Category Archives: NFN Events

AGM, General Quaker interest, NFN Events, Non-theism

Quaker Meeting and Creative Conversation 5th January 7pm

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Our next and last event ahead of the AGM on 19th January
Dear Friends,

Thank you for registering for our Quaker Meeting and Creative Conversation, organized by the NFN, UK.

5 January’s QM+CC will introduce the concern from  Quaker faith & practice: 23.09:
“We are all the poorer for the crushing of one man, since the dimming of the Light anywhere darkens us all.” Michael Sorensen, 1986
Queries to consider: How do we as non-theist Quakers work at repairing the world? What is the source of this inspiration?
Please arrive early, as the Meeting will start promptly at 7PM GMT/2PM EST.  The Zoom Room opens at 6:45PM.
If you have not already registered then email the Clerk (clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk) to register and receive the zoom link.
Format:
• Zoom Room opens at 6:45PM (UK time), please arrive early.
• 7PM: Welcome and Quaker Meeting (~20 minutes): Sharing silence with one another for quietly gathering ourselves and connecting.
• Creative Conversation and Discussion (~1 hour): Concern introduced; followed by interactive discussions in break-out rooms and in the plenary with all participants.
• Conclusion: Thoughts and a few moments to share silence.
• After Announcements the Zoom Room will remain open for friendly chats and community.
• Duration:1hr:30m-2hr:00m

You will automatically receive Zoom links to subsequent Meetings, approximately one week beforehand and a reminder the day of.  There is no need to re-register. We ask that you please do not share the Zoom link with interested Friends, but encourage them to email the Clerk (clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk) to register. You may unregister/unsubscribe at any time by replying to this email address.
See you soon.
In Friendship,
The QM+CC Working group (Gisela Creed, John Senior, William Purser, and Kiera Faber)
Nontheist Friends Network
General Quaker interest, NFN Events, Non-theism

Something or other?

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Delightful post (today) from Chuck Fager about ‘Something’ (or whatever you call it):
https://afriendlyletter.com/renegade-quaker-theology-my-breaking-point-summer-2011/

‘We’ nontheists don’t agree with Chuck do we? You have to admire his Catholic leaning grim sense of humour (humor?) and fate though.

See you Thursday?

NFN Events, NFN website

Changes to the website November 2022

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I have updated the Events page and the nfn-monthly-meeting-for-worship-and-creative-conversation page to reflect current events. The latter page is substantially redundant, except for holding the recordings of the first 11 talks from March 2021 to April 2022, but does still give the basic information about the meetings and how we got here and does re-direct you to the Events page. You can have some fun following links in circles here.

I have also (after some years) updated the ‘How to?’ (use this website) page so it bears some resemblance to the current situation. Now you can have some more fun following links in circles, especially on a mobile device. Let me know how you get on!

Trevor

General Quaker interest, NFN Events, Non-theism

Next meeting: Thursday 1 December 2022

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(early notice this time!)

Dear Friends,

Many thanks to Rosemary for inspiring a compassionate and keening listening Meeting in November.

1 December’s Quaker Meeting and Creative Conversation will introduce the concern,  “Ideas for Creative Conversation Topics” at 7PM UK time by Zoom.

Summary: What topics would participants like to see covered in future Creative Conversations?  If you have a suggestion or interest that you would enjoy hearing discussed, this is a perfect time to share those thoughts.
General layout: 
• Zoom Room opens at 6:45PM UK time, please arrive early. 
• 7PM UK time: Welcome and Quaker Meeting (~20 minutes): Sharing silence with one another for quietly gathering ourselves and connecting. 
• Creative Conversation and Discussion (~1 hour): Different participants will introduce a thought provoking, occasionally debatable question, brief statement, and/or reading.  This will be followed by an inspired discussion amongst all participants for creative exchanges and opportunities to disagree.
• Conclusion: Thoughts and a few moments to share silence. 
• After Announcements the Zoom Room will remain open for friendly chats and community. 
• Duration:1hr:30m-2hr:00m Additional information about our QM+CC can be found on our website. 

If you are interested in attending and have not registered, please reply to this email or email the clerk as below.

If you previously registered, there is no need to re-register, you are on the list.  You will automatically receive Zoom links to this and subsequent Meetings, approximately one week before each Meeting and a reminder the day of.  We ask that you please do not share the Zoom link with interested Friends, but encourage them to email the Clerk (clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk) to register. You may unregister/unsubscribe at any time by replying to this email address.

