On 26 January 2025, 20 young people and 4 adult volunteers met for the afternoon at Westminster Quaker Meeting for Winterval 2025.

Proceedings began with silent worship. We then had fun doing a Quaker Quiz, and (in Winterval tradition) made our own pizzas. The best quiz round was “Quaker or Quacker” in which we had to figure out if the person shown on the screen was a Quaker, a birdwatcher, or both (turns out Damon Albarn from Blur and Gorillaz is kind of both).

We finished the afternoon and said our goodbyes, and went home feeling ready to start the week (well, after some of us had got over our eventful journeys on the Underground).

It was really good fun meeting up with Quaker friends and we had been looking forward to seeing each other and catching up. We are looking forward to the residential weekend in Welwyn Garden City in March. 

14 Linkers from the very new, to the sadly soon to leave us, along with 6 brilliant volunteers, descended on Forest Hill for a weekend of fun.

We started with culture in the Horniman Museum – where a few of us caused chaos by letting cats into the cafe, and others by trying to get pigeons out of the cafe! People were particularly impressed by the spinning globe (more of later), instruments and aquarium.

We ate a picnic looking at the fabulous views over London then, after some tree hugging in the beautiful gardens, headed to the funky Forest Hill Meeting House. Here we played some games to get to know each other (before killing each other – Mafia style – always a popular choice).

Linkers were then set a challenge – in small groups they had to recreate something they were inspired by in the museum.

An exhibition was then set up where the creations were judged against strict criteria including vibes, likeness and resources used.

This took us to a dinner of tasty vege chilli and some down time before Epilogue and hot chocolate.

On Sunday we joined Forest Hill Children’s Meeting where we learnt about Joan Baez,  and sang one of her songs, led by Suzy in some very funky dungarees that she had designed for her brother when she was the equivalent of a Linker! The children then considered what helped them feel safe, while the young people explored the power and role of protest music and culture – name checking artists including: Declan Benedict McKenna; The Halluci Nation, especially the track “Sisters”; Billy Bragg; and the Singapore punk scene!

Several families then joined us for another great lunch featuring baked potatoes and a very welcome homemade chocolate cake before we all headed home.

Huge thank you to Forest Hill for hosting us, the volunteers who made it happen, and the Linkers themselves whose ingenuity and contributions never fail to amaze. We look forward to seeing you in January for our annual Winterval (date to be decided soon).

London Linkers can now, with authority, share that The Sun Shines On is not just played by British Quaker youths….and that Ginger Nut biscuits are a huge hit with Japanese young people. 

3 older Linkers, and the LLG Clerk, were pleased to help Westminster Meeting host 30 students, and 3 teachers, from Friends Girls School Tokyo as part of their annual visit to the UK.

We spent the morning explaining what we do in London Link and LTQM, while also giving a big shout out to Junior Gathering, Senior Conference, and JYM etc. They had many questions for us and it was a joy to share our perspectives with them but also to hear the amazing impact of spaces like London Link on our young people’s lives and their Quaker journeys.

The final questions were around George Fox and one of our answers led the students sharing that they had learnt a song about him… This led to a brilliant sing along of the Sydney Carter Ballad of George Fox song (also known as There’s a Light that is Shining or simply The George Fox song). 

“In my old leather breeches and my shaggy, shaggy locks, I am walking in the glory of the light,” said Fox.

Afterwards our guests enthusiastically shared the biscuits we often eat at LTQM, with Foxes party rings and ginger nuts definitely being favourites. With all in unity that perhaps George Fox himself might not approve of Party Rings! Thank you to the Linkers for also helping to serve copious cups of tea.

We then played an extended game of The Sun Shines On with much hilarity – turns out not many of us have cats but most of us like chocolate.

The students then gave us an impressive, bilingual, presentation about life in Japan, and issues that are facing them such as coping with an ageing population, living with earthquakes, and the climate crisis.

We were then able to hear more about their trip to the UK, which included visiting places such as Jordan’s Meeting House and Firbank Fell, before they headed off to see Wicked in the West End.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Friends Girls School Tokyo, and to their UK guide and Westminster Friends, for enabling us to take part in such a special morning. 

We met by the Kindertransport statue outside Liverpool Street station, or some of us did – before realising there was another Kindertransport statue inside the station, which also happens to be the dedicated meeting point for the station! So two groups formed, packed lunches in hand, and boarded an early train for Southend.

We arrived at Adventure Island 2 minutes before it opened for the day, Southend Pier and the Thames estuary illuminated by glorious spring sunshine, which was the backdrop for the day, between intermittent brief April showers.

After sampling the thrills of various rides and attractions, we regrouped for a picnic lunch in the Cliff Gardens, supplemented with chips from the many fish and chip outlets. The adrenaline junkies were soon back on the rides, whilst others enjoyed the amusement arcades or took to the beach. At the appointed hour, we met to head back to the station (via the sweet shop!) and return to London on the train, our naps taking the edge off our tiredness from a long but enjoyable day together.

As one of our (older) participants said “I loved the trip to Adventure Island, it was so nice to see friends again and was a solid final London Link event”.

See you in June for the residential in Lewes!