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The Ella Baker School of Organising will be introducing Changemakers, radical strategies for social justice organising at the Friends Meeting House in London on Wednesday 21st May.

Join the book's authors and organisers from across different social justice movements to dig into how we become more effective Changemakers from 6 pm (doors at 5.45) until 7.30 pm in the Library at the Friends Meeting House, before heading to The Quaker Bookshop to continue the conversation (and buy the book) with refreshments 7.30 - 8.30 pm. 

Will be a 10% discount on the books sold on the night.

The panel will include:

• Emmanuelle Andrews - a Human Rights, Social Justice, Abolition and Queer Liberation Campaigner with particular expertise in the over-policing of racialised minority communities. Emmanuelle specialises in political education, community organising, and strategising creative public and grassroots campaigns.
• Taranjit Chana - a grassroots community activist fighting for liberation, justice and equity for all. A life long changemaker.
• David Braniff Herbert - an award-winning Equality & Trade Union Organiser, David is currently the National Organiser for LGBTQ+ at the National Education Union. His focus is on developing volunteer-led strategies, mass mobilisation campaigns, and liberation structures.
• Jane Holgate - author of ‘Arise: Power, Strategy and Union Resurgence’ and more recently 'Changemakers: Radical Strategies for Social Movement Organisers'. Jane is a long-time trade unionist and community activist, and Professor of Work and Employment Relations at the University of Leeds. Jane is a strong advocate of peer-to-peer teaching and political education, and co-founded the Ella Baker School of Organising.
• John Page - John is a long-term community, trade union and anti-racist organiser, and a founder-member of the Ella Baker School of Organising. He is co-author of the book: 'Changemakers: Radical Strategies for Social Movement organising'. When not organising, John is an open water swimmer, and plants trees at every opportunity.

Together we will explore: key themes within the book; how those themes interact with the knowledge and experience of organisers from different social justice movements; and how we go beyond protesting to resolving wrongs.

Join us in London on Wednesday, 21st May at the Friends Meeting House , Euston Road.

Doors open at 5:45 pm, with a 6 pm formal start, followed by refreshments and informal networking from 7.30 - 8.30pm in The Quaker Bookshop, Friends Meeting House London, 173-177 Euston Road.

Buy tickets

"In ‘Riverbank of Grief’ I explore predicaments of the human condition through artwork and writing.  I am dealing with quandaries and opposing forces in illustrating a journey that can lead from darkness towards the light." Margot Elke Schiemann

Margot Elke Schiemann is an artist, psychotherapist, and group analyst who divides her time between making art and her private practice.

Exhibition
Friends House
173-177 Euston Road
London NW1 2BJ
20th of May to 20th of July Open Mon -Fri 8:30 am to 5 pm

Email: margotschiemann@gmail.com

www.margotelkeschiemann.com

Meet the Artist
Saturday, May 24, 3:00–7:00 pm (YM weekend)
Thursday, May 29, 2:00–5:00 pm

We are delighted to announce the launch of Jennifer Kavanagh’s new book, Thread of Life.

Thread of Life is a moving portrait of the 20th century, told through the lives of three generations of Jewish women. From the tragedy of the Riga Holocaust to a life spanning 102 years, their stories weave a rich tapestry of memory, identity, and resilience.

Jennifer Kavanagh traces her family’s journey across continents and through history, exploring themes of motherhood, music, exile, and belonging. A deeply personal yet universal tale of love, loss, and legacy.

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We are happy to announce that the next monthly hour of reading at the bookshop will be on April 10th.

During one hour, one of our volunteers will bring the magic of children's books to life.

Come along and enjoy exciting stories that inspire a love of reading and help make new friends!

Don't miss that!!! 

Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road,  London NW1 2BJ

We are pleased to announce the second Mark Russ book launch in our Library, followed by Q&A, signing, and meet-the-author at our bookshop. This time with the new book "The Spirit of Freedom".

The Spirit of Freedom offers accessible, useful, and life-affirming theology rooted in Quaker spirituality and Biblical wisdom. Collecting together short and inspiring essays on speaking of God, worshiping God, and being God’s witnesses in the world, this book offers a spacious and relevant Quaker theology from a Christian perspective. It is an excellent companion piece to Mark Russ's first book, Quaker Shaped Christianity.

Praise for The Spirit of Freedom

• "Mark Russ’s engaging and idiosyncratic blog has become a book, and it’s a delight to revisit these pieces again. They cohere perfectly into a Quaker handbook that has as much to offer newcomers as it has to seasoned Friends. Original, insightful, and beautifully written, this book has all the hallmarks of an instant classic." Geoffrey Durham, author of What Do Quakers Believe?, Being a Quaker and The Spirit of the Quakers
• "The Spirit of Freedom is a rich and stimulating book that expresses the best of the Quaker spirit: a listening spirit, open to difference and to change. In this book Mark Russ offers an extraordinarily wide-ranging exploration of key Quaker, Christian and human concepts. He brings fresh, and refreshing, insights to some of the much-loved Quaker Advices and Queries and talks of the need to ask better questions; of God as relationship; of the different kinds of silence; of evil. Wearing his learning lightly, Mark uses Biblical and historical references, but the strength of the book is its reliance on his own experience and insights. His very personal approach, as a gay Christian Quaker, invites and challenges each of us as unique human beings to allow the Light to shine on our own failings, find our own ministry, and express it in our worship and daily life." Jennifer Kavanagh, author of Practical Mystics, The World is our Cloister, A Little Book of Unknowing etc.

