On Earth Day 2024, Kim Harrison reflects on the importance of ecological homecoming after her recent Glenthorne retreat. Photo taken on Glenthorne retreat by Kim Harrison The sense of ecological homecoming that we can feel in nature is beyond just “nature connection”,  ecological homecoming is about realizing that we ARE nature; simply part of the spirit that flows through all things. The idea of the ”ecological unconscious” bridges philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Indeed, it is an ancient concept present in most nature-based cultures. Everything is so intrinsically interconnected ..read more

Woodbrooke’s Communication’s Officer Aled Vernon-Rees explores the unlikely anti-monopolist and Quaker history of Monopoly and asks if we can still see these roots in todays game. I have always felt that there is a kinship between Quakers and board games. One of my earliest memories of attending Quaker children’s group was being huddle round a table playing a chocolate-based game about Fairtrade (though I can’t remember the name!) and in many cases board games can be in keeping with our Quaker values; they can bring us together, they can educate us, they can be part of our spiritual life and ..read more

Last year Amanda Jones completed the yearlong Exploring Faith and Climate Justice course run in partnership by Woodbrooke and Quakers in Britain. At the Climate Justice Gathering which followed, a number of interest groups emerged, one of these being a group focused on ‘Visioning’. In this blog Amanda reflects on the concept of ‘Visioning’ and looks ahead to an upcoming Woodbrooke session which explores this idea further. The blog finishes with a poem written by Amanda during her time on the climate course. Photo by Philip Wood at Woodbrooke and Quakers in Britain’s Climate Justice Gathering ..read more

The great revelation of 17th century Quakers was their lived experience of direct immediate contact with God. Even though we may now use different terms to describe our sense of the sacred, our meetings for worship continue to provide the place for such experience when we come together in a gathered meeting. I have sometimes wondered, though, how much the depth of meeting for worship is enhanced by Friends’ personal spiritual practice. There is, of course, a wide variety of spiritual practices, captured for Friends in such books as Ginny Wall’s Deepening the life of the Spirit [i] and Patrici ..read more

The spoken word is a vital part of our communication with participants in live sessions, and as teachers or facilitators we are probably already aware of the need to speak clearly. However, when using Zoom, there are a few extra tricks to help ensure we can be heard and understood. These give a better experience for all participants, but particularly support learners who have hearing loss or who are not fluent in English. We’ll start with some simple tips and then explain how participants can use Zoom’s ‘closed captions’ feature if they would like to see your words as subtitles on their scree ..read more

At the moment, I’m serving as the Quaker representative on a church leader’s group in the West Midlands. I’m very pleased to be able to do this – it’s often useful as well as enjoyable to hear from people in other churches, it’s good to be able to give a Quaker perspective on things, and I get to meet lots of interesting people. The experience does bring to light some of the assumptions people make, though, and in this blog post I’d like to explore the effects this has. Some of the assumptions are minor and many aren’t unique to ecumenical or interfaith work. Almost everyone, and almost every ..read more

This is the first in a series of short articles on how to make learning accessible to everyone. We’ll start with a few quick tips on how to make presentation slides easier to read through well-informed use of colour, fonts and spacing. This advice applies to both presenting on Zoom or face-to-face. Colour Good use of colour in text, images and backgrounds can help to make slides engaging and clear. However, colour can also get in the way of learning. Here are some tips on how to use colour effectively. Choose a few colours (three or four) that go together well and use them consistently throu ..read more

If you listen to what Quakers say about God, or read some recent books by Quakers, you’re likely to find that the word ‘God’ often seems to be interchangeable with other terms, such as the Spirit, Love, Light, the Inner Light, the Inward Light, Allah, Christ, Buddha, and many others. Words like these might be drawn together into a list, or someone might say that they use ‘God’ as a shorthand. In talking about spiritual matters in these complex ways, Quakers are often trying to hold together multiple ideas and motivations. For example, there’s the idea that it’s difficult or impossible to put ..read more

The 2023 Eva Koch Scholars share their topic and why it’s important to Quakers today. From left to right: M. Amelia Eikli, Caroline Chandler and Jo Cremins. M. Amelia Eikli M. Amelia Eikli is an author, artist and creative consultant. She lives in Weston-super-Mare and worships at Weston Meeting. What are you exploring in your Eva Koch scholarship? I’m working on bringing forward lessons from historic activism and presenting them in ways that are easy to engage with. Through the analogies of tending flames, I hope to produce a piece of work that can bring hope and resilience to Quakers involv ..read more

As Volunteers’ Week draws to a close I have been reflecting on the role of volunteers in the context of Woodbrooke. If you type ‘benefits of volunteering’ into Google (other search engines are available) the results will inevitably show a vast and varied array of different brightly coloured pie charts, bar graphs and friendly cartoons, listing the many ways in which volunteering is good for our mental and physical health. But I think that something deeper runs through the experience of offering service in a Quaker context. We have, as Quakers, a sense of service and a concept of spiritual gif ..read more