Dorchester Quaker Local Meeting
All events take place in the Meeting House in Holloway Road unless otherwise specified. Please see other pages of the website for directions.
Meeting for Worship each Sunday in the Meeting House 10.30am All Welcome.
Worship is followed by informal time together over tea and coffee in the kitchen at the meeting house.
April 2025
3rd April 7pm Dorchester Quaker Book Group at the Meeting House. If you would like to join in reading ‘Life After Doom: wisdom and courage for a world falling apart’ by Brian McLaren and to receive the questions being discussed, you can email Anne Ringrose at: anne.ringrose@icloud.com It meets fortnightly.
6th April Community Farm work session 2.00-4.00pm The location is DT1 3AR Middle Farm Way Poundbury, offered by the Churches Ecology Group in partnership with Transition Town Dorchester.
6th April Meeting for Worship at 10.30
8th April Area Quaker Meeting online 7-9pm.
13th April Meeting for Worship at 10.30
15th April Public Meeting at 7.30 in the Old Salvation Army Hall, Durngate Street, for the launch of “Drax of Drax Hall” a publication about slavery in Barbados. This event will be of interest to Quakers as Quakers in Barbados were slave owners, including the Drax family of the time. The visit from George Fox to Barbados in 1671 is recorded in his journals. It was nearly a century later that Quakers declared themselves opposed to slavery. During the second half of the 1600’s many Quakers were slave owners.
16th April Mid Week Meeting for Worship 12.30 to 1 followed by shared lunch ending at 2pm (bring food to share) led by the Eldership and Pastoral Care Friends.
17th April Dorchester Quaker book group 7pm at the Meeting House. If you would like to join in reading ‘Life After Doom: wisdom and courage for a world falling apart’ by Brian McLaren and to receive the questions being discussed, you can email Anne Ringrose at: anne.ringrose@icloud.com. It meets fortnightly.
18th April Good Friday Walk with Churches Together which will take the form of a short service at St. Peter’s at 9.30am, followed by a walk to the War Memorial, with a brief service and hot cross buns to finish.
20th April Meeting for Worship at 10.30 Note that in the Western Christian calendar this is Easter Day. Churches Together offer the Sunrise Service, at 6.00am, will be led by Rev Keith Magee.(St. Peter’s) and held at Maumbury Rings.
27th April 9.15 bring and share breakfast discussion meeting led by the Elders and Pastoral Care Friends on the subject of a follow up from the AQM residential in March on “silence” followed by Meeting for Worship at 10.30. There will also be a discussion about roles in the meeting on this day with a shared lunch led by Jeanie, Tess and Rachel.
May 2025
4th May Meeting for Worship at 10.30
10th May 14.30 Beach of Dreams event near Boscombe Pier offered by Hampshire and the Islands Area Quaker Meeting (AQM) and Bournemouth Coastal AQM Quakers – see bottom of diary page for details.
11th May Meeting for Worship at 10.30
Christian Aid Week 11-17th (80th Anniversary of Christian Aid) Ecumenical Service. St George’s Church,
Fordington. Sunday, May 11th. 4.00 pm Led by Revd. Cora Yarrien. Guest Speaker: Dominic Brain. National Head Christian Aid Programme Funding. In the presence of the Mayor, Councillor Robin Potter. Followed by light refreshments.
Sponsored Walk on the Jubilee Trail Thurs May 8th to Sat May 10th To mark the 80th anniversary of Christian Aid, Tony McDougal, of Dorchester Baptist Church, will walk 80 km east along the trail. If you would like to sponsor him, please pay into the following ac-
count https:fundraise.christianaid.org.uk/challenge-2025/walking-dorsets-jubilee trail or contact Tony Boyden on 07881 464790
House to House collections
Dorchester Christian Aid folks would always like to see more house to house collectors. To make the task less onerous, we suggest that collectors just collect from 10 houses in their vicinity although some may wish to collect from more houses. For further information and offers of help please contact Tony Boyden on 07881464790
19th May Meeting for Worship at 10.30
21st May Mid Week Meeting for Worship 12.30 to 1 followed by shared lunch ending at 2pm (bring food to share) led by the Eldership and Pastoral Care Friends. After lunch Friends are encouraged to stay and help with simple garden tasks such as weeding the paths and the car park, making sure that the gravel is not on the pavement but in the car park, picking up any rubbish in the car park, watering any pots and the bird bath and walking on the grass free lawn. Thank-you from the gardening team.
