The London Area Meeting Development Group is working towards creating a single London Area Meeting (LAM). The 2024 tabular statement shows 969 adult members across the 7 AMs and 36 LMs in London. In February 2025, a meeting of the 7 AMs united with the proposal to move ahead with a London Area Meeting.
This page sets out the headlines of the Pan London Project so far.
2019: Initial meetings and working groups formed
- 27 April 2019: a large group of Friends met at Friends House to thresh how to cope with falling numbers (1,100 members); the administrative responsibility for 7 AMs; 7 AM Trustee bodies; London Quaker Property Trust; and 35 Local Meetings (LMs); and the Charity Commission’s intention to require all charities to be registered (5 of our 7 AMs are not). They minuted the need to address Yearly Meeting’s call for simplification, and to free up Friends' time for outreach, fellowship and spiritual growth.
- Each AM and London Quaker Property Trust (LQPT) appointed two Friends to a working group, and AM Clerks and Clerks of Trustees formed a steering group.
- November 2019: working groups began to meet.
2020: early progress
By the end of 2020: despite the pandemic, initial ideas were ready to circulate to AMs.
2021: First proposals
- January 2021: Consultation document proposed a ‘Pan-London’ charity. Key features of the proposal were that the 7 AMs would continue and the new charity would:
- Be governed by a trustee body of 12-16 people, appointed or nominated by AMs (2 or 3 each);
- Meet approximately 5 times a year;
- Hold at least one meeting each year open to all members and attenders, which could include social opportunities, shared worship, or other events.
- Spring 2021: AMs returned responses, informed by consideration within their LMs. These responses highlighted a desire to:
- Be spirit-led in our governance arrangements;
- Support the trustee structure with a cross-london worshipping group;
- Make more time and space for other spiritual matters;
- Promote a London Quaker community;
- Retain AMs as worshipping communities with local identities and freedom of operation (e.g. outreach and activities for children and young people) and funding for these areas.
- Spring 2021: Appointed Friends resumed their work, splitting into two working groups:
- Technical: to consider finances, costing, administration, staffing;
- Governance: to consider internal structures, legal matters, relationships with other Quaker bodies, and other relevant policies and procedures.
- December 2021: After considering various options, the group felt a strong leading towards having a single AM, which would in some form incorporate LQPT as well as the seven current AMs.
2022: Two models presented
February 2022: A second consultation proposed two models, ultimately recommending a(i):
- single worshipping community and charitable body for Friends in London. This would EITHER be:
- single AM, replacing the formal functions of the existing AMs, but allowing for some of the social and community aspects of those AMs to be continued in informal clusters, or;
- a new General Meeting, with current AMs continuing to have a formal existence within Quaker (but not legal) structures.
- Retaining seven current AMs, but having one set of trustees and no large worshipping body (similar to current LQPT model).
- 31 March 2022: An informal meeting was held, open to all Friends in London, to explore the proposals, alongside consideration in AMs and LMs.
- Summer 2022: Responses were received from AMs. Most agreed with model a(i), though some requested more detail.
Early 2023: Updated proposals and invitation to commit
- Throughout the rest of 2022, the PLG group continued to shape the plan - considering sometimes contradictory concerns from AMs. Some consultancy support was used and the report is available here. London Quakers organised a series of meetings to present and discuss proposals open to all London Friends. The group wrote up proposals based around the following key points:
- A single Area Meeting: meeting 5-6 times per year, and able to delegate tasks and powers to trustees and committees, with some decisions needing to be taken by AM. This is similar to most current AMs;
Committees: the AM would establish committees with clear terms of reference. Some committees would require trustees but not be formed only of trustees; - Avoiding ‘soft power’: An acknowledgement was made that trustee bodies can tend to accumulate ‘soft power’ in organisations, and that risk should be minded;
- Workload: it was noted that AM needed to manage its workload well, through effective delegation to trustees and task-and-finish groups.
- Local Clusters: grouping of LMs (which could include optional groupings along the boundaries of existing AMs) should form organically, with no nominations or minute-writing required, to be used for fellowship, joint projects, and discernment.
- A single Area Meeting: meeting 5-6 times per year, and able to delegate tasks and powers to trustees and committees, with some decisions needing to be taken by AM. This is similar to most current AMs;
- June 2023: An ‘invitation to commit,’ including a vision of how Quakerism in London might be with one London Area Meeting, was sent to AMs, accompanied by 11 papers which explained the discernment for how a London AMs could work. You can find the invitation to commit and a summary of the responses here.
- 15 July 2023: an Informal meeting was held for all London Quakers to help Friends understand proposals.
Summer 2023 Discernment within Local and AMs. - By September 2023, six Area Meetings committed in principle to forming one London Area Meeting, though KWAM minuted that ‘more discussion is needed about the details.’ NETAM did not commit, but agreed to move forward as part of the project - and suggested a model of retaining 7 area meetings with one trustee body for all of them (similar to the 2021 proposal previously ruled out by most AMs).
Late 2023: Establishing the development group
- Autumn 2023: The pan-London Steering Group and Working Groups met for the last time.
- Each Area Meeting and LQPT appointed two Friends to serve on the new Development Group.
2024: Moving forward
- 03 February 2024: 1st joint Area Meeting took place - organised by clerks of existing Area Meetings.
- March 2024: London Development Group met for the first time. Meetings continued throughout 2024.
- 08 June: 2nd joint Area Meeting took place.
- 05 October: A 3rd joint Area Meeting took place, this time with the authority of each of the seven Area Meetings in session.
- Arrangements Group formed to plan and deliver Joint London Area Meetings (JLAMs) so that the burden does not fall too heavily on clerks of current AMs.
- Two online Qualms and Questions sessions were held within KWAM on 2nd and 12th November, as well as a London wide event on 4th December. Questions that arose at those sessions fed into FAQs for Friends to read.
2025: Next steps
- Frequently Asked Questions were produced responding to matters raised in Qualms and Questions sessions and by AMs.
- The Development Group has produced a paper suggesting the possibility of some LMs grouping together into a 'district' with formally delegated powers from LAM that could include membership, appointments, and discernment of certain matters.
- JLAM meeting on 1st February so that all Quakers in London might listen to each other and share our hopes, fears and reservations about a single London Area Meeting - in worship under the care of Elders, and with no decisions nor minutes.
- At a JLAM meeting on 15th February, we united around a minute to proceed as a single London Area Meeting.
- Further JLAM meetings are planned for 7th June and 4th October and a threshing meeting about the districts proposal is being planned.