Fewer, Bigger, Younger Meetings
Preparing the ground for the next generation of British Quakerism
The future of the Quaker movement in Britain is taking shape in front of us. It is one with far fewer Quaker meetings and a much reduced structure of organisations and committees. But the Quaker communities that survive may be younger, bigger and thriving.
Most Quaker meetings have been in decline since the 1990s. Many have now dwindled to a very small group of people in late retirement. These meetings rarely attract new attenders, and if someone new does turn up they don’t usually come again.
There is only one outcome for meetings that continue like this. Within just a few years, when the last committed local Quakers can’t keep them going, they will no longer exist.
But there’s nothing inevitable about decline. A few meetings around the country are growing rapidly, and young adults and families make up a striking proportion of newcomers in some of these thriving Quaker communities.
So many newcomers have joined Sheffield Central Meeting that we now have over 90 people of all ages every Sunday, including about 20 new families. Bethnal Green Meeting has become largely a community of people in their 20s since they moved to meeting for worship on a Sunday evening. Carlton Hill in Leeds has welcomed so many young adults and families that the majority of the meeting are now under 35.
Writing in The Friend recently, Jennie Atherton and Juno Lee reported that “In spite of panicked cries from the wider Society on ever-decreasing numbers, we find ourselves in the joyful position of having our largest [Young Friends General Meeting] gathering in recent memory”. At their last meeting in Edinburgh, this including around 35 complete newcomers.
What this suggests is that we are seeing a rapid transition to a new shape for the Quaker community across Britain. We could easily lose half of our local meetings over the next couple of decades, and large parts of the country may no longer have any Quaker meetings at all. The meetings that remain will be the ones that are attracting and keeping newcomers. If current trends continue, some of these meetings could be much bigger and much younger than we are used to.
This transition will place a serious strain on our current structures. We are already experiencing a widespread nominations crisis, and it will be impossible to maintain the same structure of charities and committees with a drastically reduced number of meetings.
The financial effects will also be severe. Previous generations of Quakers have been generous with donations and legacies, and were often very wealthy. Younger Quakers today rarely expect to be able to own property. None of them will retire on final salary pensions, and the resources they do have will be more thinly stretched. Inevitably, they are much less likely to donate large sums or leave legacies to Quaker organisations.
We could easily spend all of our remaining resources just managing the decline of the existing structure, merging charities, selling meeting houses and making redundancies. All of this will be necessary, and it will demand great efforts just to avoid the disorderly collapse of whole area meetings.
But we mustn’t allow ourselves to be so focused on managing the decline of the old that we miss the opportunity to nurture the new. This is a time of enormous opportunity. The decisions that we make now will have consequences for the potential of the new Quaker movement that is emerging. Our current decisions can either nurture or stifle it.
We currently have some meetings sitting on large financial reserves, while Quaker youth work around the country is starved of funds. We maintain valuable buildings in tiny villages at great expense, while Quaker communities in towns with growing populations struggle to afford premises with space for families. If we want to enable a future for Quakers that is not just a story of decline, it means shifting our attention and resources to where new growth is possible.
To prepare the ground for the next generation of British Quakerism we need to be bold. The famous Quaker love of caution often discourages innovation and creativity, but Quaker faith & practice, which is our collectively discerned statement of Quaker discipline, contains very few actual prohibitions. We need the confidence to innovate, remembering that openness to change is a crucial part of our Quaker tradition. We have continuously evolved Quaker structures and practices throughout our history, and this is especially urgent and necessary in times of rapid change such as these.
The new generation of Quakers need us to invest in their future now. This includes choosing premises with space for communities to grow. It means investing in the gifts and leadings of younger people, and actively welcoming and including families and children. Above all it means a willingness to be flexible and creative about what a Quaker meeting looks like.
Quaker meetings don’t need to worship on a Sunday morning. They don’t always need to own a Meeting House or run a lettings business. They do need to be communities where people know and care for each other, and wholeheartedly welcome newcomers of all ages and backgrounds. Above all, they need to be places of spiritual vitality, that are open to the leadings of the Spirit and willing to change and grow.
Thank you, Craig.
Yes! Courage! Deep worship, and committed action springing from and sustained by it.