Woodbrooke
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woodbrooke.bsky.social
Woodbrooke
@woodbrooke.bsky.social
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Woodbrooke provides opportunities for Quaker learning, research and worship across the world - offering adult education since 1903.

www.woodbrooke.org.uk
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woodbrooke.bsky.social
What is your path to spiritual wholeness? How can you strengthen your connection with the Divine, yourself, and others? Explore how building and nurturing these connections can guide us toward a more complete and fulfilling spiritual life.
https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/spiritual-wholeness/
Wooden triangular structure overlooking a calm sea under a partly cloudy sky with text Spiritual Wholeness 28 January - 18 February £54
November 25, 2025 at 2:05 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Explore the meaning of Quaker membership using the P4C method. Together we’ll reflect on belonging, commitment, and responsibility, and how membership shapes life in the Quaker community.
To book your place visit https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/enquiring-into-quaker-membership/
A peaceful dirt path lined with green bushes and white flowers with text Enquiring Into: Quaker Membership Thursday 15 January 19:00-21:00 (UK time) Pay as Led
November 25, 2025 at 2:01 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Whether you have specific issues in your Meetings for Worship for Business as a role-holder or would like to explore the Quaker Business Method more generally, you are welcome to join this friendly space for Q&A.
https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/quaker-business-method-surgery/
A mixed up Rubik's cube with text Quaker Business Method Surgery Tuesday 6 January 10:00-11:30 (UK time) Pay as Led
November 24, 2025 at 8:00 AM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Kathleen Lonsdale, 1967
Quaker Faith and Practice 20.26
To me, being a Christian is a particular way of life, not the unquestioning acceptance of a particular system of theology, not belief in the literal truth of the Virgin birth, or the Resurrection and Ascension, but being the kind of person that Jesus wanted his followers to be and doing the things he told them to do… Nor, it seems to me, can you live a Christian life unless, like Jesus, you believe in the power of goodness, of justice, of mercy and of love; unless you believe in these so strongly that you are prepared to put them to the acid test of experiment; unless these constitute the real meaning of life for you, more important than life itself, as they were for Jesus. Kathleen Lonsdale, 1967 Quaker Faith and Practice 20.26
November 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
We live in urgent times. This course explores pausing as both spiritual attentiveness and political action. Together, we’ll examine what stops us from stopping, and how stillness might change the way we meet crisis, complexity and each other.

Book your place: https://ow.ly/fCaP50XqCxr
Footprints on a beach Why Pause? The Radical Politics of Stillness 13 January - 10 February £54
November 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Explore creative writing as a tool for spiritual reflection and development through a range of reflective writing activities. Writing prompts and exercises will guide you to write from the heart rather than the head.

Book your place: https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/write-from-the-heart/
Pen and paper Write From the Heart 12 January - 2 February £60
November 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
How does the social structure of patriarchy, in which men and masculinity are valued above women and femininity, affect our religion and spirituality? Explore this question with ideas from Christian, Jewish, and Pagan feminist and womanist theologians.

Book your place: https://ow.ly/yEKQ50XqCqQ
Feminist spelled out in scrabble letters Feminist Theology for Quakers 12 January - 9 February £75
November 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Thinking of postgraduate study? Meet one of our graduates to hear what doing a PhD is like. In this live interview, Paul Harris shares his experience of studying the nineteenth-century Quaker theologian Joseph John Gurney as a Woodbrooke research student.

https://youtube.com/live/f1cN6ifenlY
Meet the Students: Paul Harris
Thinking of postgraduate study? Meet one of our graduates to hear what doing a PhD is like. In this live interview, Paul Harris will share his experience of...
youtube.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:56 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Keith Helmuth, 1990
Quaker Faith & Practice 25.14
Challenging market economics with a Biblical sense of the goodness of God in creation is to join a spiritual struggle. Faith in God, solidarity with the suffering poor and all other forms of life demands that we take a stand and say, ‘This destruction must stop.’ We must be perfectly clear about the implications of undertaking this responsibility. It is more than just setting up household recycling bins, growing organic vegetables or riding a bike to work. It is more than a talking job. It is a renovation which will change everything: the way we do business, the way we eat, the way we travel, the houses we build, the products and services we can expect and the prices we pay for them, the way we feel about trees and the way we worship God. Keith Helmuth, 1990 Quaker Faith & Practice 25.14
November 16, 2025 at 6:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Parenting can be one of life’s deepest spiritual journeys. How do we “take heed of love and truth” with the young humans in our care? This course is for parents who wish to be more present and compassionate with themselves and their families.

Book your place: https://ow.ly/Z6xt50XqCnm
Image of a parent and child walking in a wood Parenting: A Spiritual Quest 8 January - 12 February £60
November 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Perhaps joy is a gift, a grace, as well as something to be cultivated? How can we put ourselves in the way of joy? Over four sessions across four months, we will create a shared space together to reflect on joy and engage in joyful practices.

Book your place: https://ow.ly/O3s350XqCi6
Illustration of flowers Space for Joy 10 January - 11 April £48
November 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
All Quaker communities experience change, whether small or significant. Change can open up new possibilities, but it can also bring challenge. In this course, we will create a supportive space to share experiences and explore ways forward together.

