To celebrate the start of the New Year, about 20 young people and 5 adults came together over great food, fun games and lots of catching up to do! We had a great time and it was great to reconnect with people we haven’t seen for a bit and to make new connections. What a better way to start the year!!

Thanks to the Young people committee and adult volunteers for organising a great party also thank you to Westminster meeting for hosting us again this year.

On the 12^th and 13^th of September 15 young people and 4 volunteers arrived at South London Scout Centre in Dulwich for a weekend of Quaker camping.

Even before everyone arrived, the most important task of any camping trip was already under way as tents were constructed at a rapid (and, in other cases, not so rapid) pace with everyone pitching in to ensure all had a cover against the elements.

When all the shelters were constructed, Friends gathered together for some camp side games. This began with everyone, old and new, introducing themselves by saying their name and something interesting about it. To really hammer this home, Friends lined up in alphabetical order. Then we went geographical with Friends House (a bag) at the centre and Friends positioned themselves according around it. In order to expend some energy we played some high speed games of chain bulldog and stuck in the mud. After some recovery time friends showed some amazing skills as they tried lifting an ever smaller cereal box off the ground with their teeth.

With games done, a lovely BBQ veggie dinner was prepared over two wood fires. After the main meal we chatted, sang songs and toasted marshmallows on the fire until our local hosts arrived for a night time bat walk. Unfortunately we did not find any bats but we did fully explore the dark suburban forest that surrounded our camp site. When we got back to our tents we had a simple epilogue and retreated to our camp beds.

On Sunday we woke early and had a good breakfast before we started the central task of de-constructing our tents. We set off for Forest Hill meeting house and before joining our local friends in worship we did some energetic and more relaxing activities. After a powerful meeting for worship we shared an amazing lunch that Forest Hill meeting prepared and in return we did the washing and drying up. And we had just enough time for a big group photo along with some musical interludes before we all went home.

Huge thanks to Forest Hill meeting & the South London Scout Centre for having us, all the volunteers, parents/guardians and young people for another brilliant weekend.

– Laurence

 

People say marching and campaigning and protesting can’t achieve anything. Well, the legal position of LGBT people has changed out of all recognition in the UK but there is a lot to do.  Being gay is against the law in 80 countries and ten of those execute LGBT people.  Same sex marriage is still not legal in Northern Ireland and people are still bullied in schools.

– Stephen Cox

On the 6th to the 8th of March 20 young people and 5 volunteers gathered at Hampstead Meeting house

We started the weekend on Friday evening, as we always do by making sure everyone is introduced and welcomed! We were glad to welcome a few new faces this weekend. The second highest priority was food of course, so we had some dinner. After dinner we got the paints out and made some really creative placards for Saturday’s climate awareness march “Time to act“.

We had an epilogue and then off to bed.

On Saturday we woke early and got a good breakfast in us for the long day ahead. We also made some pack lunches to keep us going later on. After a briefing we made our way into central London by Lincoln’s Inn Fields to meet up with other Quakers who had also assembled for the march. More about Quakers & climate change

Some lunch, photo opportunities, autographs  and we were ready to set off for Parliament square via the Strand. The atmosphere of the march was like a carnival with music systems, crazy costumes, bright banners and lots of people (organisers reckoned around 20,000).

Having thoroughly made our point and worn our legs out we returned back to Hampstead for some free time and rest. Into the evening we had dinner and played some of our favourite games, such as Zombies, Sardines, Empire and my new favourite, Newspaper hockey, epilogue then bed.

Sunday we had a bit of a lie in and a leisurely breakfast, some of us joined Hampstead meeting for it’s full meeting, while others joined a session of “any questions” where we wrote down questions that came to us and some people nominated themselves to answer them. We then went and joined the main meeting for the last 15mins. After lunch we headed out to Hampstead heath and played some games. Some coco back at the meeting house and then home time.

We’d like to thank Hampstead meeting for having us, all the volunteers, parents/guardians and young people for another fantastic weekend.

It’s that time again to welcome in the new year officially at London Link, by having our now annual Winterval party! 21 Young people and 4 adult volunteers enjoyed an eclectic shared lunch. We then had a great quiz, played the chocolate game and wink ministry. After that we went into an epilogue. What better way to start the year!

Thanks to the Young people committee and adult volunteers for organising a great party also thank you to Westminster meeting for hosting us again this year.

On Sunday 23rd November 11 young people and 3 volunteers joined Westminster meeting house for meeting for worship, followed by a bring and share lunch. We had a particularly lovely spread with homemade pizza as well as homemade bread. After filling ourselves up we walked along the Strand to Somerset house. In a classic setting we spent an hour skating across the beautifully lit ice, overlooked by an enormous Fortnum and Mason Christmas tree. At first clinging on to the sides of the rink, but we all steadily gained confidence. Some of us even managing to skate backwards and try out jumping. After our time was up, we walked back to Westminster in our soggy clothes and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate to warm ourselves up.