25th May 9.15 bring and share breakfast discussion meeting led by the Eldership and Pastoral Care Friends followed by Meeting for Worship at 10.30
Britain Yearly Meeting will be held in London, at Friends House, Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ from the 23rd to the 26th of May. It is an in-person and online event. Please go to the BYM website for booking forms.https://www.quaker.org.uk/ There are children’s activities available so please book early for these.
June 2025
1st June Meeting for Worship at 10.30
8th June Meeting for Worship at 10.30 followed by Meeting for Worship for business at 12 noon until 1pm. Please send items for the agenda to clerks email (clerks.dorchester@quaker.org.uk) along with reports from your working groups.
15th June Meeting for Worship at 10.30
18th June Mid Week Meeting for Worship 12.30 to 1 followed by shared lunch ending at 2pm (bring food to share) led by the Eldership and Pastoral Care Friends. After lunch Friends are encouraged to stay and help with simple garden tasks such as weeding the paths and the car park, making sure that the gravel is not on the pavement but in the car park, picking up any rubbish in the car park, watering any pots and the bird bath and walking on the grass free lawn. Thank-you from the gardening team.
22nd June 9.15 bring and share breakfast discussion meeting led by the Eldership and Pastoral Care Friends followed by Meeting for Worship at 10.30
29th June Meeting for Worship at 10.30
July 2025
6th July Meeting for Worship at 10.30
13th July Meeting for Worship at 10.30
16th July Mid Week Meeting for Worship 12.30 to 1 followed by shared lunch ending at 2pm (bring food to share) led by the Eldership and Pastoral Care Friends.
20th July Meeting for Worship at 10.30
27th July 9.15 bring and share breakfast discussion meeting led by the Eldership and Pastoral Care Friends followed by Meeting for Worship at 10.30.
Local Quaker Business Meeting
These are held every two months and all are welcome to attend (next one is to be held June 8th 2025). Next Area Quaker Meeting will be online on July 9th and October 9th. The Clerking team are currently is currently not a team but if you are interested in joining Marigold, to share responsibilities (clerks.dorchester@gmail.com) let her know. Please contact Marigold if you have an item which you want to be included in the agenda for LQBM. Minutes are taken at these meetings so please ask an Elder or Pastoral Care Friend if you would like to see them.
For those who ask about the donation to Britain Yearly Meeting, please see the Charity Commission website which illustrates the finances of BYM which can be found under charity number 1127633.
The Meeting now has a reading group which began meeting in March 2025 The chosen text is “Life After Doom” by Brian McLaren published by Hodder and Stoughton May 2024. A copy is available to borrow from the library.
If you want to explore more about Quakers, Kindlers might be for you. Visit the website www.thekindlers.org.uk email admin@thekindlers.org.uk
Every Monday at 19.30 there is an online JUST… meeting called One thing you can do this week for peace and justice in Palestine, Lebanon, Israel. Based on the AFSC format, American Friends Service Committee Action Hour, we witness… a minute silence remembering ONE event or person Learn… what’s going on – UPDATE Act…. ONE letter or petition to write or sign Share…what is happening in your area that counts as a small WIN Friend Nicola Grove spends about one day every week gathering and preparing resources for the meeting. You can join on https://www.campain.org/post/join-just-campain-s-weekly-action-for-peace-and-truth-in-the-middle-east
https://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/international-work/responding-to-the-current-situation-in-israel-and-palestine is also useful
Church events in Dorchester (Our representative on Churches Together in Dorchester is Sarah)
Please remember to contribute to the Food Bank by dropping items off at the Dorford Baptist Church in Bridport Road.
Firm Roots is a Christian cancer support group. Dorchester Family Church Office: 2 Red Cow Business
Park, Long Bridge Way, Dorchester DT1 1YD Join us for friendship, encouragement, reflections, refreshments and prayer for anyone affected by cancer.
Everyone welcome. Email: dorsetfirmroots@admin
Please also get in touch if you would like to go on our prayer list and our group will pray for you.
www.firmroots.org.uk
Acorn Christian Healing Foundation Dorchester Hub The Quiet Space Poundbury DT1 3RG
Second Wednesday and Third Friday of each month 10.30-12.00 All very welcome, any faith or none
OTHER EVENTS OR OPPORTUNITIES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN
Individual Quakers are involved in a range of social action activities and some are mentioned here.
