Friday 23 December 2011

Next Meeting for Worship is on 8th January, 2012

We have consulted everyone at Meeting and on our e-mail list and discovered that almost everyone is away or busy on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Our next Meeting for Worship will therefore be at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, 8th January 2012.

We are now feeling very settled in the Chilwell Memorial Hall and enjoy our Meetings there.

Saturday 22 October 2011

Beeston Quakers have moved


posted by Kathy

Beeston Quakers will be meeting in Chilwell Memorial Hall for the next month - and possibly for a long time to come. The hall seems to meet all our needs so we're trying it out, starting on Sunday 23rd October at 10.30 a.m. As always, visitors are welcome. Meeting for Worship lasts an hour and is mostly (sometimes entirely) silent. It is followed by notices after which we usually share hot drinks, biscuits and friendly conversation.

The memorial hall is at 129, High Road, Chilwell (near the turnings off to Cator Lane and Meadow Lane). You can find a map HERE.

Some people may find it strange that Quakers meet in a hall commemorating soldiers who died in the First World War but I think it right to remember all those who died in war. John Woolman, the 18th-century Quaker who refused to pay taxes for war, offers a more pertinent challenge. In his essay "A Plea for the Poor" he calls on Quakers to look at their own possessions and "try whether the seeds of war have any nourishment in them."

I think Beeston Quakers will also feel content that the original principles laid down by the trustees of the memorial hall included these:

That the Institute shall be used as a club or place of assembly for the inhabitants of Chilwell and the neighbourhood and that in determining what persons or class of persons shall be entitled to use the Institute no regard shall be had to or distinction made on grounds of religious discrimination, political opinions or sex.”

I reckon that chimes well with Quakers' testimony to equality.


Sunday 25 September 2011

Quaker Meetings in Beeston Fire Station until 16th October

We have booked into Beeston Fire Station until and including Sunday, 16th October. Please see the post below for details of location and map. Ideas for a suitable long-term home for our Sunday morning Meeting for Worship are still welcome.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Wandering Friends

We've been very happy meeting in the Middle Street Resource Centre for nearly twenty years. However new arrangements by the council mean that we are currently homeless, at rather short notice.

On Sunday 11th September we shall hold Meeting for Worship at 10.30 at the new Fire Station in Hassocks Lane, NG9 2GQ. Hassocks Lane is a turning off Queens Road East (the A6005) quite close to Highfields (the University Park).


View Larger Map

If you click on the map you should be able to zoom in and find the street.

All attending will be very welcome.

In the meantime, we need suggestions for the long-term.

Our primary requirements are: a comfortable, fairly quiet room where 15-20 people can meet, ideally sitting in a circle or similar arrangement with books on the centre table. It needs to be available between 10 and 12.30 on Sunday mornings every week.

We would very much like to be able to make and offer hot and cold drinks for attenders after meeting so access to a kettle would help.

Sometimes people bring children to Meeting and it would help to have a small, comfortable room for children to engage in activities with adult care/supervision. The age of the children could vary but it would be unusual for more than four to attend in a single week.

It's important that the venue has access for people with disabilities.

Ideally we would like to be able to leave a large box at the venue between Meetings. This contains mugs, equipment for hot drinks, a tin a biscuits, a first aid kit and a few books and leaflets.

We would like to be able to display a sign while meeting (perhaps in a window) so that people can see where we are. It would be good (but not essential) if we could have a poster up at other times.

If you know of any venue in the Beeston/Chilwell area that might suit us, please post a comment or email beestonquakers@yahoo.co.uk It would help to know how much any venue is likely to charge.

Meanwhile, for updates on our search for somewhere to meet, and details of arrangements on a weekly basis, please watch this blog.