Programme

Preparation sessions and Special Interest meetings will be held online from Friday 5 to Wednesday 10 July, 2024.

Yearly Meeting takes place at Friends House and online over a long weekend, from Friday 26 to Tuesday 30 July 2024. Children and young people are an integral part of our Yearly Meeting. Activities for them include Children's Programme for 0-11s, Young People at Yearly Meeting for 11-15's (non-residential) and Junior Yearly Meeting for 15-18's accommodated nearby.

Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee, saw the long weekend as an opportunity to experiment. On Sunday, we will have a Celebration evening marking the 400th anniversary of George Fox's birth. Additionally, we'll have Exploration sessions for sharing discernment as a community of all ages. These are facilitated activities offering ways to engage creatively with the themes of Yearly Meeting in all-age and age-specific groups. Some of these will be based in Friends House, others close by in Woburn House and there will also be some outdoor activities. This shared discernment will be an adventure, and we ask friends to join these experiments with open hearts and minds.

This year, we will ask Friends to consider Integrity and Truth and we will discern Yearly Meetings formal role in steering the Society of Friends and how this is best kept continuous and relevant.

Spiritual preparation

  • Documents in advance, due to be published in March and May, will help with spiritual preparation for both individual Friends and worshipping communities. Read and download Prepare for Yearly Meeting 2024 (PDF).

Practical preparation

  • Registration will open Monday 11 March alongside the publication of Preparing for Yearly Meeting.

How does Yearly Meeting work?

  • In this video, Woodbrooke staff guide you through the way Quaker business method will work for this year's Yearly Meeting sessions and the other events happening during this gathering. They offer practical tips on getting the best from our blended Yearly Meeting and provide a chance to ask any questions that are on your mind. There is no such thing as a silly question! This is a recording of orientation material from one of these sessions.

First time at Yearly Meeting

  • If you are new to Yearly Meeting, welcome! In this section we hope to answer any questions you have about how Yearly Meeting works and why our gathering of Friends functions in this way. Yearly Meeting (YM) is our annual opportunity for Quakers to come together in worship, learning and inspiration. Quaker faith & practice chapter six contains the history and purpose of Yearly Meeting.
  • Preparation documents will be available to help Friends in this process please go to our dedicated Yearly Meeting documents page.
  • As a part of the Yearly Meeting preparation events, Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre will offer some sessions on How does Yearly Meeting work? And if you plan to join online, their session on 'Supporting Online Discernment: centering down and upholding from home' is a helpful introduction to this.
  • There are many ways to connect with and feel part of Yearly Meeting. This website will be regularly updated to help Friends prepare their hearts and minds before, during and after Yearly Meeting.
  • Documents in advance, published in June, will introduce the theme of Yearly Meeting and contain reports from across Britain Yearly Meeting (including BYM Trustees and Meeting for Sufferings).
  • Yearly Meeting wouldn't be possible without the help of those attending, it's also a great opportunity to get to know people. For more information see our Get involved page.

Outline timetable

  • A timetable will be available, with Yearly Meeting documents, from 17 June. Below is an outline of what takes place over the long weekend at the end of July.
  • The usual pattern of the day is to start at 9:30am and end around 5:30/6pm, with other activities in the evening. This can vary a little from day to day to fit with the content of the day. Also the opportunity for early morning worship at 8:30am and epilogue at 9pm.
  • Friday 26 July
  • Registration opens at 3pm. The first Yearly Meeting session is from 7 to 9pm
  • Saturday 27 July
  • Yearly Meeting session at 9:30am
  • Groups Fair at lunchtime
  • Exploration sessions in the afternoon.
  • Swarthmore Lecture in its usual slot of 7pm
  • Sunday 28 July
  • All-together worship in the morning followed by YM sessions (AM/PM). All meetings are invited to join us online. Please see the All-together worship information sheet for full details (PDF)
  • Quakers in Britain Fair at lunchtime
  • Opportunity to take part in an outdoor witness at 5pm
  • A celebration in the evening (marking 400th anniversary of George Fox's birth)
  • Monday 29 July
  • Yearly meeting sessions morning and afternoon
  • Groups Fair at lunchtime
  • Opportunity to meet the Swarthmore Lecturer in the evening
  • Tuesday 30 July
  • Yearly meeting sessions morning and afternoon
  • Yearly Meeting closes at 4pm

All-together worship (Sunday 28 July, 10:30am to 11:30am)

  • This will be a huge meeting for worship, taking place across Britain in homes, Quaker Meeting Houses and other meeting places and at Friends House. We will come together as a single loving, inclusive and all-age community across Britain Yearly Meeting.
  • As well as individuals joining online from home, local Quaker communities are invited to join. Worship will start with a short guided activity which will also be available on YouTube. This will be on the theme of “using our senses to centre into stillness". Meetings will then have choice of staying together on Zoom, or continuing to worship separately as a local meeting. During this period of worship, elders will call Friends to give spoken ministry as led, including from local meetings, individuals joining online, and those in Friends House.
  • We hope to make available a list of participating meetings so that those wishing to attend in person can do so wherever they are in the country. Resources to support this all age worship will be available from 1 July.
  • If your Quaker community wishes to join all together worship online, please see details and register here by 11 July.
  • If individuals wish to join all-together worship from home, please register for Yearly Meeting.

How do I find out what is happening and when?

  • When you have booked your place at Yearly Meeting, you will be sent information by email about how to access the Sched website. This will have full information about the preparation events as well as providing you access to Yearly Meeting online.
  • Sched is our online planner where Friends can view and sign up to attend events that are taking place online. To find out more about the planner, please read our Introduction to Yearly Meeting Planner guide or visit our dedicated help section.
  • Watch this video to find out how to use the online planner. (Pressing play on the video below will set a third-party cookie. Please see our cookies page to find out more.)

  • For further help using the online planner (Sched) please see our dedicated help section.

Young Adults at Yearly Meeting

  • Registration for Young Adults is part of the Yearly Meeting Booking form.
  • At Yearly Meeting in London there will be a dedicated room with free food and a space to be together throughout the weekend.