Is your meeting holding an extra Meeting for Worship, or skipping a week, over the festive period? Are you holding a different special event? Please let us know so that we can publicise it here: website@ceaqm.org.uk
We already know about several special events over Christmas and New Year:
Special Events
- Bournville Christmas Festival 2024 – Sustainable gifts stall at Bournville Village Green on 30/11/2024 at 1:30 pm - 6:30 pm
- Christmas Parcel Packing 2024 – Session 1 at Selly Oak Quaker Meeting House on 06/12/2024 at 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
- Christmas Parcel Packing 2024 – Session 2 at Selly Oak Quaker Meeting House on 07/12/2024 at 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
- Friends' Cinema – Aardman's comedy animation about Santa’s gawky son at Barnt Green & Redditch Quaker Meeting House on 21/12/2024 at 7:00 pm
- Meeting for Worship on the Winter Solstice – Online on 21/12/2024 at 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
- Worship at Bournville on Christmas Day – at Bournville Quaker Meeting House on 25/12/2024 at 10:30 am
- Friends' Cinema – 2:30pm Family animation; 7pm ‘Loverly’ musical. at Barnt Green & Redditch Quaker Meeting House on 27/12/2024 at 2:30 pm
But, do Quakers celebrate Christmas? This reflection on the Quakers in Britain national website gives some helpful insights:
Early Quakers did not observe Christmas nor mark other ‘times and seasons‘. They believed that no day was more holy than any other, and believed that each day, and all of life, was sacred (Quaker faith & practice 27.39 and 27.42). Today, as with so many things in the Quaker community, there is a full spectrum of practices and responses.
There are those who do the full Christian event to mark the birth of Jesus with candles, carols, presents and Christmas pudding, and others who will observe simply and quietly. There are also those who will choose not to mark this Christmas season in any way, but who nonetheless give daily witness to their faith.”