In July we held our Yearly Meeting, an opportunity for us to meet and worship together, to catch up with old friends, and to look at the state of our society.  The State of the Society address, given by Sheila Keane, is included in this issue.  We also have reflections on the Yearly Meeting from three of those who attended – Wilma Davidson tells of the joy and exhaustion of working with the Junior Young Friends, Gregg Heathcote tells us about his first Yearly Meeting, and Martin Fallding reminds us of the importance of Yearly Meeting for isolated Friends.

Yearly Meeting is an opportunity to look inward – to celebrate the lives of Members who have died, to draw on the wisdom of the Backhouse lecturer, to look at our structures and the work of our committees.  But this leads us to then look outward  – the consider the spread of militarism in our country, to give thought to how to support our First Nations people, to hear of the work of Quaker Service Australia, to see how we are led to support refugees and other persecuted people, to agonise over the care of our planet.  Many of these themes are also taken up in this issue.

Once again we urge Friends to let us know what is happening in their lives and in their meetings.  Being based in Sydney, the committee particularly welcomes news from smaller meetings and from other Regional Meetings.

Jigadee Creek at Avondale