Book your place: https://ow.ly/VEng50XqBh3
Image of a compass Navigating Change Well as Quaker Communities 7 January - 28 January £54
November 12, 2025 at 4:27 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
S Jocelyn Burnell, 1989
Quaker Faith & Practice 22.50
Some situations which cause pain or suffering are avoidable, so part of our learning must be to analyse the situation and see if this is such a case. If it is, we must try to prevent it happening again. But perhaps the most painful situations are those that are apparently beyond our control. Another part of our learning is to recognise that there is unfairness, uncertainty, fear, loneliness and hurt in this world; learning to accept that this is the nature of the world can, of itself, be painful. Initially we may be able to do little, bound up in an acute, self-centred pain. As we try to cope with the anger, the pain and grief that come through some unhappy experience, we can learn a lot about the less-well-articulated, darker sides of our personality. These darker aspects should not be ignored. Although we tend to equate evil with darkness, we should remember that in the plant world roots grow in the dark. Darkness (and shadows) are as much a part of the natural order as light. S Jocelyn Burnell, 1989 Quaker Faith & Practice 22.50
November 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
It's Trustees Week across the UK! If you are a new Quaker Trustee who is looking to increase confidence in your role join us next Saturday to explore the role of Trustee with a focus on both its spiritual grounding and practical responsibilities.

Find out more: https://ow.ly/zKMq50XnPKi
Quaker Trusteeship in a Nutshell £40 Saturday 15 November 10:00-16:00 Chairs and tables in a room
November 6, 2025 at 2:59 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
This week marks Trustees Week in the UK, a time for us to come together to celebrate the contributions of Trustees.

At Woodbrooke, we are grateful for our Trustees who help shape our vision, ensure good governance and support our work.
November 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Ursula Franklin, 1979
Quaker Faith and Practice 23.32
I have never lost the enjoyment of sitting in silence at the beginning of meeting, knowing that everything can happen, knowing the joy of utmost surprise; feeling that nothing is pre-ordained, nothing is set, all is open. The light can come from all sides. The joy of experiencing the Light in a completely different way than one has thought it would come is one of the greatest gifts that Friends’ meeting for worship has brought me. Ursula Franklin, 1979 Quaker Faith and Practice 23.32
November 2, 2025 at 6:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
✨Join us for online meeting for worship! ✨

UK times shown, Friends welcome from around the world!

Find out more information on our website: www.woodbrooke.org.uk/worship
ONLINE WORSHIP WITH WOODBROOKE MONDAY 9:30 TUESDAY 7:00 & 19:30 WEDNESDAY 7:00 & 9:30 THURSDAY 11:00 (1 Hour) & 19:30 FRIDAY 13:00 & 21:00 SUNDAY 10:30 (1 Hour) & 19:30 www.woodbrooke.org.uk/worship
October 30, 2025 at 3:35 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
John Macmurray, 1942
Quaker Faith & Practice 22.10
In friendship we are beyond law and obedience, beyond rules and commandments, beyond all constraint, in a world of freedom. But did not Jesus say, ‘Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you’? Yes, he did. We, on our side, are apt to miss the quiet humour of his paradoxes. ‘These are my commandments,’ he goes on, ‘that ye love one another’. In other words, the friendship of Christ is realised in our friendships with one another. His command is that we rise above commandments, and therefore his obedience is perfect freedom. Make service your centre, with its laws and duties and self-sacrifice, and life is a bondage. Make friendship the centre and life is freedom. John Macmurray, 1942 Quaker Faith & Practice 22.10
October 26, 2025 at 6:00 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
How accessible are our Quaker meetings? What attitudes towards disability might be harmful, and how can we do better?

This session explores these questions through a disability justice lens, centring the lived experiences of disabled Friends.

Book your place: https://ow.ly/Fcmy50XhI4M
A sign which reads 'Disabled people for future' Moving Beyond Disability Access to Disability Justice Saturday 1 November 11:00-15:00 (UK time) Pay as Led
October 24, 2025 at 4:36 PM
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cosmichope.bsky.social
Next Wednesday, I begin a new course (ably Eldered by @goodquakerpirate.bsky.social) for @woodbrooke.bsky.social on the life & #philosophy of the Early #Quaker Anne Conway. There's still time to sign up.
The Enchanted Christianity of Anne Conway - Woodbrooke
Conway’s life offers contemporary Friends a fascinating microcosm of the theological and existential problems that captivated religious radicals and
www.woodbrooke.org.uk
October 23, 2025 at 10:44 AM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
Join us this Halloween to explore Quakers and the Supernatural! 👻

www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/quak...
October 21, 2025 at 9:39 AM
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lisacumin.bsky.social
Had the absolute pleasure of facilitating a panel sharing thoughts on "Quakers and Anabaptists: Peacebuilding Today" for @woodbrooke.bsky.social
Stone heart with peace etched on it lying on moss by a drystone wall.
October 15, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Reposted by Woodbrooke
cosmichope.bsky.social
At the end of October, I start a new course for @woodbrooke.bsky.social, exploring the life & #philosophy of the early #Quaker & #Platonist Anne Conway. Sign up below. ⚗️📚
The Enchanted Christianity of Anne Conway - Woodbrooke
Conway’s life offers contemporary Friends a fascinating microcosm of the theological and existential problems that captivated religious radicals and
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October 1, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Woodbrooke
quaker.org.uk
As tensions rise and divisions deepen across the UK and beyond, Quakers are inviting everyone to pause, reflect, and act on one simple but radical idea: Love Your Neighbour.

Find out more about Quaker Week and this year’s theme: www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...
Quaker Week 2025: Love Your Neighbour - a call for compassion in a divided world
As tensions rise and divisions deepen across the UK and beyond, Quakers are inviting everyone to pause, reflect, and act on one simple but radical idea: Love Your Neighbour.
www.quaker.org.uk
September 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
woodbrooke.bsky.social
We’re excited to share that applications are now open for Equipping for Ministry. This two-year learning journey offers Friends the chance to deepen their understanding of Quakerism and explore how ministry can be lived out in community and the wider world.

Applications close 12 October 2025
Equipping for Ministry - Woodbrooke
Equipping for Ministry aims to give you a solid grounding in thinking about what it is to be a Quaker in the world today and how you are personally to live out that calling.
www.woodbrooke.org.uk
September 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM