QUAKER UNIVERSALIST GROUP NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2024
Dear QUG supporter
Quaker Universalist Group Annual Conference
April 25th – 27th 2025 at High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire and online.
Women’s spiritual voices
Women: in the divine; and Quakers; and their spiritual journeys; thinking; mystics and art; as activists; from different cultures.
We have decided to return to High Leigh in 2025 and, following our conference earlier this year which had four male speakers, we will be concentrating next year on women. All the speakers will be women and all the topics relate to women. However, men are welcome to attend the conference as well as women!
We are delighted to announce that you can now apply to attend this conference. An application form is at the end of and attached to this newsletter or you can go online at https://qug.org.uk/conference-2025-women-and-spirituality/ and open one of the attachments (in Word or PDF). Please fill in the form completely (though some questions are not relevant to those participating by Zoom).
Please either send the form by email (e.g. as an attachment) to contact@qug.org.uk or by post to QUG Conference, 2 Willow Rise, Haddenham, Aylesbury, HP17 8JR.
Unfortunately, we have had to increase the cost of attending in person this year, because the venue is charging us 26% more per person than last year. However, they still give us very good value for money compared with other places. We are again offering a discount for couples sharing a room and we have only raised the Zoom costs a little compared with last year.
Some people have come to our conferences with their fees paid, in part or in full, by their area or local meetings. Do ask your Quaker meetings for help if necessary. It is useful to us too if you report back to your meetings: this makes QUG better known to Quakers in general.
As last year, we will accept bookings with a deposit of £60 per person. But please note that this is non-returnable and that the full amount must be paid 8 weeks before the conference starts, i.e. full payment by Friday 28th February 2025.
Anyone can come to our conference. You do not have to be a Quaker or a member of QUG to attend.
We hope many people will want to come in person to this conference, but we only have a limited number of rooms, some single and some double: so to guarantee your place please apply early.
We also hope to have a good attendance by Zoom: here we ask for £45.00 payment (non-returnable) to secure your place.
We have an exciting line-up of speakers. Rhiannon Grant, who spoke recently at the national Future of Quakerism conference, will give two talks. Janet Monahan will lead a workshop on differences in thinking between women and men. Dora Bek will chair and speak at a session entitled ‘some women’s spiritual journeys’: she will be joined by others, yet to be chosen. Frances Martin will talk to us online about women, art and spirituality. Susan Norris will lead the Saturday epilogue. Finally, Georgina Wright will give the concluding talk to the conference on the Sunday. As usual, there will also be breakout groups, free time, meeting for worship and the QUG AGM.
High Leigh is a large conference centre, usually with several conferences on at the same time, but each conference use separate facilities. See https://www.cct.org.uk/high-leigh/high-leigh-conference-centre. High Leigh is north of London, 25 minutes on the train from Liverpool Street Station. It is set in beautiful grounds. Travel directions are on their website and you are advised to follow them carefully.
Further details about the speakers at the conference
Rhiannon Grant
Rhiannon is Woodbrooke’s Deputy Programme Leader for Research and Programme Coordinator for Modern Quaker Thought. Rhiannon’s work at Woodbrooke spans academic and practice-based approaches to Quakerism. She teaches in Woodbrooke’s short course program and supervises research and teaches postgraduate students within the Centre for Research in Quaker Studies. Outside Woodbrooke, she researches and writes about Quakers for both academic and general audiences.
Janet Monahan
Janet is a Quaker, a teacher, an academic and a thinker. She is currently writing up her doctoral research entitled Spiritually Aware Practice (SAP) in Education. At the conference she will be asking the question: do women and men think in the same way?
Dora Bek
Dorais a solution-focused therapist and Reiki practitioner. Her life has been defined by a life-long passion for learning. Her universalist spiritual quest evolves around continued philosophizing and asking what Fox’s faith and philosophy have in common with other ideas of transcendence, conscience, reason, truth and reality.
Georgina Wright
Georgina is a teacher, blogger, poet and novelist. She moved from London to live in the south of Spain. Fascinated by the wildlife of Spain, but saddened to see how such wonderful diversity of life is at risk, she began to write. Her novel The Call of the Wild Valley was published in 2023.
Frances Martin
Frances is a figurative artist and convenor of the Norwich 20 Group of professional artists. She will contribute to our themes of women, art and spirituality and share some of her work online. In 2023 Frances contributed to a major exhibition in Norwich churches on the world of Julian, the mystic and visionary, who wrote the first book in English 650 years ago. Julian wrote about her visions or pictures, sent to her from God because she wanted to understand life and what it means. Frances’ own spirituality is shown in her paintings illustrating Julian and her visions.
Susan Norris
Susan is a retired Art Psychotherapist who worked in NHS adult mental health services for twenty-five years. She continues her personal art practice, is interested in various forms of meditation and is currently serving as an Elder in Mid Essex Area Meeting. A question for this conference is: How do we SEE women’s voices?
Contacting us, questions and unsubscribing
If you have any questions or wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter please reply directly or send an email to contact@qug.org.uk
QUG Annual Conference Booking Form – 2025
Friday 25th April at 6.00 pm to Sunday 27th April 2025 at 2.00 pm
High Leigh Conference Centre, Lord Street, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, EN11 8SG
Please indicate one participation option below by writing YES against your preference. If residential, you can pay a deposit now to secure your place, or pay in full.
Option 1- Residential: per person: £290. Deposit £60 (non-returnable)
Option 2- Residential couple* sharing a twin room: £500. Deposit £120 (non-returnable)
*please provide the second person’s name and special requirements on a second form and submit both forms together.
Option 3- Zoom Participation only: £45 (Please make full payment)
Special Note: If you are unable to attend the conference, having paid, we regret that we will not refund your money. If you have any concerns, e.g. due to health issues, please make your own insurance arrangements.
Attendee Name: ___
Address: ___
Post code: ____
Tel no: ___
E-mail: ___
Do you need an accessible room? YES / NO
Do you require a lift or wheelchair access? YES / NO
Please state any specific dietary requirements (e.g. food allergies, vegetarian, gluten free, pescatarian, lactose intolerant, vegan or any other dietary requirements):
Please indicate one payment option below by writing YES against your preference:
A) Bank transfer to: TSB. The Quaker Universalist Group. Sort Code: 30-97-35. Account No: 00016421. Please use Reference ‘QUG25-Your Surname‘ (e.g. QUG25-SMITH) to ease payment tracking.
B) PayPal – Please ensure you provide full contact details so collection by PayPal can be arranged with you.
C) Cheque (payable to The Quaker Universalist Group) and post to 2 Willow Rise, Haddenham, Aylesbury, HP17 8JR.
NB. The balance of conference payments must be received by Friday 28th February 2025
Please send this booking form by email to contact@qug.org.uk
or by post to: QUG Conference, 2 Willow Rise, Haddenham, Aylesbury, HP17 8JR
Please Book Early – to secure your place
If you do not receive an acknowledgement within three weeks please contact us.