Quakers mark historic peace anniversary

27 September 2011

Quakers around Britain will be speaking up during the fifth national Quaker Week, 1-9 October, about making peace a way of life.

It is three hundred and fifty years since Quakers declared to the King that “we are a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love and unity” and that sets the theme for Quaker Week: Make peace a way of life.

Enquirers will be welcomed to Quaker meetings for worship to experience the communal gathered stillness which stirs Quakers to work for peace, equality, simplicity, sustainability and truth. Local meetings are listed on www.quaker.org.uk/fam

Dozens of events are planned around England, Scotland and Wales including vigils against the arms trade, book fairs, coffee mornings and car washes, all to welcome people to Quaker meeting houses. Discussions will range from economic justice, sustainability and nonviolent alternatives to terrorism. In line with Quakers’ recent decision to become a low-carbon sustainable community one local meeting is planning a recycling event, saying “Bring things you no longer want and take things others have brought. No money involved.” Elsewhere, fairly- traded bananas will be handed out to students.

Quaker Week will be marked in Friends House, the London home of Quakers in Britain, with a series of talks in the Quaker Centre: author, magician and Quaker Geoffrey Durham, will speak about a new guide for newcomers called Being a Quaker; campaigner and facilitator David Gee will launch Holding faith: Creating peace in a violent world; and activist Tim Gee will look at how campaigns work in his book, Counterpower: Making Change Happen.

Ends

Notes to editor:

Quakers are available for interview or to provide Thoughts for the Day. Contact Anne van Staveren on 020 7663 1048.

• Approximately 23,000 people attend Quaker Meetings for Worship in Great Britain, and there are more than 475 Meetings.
• Quakers are known formally as the Religious Society of Friends.
• Events around the country include:
  • Saturday, 1 October 2011 - 14:30 - 17:00
    Suzanne Ismail, a researcher on Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility report, Banks and Society: rebuilding trust, will speak at Finchley Meeting House on Saturday 1 October at 2 for 2.30pm.
  • Saturday, 1 October 2011 - 9:00 - 12:00
    Recycling event - bring things you no longer want and take things others have brought. No money involved. No electrical goods or live animals. Large items, photo and phone number only, please. At Leiston Meeting in Suffolk.
  • Thursday, 6 October 2011 - 7:30 - 9:30
    Geoffrey Durham, magician, entertainer and writer, will give a talk on 'Being a Quaker:gifts and challenges of the Quaker way'. At the Guildhall attached to the ecumenical Church of Christ the Cornerstone, Central Milton Keynes (opp. Marks and Spencer). Organised by Milton Keynes Quakers.
  • Friday, 7 October 2011 - 11:00 - 12:00
    St Austell Quakers are holding Story Telling and Quiet Time at Lostwithiel Library - the story of Fierce Feathers and quiet reflection- to experience something of Meeting for Worship.
  • Friday, 7 October 2011 - 19:30
    A solo performance by Lynn Morris on the life of Elizabeth Horton, a Midlands woman and one of the first Quakers. Organised by Stourbridge Meeting.
• Being a Quaker by Geoffrey Durham, is published by Quaker Quest ISBN 9780955898327
• Holding faith: Creating peace in a violent world by David Gee is published by Quaker books ISBN 9781907123191
• Counterpower: Making Change Happen by Tim Gee is published by New Internationalist ISBN 978-1-78026-032-7  

Media Information

Anne van Staveren
0207 663 1048
07958 009703
annev@quaker.org.uk
www.quaker.org.uk