Strive to thrive: Quakers in South West London

Carol Griffiths from Wandsworth Meeting shares what Quakers in South West London are doing to increase their outreach.

When numbers are falling there are two things we can do: ‘shrink to fit’ and ‘strive to thrive’. We can, and should, cut down on the number of roles in our meetings to free us all up for other things. But at the same time we need to push for growth, and our role as outreach is to increase the profile of Quakers and attract new and different people through our doors.

In Kingston and Wandsworth an informal group of like-minded friends got together to think about outreach, but in early 2023 we decided to became an official committee of our AM, with members from each of our local meetings, an agreed plan of action, simple terms of reference and, crucially, a budget. This AM-wide approach has proved to be a real strength, contributes not only to outreach but also to inreach.

Our five local meetings all now have smart teardrop flags to put outside when we are meeting for worship. We’ve created a website aimed directly at bringing in seekers and attracting the curious and a companion Facebook page where we post news of our events and other happenings.

We’ve run public events on subjects including prison reform, spirituality and AI, peace building, refugees, climate change, and a poetry reading. Each of these events has a Quaker chair who introduces Quakerism to the audience, and at least one Quaker speaker alongside others who are experts in their field. We advertise our events on Eventbrite and through posters locally, and some events have attracted over a hundred people. One talk, in true Quaker fashion, led to the creation of a campaign to improve conditions at Wandsworth Prison, and we now have a database of over 120 non-Quakers who have attended our talks and want to keep in touch with us.

One thing which struck us was the lack of attractively presented information about Quakers, so we took matters into our own hands and developed a suite of materials with a consistent look and feel. These include a ‘business card’ to point seekers in the direction of our website, a booklet titled 'An introduction to Quakers in South West London' explaining those elements of our worship and practice that can be mystifying or confusing (and not only to newcomers!), a single sheet insert to welcome newcomers to Wandsworth meeting as that is a large and historic meeting, and a booklet explaining the membership process to encourage attenders to take the plunge. 

We have now been going for over two years, and we’ve certainly raised the profiles of our Meetings locally. It’s difficult to know the result of our outreach in terms of new attenders, since people arrive for various reasons and following different prompts. However, each of our meetings has seen a growing number of new attenders and a lot of extra interest has been generated.

Our next venture is a Facebook, Instagram – and possibly poster – advertising campaign which we have researched with seekers and which we will launch this autumn.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of friends from each of our local Meetings who have given advice, spoken, chaired, performed, and welcomed visitors at our events, taken names at the door, written copy, designed posters and leaflets, provided content for our online work, baked copious amounts of delicious cake, served gallons of tea, and washed hundreds of cups and mugs. We are immensely grateful to all friends who have helped in this way.

- Carol Griffiths, Wandsworth Quaker Meeting

Resources created by South West London AM:

These resources have been shared with us by South West London Quakers, with permission for Meetings to adept them for their own use locally.