Welcome to
Quakers in Sutton

This is our meeting house at 10 Cedar Road, Sutton SM2 5DA. Quakers have been meeting in Sutton since 1932. The present meeting house was built in 1970 and comprises a meeting room, children's room, library and kitchen, with parking facilities.

We can provide facilities for the care of children during our meetings if prior notice is given.

The meeting house has good disabled access and an induction loop is installed in the main meeting room.

Rooms are available for hire to outside users. There are three rooms with a capacity of around 70, 30 and 15. We Quakers tend to favour lettings to bodies whose aims are consistent with our own. Alcohol is not permitted on the premises.
Contact number for lettings: 07308 034 969.

How to reach us

• By bus  From the north, east or west alight at Sutton town centre. Walk south past Sutton train station and turn left into Cedar Road (¼ mile from the station). From the south, alight just before Cedar Road
• By train  To Sutton train station. Turn left out of the station, then left into Cedar Road after 400 yards
• By car  Some parking available

See also (each opens in a new window):

• Email contact        
• South London Area Quaker Meeting  for associated Quaker meetings in the same area
• London Quakers  for more about Quaker meetings and activities in Greater London.
• Quakers  for general information about Quakers in Britain and around the world. (our page on that site

Activities

• We have a monthly newsletter which gives details of current events.
• Our resident warden may be contacted on ++++.
• Children's Meeting is held on the first Sunday of each month at 10.30am.
• Tuesday Group meets weekly at 8.00pm covering a wide range of subjects and interests.
• Living Adventurously Group is held on the second Friday of each month at 7.30pm.
• Bible Study Group is held at 8.00pm on the first Friday of every month.
• Quaker Action Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, providing hospitality for elderly people in Sutton.
• The Quaker Steel Band practices every Tuesday morning.
• Twelve O'Clock Slot is held occasionally at 12.00noon after Sunday meeting for worship to discuss relevant issues and concerns.
• From time to time various other meetings and social events take place.

Quaker worship

• Each Sunday we meet in silent waiting. Chairs are set in a circle, round a table on which are placed flowers, copies of the Bible and Quaker Faith and Practice. People sit wherever they wish. Silence may predominate for most of the hour. Usually there is some spoken ministry; perhaps three or four worshippers will be prompted by the Spirit to stand and speak, offering a message to others.
• After an hour, worship is concluded by the shaking of hands. We then hear the notices and share coffee and tea in our library.
• Our silent worship is a waiting upon the Spirit of God. We seek to be open and sensitive to its prompting, which may bring to our lives an appreciation of love, truth and beauty, and a desire to serve.

Quaker organisation

• The Religious Society of Friends has no paid clergy and the administration of local meetings is carried out by members. The main local unit is the Area Meeting. We are part of South London Area meeting within which are five worshipping groups at Croydon, Epsom, Purley, Streatham and Sutton. Area Meeting deals with applications for membership, transfers, records of deaths and appoints elders and overseers within each local meeting. Elders are responsible for the spiritual nurture of the meeting, overseers for the pastoral care of its members.
• A week or so before Area Meeting, we hold a local business meeting when we manage our week-by-week affairs and activities, links with other Quaker and non-Quaker bodies and our own finances.
• Nationally, we are part of the Britain Yearly Meeting, the executive committee of which has the remarkable name "Meeting for Sufferings" (in the early days its role was to support Friends who were suffering for their faith).
• Internationally, the many Yearly Meetings throughout the world are held together loosely by the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC).
• The financial needs of the Society are met by contributions. Most members and many regular attenders make an annual donation. Boxes are also available on Sunday mornings for contributions to the local and national work of the Society.
• Quaker business meetings have a characteristic form. We begin and end with worship. The business is presented by the clerk whose task is then to ascertain "the sense of the meeting" and to embody this in a written minute. Only when the minute is accepted by all present can the item be concluded. There is no voting, we seek unity, not consensus or majority rule.

Quaker faith

• Although the Religious Society of Friends is rooted in Christianity and has always found inspiration in the life and teachings of Jesus, we have a very positive view of the insights of other faiths and welcome others to share in our Meetings for Worship.
• We value the Bible and other devotional writings that help us to understand the ways of God. We view the books of the Bible in the context of the time they were written and in the light of modern scholarship.
• Friends do not adhere to any formal creed, believing that faith is dynamic. Each of us may have a direct experience of the presence of the Spirit; in this we may glimpse some part of the truth about God. The silence of our Meetings for Worship provides an opportunity for a corporate awareness of this Spirit.
• We believe that the whole of our worship - indeed all our lives - should be sacramental and therefore we do not believe that outward sacraments such as baptism and communion are necessary.
• Rather than being too concerned with any particular theological emphasis, we seek to find the relevance of the Christian message for our times, aiming for love in action.
• Friends are encouraged to work together with other Christian Churches as well as those of other faiths in a spirit of co-operation, believing that no one group has sole access to the truth and that we should be open to the light from whatever source it may come.

Further information

• Sutton Meeting House has a well stocked library which includes books on Quaker faith, practice and history as well as on other faiths and concepts.
• An information pack may be obtained free from Quaker Life, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.
• "Quaker Faith and Practice" is a book first published in 1738 and revised about every generation. The current edition was published in 1995. It is an anthology of writings by Friends over 300 years and covers a wide range of experiences. It also contains Advices and Queries (i.e. guidance for daily living) and details of Quaker business methods.
• See also the central website of Quakers in Britain.