Quaker History

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Doncaster Friends

Meeting House on Oxford Place, off St James Street, Doncaster, South Yorks, DN1 3RS

Click here for map

The Meeting House has its own car park.

Clerks: Sallie Ashe (01302-349006)

Jill Cooper (01709-567279)

Meeting for Worship each Sunday

10.30-11.30am

Silent worship and spoken word.

Theme-based "Worship sharing" last Sunday of month.

Parallel Children's Meeting on 3^rd Sunday of month.

Followed by:

1^st Sunday: Preparative (business) meeting

3^rd Sunday in the Month: shared lunch

Who are we?	Doncaster Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends is one of a number of Quaker meetings throughout the world. The society has a democratic structure based on "meetings for church affairs". We are part of the "Balby Monthly Meeting" which includes Sheffield and Hope Valley Meetings and is itself part of the "Britain Yearly Meeting". There are about 240,000 Quakers worldwide, differing in language and culture, in the form of worship and even in some of our beliefs. What we have in common is our search for a real experience of God's love and power in the everyday world. Quakers believe that everyone may have direct experience of God, and that there is "that of God in everyone". There are no creeds or paid priests and ministers. We meet on a Sunday, for convenience rather than because it is a holier day than any other. Our meeting begins as we sit in the meeting room, gathering together in a silence in which we open ourselves to the love of God and to that of God in each other. The responsibility of the meeting belongs to all; anyone may speak when he or she feels inspired to do so. The belief of "that of God" in everyone has led Quakers to take up causes which support people rejected or neglected by society, to champion freedom of conscience and education, and to oppose war and try to bring about peaceful solutions by mediation and reconciliation.
History	Friends (Quakers) have worshipped in the area since the English Civil War in the middle of the seventeenth century. The "Balby Meeting" which played a strong role in the early growth of the Society in England was held in private houses. The founder of the society, George Fox, and his colleague Thomas Aldham of Balby, were mobbed and imprisoned in Doncaster because of their refusal to accept social differences and the authority of the established Church. The first Balby Meeting House was built on what is now Quaker Lane, Warmsworth (then part of Balby) by the son of Thomas Aldham. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Friends in Doncaster began to meet in a private house in French Gate rather than go to Warmsworth, and in 1800, Friends from Doncaster and Warmsworth moved to a converted barn on the lane from French Gate towards Hexthorpe. In 1975, the meeting moved to its present site as part of the town centre redevelopment.
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