In Friendship,
The QM+CC Working group (Gisela Creed, John Senior, William Purser, and Kiera Faber)
Nontheist Friends Network 

ALL are welcome to attend Nontheist Friends Network events regardless of Membership, beliefs, and/or religious affiliation. If you would like to support NFN and our endeavours, please consider becoming a Member by filling out our Membership submission form and contributing £10.  Thank you in advance for your generous support!

 

General Quaker interest, NFN Events, Non-theism

“Utopias:  If they do not exist should we invent them?”

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Dear Friends,
Thank you for registering for our Quaker Meeting and Creative Conversation, organized by the NFN, UK.

Thursday 6 October’s QM+CC will introduce the concern, “Utopias:  If they do not exist should we invent them?” , to stimulate discussion and sharing of thoughts and ideas amongst all participants.

Please arrive early, as the Meeting will start promptly at 7PM, UK time.  The Zoom Room opens at 6:45PM.
October’s Format:
• Zoom Room opens at 6:45PM (UK time), please arrive early.
• 7PM: Welcome and Quaker Meeting (~20 minutes): Sharing silence with one another for quietly gathering ourselves and connecting.
• Creative Conversation and Discussion (~1 hour): Concern introduced; followed by interactive discussions in break-out rooms and in the main Zoom room with all participants.
• Conclusion: Thoughts and a few moments to share silence.
• After Announcements the Zoom Room will remain open for friendly chats and community.
• Duration:1hr:30m-2hr:00m

We ask that you please do not share the Zoom link with interested Friends, but encourage them to email the Clerk (clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk) to register. You may unregister/unsubscribe at any time by replying to this email address. You will automatically receive Zoom links to subsequent Meetings, approximately one week beforehand and a reminder the day of.  There is no need to re-register.
See you soon.
In Friendship,
The QM+CC Working group (Gisela Creed, John Senior, William Purser, and Kiera Faber)
Nontheist Friends Network
General Quaker interest, NFN Events

1 September’s QM+CC will introduce the concern, “Exploring New Ways of Believing and Belonging”

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Tim Regan’s interesting reflections on this meeting can be found here:
https://nontheist-quakers.org.uk/2022/09/10/tims-reflections-on-exploring-new-ways-of-believing-and-belonging-our-creative-conversation-on-1-9-22/

Dear Friend,

Thank you for registering for our Quaker Meeting and Creative Conversation, organized by the NFN, UK.

1 September’s QM+CC will introduce the concern, “Exploring New Ways of Believing and Belonging”, to stimulate discussion and sharing of thoughts and ideas amongst all participants.

Please arrive early, as the Meeting will start promptly at 7PM, UK time.  The Zoom Room opens at 6:45PM.  1 September’s format below.
We ask that you please do not share the Zoom link with interested Friends, but encourage them to email the Clerk (clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk) to register.
September’s Format:
• Zoom Room opens at 6:45PM (UK time), please arrive early.
• 7PM: Welcome and Quaker Meeting (~20 minutes): Sharing silence with one another for quietly gathering ourselves and connecting.
• Creative Conversation and Discussion (~1 hour): Concern introduced; followed by interactive discussions in break-out rooms and in the main Zoom room with all participants.
• Conclusion: Thoughts and a few moments to share silence.
• After Announcements the Zoom Room will remain open for friendly chats and community.
• Duration:1hr:30m-2hr:00m

You will automatically receive Zoom links to subsequent Meetings, approximately one week beforehand and a reminder the day of.  There is no need to re-register. We ask that you please do not share the Zoom link with interested Friends, but encourage them to email the Clerk (clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk) to register. You may unregister/unsubscribe at any time by replying to this email address.
See you soon.
In Friendship,
The QM+CC Working group (Gisela Creed, John Senior, William Purser, and Kiera Faber)
Nontheist Friends Network
General Quaker interest, NFN Events, NFN website

A little teaser

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An NFN newsletter planned for July now looks to be forthcoming by the end of the month – so we’ll call it our August newsletter.

If you would like to send in any news, articles, book reviews, opinions, comments or quaker anecdotes for inclusion in this newsletter, please send them to me trevor at humber dot co dot uk, preferably by the 25th July – quite a tight deadline.

