Page 27 - Quaker News & Views Nov 25 - Jan 26

Poole Local Meeting Report - July 2024 to September 2025.

This has been a year where the ministry in our Meeting for Worship has often voiced our despair, helplessness and
challenge in the face of unfair National inequalities and persistent devastating conflicts in the World. Our new local
Member of Parliament was elected in July and we immediately wrote to him about local and national provisions and
difficulties with asylum seekers and refugees.We received a warm reply and some of us then had a good meeting
with him, making him well aware of Poole Quaker Meeting! Since then we have corresponded over our concerns
about the Gaza crisis and again received a helpful, constructive reply. The desperate situation in Gaza has led to a
feeling of need for visible protest. After discussion and discernment, our Meeting felt united to support Friends who
now carry out a monthly Silent Protest to Support Palestine, with placards and art work, in our newly ‘opened up’
front garden.

The garden and Meeting House are much more visible now as the big project of earth moving and landscape
remodelling was carried out in April. The entrance is now wide and step free, with a flat gathering space. There is a
broad, safe path with a gentle gradient suitable for those with reduced mobility. We will install a simple wooden
notice board and in the autumn will reseed some of the grass and start to fill the borders with wildlife friendly plants
and shrubs. We have also shared with the flat next door the cost of taking down the chimneys and tiling over the
space left in the roof. The chimneys were causing damp in the next door flat, so hopefully the removal will also
improve the tendency to damp in the upstairs Meeting House flat. Otherwise, the Meeting House has remained
warm, comfortable and easy to maintain.

Each year brings new arrivals and losses. A space has been sadly left by the death of Peter Wilson who was a
cheerful, loving and wise Friend, elder and hospital chaplain and whose ministry was deeply felt, especially carrying
us through the COVID years.

We continue to organise activities, many of which are enjoyed Area wide. The book group, ‘Quiet Reflections’ and
Healing Meetings continue online. Some of us join the Area Sanctuary Meeting and the Experiment with Light Group
online and the monthly ‘Quitchers’ stitch group at Wimborne which currently is creating textile books for blind
children. The regular ‘Finding out about Quakers’ session continues. There is a new ‘Write from the Heart’ gathering
where friends meet for writing and sharing. Our meeting has signed up to the ‘Discovering Quakers’ initiative, with a
few early enquiries but no new attenders yet.

This year has seen a change in our arrangement with Swanage Meeting. After a Meeting for Clearness and much
thought, Swanage has again become a separate meeting, with a Correspondent and online Meetings for Worship,
releasing Poole from the responsibility of managing finances (now held by the Area treasury) and business. We keep
in touch. We enjoy many good links across the wider community of our BCAM Area. Elders support Wimborne
Meeting, who currently do not have an elder. Three Poole Friends are Area Trustees and two particularly have done a
lot of the work to help Bournemouth Meeting to navigate the very difficult and frustrating process involved in selling
the Meeting House. Most of the books from the Bournemouth Meeting House and their shelving have been brought
to Poole and our Area Librarian has created a very attractive library in the Children’s Room. Four Poole Friends are
trustees for the Drewry Trust. There were also links across areas, Bournemouth Coastal Area joining with Hampshire
and Islands Quakers for a Fun Day and then a ‘Beach of Dreams’ project to create a labyrinth on Boscombe Beach
while flying the Quaker pennant. We have considered all the responsibilities of a Local meeting which are listed in
QFP 4.33, many of which are highlighted here. We should discern how to have more effective local outreach.

Our finances are healthy. Recently the accrued increase in funds from the original legacies, made by local Friends in
1774,1795 and 1954 has been made available to spend to support the needs of individual Friends and upkeep of the
Meeting House. We are able to send our quota to Britain Yearly Meeting. The weekly collections go to local charities
like the International Care Network, national organisations like Quaker Social Action and the Campaign Against the
Arms Trade and international bodies like Doctors Without Borders and Quaker Bolivia Link. We have a Social Care
fund from which we donate to local organisations including the Food Bank and Routes to Roots. We also have a
Disaster Relief fund from which we can respond quickly to sudden natural disasters.

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