Latest News
New Meeting at St Neots
St Neots, the largest town in Cambridgeshire, now has its own Quaker Meeting. Local Friends had been travelling to Huntingdon to worship until eighteen months ago, when a monthly Saturday Meeting for Worship was launched in the United Reformed Church. Friends at St Neots later decided that a Sunday Meeting...
Civil partners denied marriage ceremonies
Many Quaker couples in Britain have reacted with disappointment to the news that the conversion of civil partnerships into marriage will not involve a marriage ceremony. The publication of a draft government regulation has revealed that couples wishing to convert their civil partnerships to marriage will be required to attend...
Quaker backing helps Canada’s Tsilhqot’in people
Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) last month congratulated the Tsilhqot’in people on an historic victory for the rights of indigenous peoples. Following a campaign supported by CFSC and Amnesty International Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada recognised the right of the Tsilhqot’in people to own, control and enjoy...
Refugees work with Yorkshire Quakers and archaeologists
Settle Quakers hosted five political refugees from 2 to 6 June, while they worked on a dig run by Ingleborough Archaeology Group, near Horton-in-Ribblesdale. The five each hail from a different African country – Cameroon, Eritrea, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal – and are now living in the Blackburn area.
George Osborne visits Wilmslow
Local MP George Osborne met representatives of Churches Together on 18 July in Wilmslow Meeting House to discuss the impact of welfare reform on his Tatton constituency. Wilmslow Meeting clerk Celia Davies was among the participants.
Quaker witness at Farnborough Air Show
On Sunday 20 July twenty-six Friends took part, for the first time, in a Meeting for Worship outside Farnborough Air Show. Members of the local Sussex and Surrey Regional Meeting were joined by Friends from London, Bristol and Southampton.
Young activist killed in Gaza
Quakers around the world are mourning the death of a young activist killed in Gaza on 20 July. Abdullah Mansour Abu Amara was a member of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)’s ‘Palestinian Youth: Together for Change’ group in Gaza. He was among the sixty-six Palestinians killed during fierce attacks...
Quakers worship in Chichester Cathedral: no arrests ensued!
Three hundred and fifty-six years after a Quaker was arrested in Chichester Cathedral for arguing with a priest and then imprisoned, Friends were invited back to the building to worship. The silent Meeting for Worship was held on Saturday 19 July. It was the first of its kind at the cathedral,...
Teenage Friends gather
Over the weekend of 4-6 July, thirty-six teenagers from fourteen Area Meetings (AMs) gathered in Manchester for Teenage General Meeting (TGM), which covers the old Lancashire and Cheshire General Meeting. The teenagers, among them London Link Group, met at Mount Street Meeting House.
Quakers plead for root causes of crisis in Gaza to be addressed
Amid escalating violence in Gaza, Quakers in Britain have written this ‘open letter’ to William Hague, the foreign secretary. ‘Quakers in Britain are deeply concerned by the escalating violence in Israel and Palestine, particularly Gaza. We know that you share our concerns for the region.