Almost 2,000 Quaker came together for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) 1 to 4 May 2026, including 100 children and young people at Friends House and at the Frontier Centre in Northamptonshire and over 600 online. The Clerk of the Meeting shares an Epistle – a letter sent with Loving Greetings to Friends everywhere, reflecting on this gathering that asked: ‘What unites us as a spirit-led community in a divided world? As a Spirit-led community, how can we handle conflict well?’
“We need to let go of certainty, the certainty that we know the answer. We need to let go of the outcome, and let the Spirit move: Friends who were in Friends House meeting room will long remember the improvised cheerful hymn-singing when the Zoom sound failed. Can we be open not only to this kind of gentle wind, but also to the storm that sweeps through and blows down trees, leaving room for new seeds to sprout? Let us hold spaces which are safe not just for the still small voice, but also for the wind, the storms, the power that makes us uncomfortable and which stirs us to action.”
You can read the epistle as a PDF, or watch / listen to the epistle being read in the video below:
Minutes of BYM are also available to read: