In the past two years of constraints and changing parameters, QVA have continued to ask the question ‘What is our unique offering to the Quaker movement and society in general?’ It’s a similar question to that faced by every organisation and is just as relevant as the Covid-19 pandemic changes from an imminent crisis into a part of the background scenery of our everyday lives.
As the situation evolves, so does our answer. This year our series of online retreats have enabled participants to connect, engage with some of the key issues of our time and reflect on the part individuals can play in the ever-necessary reconstruction of peace and justice in our world.
In the most recent of these, ‘Encounters with Peacemakers: Waging Peace’, speakers Hanna Barag of Machsom Watch and Jean Zaru of Ramallah Friends Meeting spoke of their own experiences living with the occupation. Jean’s perspective as a lifelong advocate of liberation for both oppressed and oppressor and Hanna’s as a tireless campaigner against her own society’s occupation of another both spoke powerfully of the potential for humanity and courage within each of us. We are now planning the next QVA encounter-based retreat in Israel and Palestine for October 2022 and look forward to meeting Jean and Hanna in person, along with many others from different communities and backgrounds in both countries.
Meanwhile the resumption of working retreats in the UK is just around the corner, with an exciting opportunity to volunteer with us at Horton Community Farm in Bradford coming in the new year – watch this space and our website for details to be announced. This will be a non-residential retreat over the course of 3 Saturdays. Other UK based working retreats, both residential and non-residential will follow.
Finally, but by no means least, our last online event of the year, ‘Refugee Journeys’ begins on 2nd November. Led by facilitators Eirlys Evans and Christie Coho, this series includes talks and interactive reflections on the topic of refugees’ experience of migration, entering the UK and settling here. This may be of anyone interested in joining QVA for a working retreat supporting a refugee organisation in Calais in the new year, although this is not a pre-requisite.
To stay in touch with our plans for this or any retreat, or to invite QVA to run a working retreat near you, contact us via retreats@qva.org.uk.
Jeff Beatty
Clerk to the Trustees
Simon Watkins
Working Retreats Co-ordinator
