Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 29 April 2026
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May 1, 2026, 8:48:55 PMMay 1
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Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 29 April 2026
Sunday Sessions: A New Quaker
Ministry from Woodbrooke
In a new kind of session for Woodbrooke, we are inviting whole meetings to gather together after Meeting for Worship and join us in an exploration of ministry through shared learning and reflection.
This discussion session will look at what we mean by ministry through consideration of silent and spoken ministry, ministry as living our faith, activism on a large and small scale and our everyday behaviour. Through explanation, example and discussion, Friends will be helped to recognise their own and possibly their meeting’s ministry.
Meetings are encouraged to share lunch together as part of the day either before or after the Sunday session. Each meeting will need a named Friend or small organising group, to coordinate the physical space and Zoom connection locally. Seeing other meetings gathered on screen offers a rare opportunity to learn alongside the wider Quaker community while remaining rooted in local community.Book in quick, limited availability for the next Sunday Session 14 June. Book here Sunday Sessions: Quaker Ministry - Woodbrooke
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The 2026 Swarthmore Lecture
Tangled Roots: Navigating the Complex Legacy of Early Quakers by Stuart Masters
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In his lecture, Stuart Masters will explore the diverse mix of characteristics visible in the early Quaker movement that produced several creative tensions which subsequent generations have had to navigate. He will argue that engaging with these issues can help Friends better appreciate the diversity present within the global Quaker family and enable them to discern how to respond to these dilemmas today.
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Watch the Lecture
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| The lecture will take place on Saturday 2 May at 19:00 (UK time) at Friends House, London and streamed live via the Woodbrooke YouTube channel. Woodbrooke
After it has premiered, the lecture will be available to watch in your own time. |
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Prepare for the Lecture
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Get to know the 2026 Swarthmore Lecturer, Stuart Masters, and explore the context behind the lecture through our interview series. You can watch the first part of the interviews below.
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Reflect on the Lecture
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Following the lecture, we are offering opportunities to explore its themes in greater depth, together with Stuart.
Book Club
Join the online book club with Stuart, where we will read the Swarthmore Lecture book together and share reflections in a supportive group setting.
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See - Interviews with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part 1, 2 and 3
Get to know the 2026 Swarthmore Lecturer, Stuart Masters, in conversation with Aled Vernon-Rees, Woodbrooke’s Senior Communications Officer. Stuart’s lecture will take place as part of Britain Yearly Meeting 2026 on Saturday 2 May from 19:00-20:15. The lecture will also be live streamed on the Woodbrooke YouTube Channel. See the interviews here Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part One Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part Two and Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part Three
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.
May QBC - Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist
The May QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff.
In Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff tells Benezet’s story―who he was, what he did, how he did it, and why it was that William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” of Pennsylvania provided the matrix for the historic transformation the abolitionist educator brought about. Indeed, Chanoff carves out a place for this forgotten American hero as a pioneering figure among those who launched American ideals onto the world stage. Read the Friends Journal review, here. Obtain a copy here Anthony Benezet
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.
Sunday Sessions: A New Quaker
Ministry from Woodbrooke
In a new kind of session for Woodbrooke, we are inviting whole meetings to gather together after Meeting for Worship and join us in an exploration of ministry through shared learning and reflection.
This discussion session will look at what we mean by ministry through consideration of silent and spoken ministry, ministry as living our faith, activism on a large and small scale and our everyday behaviour. Through explanation, example and discussion, Friends will be helped to recognise their own and possibly their meeting’s ministry.
Meetings are encouraged to share lunch together as part of the day either before or after the Sunday session. Each meeting will need a named Friend or small organising group, to coordinate the physical space and Zoom connection locally. Seeing other meetings gathered on screen offers a rare opportunity to learn alongside the wider Quaker community while remaining rooted in local community.Book in quick, limited availability for the next Sunday Session 14 June. Book here Sunday Sessions: Quaker Ministry - Woodbrooke
|
|
|
The 2026 Swarthmore Lecture
Tangled Roots: Navigating the Complex Legacy of Early Quakers by Stuart Masters
|
|
|
|
|
|
In his lecture, Stuart Masters will explore the diverse mix of characteristics visible in the early Quaker movement that produced several creative tensions which subsequent generations have had to navigate. He will argue that engaging with these issues can help Friends better appreciate the diversity present within the global Quaker family and enable them to discern how to respond to these dilemmas today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Watch the Lecture
|
|
|
|
|
| The lecture will take place on Saturday 2 May at 19:00 (UK time) at Friends House, London and streamed live via the Woodbrooke YouTube channel. Woodbrooke
After it has premiered, the lecture will be available to watch in your own time. |
|
|
|
|
|
Prepare for the Lecture
|
|
|
|
|
|
Get to know the 2026 Swarthmore Lecturer, Stuart Masters, and explore the context behind the lecture through our interview series. You can watch the first part of the interviews below.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Reflect on the Lecture
|
|
|
|
|
|
Following the lecture, we are offering opportunities to explore its themes in greater depth, together with Stuart.
Book Club
Join the online book club with Stuart, where we will read the Swarthmore Lecture book together and share reflections in a supportive group setting.
|
|
|
See - Interviews with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part 1, 2 and 3
Get to know the 2026 Swarthmore Lecturer, Stuart Masters, in conversation with Aled Vernon-Rees, Woodbrooke’s Senior Communications Officer. Stuart’s lecture will take place as part of Britain Yearly Meeting 2026 on Saturday 2 May from 19:00-20:15. The lecture will also be live streamed on the Woodbrooke YouTube Channel. See the interviews here Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part One Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part Two and Interview with Stuart Masters (2026 Swarthmore Lecturer) - Part Three
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.
May QBC - Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist
The May QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff.
In Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff tells Benezet’s story―who he was, what he did, how he did it, and why it was that William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” of Pennsylvania provided the matrix for the historic transformation the abolitionist educator brought about. Indeed, Chanoff carves out a place for this forgotten American hero as a pioneering figure among those who launched American ideals onto the world stage. Read the Friends Journal review, here. Obtain a copy here Anthony Benezet
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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