, and told them: “Maybe asking the right question is more important than having the right answer. Maybe the question isn’t whether or not we believe in God, but whether or not people see God in you.”

And through a combination of American Sign Language, British Sign Language, lip reading, telepathy, and hugs, we cried and discussed this as we made the trek home through the dark and the rain of North London.

It felt like a prank from the universe when my first Deaf friend after studying ASL uses British Sign Language. But I’m slowly relearning to sign with a different grammar structure and with lip patterns. When learning to sign BSL with fellow signing Friends in London, I learned that 1.) the request for a sign language interpreter at Britain Yearly Meeting this year was denied, and 2.) there aren’t widely used official signs for the word “Quaker” or Quaker concepts. To fill in the gaps, we signed “Quaker” by shaking the BSL fingerspelling sign for Q, or sometimes, inspired by the name and profile picture of a Quaker groupchat, we use the BSL sign for geese… meaning “Quacker.”

When I recounted the events of BYM to a lowercase f-friend, he said that once again, the strangest coincidences seem to happen to me. Years ago, before I ever stepped foot into a Quaker meeting, developing a disability inspired me to spend some forced sick time studying ASL. Little did I know what I was really preparing for.

Inspired by conversations at Britain Yearly Meeting 2026, I am currently researching the history, experiences, and signs used by Deaf and signing Friends in Britain and the United States (including hearing, nonverbal Friends), and working on research proposals for research master’s/fellowships to conduct a formal study. If anyone is interested in connecting with me about this topic, or connecting with Deaf/signing Friends, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at teranriley@gmail.com!”

– Teran Chapis

London Young Adult Quaker Meeting, Young Friends in Britain

Inspired to attend Yearly Meeting? Yearly meeting now takes place over multiple sessions, with the most recent having taken place in Manchester last month. The last session for 2026 scheduled for 21 November in London. You can register to attend here: https://www.quaker.org.uk/ym/bookings. We hope to see you there!

12 August, 2026
Faith Groups at Trans+ Pride

The Good Law Project reports that there were 150,000 people marching today, the 25th July 2026 at London Trans+ pride.

Amonst those were a group of around 50 Quakers from across our Yearly Meeting, joined by others from Stoke Newington Synagogue and Nortcote Church. We met together as faith groups to show that God’s love is expansive, inclusive, incredible, unconditional, eternal and unprejudiced. Quakers carried a banner reminding ourselves and others of Minute 31: “Belonging is more than fitting in.”

Staying together as one big group was impossible because of the sheer magnitiude of the event with people spilling out into side streets and trying to join the march. Yet, many of us made new friendships as we marched together for equality.

12 August, 2026
Yearly Meeting Report

Some Westminster Friends have shared a report about their experience of yearly meeting in July.

This was the first example of a session of our Yearly Meeting outside the usual pattern: a shorter, single-day Meeting for Worship for Business for all Friends in Britain Yearly Meeting. I watched Friends giving service to our meeting, and BYM staff taking deep, calming breaths to steady their nerves about what must have felt like a real experiment. Coming from a world where agendas are set much further in advance, this was a fast turnaround for our Clerks, our arrangements committee, and our agenda planning committee.

But that fast turnaround was also this Yearly Meeting’s real advantage. Our agenda could focus on items that needed urgent attention, and we were able to discern in the knowledge that we wouldn’t “miss the boat” and have to wait a whole year if a proposal needed further work. Kayla will fill you in on the details.

While the minutes are available – and we’d urge anyone interested to read them – we’ll offer a brief overview of the substantive items brought before us.

Testing and Seasoning Minutes

The new Yearly Meeting structure allows the Agenda Planning Committee (APC) to receive minutes from Quaker bodies with a clerk. Members of the APC performed a skit, memorable for its satirical deftness, skating a thin line between parody and reality, portraying the importance of testing and seasoning minutes before they’re sent to the APC. Before sending a minute, ask yourself: Why is this a Quaker concern? Are there other people – Quaker or not – already doing this work who could be joined? What are the implications of my minute?

Membership Beyond Geography

We also discerned a proposal from a working group of the Quaker Life Central Committee to enable non-geographically rooted meetings to give and hold membership. This could mean a new, parallel structure of “home meetings” and “anchor meetings,” alongside local and area meetings. Such meetings would allow those who feel connected to a non-geographical Quaker community – such as Quaker Rainbow or Young Friends in Britain – to come into membership attached to that group, opening a pathway that many view as an important step on their spiritual journey.

We heard moving ministry about Friends’ experience of Quaker worship that transcended the traditional bounds of geography, sustaining spiritual community in distinctly modern ways. At the same time, the meeting heard concerns about what this change would mean and what it would look like in practice. Unity was not reached to proceed with the proposal, even in principle – but our new Yearly Meeting structure allowed us to minute a request for more detail on the areas of concern, to be brought back to a future meeting, so that momentum could be maintained.

Quaker Reparations Work

We also heard an introduction to Quaker reparations work, which included powerful and moving ministry from the clerks of this group. They spoke of their own journey with the reparations process, situating reparations work and research as an issue central to Quaker identity – past, present, and future. The working group is holding a conference on 23 October, and all are encouraged to attend. We expect to return to the matter in November.

More Than the Decisions

Aside from the decisions we make, Yearly Meeting is an incredible social event and with this report, we hope to inspire each of you to come to Yearly Meeting in November. Taking it out of London and into a new city meant I was able to meet new people, and it created an opportunity to spend time with London Friends away from the distractions of daily life. It’s a time to live the full range of the Quaker experience: our worship, our corporate discernment, and finding the spirit of God in the everyday, as we grab lunch together, share accommodation, and immerse ourselves in a world where everybody is called Friend.

The following is a personal reflection that one Friend shared about their experience of the weekend:

“At the Meeting for Worship at Manchester Mount Street Meeting on Sunday morning, I was awash with gratitude and love for the kindness of my Friends across our yearly meeting. In an unfamiliar city, I was elated to see a number of faces who have all at some moment have taught me a fuller definition of care and kindness in their actions towards me and others. The most similar feeling I have had to this was in my second ever Meeting for Worship when my whole body was electrified, paralysed and purified by gratitude in a time when quiet and peace were the very things I needed most. Feeling this a second time I recognised it as the living Holy Spirit moving between all of us in the room. This time I cried as I looked at each face and remembered the lesson they had taught me. At this moment a Friend who’s name I don’t know rested a comforting hand on my shoulder.“

12 August, 2026

Category: Quakers in London

Testing and Seasoning Minutes

Membership Beyond Geography

Quaker Reparations Work

More Than the Decisions