Matthew Gee

Rejoice in the presence of children and young people in your meeting and recognise the gifts they bring. Remember that the meeting as a whole shares a responsibility for every child in its care. […] Are you ready both to learn from them and to accept your responsibilities towards them?

— Advices and Queries 19

We currently have 26 children and teenagers in Oxford Meeting. That’s bigger than the total membership of many local meetings in Britain. And it’s growing — despite lockdown our children’s meetings are attracting new families who want their children to experience Quaker worship. A healthy children’s meeting is a sign of a healthy and sustainable local meeting, with Quakers of all ages being welcomed and catered for, and with new and younger Quakers able to serve the meeting, both now and into the future.

We are thankful for the dedicated service of a small number of adult Friends who support the meeting’s children’s and youth work, but we are in urgent need of more help. There are many ways to help, from practical support with sending emails and cards; maintaining our database; serving on the Children & Young People’s Committee; becoming a regular volunteer helper at one of our children’s meetings; helping with our annual Family Day or all-age meetings for worship. We are in particular need of Friends for the roles below.

Please do get in touch with either a member of the Children & Young People’s Committee or Nominations Committee to think with us about how you could serve.

Children & Young People’s Committee members are: Katherine Gee, Matthew Gee (clerk), Anita Ghosh, Peg Katritzky, and Didi Spencer. Virginia Allport also continues to play an active part in the committee’s work. There are four vacancies.

Some roles require completion of an application form, having two references, and completion of an enhanced DBS (Home Office Disclosure & Barring Service) check. Although this may sound daunting, it is a straightforward process that we can support and guide with.

Facilitate the baby and parent group

There have been quite a few new babies born in the meeting since lockdown began, and we would like to offer a space for the parents and babies to get to know one another, modelled on the successful Tuesday morning Quaker parent-and-baby group that ran from 2018 to 2020. If you could help, please contact Virginia Allport.

Read a story in Beansprouts

Our Beansprouts children’s meeting for toddlers meets on Zoom weekly, but is in need of additional helpers who can read a children’s story or facilitate a simple activity over Zoom for our meeting’s toddlers. Contact Katherine Gee.

Could you be a ‘Living Story’?

Our weekly Sunflowers children’s meeting for children age 4-12 usually includes a short story on a Quaker theme – often a story related to a Quaker testimony, or a Bible story or story about historical Quakers. We are experimenting with having a ‘living story’ – that is a Quaker from the meeting who is willing to be interviewed by a group of Quaker children about an aspect of their own life story. It might be about an experience you have had, the way you live your faith in your life, or a Quaker role or job you have done. The meeting will be facilitated by two of the regular leaders, but in place of the story, the children would interview you for about ten minutes. If you think you could be a ‘living story’ please get in touch with Matthew Gee or Anita Ghosh.

Teenage Meeting

The COVID pandemic has meant that the regional and national Quaker residential events that our meeting’s teenagers would usually take part in – such as Friends’ Southern Junior Gathering and Senior Conference, and Junior Yearly Meeting – did not take place in their usual form in 2020, and may not be able to go ahead in 2021. We are therefore keen to get Oxford’s teenage meeting restarted, after a period of dormancy for several years. If you could support the restarting of our teenage meeting on Zoom in 2021, please get in touch with Katherine Gee.

Back to March 2021 e-Newsletter Main Page

Forty-Three e-Newsletter • Number 503 • March 2021
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW

newsletter@oxfordquakers.org