– Inga

Ealing Quaker Meeting kindly hosted 24 young people and 6 adult volunteers from London Link Group during a weekend of glorious Indian summer sunshine. With the event hot on the heels of Southern Summer School and Senior Conference, many attendees needed no introductions to each other – but we played some name games anyway.

The meeting house garden at Ealing, equipped with swings of several varieties, a climbing frame and particularly climbable tree, has a wonderful lawn which suited us perfectly for games of football, Lazy Frisbee, and slightly less lazy games of Ultimate Frisbee. There was, of course, plenty of time for singing songs, reading books and playing other games.

Soon after we arrived we were split into cooking/clearing teams named after famous Ealing Comedies – the Ladykillers, Lavender Hill Mob, (Passport to) Pimlico and (Kind Hearts and) Coronets. We competed skilfully (OK, perhaps that’s overplaying it) through five rounds covering history, pop culture, current affairs, Quakers and general knowledge, for the title of LLG quiz team of the month.

Battling it out in the Quiz

After a sandwich lunch and some more time in the garden, we headed for nearby Walpole Park which has a museum, duck pond, and – crucially – an ice cream vendor. Well, those of us not requiring X-rays went to the park, anyway. The weather remained divine.

We were therefore in high spirits when returning to the meeting house for a talk and workshop from Crispian Wilson and Lydia Strachan of Ealing Meeting, both diplomats at the Foreign Office in London. We were able to think about and question the challenges and competing priorities facing British embassies around the world, using a fictional country case study that Crispian and Lydia had prepared.

In the evening, fuelled mainly by fruit, we played an epic game of ‘Empire’ and gathered for Epilogue before cups of cocoa and then bedded down on the meeting house floor.

On Sunday, some of us joined Ealing Quakers for their normal meeting for worship whilst the rest of us enjoyed a beautiful, sunny and remarkably still (other than the occasional passing 747 from Heathrow) worship-sharing with extracts from QF&P in the garden, serenaded by the birds. The meeting room was big enough to accommodate us all in the closing minutes of MfW, and the ministry talked about precious gifts of creation, conjuring up the image of a small and fragile bird being cupped by human hands and turning into a flower.

After more singing, swinging, eating, playing frisbee, football and turning the pages of our novels we said our goodbyes and returned home feeling spiritually nourished and having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

– David

London Link was kindly invited by Teenage General Meeting to come to their Manchester event, 10 (and 1 joining on Saturday) Young people and 3 adults from London Link crossed the road from Friends House to Euston station where we promptly got on the train – Which then stood in the station for another 40 minutes while we waited for a “train manager” to arrive, Virgin trains having turned down all of our offers to be train managers, finally got going.

We arrived at Manchester Picadilly station where we were met by some of the TGM group who showed us the way to Manchester meeting house with the rest of their group making 34 young people in total. We joined them for some traditional northern cuisine (tacos) and introduced ourselves with a game and allocated our “secret friends” for the weekend.  After that we went to epilogue run by the TGM group and a story telling then bed.

After breakfast we headed out to the local tram stop with our packed lunches and were whisked across Manchester to Salford Quays/Media city where we visited the Imperial War Museum North. Through the exhibitions and the immersive film screening we learnt from stories captured by local people about the impacts of war on people’s lives.

We ate lunch and headed over the Quays to the Lowry centre where we were able to look at the art work on display by L. S. Lowry. He holds the record for the most honours declined, one “honour” he didn’t get a chance to decline was having a shopping centre named after him, and this is where some of us also went.

We took a tram back to the meeting house and had some free time while dinner was being prepared. After dinner TGM and London Link took turns in running some fun games; pulling out the stops on the much loved classics like Sardines and Watch the finger.

The home groups that had been set up for the week then met to do a creative listening activity, after this London Link then lead epilogue and story telling. We had some hot chocolate and then bed.

Sunday morning we had breakfast and started some cosy glows. After Meeting we had an exciting treasure hunt around Manchester city centre where we had to find captions from plaques and signs around the historic parts of the city centre.

We had some lunch and did an evaluation of the weekend, tidy up then home.

London Link would like to thank TGM for inviting us to their event and for all the organising and time they gave to help make the event run so well. We’d also like to thank Manchester Quakers for allowing us to take over their Meeting House, the London Link volunteers and finally all the young people for creating such a great community.

– Michael

Next event – Interval Sept 27-28th 2014