Welcome to Ilkley Quaker Meeting

I recently attended Ashlands Primary School to speak to their Year 4 class (8 and 9 year olds) on Quakerism,…

I was overwhelmed by their eagerness, their interest, the thoughtfulness of their questions and their response to my answers…

Is anyone listening? Sometimes I feel everyone is talking, but no one is listening. I sort my friends into those that I find myself talking to; who listen to me, and those to whom I tend to listen. Who talk happily, stop for a moment to ask “Oh, and what about you?” and as I draw breath to answer, leap back into the next chapter of their dramatic life…

…it felt that in joining this group, I was bringing together nearly every strand of my life – my background and passions for international development and justice, fundraising, Quaker faith and practice…

Several members of Ilkley Meeting attended one or more of the four day Big One climate protest in London, forming part of a considerable Quaker presence at the event. John, for whom this was a first in a life-time experience, writes about his experience of the day.

Poem, after Wordsworth’s, “Lines written in early spring”

There was so much to enjoy and to reflect upon over the weekend. But after a few days I realise that my mind goes back, with pleasure, to the conversations, however short, that I had with the young people in Meeting, hearing their hopes and plans.

“it was getting hotter”
The opening line of Kim Stanley’s Ministry of the Future. Engagingly written, this is an important book for anyone wondering how we get through the climate emergency of climate chaos…

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) with its centres in Geneva and New York, has provided vital ‘quiet diplomacy’ – places where diplomats and UN staff can meet and talk confidentially with skilled help away from the media.

Ilkley Quaker, Robert Gibson, is a Trustee of QUNO, and explains the significance of the QUNO presence at COP27…

COP – or Conference of the Parties- is the United Nations conference on climate change. It takes place every year and will bring together around 200 countries to present their plans to reduce carbon emissions…

This year’s climate summit is being held at Sharm el Sheik in Egypt, sponsored by Coca Cola. Normally a tourist resort, it is many miles away from the Egypt’s populous and unsettled great cities…

I sent the email expecting a short reply, a ‘will see what I can do’ or an ‘I’ll look into it’…. The response was quick and real, ‘We will bring Meeting to you’…

Outside the trees move happily, the wind fresh and lively. Yews, Chestnuts, Sycamore and Birch. Most too young and supple to remember the time before there were walls to house the Silence…

There, sitting within green, a stone mass of four walls and slanted roof. It is new to the landscape, yet old to our eyes, the walls appearing to stand unchallenged, the stones uneven and pockmarked by the wear of time and the elements…

On August Bank Holiday Sunday 2022 the busy car park of The Royalty on Yorkgate, Otley, was the meeting point for the Deputy Mayor of Otley, Ray Smith, and a contingent of riders from Bike for Peace lead by Tore Naedland…

In March 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine, some of our members held a weekly vigil in Ilkley.

“It’s raining, it’s cold. It’s getting dark and I’m not wearing enough warm clothes. Across the street workmen are coming down from their scaffolding, and a shop owner locks up, walking off along the pavement…”