There will be an update by Kiera Faber (our membership clerk) on behalf of the QM+CC Working Group, which is comprised of, William Purser, Kiera Faber, Gisela Creed, and John Senior, looking forward to re-commencing the Meeting and Creative Conversations on 1st September.

They say (don’t they?) that ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ and if you’re missing our NFN Creative conversations whilst we have a break in July and August, our Friends at the Quaker Universalist Group (QUG) are beginning similar meetings in July and August starting tomorrow:
Daniel Flynn will talk under the title My spiritual journey, from obedience to choice. Some of you may remember Daniel, an American Quaker in Brussels, from ‘Nontheist approaches to religious language’ and other courses at Woodbrooke.
https://qug.org.uk/qug-monthly-worship-and-sharing/  You will have to email QUG quick if you want to join at 7pm tomorrow (Wednesday 20th July).

If you followed the themes at Yearly Meeting or attended the Swarthmore Lecture by Helen Minnis (Glasgow meeting) you will likely find the Quaker Podcast featuring Edwina Peart, Inclusion and Diversity Coordinator, and Rebecca Woo, Campaigns Coordinator, about the reparations conversation that is just beginning amongst British Quakers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tq7XpGPwnI  (audio not video) a useful introduction to this topic.

 

Conferences, General Quaker interest, NFN Events, NFN website

A new homepage – experimentally

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Through the history of this website since 2016 we have offered different pages as the homepage (‘landing page’) at different times. (If you follow any of the links below they open in the same window or tab so use your ‘back button’ in the browser to return here).

In the beginning it was our About page (still available!) virtually copy-pasted from the earlier website hand-coded by Brian Wardrop.  From time to time it was our News (posts) page – THIS very page.  For much of the last 15 months it has been our monthly Meeting and Creative Conversation’s page.

At other times it may have been a Conference page or the Events page. You may sometimes see this in future if we have any more conferences or events. These changes have always been motivated by NFN activity and a wish to bring the currently most relevant information to your immediate attention. (did I forget to put in a plug for our Articles page?)

Meanwhile we have a new home page offered experimentally, subject to amendment or ‘tweaking’ and your comments or suggestions will be very welcome.

Conferences, General Quaker interest, NFN Events, NFN website, Non-theism

What’s ‘appening? – current affairs

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I think that after 3 weeks (to the day) another post would be timely.

Our next Meeting for worship and Creative conversation is next Thursday 2nd June at 7pm where we will consider “Humanists and Quakers – How do we differ, and what are the similarities – an interactive evening”.  For full details and registration see here. (Sorry about the old link last 5 days – now correct I hope).

We have established, in addition to the Creative conversations Working Group, 5 further Working Groups that I know of (18 April) according to those who put their names forward. Some are more active than others as I mentioned in the previous post ‘No more NFN Conferences‘.

NFN Newsletter

The NFN ‘Newsletter’ Working Group has 4 names to it: Bryan Osborne, John Senior, Catherine Carr and myself Trevor Bending. This has not been active but may come to life if we try to produce a Newsletter for June as suggested previously. All Friends, NFN members, SG members and other sympathisers are invited to contribute (see that ‘previously’ link) and you may hear further after Britain Yearly Meeting 2022 has finished.

Quaker Faith & Practice revision

The Quaker Faith & Practice revision WG held its first meeting on the 18th May, hosted by Steven Goldblatt (NFN Treasurer) and attended by David Boulton, Chris Thomas, Gisela Creed, Bryan Osborne and myself. It was decided that updates would not be provided from this group until some clarity is discerned about what we hope to achieve. I won’t continue to participate in this group (for other committments) and am not sure if Bryan will for the same reason although he was able to help us off to a good start with a presentation and some insights from a meeting held with the BYM Quaker Faith & Practice revision Group by Cambridge AM. That presentation showed up later in the YM session on QF&P this week. If you want to contribute to the BYM Revision Groups deliberations you can do so in the following ways: Read BDRC reports to Meeting for Sufferings on this page https://www.quaker.org.uk/resources/quaker-faith-and-practice/revising-quaker-faith-practice
– see also creative project “Open to new light” on Padlet and other social media links on that page.
Ideas and pieces of writing can be submitted using this online form:
Q f&p: submit ideas for the next revision – QForms
https://forms.quaker.org.uk/qfp-idea/
or contact BDRC committee secretary, Michael Booth, by email to qfp@quaker.org.uk or write to him at Friends House.
(BDRC stands for Book of Discipline Revision Committee).

