In these pages you will find resources to help us work together to ensure Quaker communities are welcoming, supportive and resilient.
An essential part of being a Quaker is that we are connected to other Quakers, working, worshipping and witnessing as Quaker communities. There are different shapes and sizes of Quaker community, meeting together in a variety of ways. Some are part of a national structure of local and area meetings. Others are less formally structured and meet more occasionally, often around a shared interest or activity. Others meet exclusively online and may be made up of people from all over the world. But what connects us all is a shared experience of waiting together for God's guidance, in our worship and in our business meetings.
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Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.
- Isaac Penington, 1667
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Quaker communities strive to be inclusive, loving, spirit-led, all-age, rooted in the Quaker way and welcoming to all. However, like all human communities, there is difficulty, tension and conflict. This is a natural part of being in community with others and we encourage meetings to be open, truthful and compassionate in working through conflict and difficulty.
When meetings are experiencing conflict, it can be difficult to ask for help. If you feel you need support, please do reach out. You can contact your local development worker, or you can email supportmeetings@quaker.org.uk.
Our pages on mental health provide resources and guidance to help Friends respond with compassion when people in their Quaker community show signs of mental distress.
To thrive, our communities need time and space for spiritual nurture, friendship, worship and witness in the world. For this to happen, we need our role holders not to feel overburdened by the weight of administrative tasks. Quaker Life has developed a range of resources, guidance and ideas to make meetings and Quaker structures simpler. They help communities explore and experiment with doing things differently.
Within every Quaker community, some Friends are appointed to take on responsibility for spiritual nurture and pastoral care and for attending to the needs of both individuals and the whole community. There is a wealth of guidance and experience available to support those with this responsibility and Quaker Life offers support and resources to role holders.