Past events

Neville singing The Laughing Policeman

On Saturday 19th October a packed Wandsworth meeting house enjoyed  a fabulous evening of entertainment performed by Friends from the meeting. Neville Mignotte sang Jamaican songs and hits from the 60s and 70s and had the children in stitches with his lively rendition of The laughing Policeman, David Stephenson and nine year old Samuel Smith read stories and poems, and Marcus Morgan enthralled and delighted us with his magic. The evening was compered by Kate Bone, and copious amounts of tea, coffee and, of course, legendary Quaker cake, were enjoyed by all.

Kathryn, Richmond

Richmond Quaker Kathryn Perry was interviewed on The Eddie Nestor show on BBC Radio London on October 16th. Kathryn introduced the next in our series of events - The Stubborn Optimist: A Quaker Climate Scientist, with Quaker Emma Woolliams from the National Physical Laboratory; talked about our Quaker commitment to living simply; and gave a call out to her new grandson.
The interview is 2 hours and 15 minutes into the show.

The Stubborn Optimist: A Quaker Climate Scientist will be at Kingston Quaker Centre on Monday 2nd December, 19:00 - 20:30, doors open at 18:30.

Poster for The Priest's Tale

The Priest's Tale

The American journalist John Hersey went to Hiroshima in 1946 and interviewed six survivors of the atomic bomb, including a German Jesuit priest. Many years later he returned to Hiroshima to interview the survivors again and hear how they had negotiated the intervening years.

In The Priest's Tale, actor and Wandsworth Quaker Michael Mears enacted the story of Father Wilhelm, the terror and destruction wrought by the atomic bomb, his miraculous escape, and the long term consequences of his exposure to radiation with compassion, warmth and flashes of humour.

In 2026 the nuclear arms control START treaty may well expire, ushering in a new nuclear arms race and Quakers in South West London hosted the performance of this play to help raise awareness of the issue. 

Poster for poetry on a summer evening

Draw Breath: Poetry on a summer evening

Draw Breath by Quaker poet Geoffrey Weeden describes the experience of a Quaker meeting for worship, and was the inspiration for the Geoffrey Weeden Poetry Prize, held in 2023.  Geoffrey was part of a vibrant tradition of Quaker poets, including U.A. Fanthorpe, Philip Gross, and Basil Bunting. In June 2024 we held a poetry evening at Kingston Quaker Centre to hear some of the winning poems and enjoy a selection of works by other contemporary writers.

Thirteen year old Isabel Sudhakar opened the evening with a beautiful reading of her emotive poem Draw Breath, which won second prize in the young writers category.

Noel King, winner of the first prize for adults, then took to the floor. Noel, who was born and lives in Tralee, Ireland, is 2023-24 Writer-in-Residence at St Brendan’s College, Killarney was awarded the 2024 Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship.

Noel’s winning poem Small Duties: The Woman of the House conjures up, in 43 acutely and beautifully observed stanzas of three lines, the little details that constituted the life of a farmer’s wife in County Kerry in the 1970s.
Noel then read a selection of works including a series of sharp haikus, the tragedy of young teenagers finding an unexploded bomb, and the difficulties of choosing poetry to be read at one’s funeral. His latest collection of poems is Suitable Music for a View (SurVision Books, 2024). www.noelking.ie.

Fellow Irish poet, potter and singer Louis Mulcahy then took the stage, opening with a paean to the mountain Cruach Mhárthain which he read first in the Irish language and then in English. He followed this up with a light hearted account of his first encounter with his Danish mother-in -law, and with moving memories of his late wife, taken from Lisbeth – New & Selected Poems (Concerto Books, 2024). www.louismulcahy.com.

You can read the winning and commended poems from the Geoffrey Weeden Poetry Prize here or contact us to receive them as a pdf booklet.

Copyright of all prize poems (in print and digital media) remains with the authors but Kingston Local Quaker Meeting reserves the right to publish winning and commended poems.