(Quaker faith & practice can be found online here https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/ (and it is more up-to-date than any printed edition))

Or, you can give your ideas about a nontheist contribution to QF&P revision to the NFN WG here:
nontheistfriend@gmail.com
preferably with ‘NFN Quaker Faith & Practice revision WG’ in the subject line.

Helping Woodbrooke ‘design’ nontheist courses

The “Helping Woodbrooke ‘design’ nontheist courses” Working Group consists of Tim Regan, Catherine Carr and Chris Thomas. I have heard no more about this since I withdrew on 23 April.

Website Working Group

The Website WG consisting of Chris Thomas, Ella Dorfman, Tim Regan and myself (Trevor) has probably been the most active with I believe at least 4 meetings (and lots of emails and ‘Slack’ messages) so far. I think you will probably hear more about this from Tim next Thursday evening (and/or by email) with an invitation to help by participating in surveys or interviews.

NFN Conference Working Group

This was dealt with in my last post. The Group has only Catherine Carr (from the SG) and myself. I believe at least half a dozen people would be needed to organise a Conference (but see that last post). There was only a limited response to that post and no-one came forward to help organise any kind of Conference. Perhaps, therefore, there will be no further NFN Conferences (some of the most rewarding weekends at Woodbrooke I have been to) until NFN members call for one and come forward to organise it. I’ll keep you in touch!

AGM, Conferences, General Quaker interest, NFN Events, NFN website, Non-theism

No more NFN Conferences? – and other matters

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I believe 5 additional Working Groups were proposed at the AGM in February and all those who came forward to express an interest were contacted by our clerk Tim Regan on 18 April to take matters forward. So far, only the Website working Group (6) seems to have been particularly active. (the others being QF&P revision (6 or 7), Conference (2), Newsletter (4) and Woodbrooke courses (4) – numbers in brackets names coming forward).

Whereas 6 people (including 3 members of the Steering Group) put their names forward for the Website group, only 2 people (and I was one of them) came forward for the Conference group – which appears to me to be a bizarre sense of priorities.

Why the concern for the website (which seems to be working fine?) and so little for a future Conference when the latter, whether at Woodbrooke, elsewhere or online, has been one of the annual highlights for Nontheist Quaker activity, support and the AGM?

Am I to take it that NFN members and past or potential future Conference attenders have no further interest in such an event whether in person or online?  I do hope very much that this isn’t the case as I have always very much enjoyed NFN Conferences of which I have attended at least 6 at Woodbrooke and one online (2021 in lieu of 2020 cancelled through ‘covid’).

From my experience of being involved with the QUG (Quaker Universalist Group) Conference at Woodbrooke over several years, last year online and especially the ‘blended’ Conference at Woodbrooke and online this year when I was heavily involved with managing the online component (but most of the work being done by the QUG team at Woodbrooke), I know that organising a blended conference is very much more demanding than organising one online or even just in person.

If we can’t assemble a team to organise a blended conference (rather more than half a dozen perhaps) or an in person only conference (still 5 or 6?) then perhaps we could rise to an online only conference organised by as few as 4 people perhaps?

There might be a ‘Conference-lite’ alternative which would be simply to have (in person or online) a ‘meet-up’ for social exchange, sharing ideas and worship and so on – perhaps a ‘nontheist retreat’? – organised by just the participants themselves with only 2 or 3 people taking on some prior planning, bookings etc.  Online this might seem little different from our monthly ‘Quaker Meetings with Creative Conversations’ although it could be over a weekend with more time together. In person would be quite a different experience – and perhaps even that could include the possibility of ‘dropping in’ online.

Does anyone else in NFN feel the need for a Conference (or ‘meet-up’) – or should I go back to bed?

I really would appreciate some feed-back on this – whilst you are preparing your articles for a future newsletter.

Oh, by the way, I mentioned ‘other matters’ – the ‘Conversation’ last night on ‘How do I as a nontheist Quaker relate to deeply Christian Quakers‘ went extremely well with some very interesting contributions, particularly, I thought, those from Jean Wardrop and David Boulton. I will try to return to this later but if anyone else who was there would like to write up something for the website now, that would also be most welcome.