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Hosted by Quaker Bookshop and Quaker Life, we now offer a monthly hour of reading with one of our volunteers, who will bring the magic of children's books to life.

Come along and enjoy exciting stories that inspire a love of reading and help make new friends!

The next date will be the 22st of November. Don't miss that!!! 

Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road,  London NW1 2BJ

Christine Felce is an artist who has been working on a body of prints and poems motivated by climate change. Friends House is inviting you to visit this beautiful exhibition during the month of November while enjoying our café and bookshop space.

Here is a flickbook link to the work to give you an idea of the work.   https://cfelce.co.uk/catalogue-flipbook.html 

On the opening day, Friday the 1st, there will be a talk about Christine‘s work and experience, engaging visitors and guests to talk and think about their own personal experiences of nature and climate change.

We are in a crisis of relationships with each other, the planet's resources, and other living things. We like to think the key to the Alphabet is K—for Kindness.

It would be great if you were free to bring your energy and knowledge to the talk.

Exhibition
Friends House
173-177 Euston RoadLondon NW1 2BJ
1st - 30th November 2024 Open Mon -Fri 8 am to 4 pm
www.cfelce.co.uk email: christine@cfelce.co.uk

Talk & Discussion on Climate Change 
Bookshop of Friends House
1st November 2:00 to 3:30 pm with Christine & invited speakers

After the success of 2023, we are delighted to have this wonderful exhibition again!! Step in and appreciate the new works of art displayed around the cafe and corridors at Friends House!!

Don't miss the second edition of this exhibition, which brings together pieces of art by artists from different origins and displays them without labels.

The “Made Visible Exhibition” highlights the Quaker values of inclusion and the belief that everyone has an Inner Light, showing that creativity has no limits and that art can break down the barriers that often separate us.

The main objective of this event is to reveal hidden talents, where artists, regardless of their background, share their creations without the need to expose their identity.

We sincerely thank everyone who helped make this exhibition happen. Your presence and support show the essence of community, simplicity, and shared love of the arts. It is through this collective spirit that we continue to create a space where every voice is heard and every talent is recognized.

We thank you in advance for being an essential part of this artistic journey.

Date and time

On Saturday 27th of July between 12.30 to 1.30 pm at The Quaker Bookshop at Friends House we will host James McCarthy and Peter Parr for a signing session of the new Kindlers books The Kindness of Presence: Revisiting the Bible with an open heart and mind and  Quaker Worship: Reflections and Explorations.

1) Peter Parr: The Kindness of Presence: Revisiting the Bible with an open heart and mind. The Kindlers.

This book is about presence and kindness. Its reflections, prayers and meditations are reminders of God’s presence and unconditional loving kindness. They also invite us to be a loving presence in the world.

In the Bible, the ‘name’ of God refers to the essential nature of God; to God’s intrinsic qualities. Presence is a name for God, since the Divine Spirit is ever-present, pervading all that is. Kindness is also God’s name, for God is love and love is kind.

If we are created in the image of God, then we share the nature of our Source. Our problem is, we become distracted by a thousand and one other goals. Like the prodigal son in the parable, we need to 'come to our senses' ‒ to return to present-moment awareness. When we are fully present, we can experience the presence of God and make a conscious choice to be kind.

It has been said that God has no hands but ours. It is through us, when we attend to the promptings of love and truth in our hearts, that God’s love finds expression in the world. The Kindness of Presence encourages us to be open to receiving those promptings, and faithful in responding to them.

2) James McCarthy Quaker Worship: Reflections and Explorations The Kindlers.

What is Quaker worship? This practice – sitting with others in silence, waiting, listening – why do we do it? What happens in a meeting for worship and what effect does it have? Does it make any difference - to anyone?

This booklet gets inside the experience of worship by asking over 50 Quakers in the unprogrammed tradition what they value about worship and what they do in meetings. The answers are varied, personal, surprising, and strangely compelling.

“Meeting is where I can be in a community experiencing the source of our being.”

"Without Meeting, I'm not me."

Quaker worship can change lives. How can we sustain and nurture it? Quakers have a recurring need to reflect on these questions. Sometimes the questioning becomes part of the worship.

Quakers often say that their first experience of Quaker worship was like coming home. This booklet explores what home is like.

Michael Gilson will present his book "Behind the Privet Hedge -Richard Sudell, the Suburban Garden and the Beautification of Britain" here at our bookshop Thursday, 11th July.

It is said that Britain is a nation of gardeners; the suburban garden, with its roses and privet hedges, is widely admired and copied across the world. But it is little understood how millions across the nation developed an obsession with their colourful plots of land. Behind the Privet Hedge explores the history of this development and how, despite their stereotype as symbols of dull, middle-class conformity, these new open spaces were seen as a tool to help bring about social change in the early twentieth century. The book restores to the story a remarkable but long-forgotten figure, Richard Sudell, who spent a lifetime 'evangelizing' that the garden be in the vanguard of progress towards a new egalitarian society.

https://bookshop.quaker.org.uk/Behind-the-Privet-Hedge-Richard-Sudell-the-Suburban-Garden-and-the-Beautification-of-Britain_9781789148602

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