Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 22 April 2026
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Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 22 April 2026
Dr Bob Brown to Receive Gold Medal for Human Rights
We are honoured to announce Dr Bob Brown will be awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal for Human Rights “for his lifelong commitment to environmental and social justice, courageously standing up for nature and a sustainable world. Impactful environmental campaigns, spearheaded by his visionary leadership, and the creation of the Bob Brown Foundation, are a life-affirming legacy for this fragile planet and society”. The Sydney Peace Foundation’s Gold Medal for Human Rights is awarded to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to human rights, social justice and climate justice.
A visionary environmentalist and activist, Dr Brown has spent decades at the forefront of Australia’s environmental movement protecting some of the most precious places on this planet. From his successful campaign to stop the Franklin Dam, to his political career as the first leader of the Greens Party and a founder of the Tasmanian Wilderness Society, he has remained a defining voice for urgent environmental protection and climate action.
Bob Brown will be awarded the Gold Medal on 24th July at the State Library of NSW, where he will deliver a keynote address on his lifelong conviction to challenging powerful institutions and fighting environmental destruction.
Purchase your tickets now to secure the opportunity to hear from one of Australia’s most renowned environmental leaders and support the movement for climate justice.
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| Tickets to the Bob Brown Gold Medal Award Ceremony |
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Volunteers to Reopen
Quaker Tapestry Museum
Above - The tapestry project was started by a Sunday school in Taunton in the 1980s
A tapestry museum which shut last year is set to reopen for one day a week. The Quaker Tapestry Museum in Kendal closed last December due to "leaps in running costs".
But volunteers from the Kendal Quakers will now open the museum on Wednesdays from 6 May until the end of August, with hopes to extend beyond that. The 77-panel tapestry was created by over 4,000 people from fifteen countries and explores the history of the Quakers. Last July the museum won the small visitor attraction prize at the Cumbria Tourism Awards.
Despite the accolade, the museum said its closure was because "income received from paying visitors and other sources has failed to keep pace with regular leaps in running costs". It will now open on Wednesdays between 10:00 and 16:00 BST, with free admission. The Quaker Meeting House, which is on the same site on Stramongate, is a separate charity and remains unaffected by the closure of the museum. Kendal Quaker Tapestry Museum to reopen with volunteer support
12.30 pm 3 May - Joyce Ajlouny Visit @ Sydney City Quaker Meeting Please come at 12.30 pm 3 May and hear a fascinating speaker on Quaker advocacy, peace around the world and challenging militarism. Joyce Ajlouny joined American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) as general secretary in 2017. As a Quaker, Palestinian American, Joyce started her career working in international development in Palestine, focusing on minority and refugee rights, gender equality, economic development, and humanitarian support.
Joyce has previously worked in senior roles with Oxfam and UN bodies. Prior to joining AFSC, Joyce served as the director of the Ramallah Friends School, a leading K-12 Quaker school in Palestine, for 13 years, where she led a diverse staff to transform the school academically, physically and financially.
The American Friends Service Committee is a unique organisation, working in both advocacy and international development, founded in 1917 by Quakers as an alternative to military service in WW1. The organisation’s motto is that “We bring together people of all faiths and backgrounds to challenge injustice and build peace around the globe”. They are a powerful force inside the USA in advocating a range of issues, as well as funding a great range of peace programs around the world.
Ramallah Friends School began in 1869 with a number of small schools for girls. A Boys Training Home was founded in 1901 at the urging of the local community and classes became mixed in 1902. Over 1000 children now attend the school with campuses in the Palestinian towns of Ramallah and El Bireh on the West Bank. The School has carried on through decades of violence, even at times being the target of attacks, and yet has continued to thrive. The life of the school is based on Quaker principles: excellence in education, helping each per-son recognise his or her responsibility to society as a caring member of the school, community, nation and global family and Equality. A light lunch will be served prior to 12.30 pm.
