Yearly Meeting 2025: Friday 23rd May

Follow the discernment that unfolded during Yearly Meeting

by Rebecca Hardy, Joseph Jones, and Elinor Smallman 30th May 2025

The Opening Session of Yearly Meeting can be a bit like Marmite. Some dislike the slow trek through lists of nominations and notices. But others see Quaker practice at its best: the upholding of the functions of a DIY church. Mary Aiston, second assistant clerk, said as much when she quoted Elizabeth Allen, assistant clerk to Meeting for Sufferings (MfS): ‘It seems like dry business but, take the lid off the box, it’s what we’re about… We need people to give faithful service, joyfully. Each of these names is a picture of the people who do that.’