A small but select group of local Friends met for Christmas lunch in the meeting house this year.
A good turn out for our Remembrance Day white poppy peace gathering. Thank you to all who contributed poppies.
Friends from Nailsworth, Stroud, Gloucester and other quaker meetings joined together in a walk from Tetbury to Nailsworth to commemorate 400 years since the birth of George Fox, one of the founders of Quakerism. Research showed that George Fox walked extensively in Gloucestershire in the 17th century, including from Nailsworth to Tetbury. More than 20 of us walked the whole distance of 5 miles with various others joining us for sections of the walk. The walk was enjoyed by everyone and gave us plenty of appetite for the selection of flapjacks, biscuits and cakes at the end!
Friends who cycle to Meeting asked us for something to lock their bikes up. We really wanted to encourage cycling and are please to share that new bike stands are now in place.
The Loving Earth Project is a community textile project started by Quakers in 2019. It spread widely and has generated international interest. By the time COP26 was held in Glasgow in 2021, over 400 panels with associated texts, celebrating some of the wonderful things threatened by environmental breakdown, had been made. Loving Earth Project was listed among “the best cultural events in Scotland for COP26”
From mid-February to mid-March 2023 a selection of Loving Earth Panels was exhibited in the Houses of Parliament. Some Nailsworth Quakers heard this being discussed on the Sunday programme on Radio 4 and decided to bring the exhibition to Nailsworth.
Consequently 100 of the panels were exhibited at Nailsworth Quaker Meeting House from 19th to 27th August drawing in dozens of visitors. We included two "making" sessions and several talks on the subject of Climate Justice.
Nailsworth Quaker Meeting joined Christ Church for an hour for their ‘Ping-pong-a-thon’ event for Christian Aid week and helped contribute towards the £900 raised on the day for the charity. Teams played for an hour each, keeping the ball moving between 9am and 9pm and were sponsored for their efforts! Thank you to Christ Church volunteers who organised the event and kept everyone well supplied with refreshments.
Call for Climate Justice
There was a call to Local Meetings to come to London for The Big One on Friday 21 April 2023. This was an event organised by Extinction Rebellion as part of their new ‘softer’ approach to protest.
With a little trepidation a group of us from Nailsworth and from Stroud journeyed up on an early train or bus to the centre of London. We were slightly nervous because the government had hardened their attitude towards events like this, and Extinction Rebellion (XR) had had their reputation tarnished by very disruptive demonstrations in the past. However, this event was very well organised and the liaison with the police was first class, as was their liaison with The London Marathon which was not disrupted at all. The picture shows Quakers who were taking part in the picket line outside The Foreign Office.
We are hopeful more individuals will join XR as they adopt this more peaceful approach.
There was a quite surprising downside. It seems that unless your protest is disruptive and violent BBC News won’t report it! Despite many tens of thousands of people taking part and picketing government buildings, including the Houses of Parliament, there was hardly a mention on the news. However, The Guardian newspaper and Channel 4 News gave extensive reports and it did seem to have an effect. On the following Monday the government put out an announcement they were going to build more car charging points, something they are well behind their own targets with! But there still seems to be a huge reticence to really get to grips with the massive changes that need to be made if we are to achieve Climate Justice.