Welcome to the website serving the Quaker community in Southern Africa.
Have a look at our News page to see news from Quaker Meetings within the region, links to new resources made available by international meetings, book reviews, articles addressing current affairs etc. The latest posts are listed in the column to the right.
Article by YM Co-Clerks on the issue of a Universal Basic Income Grant
Published 3 May 2023
Quakers urge government to implement a universal basic income or face ‘dire consequences’
Yearly Meeting 2023
The first in-person Yearly Meeting since before Covid was held at Good Shepherd Retreat Centre, Hartbeespoort, in January 2023. It was a blended Meeting, so some sessions were available online. The focus of the YM was Ubuntu, in keeping with the upcoming FWCC WPM taking place in South Africa in August 2024.
EPISTLE from Southern Africa Yearly Meeting 3 to 8 Jan 2023
A short video on Ubuntu, the theme of both YM 2023 and the upcoming World Plenary Meeting to be held in South Africa in August 2024, is how available on YouTube.
The Richard Gush Lecture by David Niyonzima is also on YouTube. Both these and other SAYM videos can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOJGuZVZnN7jbktPLyDByKQ
Yearly Meeting 2021
The 2021 Yearly Meeting was held via Zoom over two consecutive weekends in July/August 2021. Two statements came out of the gathering:
- Statement on the Failed Insurrection and Civil Unrest in South Africa
- Quaker Community in Southern Africa endorses SACC statement
The EPISTLE from the Meeting may be read here: Epistle of the Quaker Community in Southern Africa Yearly Meeting 2021
The 2021 Richard Gush Memorial Lecture, delivered by Marie Odendaal of the KwaZulu-Natal Monthly Meeting, was delivered on 16 June 2021. It is titled Creating our world in love’s image — journeying beyond apartheid, and can be viewed on the Quaker Community in Southern Africa YouTube channel.
Quaker Community in Southern Africa YouTube Channel
In January 2018, the Quaker Community in Southern Africa started a YouTube Channel. Click over to see what some of our Friends have to say: QCSA YouTube
WHAT’S ON THE SITE?
If you are looking for a meeting near you, please check the How to Find Us page. Contact information for the Clerks is there, as are street addresses and maps to the meeting places. Minutes of the latest meetings are included on each Meeting’s page if they are available.
Those new to Quakers, or just interested in knowing more will find a vast store of data on our Who are the Quakers? page and its sub-pages. You will also find links to PDF files of Quaker publications at the bottom of the first page.
More in depth information is covered on our Quaker Teaching page.
The Southern Africa Yearly Meeting (SAYM) page contains information of interest to the whole region, and links to the Richard Gush lectures, which are the keynote addresses for each Yearly Meeting.
Our International page contains links to other Quaker websites around the world.
Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness, and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another, but praying for one another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.
Isaac Pennington, 1667