Quakers are part of the World Wide Family of Quakers and the Around Europe Newsletter has articles from various aspects of Quaker activity across the Europe and Middle East Section latest issue of Among Friends. https://fwccemes.org
For those interested in the demonstrations and protests in relation to Israel and Palestine, there is a Dorset Palestine Solidarity Campaign which can be followed through these links.
Facebook: https://fb.me/e/awqc2ZXll
Twitter/X: https://x.com/dorsetpsc/status/1851643419065532557
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwPIBxNFoB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Contact dorsetpsc1@admin or dorsetstopthewar@gmail.com
The Quaker Socialist Society meets online from time to time – and had a meeting on how we promote Quaker values in state schools and private Quaker schools. Prof Francis Green spoke about his book on private schools: Engines of Privilege. See the Quaker Socialist Society website for further details. Also, a lecture on George Fox by Graham Taylor, which quotes some of Fox’s unpublished work, is on https://quakersocialists.org.uk/
We encourage Friends to see a Lecture by Revd Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian on https://quakersocialists.org.uk/.
In June at Salisbury International Arts Festival on Friday June 6th this year, Friend Michael Mears with Riko Nakasono will perform THE MISTAKE – see below from Michael.
It’s 80 years since atomic bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities.
I’m Michael Mears, actor/playwright and pacifist and I attend Wandsworth Quakers in southwest London.
In 2023 I toured THE MISTAKE, the play I wrote about Hiroshima and the first atomic bomb, around the UK, with no public arts funding – just the enthusiastic support of crowdfunders and one or two small organisations. The play was performed by Japanese actor Riko Nakazono and myself. This year, the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings, I feel compelled to take the play further afield to the USA and to Japan.
We will be touring in the USA for six weeks from the start of April, and it’s an expensive undertaking, though in order to help the tour proceed, I have chosen to be unpaid myself, as part of my witness for peace.
Potential sympathetic funding bodies in the UK won’t fund a project that goes abroad. So will you help us bring THE MISTAKE to the USA, to share the urgent themes and message of this play with a wider, American, audience? Join us in our efforts to enlighten, to illuminate, to change hearts and minds, through the emotional power of theatrical storytelling?
Any donation however small will make a difference and help us. Here is a Crowdfunding link for donations which will give you a lot more information, with photographs and reviews.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/taking-the-mistake-to-the-usa
Beach of Dreams
South Coast Quakers invite you to come together on Boscombe beach to
reawaken connection with the earth and each other.
Meet on beach near Boscombe Pier, BH5 1BN
Saturday 10th May 14.30
Come along for a day out at Bournemouth beach where we can meet up with Friends from across
the South. We are joining with other organisations from across the country, in a community arts
project expressing our hopes and concerns for the coastal environment where we live and globally.
The Beach of Dreams is a UK wide coastal arts festival,
creating a national outdoor and digital creative
programme exploring and activating the UK’s
coastlines. Our local event will be part of a network of
other similar events happening throughout May across
the country,
We will be creating a sixty-foot-wide labyrinth in the
sand near the pier at Boscombe and will invite
passersby to write a word, question, or intention on a
stone that relates to the beach, coastline, climate
change etc. and to place the stone in the centre of the
labyrinth. In our engagement with other beach goers,
we offer this simple activity which invites them to try
the experience of moving slowly inward to a central still
point – giving a taste and echo of what we do in Meeting
for Worship. It is an opportunity to start conversations
with people we meet, and to hold a visible Quaker
presence where we express something of our values.
As part of this nationwide event run by community arts organisation Kinetika, we will form a
collaborative network, linking arms with others to collectively and peacefully demonstrate our
concerns for the environment and climate change. It presents an opportunity to get together
socially with other friends whilst bearing public witness to our concern and care for the
environment.
https://www.beachofdreams.org/about
Hugh Douglas (Local Development Worker): hughd@quaker.org.uk
David Curtis (Communications Coordinator HIAQM): communicationshiaqm@gmail.com
Sue Stanek (Clerk HIAQM): clerkhiaqm@gmail.com
Penny Estall (Clerk Bournemouth Coastal): qmn.bcam@gmail.com