As we journeyed from the grand St.Pancras International to the ever so slightly less grand East Croydon, much like the early Friends, we grew in numbers from those convinced on the worthy of London Link Croydon II. From 5 to  22.

Having arrived at Croydon Meeting house we introduced ourselves and welcomed new London linkers, gratefully our dinner was already well under way by this point so our next job was to set out the dinning room and eat and then clear up.

After a small amount of free time we went to an epilogue lead by a nominated participant then some hot chocolate and bed.

Croydon meeting house has many advantages, but one that stands out for us is the warm upstairs carpeted rooms. Hooray for Carpets! Small luxuries but we definitely appreciated them.

On Saturday morning we had breakfast and then Liz, a local Quaker came to talk to us about her job running community services for Croydon council, she challenged us to help think of solutions to the problems of building communities, and many ideas came out of this. With some interesting discussions on how strong communities build a sense of home and responsibility to the place you live, as well as providing a valuable support network.

We had some free time before lunch to play some games and relax with friends before we caught the tram to the bowling venue.

Two games of bowling later we were all bowled out and returned to the Meeting house. A bit more free time then dinner.
After dinner we played a new game called Empire where each person gives themselves a new name such as “George Cadbury” and you have to guess who would give them selves that name, guessing correctly gains you that person onto your team/empire.

The down fall of the empires left standing was time, as we then went into an epilogue and then bed.

On Sunday morning we got up and joined the early bird Croydon Quakers for breakfast  we had a small amount of free time afterwards to chat before going into meeting.
After meeting we continued some quiet reflection, we came up with a few ideas for next events and gave some feedback on what were the highlights and lowlights of the weekend.

We have an invitation to join LLAM’s link group in 2-3rd March St.Albans (Contact for details/see their facebook page). We also heard about the new initiative for regular events at Westminster meeting house, starting with the 17th March, as we look to make Westminster our base meeting house. Looking slightly further ahead of course the much anticipated MARGATE II on the 19th-21st April! (booking forms now out).

Thank you to Croydon meeting for hosting us so well, all the young people for being brilliant and the fantastic volunteer team – Andy, Michael, Katie and Inga

Just when you thought the partying was about to end

and you were about to recover from Christmas and New Years. London Link’s annual winter party comes around, and a good thing too.

As with previous years, we were gratefully hosted by Westminster meeting house. We played various favourite games, from a young people vs volunteers Giants, Wizards and Elves to Quaker musical chairs.

Thanks to Westminster meeting, Westminster meeting’s wardens, the young people, volunteer team, parents and all the lovely food that was brought for the shared tea.

We met on a rainy day in front of Gringott’s bank. Well, the Bank of England. Richard, our tour guide (dressed in Gryffindor cap and scarf) told us how JK Rowling was working in London just before she had the idea for the first Harry Potter novel. We walked to Leadenhall Market, where the film scene of Harry and Hagrid’s first trip to London had been shot.
We walked through hidden alleys and saw the Leaky Cauldron (twice, as it was also filmed at Borough Market in later films), the Millenium Bridge where Death Eaters are sometimes seen, the Globe Theatre (creation of actor Sam Wanamaker whose daughter Zoe plays Madam Hooch), Daniel Radcliffe’s school and finally St Paul’s cathedral, adorned by Fawkes the phoenix. Richard tested us regularly with entertaining quiz questions.
Afterwards we took the bus to Kings Cross St Pancras where the queue for the wall to Platform 9 ¾ eclipsed those of the ticket offices. From there it was a short walk to busy Friends House where we shared a picnic and enjoyed some time to talk and dry off!

It was encouraging to see some new faces and we all had a wonderful time.

·         Twelve participants
·         Five adults + one baby

Finance summary:
Total monies collected: £70
Total cost: £110

(Loss subsidised by current balance)

Thank you to all the participants and volunteers.

27 young people and 6 volunteers battled the commuters to arrive at Welwyn Garden city for Friday evening, escaping the rain in a very welcoming Welwyn Garden city Quaker meeting house.  Having introduced the event to everyone, we got to know each other a bit better by saying our name and crucially ..what we would do in the case of a zombie invasion…, dinner, an epilogue, some hot chocolate and then bed.

After breakfast we made ourselves a picnic to take to Stanborough Park, where we were graced with a beautiful day for games, ice cream and messing about in the river.

Having the park as a base we split into groups and went on a nature treasure hunt, after all the nature had been found we headed back to Welwyn Garden city meeting house to hear a talk on our theme “Marriage Equality” from Michael Booth (Britain Yearly meeting staff).

We heard about the decision made in 2009 at Yearly Meeting gathering and some of the history of the concern that links to our testimony to equality. This brought about a very open and challenging discussion about the homophobia that young people face and witness in schools and how difficult it can be do help people to overcome their fears and prejudices, especially when they are not supported well by their school, and when the word “gay” is used commonly to mean bad.

After dinner we had some free time and then we continued on our theme by looking at equality further, using a post-it based forum we had discussions on:

“Why are some people against Marriage Equality? Should some people be richer than others? What is the effect on us and everyone if people are treated unequally? Quakers have broken the law before to do what we believe is right, should we do so now? Do you feel equal to other people? and Why?”

After this we had an epilogue, some hot chocolate then bed.
Morning came round slightly earlier than we’re used to for a Sunday but we managed to be up and packed before the special early morning Quaker meeting started. A quick breakfast and then out onto the green to play some Frisbee, ‘Giants, Wizards and Elves’ and more games.

We then went into Quaker meeting and were warmly welcomed. Broadening our theme we heard from Michael Wood about the Occupy movement and the Quaker meeting that was setup at St.Pauls and how Quaker’s had many shared values.

We had a very short meeting about upcoming events and the formation of a Young People’s team to help support the events. Some free time and then back to London.

Thanks to all the Young People, all the volunteers and Welwyn Garden City meeting for hosting us.

Michael Wood (Assistant Clerk)

Having arrived at Watford Meeting house and introduced ourselves and the 7 volunteers, 20 young people made their way down to cassiobury park to play some games and have fun the sunshine.
On arriving back we had some delicious scones and time to chatter before Lucy Colbeck (Oxfam Youth and Schools and Watford Friend) and Owen Everret arrived to run an excellent workshop around explaining the challenges of sustinability and why it is a Quaker consern.

After the evening meal we played some games and then led into an epilogue organised by two of the young people around a bonfire. Some hotchocolate after then bed.

Sunday started with a quick breakfast then into meeting for worship, Simon Colbeck organised an activity on conflict resolution around a Quakerised version of Little red riding hood, which produced some exciting opportunities for acting out the conflict and attempting mediation.

Some freetime, tea and then a short session on how solar panels work and what prompted Watford Friends to install solar panels on their roof and the chanllenges of doing so led by David from Watford Meeting.

A small break then we all met to evaluate the weekend and for London Linkers to talk about future plans and how we formalise the role the young people play in running and planning the link events.

There was a really warm and caring atmosphere at the event, and I’d like to thank all the young people, all the volunteers involved and Watford Meeting for hosting us so excellently.