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