Category Archives: NFN Events

Conferences, General Quaker interest, NFN Events

Meetings of interest to NFN members.

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Our next Meeting + Creative Conversation is due on Thursday 2nd March at 7pm UK time. https://nontheist-quakers.org.uk/events/

Nontheist Friends in America are having their next meeting online: “The next NTF online gathering will be at 4-5:30pm ET on February 26, the last Sunday in February. We will be responding to The Atheist’s Guide to Quaker Process: Spirit-Led Decisions for the Secular by Selden Smith (Pendle Hill Pamphlet #472). Happily, the author will be with us. He is eager to hear what you have to say.”

I think this will be 9-10.30 pm in UK, Ireland and Portugal and 10-11.30 pm in most of Europe but please check with a time converter from Eastern Time (East coast of USA).
You can find details on their google group: https://groups.google.com/g/nontheist-friends  (if you can’t access this you can email Robin Alpern <robin.alpern@gmail.com> with an explanation of your Quaker/nontheist interest to ask to join.) (Their website appears to be down again at present).

The Quaker Universalist Group (QUG) are having their next meeting for worship and sharing  on Wednesday February 15th at 7 p.m. It will be introduced by Hazel Barker under the title The Power of Intention. https://qug.org.uk/february-meeting-for-worship-and-sharing/

We are still looking forward to volunteers coming forward to organise an NFN Conference. In the meantime, QUG’s upcoming conference is at Woodbrooke: Friday May 12th to Sunday May 14th (At Woodbrooke and online) on the topic How creativity expresses and enhances spirituality across the world.
 https://qug.org.uk/conferences/conference-2023/

 

AGM, General Quaker interest, NFN Events

NFN Website Report 2022 (for Jan 2023 AGM)

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Our next Quaker Meeting and Creative Conversation will be on
2 February QM+CC at 7PM GMT/2PM EST by Zoom, and will introduce the concern, How have I reached a non-theist position – or have I?
Before the meeting, registered participants will receive the Zoom link along with a selection of questions and definitions to ponder.
Details have already been sent out by email and will follow here later. (Not the Zoom link, you should email for that if not already registered)

In the meantime, our AGM is  at 7pm UK time this Thursday the 19th of January 2023 and an agenda and the Zoom link to members will follow soon.

Here is my NFN Website Report 2022 (for Jan 2023 AGM) (.doc) (.pdf)

Trevor

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.