See - Supporting Young Adult Quakers in Their LeadingsMany Quakers feel called to action, but are unable to bring their ideas to fruition. Learn how five young adult Friends were able to make their leadings a reality. See it here Supporting Young Adult Quakers in Their Leadings
April QBC -
Margaret Fell's "Women's Speaking Justified"
in Modern English
The April QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Margaret Fell's "Women's Speaking Justified" in Modern English.Written in the prison of Lancaster Castle in 1666 (appended in 1667), Margaret Fell's Women's Speaking Justified by Scripture stands out in world history as the first sustained exegetical defense of women in public ministry. Noting the facts that the God of Israel used women time and time again to challenge kings and other societal leaders in Hebrew Scripture and that the Apostle Paul ministered alongside women in his mission, Fell applies a compelling approach to understanding what the Bible is really saying, what it is not, and within its historical contexts, why. Introduced, annotated, and translated into modern English, Paul N. Anderson has rendered this classic and historic texts in a readable form, highlighting the biblical passages referenced and also expanding upon how the universal ministry of all believers can be understood more fully and meaningfully, as followers of Jesus seek to live into their spiritual callings with personal clarity and corporate support. Author: Margaret Fell, translated and annotated by Paul N. Anderson. Publisher: Barclay Press, 2026 Obtain a copy here Margaret Fell's "Women's Speaking Justified" in Modern English : Paul N Anderson (translator) : 9781594982118 : Blackwell's
e - Wahroonga Send news of f/Friends and newsletter items to quiver...@yahoo.com.au Agenda items for Business Meeting should be emailed at wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info or handed to a co-clerk. Visit us at "Our Home" First days (Sunday), 9.30 am Meeting for Worship - Wahroonga Friends Meeting, your local peace church. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 59 Boundary Road Wahroonga NSW 2076 Email:wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info Web: Wahroonga Local Meeting | Australia Yearly Meeting A Zoom meeting occurs 9.30 am Sundays Meeting link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting 918 558 7747 Passcode: 554662 Phone: 02 8015 6011 Please contact Paul Carter if you have any problems.
Dr Bob Brown to Receive Gold Medal for Human Rights
We are honoured to announce Dr Bob Brown will be awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal for Human Rights “for his lifelong commitment to environmental and social justice, courageously standing up for nature and a sustainable world. Impactful environmental campaigns, spearheaded by his visionary leadership, and the creation of the Bob Brown Foundation, are a life-affirming legacy for this fragile planet and society”. The Sydney Peace Foundation’s Gold Medal for Human Rights is awarded to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to human rights, social justice and climate justice.
A visionary environmentalist and activist, Dr Brown has spent decades at the forefront of Australia’s environmental movement protecting some of the most precious places on this planet. From his successful campaign to stop the Franklin Dam, to his political career as the first leader of the Greens Party and a founder of the Tasmanian Wilderness Society, he has remained a defining voice for urgent environmental protection and climate action.
Bob Brown will be awarded the Gold Medal on 24th July at the State Library of NSW, where he will deliver a keynote address on his lifelong conviction to challenging powerful institutions and fighting environmental destruction.
Purchase your tickets now to secure the opportunity to hear from one of Australia’s most renowned environmental leaders and support the movement for climate justice.
|
|
|
| Tickets to the Bob Brown Gold Medal Award Ceremony |
|
|
|
Volunteers to Reopen
Quaker Tapestry Museum
Above - The tapestry project was started by a Sunday school in Taunton in the 1980s
A tapestry museum which shut last year is set to reopen for one day a week. The Quaker Tapestry Museum in Kendal closed last December due to "leaps in running costs".
But volunteers from the Kendal Quakers will now open the museum on Wednesdays from 6 May until the end of August, with hopes to extend beyond that. The 77-panel tapestry was created by over 4,000 people from fifteen countries and explores the history of the Quakers. Last July the museum won the small visitor attraction prize at the Cumbria Tourism Awards.
