​What's going on with Yearly Meeting sessions?
How we hold Yearly Meeting (YM) sessions will be changing in 2026. If you're unsure about what's happening this article will give you a broad outline.
What is changing?
The next session of Yearly Meeting will be held from 1 to 4 May 2026 at Friends House, London and online. At that meeting we will lay down Meeting for Sufferings, our national representative body that currently takes care of some Yearly Meeting business between Yearly Meeting sessions. There will be two further sessions of YM in 2026: on 18 July 2026 at Kings House, Manchester and online, and on 21 November 2026 at Friends House, London and online.
What will be different?
We don't entirely know yet because the Agenda Planning Committee of Yearly Meeting (APC) is still working on it. However, when we lay down Meeting for Sufferings then national-level discernment will become open to all Quakers at each Yearly Meeting session, and we hope that a wider range of Friends will be able to attend Yearly Meeting and participate in this discernment than are able to attend Sufferings.
What will stay the same?
Yearly Meeting will still be a worshipping community, and it will still be the place where concerns, minutes and communication from across the country can come together for discernment by our whole community. Across the agendas each year there will be a mix of worship, discernment, and community-building activity. Meetings will continue to be held in a hybrid way (allowing Friends the choice to attend at the venue or online). Each Yearly Meeting session will also incorporate an age-appropriate programme for younger Friends. Although you don't have to be appointed by your area meetings to attend Yearly Meeting sessions, area meetings will still be asked to appoint representatives to Yearly Meeting sessions so that important communication can happen easily.
Why is this change happening?
This change is happening to create greater clarity and inclusiveness in how Quakers across Britain can make decisions together and follow up on those decisions. In consultation with Friends, we heard that it was important that spirit-led discernment was at the centre of our corporate life, and this approach will, we hope, enable more of us to participate in spirit-led discernment, more regularly.
How can I find out more?
The new quarterly newsletter. Hope so! is the best way to stay up to date as plans are made for upcoming sessions of Yearly Meeting. You can also keep an eye on the Yearly Meeting page on our website, which is where the latest documents to help you prepare for Yearly Meeting sessions will be published.