Meeting House Matters online and in-person
Quaker Life has been offering online and in-person events to support workers and Friends in the running and management of Quaker premises.
The 'meeting house matters' community is a group of Friend and colleagues who are involved in the running of Quaker premises. They hold responsibility for creating much of the income that supports the operation of Quaker meeting houses and to help the Society to do work in the world.
'Meeting House Matters' has been running for many years, previously under the name 'Wardens Talking'. Initially the regular in-person events 3-4 times annually were moved online during the pandemic. They became a key source of support, information, discussion and sharing for the Friends who attended. Since the pandemic the focus has shifted back from the crisis response to things that are happening in the life of many meetings. They have now changed from weekly online meetings to a pattern of monthly meetings online with three in-person meetings per year.
This year the overarching theme of the in-person events has been 'Living out our Quaker values through our premises'. We have explored the variety of ways that our meeting houses are used and discovered similarity and difference. We generate and use income in many ways: some meetings find generating income difficult, whilst others make more than is required by their Quaker community. This can mean that they are able to help cover the cost of hiring space for those organisations that find the cost of a room prohibitive in other venues. We see a whole range of difference between the two extremes.
Meeting houses are hubs of faith, where Quakerism thrives. They can also be hubs for other faiths and for the work that we want to do in the world. Quakers can move swiftly, meetings that set up warm spaces last winter are testimony to our flexibility. And sometimes it is right that we move slowly and think carefully about what our buildings are best used for.
Do we still need all our Quaker meeting houses and other premises? Quaker own a lot of property and managing it all is one of the things that is most burdensome. What questions do we need to ask ourselves to ensure that we have the property that we need and dispose of what is not required?
This and many other topics are discussed at Meeting House Matters. To connect with the community, you just need to join either the Wardenship e-group or Property Advice e-group, where the details of meetings and notes are circulated.