Integrity in Business event poster

Integrity in Business

Household names in Britain which were originally Quaker businesses include Barclays Bank, Clark's Shoes, and the chocolate companies Rowntrees's and Cadbury.  The success of these companies was due to hard work and Quaker support networks, but also to Quakers' reputation for integrity.  

What constitues integrity in business and the public world, and how it can be lost and regained, was the subject of a dialogue at Kingston Quaker Centre in April 2024 between Antonia Swinson, former business journalist and now charity CEO, and Tim Cowen, former journalist and corporate communications executive.  

Antonia stressed the importance of social capital, in particular the Quaker emphasis on stewardship, trust, and building resilient communities.  Tim discussed how difficult it is to rebuild trust once it is lost, citing the problems persuading at-risk groups to have the Covid vaccine, and the value of timely apologies for mistakes.  In particular, he talked of the value of the Quaker advice, 'Think it possible that you may be mistaken' in light of the prosecution of sub-postmasters by the Post Office (where he worked briefly in 2011).  

There was a lively Q&A session, highlighting the role of the integrity of individuals within organisations and we may well pick up this aspect in a future talk.

Poster for AI talk 5 Feb 2024

Artificial Intelligence and Human Spirituality, February 2024

How do we preserve what makes us human as the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies begins to encroach on all areas of our lives? Best-selling author and deputy editor at The Economist, Kenneth Cukier, examined this important question in an illuminating talk at Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House.

Starting with a great introduction to AI and in particular the growth of large language models such as ChatGPT, Kenn showed how the technology could provide insights hitherto undetected by humans, such as the ability to correlate retinal scans to gender, something scientists have yet to fully understand. However, whilst he cautioned us against over-reliance on technology, he provided a telling illustration of how the human brain could infer something that the technology could not. An illustration of this was provided by a graphic showing what appeared to be a number of triangles. The audience guesses ranged up to eleven or more, but the “correct” answer was zero, which is what a rules-based AI would have come up with. This illustrated our brains’ ability to infer something by using insight and our own mental models, something that machines cannot – and arguably will never be able to do.

Our greatest way of preserving our humanity in the face of increasing automation is therefore to allow the space and stillness to let inspiration emerge.

This was a fascinating topic that kept the packed audience in rapt attention throughout and gave us all much to ponder on.

Note: for the avoidance of doubt, this write up was produced by a human being – an attempt to use Zoom’s AI features to produce a meeting summary failed, which the audience found rather cheering.

Prisons event at WQMH on 5 December

Prison Reform:  200 years on from the Gaols Act, December 2023

The Gaols Act of 1823, inspired by the work of prison reformer and Quaker Elizabeth Fry, was implemented to improve conditions in English prisons.  Today we see chronic overcrowding, understaffing, and lack of investment in the prison estate.  

This was the subject of our dialogue on prison reform in December 2023 at Wandsworth Meeting House.  Dr Steve Foster, Associate Professor in Law at Coventry University, discussed the legal difficulties in advocating for prisoners' rights, given that prisons are intended to be harsh.  

Single instances of degrading conditions do not breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, but multiple instances of inhumane treatment may do, 'and we are very close to catastrophe.'  

Liz Bridge, the Quaker chaplain at Wandsworth Prison, gave us a graphic picture of the conditions at one of the worst prisons in the UK:  the unsanitary overcrowding, the effects of understaffing, the rats, the high rate of mental illness, the lack of purposeful activities for the prisoners.  

A passionate Q and A session followed:  the consensus was that not only does the criminal justice system need more funding, but that what goes on inside the system should be more widely acknowledged.

You can read a short essay by Steve on the dilemma of Protecting Prisoners' Rights and enforcing Standards on Prison Conditions here.

An important update: The talk shocked the audience. Here was a prison in our midst where men were living in degrading conditions. In January a group of Quakers and other concerned friends decided to press for and encourage  improvements for prisoners, staff and visitors. The aim is to return the prison to decent living conditions, away with rats, flooding, overflowing toilets, suffocating boredom, violence; in with good plumbing, a clean environment,  organised activities, reliable daily routines. Some of the problems will be beyond the capacity of the group  - the increasing numbers going to prison, the nature of the grim old building. But the group have committed  for the long haul.

