Yearly Meeting is an annual event at which important questions for Quakers in Britain are considered. You will sometimes here the organisation of Quakers in Britain referred to as 'Britain Yearly Meeting'.

Yearly Meeting:

  1. reflects on current concerns
  2. receives reports from Meeting for Sufferings, trustees of Britain Yearly Meeting and committees
  3. makes decisions on Quaker work
  4. is the final constitutional body for Friends in in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man
  5. makes public statements in the name of the Quakers in Britain.

Yearly meeting membership consists of all members of area meetings in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Mann. All members of the yearly meeting have the right to attend and to take part in its deliberations. Non-members are allowed to come to Britain Yearly Meeting with permission. Members of other yearly meetings are also welcome.

The agenda and arrangements for the event are made by committees of Quakers supported by Britain Yearly Meeting staff.

Yearly Meeting normally meets in May over a long weekend, but approximately one in three meetings is held residentially in the summer as a Yearly Meeting Gathering.

Image by Mike Pinches 2024