Friends in Ulster look forward to welcoming Friends from other parts of Ireland and abroad to Yearly Meeting which this year will be held at Friends’ School in Lisburn.

The sessions of the Yearly Meeting are open to all Members; others wishing to attend should obtain permission from the Clerk.

Posters from schools country-wide in this competition will be on view in the Civic Office in Dublin during the week beginning Monday 22nd March. 

 Click here for details of this year’s competition and here for the background to the ‘Why violence ?’ campaign. 

 Friends in Ulster look forward to welcoming Friends from other parts of Ireland and abroad to Yearly Meeting which this year will be held at Friends’ School in Lisburn.

The sessions of the Yearly Meeting are open to all Members; others wishing to attend should obtain permission from the Clerk.

Arthur’s latest book Quakers in Lisburn was launched on Saturday 7th November 2008.

This book records the contribution of Quakers, both as a meeting and as individuals, to the development of the Lisburn area in religious, educational, commercial and social life. Its publication coincides with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Lisburn.

Paperback. 88 pages. Including many illustrations, photographs, black & white and colour.

Price £8.00 or €10, and is available from the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum, Lisburn Friends Meeting or Friends Historical Library, Quaker House, Stocking Lane, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

Can also acquired by mail order, when postage and packaging will also be payable, from:-

John Scott, 22 Whitla Road, Lisburn, Co Antrim, BT28 3PP. Email scott22j@yahoo.co.uk. Phone 0044 28 92601864.

Please email or phone for costs of postage and packing.

If you haven’t been to JYM before, we’d love you to come along this year. JYM is a wonderfully welcoming event, and year after year people become the best of friends over just a few days. But if you’re at all nervous and would like to ask questions or just talk it through, please contact Carolan Goggin on irishjym@gmail.com.

If you have been to JYM before, you don’t need us to tell you how much fun it is but please do come back this year and encourage any other young people you know to join us too.

To find out more, download the leaflet here. To attend, download and complete the application form and send it off. You can either print it out and post it to Nicholas McMurry, or complete it on your PC and click the submit button at the end of the form to email it to the organisers. This will only work if you use email software (like Microsoft Outlook, for example) instead of using a web-based email account.

http://www.qva.org.uk/Prog2010Insidev6.pdf

gives details of working retreats, including one at Moyallon in July.

The collection contains the minutes of Limerick men’s and women’s Meetings. The minutes record discussions on travel, marriage, removals and correspondence from Friends in Ireland and abroad. Also included is a Record of Suffering 1777-1857, which records goods seized from Friends in lieu of tithes to the Established Church.

Other records include account books, notices of removals, records of Friends removed from the Society for improper behaviour, notices of Friends transferring from and to other Meetings and records of Quaker births, deaths and marriages. The Relief Committee minutes books record the decisions of the Relief Committee in relation to relief in Clare and Limerick during the Famine period. A sample quoted from 6 July 1847 is “We are directed to place at thy disposal five pounds, to be given on loan to assist the poor fishermen of Kilkee in repairing nets, boats…which we trust may be useful to them.” On the same day the committee also refused an application from the Guild of Weavers in Limerick City, writing that they “expect to be able to adopt such measures as will assist the destitute poor in parts of this City without reference to any particular class”.

The collection gives a great insight into the Quaker community in the Limerick area, documenting their births, deaths and marriages, their monthly meetings and their response to prevailing social and economic conditions. Records reach up as far as the 1950s.

In launching access to the web site Deputy Mayor of Limerick City Council, Maria Byrne, thanked the Society of Friends for giving access to the records. She said she felt the records had a very broad interest for those researching the history and families of Limerick. Hiram Wood, Limerick Meeting, and the inspiration behind the project, gave the collected gathering some snippets from his broad knowledge of the families and businesses referred to in the archives. He particularly welcomed them for the value of being able to search them at any time, and without having to thumb through valuable documents.

Four consecutive Wednesday evenings

From 30th Sept 2009

Quaker Quest Explores the Quaker way

It has actually happened!

We shared our individual and common insights through presentations, discussions, questions and an experience of Quaker worship.

Quaker Quest, an outreach programme tried and tested in the Britain Yearly Meeting ,took place in South Belfast Meeting this autumn.

Each evening the host or hostess introduces 3 speakers for the evening. Each speaker speaks on the chosen topic for up to 6 minutes and then the meeting breaks into small discussion groups. Following the discussion groups, each speaker gives another short talk on a more personal level on the same topic. There is an opportunity for questions and finally a Meeting for Worship lasting about 25minutes.

The topics covered were :

• Quakers and the Spiritual Path
• Quakers and Worship
• Quaker Faith in Action
• Quaker Values

Quaker Quest was jointly organised by South Belfast and Frederick St Meetings with support from Lisburn Meeting. Speakers, group facilitators, hosts, welcomers and caterers were drawn from these Meetings. A big effort went into publicity, from a leaflet drop in the local area, to posters and radio interviews and new road signage provided by the City Council.

After a lot of planning and effort we wondered if anyone would come to find out about the best kept spiritual secret! We need not have worried attendance was large the Meeting House buzzed with conversation, the hospitality was generous and the welcome warm. On the first night there were 90 people and on succeeding evenings 70 or so. Each evening there were between 35 and 45 visitors or Questors.

The Speakers were chosen to reflect the diversity of views within our Society, questions posed by Questors ranged from, What Quakers believe about original sin to how to join our Society?

Considering that many present had never attended a Meeting for Worship, it was striking that the time of Worship was settled and reverent. The presence of God was evident.

Prior to the 4 evening sessions, 2 Friends from BYM came to train us in the process, this was open to all and even sceptical Friends became enthused and committed.

Successful or not?

Judging by attendance and appreciation expressed yes. At a deeper level, we may never know the extent to which people were encouraged and challenged spiritually. More recent members and attenders of our Meetings found it very helpful and since QQ there have been a small number of new attenders.

www.quakerquest.org