About Oxford Quakers

Welcome to Oxford Local Quaker Meeting, situated in the heart of the city. We are home to, and host of, a vibrantly diverse community.

We are open throughout the week for Quaker worship as well as a range of events. Our premises are available for hire by community groups.

We look forward to welcoming you to worship with us.

We have groups for Children and Young People. Oxford Quakers hosts a thriving community of students and Young Adults (18-35) who meet weekly for worship and fellowship.

Learn about the history of Quakers in Oxford and how we give service within our community.

We publish a monthly newsletter, "43", featuring news and views from local Quakers.

Oxford Local Meeting is part of Oxford & Swindon Area Meeting.

Quaker faith springs from a deeply held belief in living our lives according to our spiritual experience. These spiritual insights – our testimonies – challenge our normal ways of living.

Members of Oxford Quaker Meeting take an active interest in our community and the wider world. Some participate in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), the Living Witness sustainability project, initiatives in civil liberties and peace vigils at the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.

Oxford Quaker Meeting has collectively considered issues such as the NHS, public spending cuts, global warming and climate change, and Remembrance Sunday.

Oxford Quaker Meeting also contains several long-term groups working on social issues. These include:

• Oxford Friends Action on Poverty (OxFAP)
• Oxford Friends Action on AIDS, which supports faith-based responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Quaker volunteers at HMP Grendon
• The Metta Centre, a charity which offers low-cost trauma-focused therapy and was founded by three members of Oxford Meeting.

Quaker involvement in peace issues has a long history. Since the 17th century, Quakers have testified against all war and fighting with outward weapons. In the First World War, and again during the Second World War, many Quakers refused to fight because their conscience would not allow them to kill another person. A booklet entitled Quaker belief in action: conscientious objectors in the First and Second World Wars, tells the stories of seven conscientious objectors as remembered by Quakers in Oxford. It is available upon request.

Oxford Friends Action on Povery (OxFAP) is a committee that administers grants on behalf of Oxford Quaker Meeting. It is one way in which Oxford Quakers respond to poverty in Oxford. OxFAP gives quarterly block grants to the following five voluntary sector organisations: Asylum Welcome, Homeless Oxfordshire, Citizens Advice, Elmore Community Services and Aspire. These organisations provide individual small grants to meet the urgent needs of their clients. The grants are reviewed quarterly by the OxFAP committee.

Many needs arise from gaps in the benefit and support systems. Some groups are particularly disadvantaged, such as people coming out of homelessness, families in poverty, vulnerable migrants with no recourse to public funds, and ex-prisoners struggling to make a new life.

Examples of recent grants are:

• A cooker for a family who had been rehoused because of domestic abuse (Citizens Advice)
• Warm winter clothes for a recently discharged prisoner (Homeless Oxfordshire)
• 6 months’ gym membership for a lonely, isolated 18-year-old refugee from Afghanistan (Asylum Welcome)
• A laptop for a client who is doing online courses to enable them to get a job (Elmore Community Services)
• Carpeting for a formerly homeless man who’d been allocated a new flat (Aspire)

OxFAP’s work is done by volunteers and without overheads, so that every penny donated goes to help the people in need.