We are now holding Meetings for Worship again in our Meeting House every Sunday at 10.30 a.m. Everyone is welcome.
There are also Meetings for Worship in Sandy Balls, Fordingbridge at 2.30pm on the third Monday of each month. Phone Amanda Bowles on 01425 653321 for information.
For further information about the Bournemouth meeting, please contact Pamela at parrob@hotmail.co.uk or Rosemary at rosemarybrown333@hotmail.com
If you would like to make enquiries about hiring our rooms please call our warden on 01202 397806. Click here to visit Hallmaster to see availability.
Quaker Meetings are inclusive, diverse, spiritual communities with places of worship in many British towns and cities.
If Quaker practice is something you would like to explore, you would be warmly welcomed at one of our meetings. Please see our Meetings page for details of local meeting times and venues. Children are welcome. There is wheelchair access throughout. We look forward to welcoming you to one of our Meetings.
Quakers aim for everyone to experience respect, dignity and justice beyond all barriers of race, ability, sexual orientation, age and gender.
BOURNEMOUTH & FORDINGBRIDGE Local Quaker Meeting REPORT MARCH 2023
In the past year, our numbers at Meeting for Worship in the Meeting House (MH) have risen from around 20 to 25-28 each week; we have been happy to welcome transfers in as well as new attenders. Our Meeting is lively, with a range of spiritual, social and charitable activities. Monthly Meetings for Learning, based on passages from Quaker Faith and Practice, have resumed and are well supported.
In the autumn, fortnightly lunches at a cafe replaced the informal picnic lunches in the MH garden. A resumption of our monthly ‘frugal lunches’ is planned towards the end of March. Other events have included the monthly poetry afternoons and a visit to Hilfield Friary. Some Friends met regularly to participate in producing panels for the Loving Earth project, which was displayed in Bournemouth Library in February. Two Friends are offering a series on the topic of Ageing and Sageing. Two Friends facilitated zoom sessions at Britain Yearly Meeting, and one of our new arrivals served as an Elder at the zoom sessions.
Fordingbridge Friends are now meeting on the third Monday of each month at Bridget Marriott’s home in the New Forest. Their intrepid activities include wild swimming.
For economic and ecological reasons, we have moved our Meeting for Worship into the John Woolman Room during the winter, but will return to the larger George Fox Hall when it is a little warmer.
The MH was surveyed in 2022, both for a Fire Risk Assessment and for our Quinquennial (5-yearly) Survey. Stricter regulations and general maintenance will lead to considerable expense as time goes on, so once again we are considering the future of the MH, and have had the site valued.
Our Local Meeting has decided that we will retain the building until at least June 2024: our new contract with our main hirer, U3A, will prolong its use as a community centre for the coming year. Our Treasurer says that we are almost at full capacity. The new system, which involves employing a book-keeper and paying for an online booking site for hirers to check the availability and cost of our rooms, is working well. This is a help to our Wardens.
Overall, we feel that our Meeting is in a healthy state, with growing numbers attending in person, though a few prefer to participate online. Whatever happens with regard to our MH, we shall need fresh people to take on responsible positions at the end of this year, which also marks the end of the current triennium.
Go well in peace.