Horsham Quaker meeting is an active friendly community with on average 14-18 people attending Sunday Worship & 10-12 on Wednesdays.
This page is designed specifically for our meeting community: members, attenders and visitors. As well as specific details of Meeting roles, business news and mailings, this page also gives a flavour of our meeting life with details of recent, current & upcoming projects, trips, events and news. There are also details of our Young Peoples meeting and activities.
Roles: 2022
Clerk: Jacinta White
Assistant clerk: Maggie Weir-Wilson
Eldership & Oversight: Holding group (6 Friends)
Treasurer: Michael Sturdy
Treasurer's Assistants: Martin Chick, Maggie Weir-Wilson,
Convenor of Premises Committee: Martin Chick
Children & Young People in Meeting
Once a month we have a Children and Young People’s meeting, usually on the second Sunday at 10.30.
The Young People's meeting starts with 15 mins quiet worship together with the main meeting. The group led by 2 responsible adults then moves to the smaller back room for a programme of learning, fun, sharing and activities.
Examples of activities:
- We have made our own white Peace poppies,
- Created a small scale Quaker meeting (see inset image)
- Prepared mini trifles for a shared lunch
- Held a sustainability quiz out of which grew our Tree of Life (see below).
All the adults working with the Children & Young People have up to date DBS checks.
For more details of the young people's programme please contact the committee's convenor via the contact page.
Friends protesting at International Arms Fair Sept 2019
A group of Horsham Friends (along with some others from West Weld Area Quaker Meeting) joined thousands of Quakers at a Meeting for Worship during the week long Arms trade Fair held at the Excell Centre in East London.
All of us found it a moving and positive experience despite many arrests. Friendly non compliance and singing were the features of the event.
Sustainability Project 2019
With Sustainability as a fundamental Quaker testimony, Horsham meeting has started its very own Eco-church style project to look at our carbon foot print as a meeting and as individuals.
Our Young People's meeting has led the way in creating a large "tree" poster for Friends to add their own top tip "footprints" and Horsham Meeting House to add its eco achievement "leaves".
We are also tracking the building energy use over several years and recording our personal modes of transport to meeting for worship.
The footprints represent individual thoughts, actions, hints & tips for a more sustainable future.
The leaves of the tree tell you about actions taken by Horsham Quaker meeting. The exercise shows how we learn from each other & what we can do in our own lives to improve the environment.
Though the project has started this year, we plan to continue for many more. It is designed to fulfil many functions. Firstly, we want to celebrate what we have already achieved as a meeting in making the building as eco-friendly as we can. Measures (represented by the leaves) include:
- Electricity & Gas with Good Energy (100% renewable fuel)
- Secondary glazing to front windows
- Insulation to roof space
- Installation of cycle stands outside the meeting house
- Ethical banking
As Individuals, we have also tried to make our lives more sustainable & recognise there is always more to do! Our "top tips" represented on the footprints share ideas to inspire each other and members of the public using the building who see the tree on display
Pilgrimage to "1652" Country - Quaker History trip
In Sept 2018, many of us took a trip up to Cumbria (better known to Quakers as 1652 country in honour of George Fox's founding of the Quaker Faith) to discover more about our Quaker history... and each other!
We stayed in Swarthmoor Hall on the edge of Ulverstone where Margaret Fell had her family home, and where George Fox came to stay. The rest as they say is history....
Some reflections & photos from the trip are shared here:
Summer Pilgrimage
(A poem by Maggie Weir Wilson)
Friday, late August, twelve members
and attenders of Horsham Meeting
set out by car and train seeking
1652 country, Lancaster,
Swarthmoor, and Fox’s revelations
Silence falls thickly all around us
on stone floors and carved chairs,
we feel the presence of Fox and Fell
lived in this room, this house,
the danger and drama of those days
At Brigflatts we hear about Fox’s vision
while sunshine strains through leaded windows...
Experiment with Light
Horsham Light Meditation group meets once a month at the meeting house. It comprised 4-5 Friends and is not a drop in group.
About Experiment with Light Practice:
Experiment with Light (EWL) is a Quaker practice which is based on early Friends' discoveries. It was devised in 1996 by Quaker and theologian Rex Ambler, following his study of early Friends' writings.
At the core of the practice is a meditation that guides Experimenters through the following steps:
- Mind the Light (pay attention to what's going on inside you, particularly where there's something that makes you feel uncomfortable)
- Open your heart to the truth (don't run away from anything that's difficult or that you don't want to face, but keep a little distance from it: 'be still and cool in thy mind')
- Wait in the Light (be patient, let the Light show you what is really going on, ask questions if what is offered to you isn't clear or you want to know more, and wait for the answers to come, don't try to explain)
- Submit (accept and welcome the information or images, and the insights, dreams and perceptions that may come later, and allow them to show the truth)