Category: Quakers
Quaker specific content, theology, worship, training, community, both relating to Britain Yearly Meeting and the wider Quaker family.
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Quaker A-Z: L is for Listening
Listening is a vital skill for anyone hoping to run a meeting of any type. In a Quaker Meeting for Worship for Business (MfWfB) there is an agreed agenda and the clerk will have planned the order to allow time for reflective silence. These spaces are scheduled between spoken presentations, contributions or questions. That silence
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Quaker Testimony of Truth – Lifecycles of a meeting
Let’s explore the lifecycles of a meeting within the Quaker Testimony of Truth. Quaker history and its associated buildings are precious to me. This won’t surprise anyone who knows me – I feel that Quaker meeting houses (or any faith-owned building) give a worshipping community a sense of place in the local area. The building
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Quaker Testimonies: Equality
What is a Testimony? A Quaker testimony is an action arising out a belief in something. They are core values that are often used to represent Quakers as a body. Living beliefs into Action As we were reminded at Yearly Meeting Quakers have testimonies OF something not TO something. We believe in something and try
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Quaker A-Z: I is for Insider Knowledge
If you are addressing a lack of attendance at a gathering or meeting, for example, one reason for the void could be a participant’s confidence in the knowledge that they could bring. It could be that you yourself question the contribution you could make. In this blog, we explore how insider knowledge can impact the
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Quaker A-Z: H is for “Hope So!”
Wendrie Heywood – MBS Founder & Life Long Quaker Why do Quakers say “Hope so!” rather than “yes”? Or, in these days of Zoom, put thumbs up or nod at the camera? If you’ve attended a Quaker Meeting for Worship for Business you may well have heard these phrases: Clerks: “Is the minute acceptable, Friends?” Meeting: “Hope so!” This
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Quaker A-Z: G is for Gender Neutral Language
Quakers have a testimony to equality. For over sixty years Quakers in Britain have struggled with gender and sexual equality. Gender inclusive or gender neutral?
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Quaker A-Z: D is for Draft Minutes
Quakers write their minutes contemporaneously, meaning each minute is agreed in the meeting. This usually happens at the end of the topic and must happen before the meeting ends. Once the meeting has closed and the clerk has signed the minutes, they aren’t altered or amended – beyond “dots and commas”, where the meaning isn’t
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Quaker A-Z: C is for Clerk vs Chair
I’m often asked what is the difference between a Quaker Clerk and the Chair of a Committee. My usual rather tongue-in-cheek (and not strictly true) answer is that “A Quaker clerk is a servant of the meeting, and the Chair is the boss of their group”. Quakers in Britain have a good deal of information
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Quaker A-Z: B is for BCC
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash Sending emails… BCC (“blind carbon copy” – have you used carbon copying paper?) is now easy to do and doesn’t require physical winding down of actual paper on each letter sent! An email can be sent with three levels of recipient To: Original recipient CC: Someone who is “copied
