Amelia Schafer-Rutherford, our AM representative on Quaker Life Representative Council, has sent us a report on a recent gathering at Woodbrooke on the theme of Quakerism and Sustainability. Attached to it is a list of useful resources.
Category Archives: News
Wreath laid by Quakers at Lydney
Quakers lay Remembrance Wreaths
On 13 November 2016, Remembrance Sunday, three Friends from Cheltenham Quaker Meeting took part in the wreath-laying ceremony at Cheltenham war memorial. They laid a specially-commissioned wreath of mostly fresh white flowers with a few red poppies included. The attached card read “In memory of all victims of conflict”. They each wore one white and one red poppy with a “Quakers for peace” badge.
Quakers from Forest of Dean meeting laid a wreath of white and red poppies at the war memorial at Lydney.
Newsletter
The latest edition of the Area Meeting newsletter is here. Paper copies will be distributed to meetings in the documents from November AM. Friends are asked to comment on the newsletter and its future publication at AM in December.
Radio Gloucester – National Quaker Week
Richard Atkins’ programme on Radio Gloucester on 25 September included interviews with Pat Beard and Paul Devine, both of Cirencester Meeting, about Quaker week. The recording will be available on iPlayer for the next month. You can find it here.
Experiences of Sustainability
Climate change has long been a concern of Quakers around the world and in 2011 Quakers in Britain made a corporate commitment to become a low-carbon, sustainable community.
For our part, early in 2016, Gloucestershire Quakers agreed to set about gathering our own experiences of living this commitment and, in September, we brought together our first collection of ‘sustainability stories’ .We are on our way to add to this collection, take further steps and rejoice in an increased sense of understanding and action.
You can find further information about Quaker commitment to sustainabilty on the Britain Yearly Meeting website, and about the project to make Cheltenham Meeting House more sustainable here.
Epistles from Yearly Meeting and Junior Yearly Meeting
Friends House Directory of Services
The Directory of Services is a completely new resource that gives a full listing of all the support and resources available to Quakers and Quaker meetings from BYM staff. You can access it via the BYM website.
Events for Children and Young people
From the BYM Facebook page.
Events for young Quakers to explore their identity and values:
Living as a Quaker: A weekend event for young Quakers aged 12-15 to explore their Quaker identity, values and beliefs through the ‘Living as a Quaker’ pack. Hemel Hempstead, 21-23 October (book by 22 September)
See www.yqspace.org.uk/living-quaker-2016
Living our Beliefs: A one day event to which Quaker Youth/Link group coordinators are invited to bring a group of young people. The day will link to the ‘Living our beliefs’ publication for young Quakers. We will explore how Quaker beliefs are grounded in faith and how our belief translates into action.
London, 9 July (book by 18 May)
See www.quaker.org.uk/events/living-our-beliefs-event
Find out more about events for young Quakers at www.quaker.org.uk/cypevents.
Documents in Advance for Yearly Meeting 2016 …
.. can be downloaded here.
Gloucestershire Quaker camp
Gloucestershire Quaker Camp has been part of our Area Meeting for a long time. For a variety of reasons, the number of people indicating that they intend to come this year is small. If Quaker Camp is to continue, more support by people in the Area Meeting is needed.
Camp is an opportunity for people of all ages to live, work, play and worship together. The costs are reasonable,and bursary help may be available for Friends and Attenders and their families.
We have booked a good site on a farm near Charmouth on the Dorset coast, walking distance from the sea, plenty of space and with a stream, for 13 to 20 August.
If you are thinking of coming or would like to find out more, please contact Martin Quick.