Image: Hartz Mountains, Tasmania, Emily Chapman-Searle
If one or more Quakers meet with a few others for Worship on a regular basis, this would normally be called a Worshipping Group. If the group is larger and meets for Worship more regularly they may decide to take on some administrative obligations and become a Local Meeting which would have a Clerk, Treasurer and some other positions, depending on their needs, and would meet for business occasionally. The Local Meeting is guided by our Handbook of Practice and Procedure, which sets out more detail of our administrative structure and how we normally operate.
We have a mixture of online and face-to-face Meetings for Worship under our care. There is a list of face-to-face Meetings below, although some may be suspended as a result of Covid 19 restrictions.
Online Meetings for Worship
There are two long-established online Meetings for Worship connected with Australian Quakers:
- A Meeting under the care of NSW Regional Meeting is held every Sunday at 5:00pm Australian Eastern time and lasts for about 30 minutes with the opportunity to talk with others afterwards.
- A Meeting under the care of the Asia/West Pacific Section of FWCC is held every Thursday at 5:00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time and lasts for about 30 minutes with the opportunity to talk with others afterwards.
During COVID-19, most Friends around Australia have been meeting online. As restrictions ease in some places, some Friends are now meeting in person and in combination with others online. This sometimes changes from week to week. You can find more information about how Friends are currently meeting (for worship, for singing, for poetry, for walking, etc.) by visiting the relevant Regional Meeting page and contacting the Clerk to find out what's happening in your region.
There are also two online Meetings for Worship connected with Friends worldwide that are meeting during this time of Covid-19 disruption:
- Woodbrooke Study Centre (UK Friends) offers a 30-minute online worship each day.
- Pendle Hill Quaker Study and Retreat Center (USA) has a Meeting for worship 'in the Barn' from 8:30-9:10 am each morning. (which would be 7.30pm Sydney time, the following day).