Despite the accolade, the museum said its closure was because "income received from paying visitors and other sources has failed to keep pace with regular leaps in running costs". It will now open on Wednesdays between 10:00 and 16:00 BST, with free admission. The Quaker Meeting House, which is on the same site on Stramongate, is a separate charity and remains unaffected by the closure of the museum. Kendal Quaker Tapestry Museum to reopen with volunteer support
12.30 pm 3 May - Joyce Ajlouny Visit @ Sydney City Quaker Meeting Please come at 12.30 pm 3 May and hear a fascinating speaker on Quaker advocacy, peace around the world and challenging militarism. Joyce Ajlouny joined American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) as general secretary in 2017. As a Quaker, Palestinian American, Joyce started her career working in international development in Palestine, focusing on minority and refugee rights, gender equality, economic development, and humanitarian support.
Joyce has previously worked in senior roles with Oxfam and UN bodies. Prior to joining AFSC, Joyce served as the director of the Ramallah Friends School, a leading K-12 Quaker school in Palestine, for 13 years, where she led a diverse staff to transform the school academically, physically and financially.
The American Friends Service Committee is a unique organisation, working in both advocacy and international development, founded in 1917 by Quakers as an alternative to military service in WW1. The organisation’s motto is that “We bring together people of all faiths and backgrounds to challenge injustice and build peace around the globe”. They are a powerful force inside the USA in advocating a range of issues, as well as funding a great range of peace programs around the world.
Ramallah Friends School began in 1869 with a number of small schools for girls. A Boys Training Home was founded in 1901 at the urging of the local community and classes became mixed in 1902. Over 1000 children now attend the school with campuses in the Palestinian towns of Ramallah and El Bireh on the West Bank. The School has carried on through decades of violence, even at times being the target of attacks, and yet has continued to thrive. The life of the school is based on Quaker principles: excellence in education, helping each per-son recognise his or her responsibility to society as a caring member of the school, community, nation and global family and Equality. A light lunch will be served prior to 12.30 pm.
See - Supporting Young Adult Quakers in Their LeadingsMany Quakers feel called to action, but are unable to bring their ideas to fruition. Learn how five young adult Friends were able to make their leadings a reality. See it here Supporting Young Adult Quakers in Their Leadings
April QBC -
Margaret Fell's "Women's Speaking Justified"
in Modern English
The April QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Margaret Fell's "Women's Speaking Justified" in Modern English.Written in the prison of Lancaster Castle in 1666 (appended in 1667), Margaret Fell's Women's Speaking Justified by Scripture stands out in world history as the first sustained exegetical defense of women in public ministry. Noting the facts that the God of Israel used women time and time again to challenge kings and other societal leaders in Hebrew Scripture and that the Apostle Paul ministered alongside women in his mission, Fell applies a compelling approach to understanding what the Bible is really saying, what it is not, and within its historical contexts, why. Introduced, annotated, and translated into modern English, Paul N. Anderson has rendered this classic and historic texts in a readable form, highlighting the biblical passages referenced and also expanding upon how the universal ministry of all believers can be understood more fully and meaningfully, as followers of Jesus seek to live into their spiritual callings with personal clarity and corporate support. Author: Margaret Fell, translated and annotated by Paul N. Anderson. Publisher: Barclay Press, 2026 Obtain a copy here Margaret Fell's "Women's Speaking Justified" in Modern English : Paul N Anderson (translator) : 9781594982118 : Blackwell's
e - Wahroonga Send news of f/Friends and newsletter items to quiver...@yahoo.com.au Agenda items for Business Meeting should be emailed at wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info or handed to a co-clerk. Visit us at "Our Home" First days (Sunday), 9.30 am Meeting for Worship - Wahroonga Friends Meeting, your local peace church. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 59 Boundary Road Wahroonga NSW 2076 Email:wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info Web: Wahroonga Local Meeting | Australia Yearly Meeting A Zoom meeting occurs 9.30 am Sundays Meeting link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting 918 558 7747 Passcode: 554662 Phone: 02 8015 6011 Please contact Paul Carter if you have any problems.
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