Friends may be interested to know that the Clerk of Ireland Yearly Meeting, Will Haire, will be interviewed live on Newtalk FM tomorrow, Thursday, 16th of January 2025 at 12:40pm.
This interview is part of a series the station is doing throughout January on various faiths/religions in Ireland.
If Friends don’t manage to listen on the day, we hope to share link to the audio once it becomes available.
| The Quaker United Nations Office in New York is now accepting Programme Assistant (PA) applications for the 2025-2026 year. QUNO New York works in close partnership with UN diplomats and officials to increase the global commitment to the UN’s role in building lasting peace. We believe that the UN will only fulfill this aspect of its mandate when its peace initiatives truly respond to community needs, and we seek to build bridges between the UN in New York and voices from the ground. PAs are typically Quakers or those in close sympathy with the Religious Society of Friends. They are typically recent graduates of bachelors degrees, with a strong interest in international affairs and a demonstrable commitment to building social justice in the world. The one-year term for this position begins on 1 September 2025. We encourage applicants from around the world for this New York-based position, and if you have questions about eligibility to work in the United States, please reach out to us at quno@afsc.org. If you or someone you know would be interested in this opportunity, please visit the link below. Applications are due 10 February 2025. Learn more and apply |
In 1937, the well known American Quaker Rufus M Jones wrote “…I have become a good deal disillusioned over ‘big’ conferences and large gatherings. I pin my hopes to quiet processes and small circles, in which vital and transformative events take place.”
It is in the spirit of these words that you are invited to set time aside on the third Saturday of each month, when the Limerick Meeting House will be open for an hour from 2.00-3.00pm for those who wish to join others silently “sitting for peace”.
The first of these monthly silent vigils for peace will take place on Saturday 18th January from 2.00 – 3.00pm.
Please feel free to spread the word among your friends, family and other networks.
This is not a protest, rather it is an opportunity to hold a hope for peace with others.
It is with great sadness that we advise of the death of our Friend, Simon C. Lamb, a member of Richhilll Meeting and Clerk of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC). Simon (1959-2025) died suddenly on Wednesday 8th January at his home in Richhill.
A Meeting for Worship to celebrate the Simon’s life was held at Richhill Friend’s Meeting House on Monday 13th of January at 12noon, followed by burial at the adjoining Quaker burial ground.
Here is the Funeral Times notice: https://www.funeraltimes.com/simon-charleslamb190103264
Below is a letter from Tim Gee, the General Secretary of FWCC. We will publish details of how to join the online Meeting in Simon’s memory referred to in the letter once those become available.
Dear Friends,
With deep sadness, yesterday we received the news that our friend, FWCC CEC clerk Simon C Lamb has passed away.
This comes as a major shock, for his family, colleagues, Friends in Northern Ireland, Ireland Yearly Meeting, the Europe & Middle East Section and the world family of Friends.
He touched the lives of many, having been part of FWCC for more than four decades. We understand the cause of death may have been a heart attack.
Simon is so well loved across many countries that many testimonies, words and memories are reaching us already. If you feel moved to, please do reply to this email with any memories, stories or photos, which we will compile and share at a later date.
We are also hoping to organise an online meeting in his memory. If you would like to receive details of this, please do reply to this email too.
One of his final emails to many of us was shortly before Christmas, expressing his deep gratitude for all who contributed to FWCC, and praying that we might know the Indwelling Presence of the Light of Christ.
I have been struggling to find words, but have been reading some of Simon’s, from his 2000 keynote address to the FWCC triennial, in New Hampshire. It begins as follows:
“There is a quiet place at the very heart of our being, in the depths of our soul. It is the place where God and humanity meet. As we seek to understand and to know God, it is in that place that we search for reason in the face of starvation and poverty across the globe. It is to there that we escape for comfort in our own moments of personal grief and need, and it is to there that we go when we are struggling with the challenge and reality of a personal experience of the living inward Christ. For it is in this quiet place that we will find the still small voice.”
In Friendship,
Tim Gee
General Secretary, Friends World Committee for Consultation
At the Dublin Monthly Meeting Peace Committee’s Silent Public Peace Witness held on 30th Nov, 37 people maintained a silent presence in the manner of a Meeting for Worship. The participation of number of Friends from Quakers for Peace Waterford was very appreciated.
You are invited to join another public silent Quaker Peace Witness from 11.30am to 12.30pm on 1 Feb, held outside the gates of St Stephen’s Green at the top of Grafton St, Dublin.
Friends from all Meetings are very welcome!
This talk by Hilary Cremin, Head of the Faculty of Education at Cambridge University, marks the launch of the new OpenLearn short course Principles and Practice of Peace Education, a collaboration between The Open University and Quakers in Britain. This new, free, short course is available to all and we hope will become a valuable resource for educators and schools.
The talk will be given online on Feb. 5, 2025 from 1-2pm. You can register for the talk at this Eventbrite link.
Further information is given in this flyer.
Churchtown Quaker Meeting will host an ecumenical service as part of for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on behalf of the Rathgar-Terenure Fellowship (RTF), on Sunday 19 January at 3pm in Churchtown Meeting House, followed by refreshments.
The RTF includes the communities of the Zion Church Rathgar (CofI), the Methodist Church in Brighton Road, Christ Church Rathgar (Presbyterian), the Catholic Church in Rathgar, Terenure, and Templeogue, the Dublin Jewish Progressive Congregation in Rathgar, and Churchtown Friends.
All are most welcome. Please see this flyer for more information.
Image designed by Freepik.
Jenny H. Haughton will give a presentation on this topic at a Churchtown Coffee Morning on Wednesday 8th January during 10.30-21.00.
You can find more information, including the Zoom link for joining online in this flyer.
The Irish Council of Churches seeks to recruit an exceptional individual for this post for the next phase in its work of developing opportunities for churches in Ireland to work together to provide a Christian voice in society.
For further details and an application pack visit www.irishchurches.org/vacancy.
The application deadline is Friday 17th January 2025 at 12.00 noon. Applications should be sent to president@irishchurches.org .
The Inaugural Service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will take place on Thursday 18th January 2025 at 8pm in the Abbey Presbyterian Church, Parnell Square North, Dublin 1.
This is organized by the multi-denominational Dublin Council of Churches (DCC), which includes Friends.
It is the custom of the DCC organizers to alternate venues annually between churches of the Roman Catholic Church and churches of ‘other’ denominations (including the family of Protestant churches, Orthodox churches, and Friends and others from the dissenting tradition), and to arrange for the main speaker to be from a tradition other than that of the hosting church.
Accordingly, the DCC is pleased to confirm that the speaker for the 2025 ecumenical celebration will be Bishop Donal Roche, Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, who will speak on the theme ‘Do you believe this?’ (See attached poster).
This year’s service has been prepared by the ecumenical monastery of brothers and sisters in Bose, Northern Italy. As we celebrate 1,700 years since the Council of Nicaea, this worship service has at its heart the Nicene Creed and we are invited to reflect on the story of Martha’s confession of faith in Jesus as narrated in John 11:17-27.
quakers-in-ireland.ie 
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