The conditions in Wandsworth were the subject of an extended item on Channel 4 News on 14th February and featured an interview with Liz Bridge, which you can see here.

Working for Peace Reducing the Nuclear Threat

Working for Peace: Reducing the Nuclear Threat, October 2023

The threat of nuclear war has hung over the world since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But, as Paul Ingram from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University said at the second in our series of dialogues on Working for Peace, deterrence has “worked” for the past 78 years, in that nuclear weapons have not been used in conflict. Nonetheless, the massive stockpile continues to threaten unthinkable destruction even if only a fraction of the weapons were ever used.

Despite this depressing scenario, Paul encouraged us to see the potential for forming relationships where opponents see the humanity in each other and reach beyond conflict. Describing the Stepping Stones project that he had worked on – currently shelved as a result of COVID and the war in Ukraine – he showed the possibility of a route out of the chaos by recognising our need for common security and a set of gradual measures that could reduce the likelihood of nuclear weapons being used.

He concluded a passionate and heartfelt discussion by urging us to be revolutionary in our daily lives and talk about – and practice – compassion.

Working for Peace dialogue, 28 September at Kingston Quaker Centre

Working for Peace:  Faith in Action, September 2023

Quakers are known for their commitment to working for peace. - which does not just mean pacifism, but active work to reduce violent conflict.  

In September 2023  two Quakers spoke of their work in the field at Kingston Quaker Centre.  Tanya Williams described how Friends Peace Teams Europe train local people in the Alternatives to Violence project (first set up by Quakers) and how they support Ukrainian team members.  Helen Drewery spoke of her 10 years on the governing body of the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva, which focuses on mediation behind the scenes.  

A very engaged audience asked several questions, including how the Alternatives to Violence project can be adapted to different scenarios, and how Quakers' long reputation as honest brokers in peace work serves them in practice.

Event June 2023: Refugees: Quaker Perspectives & Experiences

Refugees: Quaker Perspectives & Experiences, June 2023

Quakers have a long history of helping the displaced, including enslaved people during the American Civil War, and children rescued from Nazi Germany.  

In June 2023, at a public meeting at Kingston Quaker Centre, one Quaker spoke of her experiences over many years with Kingston Refugee Action and hosting asylum seekers.  Another described her work with the Refugee Tales project, in which established authors help refugees tell their stories.  Four volumes of Refugee Tales have now been published.  (See refugeetales.org for more information)  A civil rights activist who is in the process of claiming asylum told his own story.  The audience was clearly moved by these very personal accounts.

Event March 2023: Climate Crisis: a dialogue on Actions and Beliefs

Climate Crisis: A Dialogue on Actions and Beliefs, March 2023

Many Quakers are environmental activists, but being free thinking individuals, they do not choose the same forms of action.  In March 2023, three Quakers took part in a public meeting at Kingston Quaker Centre to discuss their activism and how it is shaped by their Quaker faith, their attitudes to the climate crisis, and what ordinary citizens can do.  Questions from the audience afterwards included doubts about the political effectiveness of Extinction Rebellion, and explorations of the science involved in understanding the climate crisis.  Very helpfully, Emma Woolliams, a Quaker and climate scientist, was in the audience and was able to answer those questions.

Event December 2022: A Dialogue on Beliefs and Values

Why I am a...a Dialogue on Beliefs and Values, December 2022

In December 2022, a local Quaker, an Anglican vicar, and a member of Humanists UK were part of a public meeting held at Kingston Quaker Centre to discuss their beliefs and values, and how they had arrived at them.  The speakers gave candid accounts of their personal journeys, and their doubts and reservations along the way.  What emerged was how much the speakers had in common, especially a shared commitment to care and compassion for other people, and the bonds formed in faith communities. There was a lively discussion with the audience.