District
The Taranaki Province from Mokau in the north of Hawera in the south. Taranaki Monthly Meeting was established as from 1 January 2018. Prior to that the Taranaki Worship Group formerly the Taranaki Recognised Meeting was attached to the Whanganui and Taranaki Monthly Meeting. The Taranaki Monthly Meeting was disestablished on 31 December 2022. This is an archival copy of the Taranaki pages and activities.
Contacts
refer to Whanganui Monthly Meeting pages
Weekly Meetings for Worship and fellowship
Despite the disestablishment of the Monthly Meeting for administration, Friends in taranaki continue to meet on a regular basis. Refer to Taranaki Worship Group under Local pages or under Whanganui Montly Meeting for details.
Historically: on the second Sunday of each month a meeting was usually held at a public venue and is open to all comers. Note this is suspended at present so please contact the Clerk above for the meeting venue in a private home. Or look for an online meeting for worship to join under Connect/ Find an on-line Meeting,
The meeting venue is at the Community House 32 Leach Street in the CBD from 3:00pm.
We begin with refreshments and fellowship, with time to answer any questions from newcomers, followed by an hour of Silent Worship in the manner of Friends (Quakers).
We wish our meetings to be as inclusive as possible:
- Off street parking and disabled access is provided.
- No vaccination certificate is required to attend but Friends are asked to be mindful of the welfare of others and not attend if you are unwell or having cold or flu symptoms or been in recent contact with someone who has symptoms.
- There is enough space in the hall for social distancing.
- Masks are optional but wearing a mask is advised for vulnerable individuals.
- Children are welcome but please contact the Clerk ahead to arrange for supervision so that the parents can attend the full meeting. Text or phone 027 295 0435.
The Meetings for Worship on the first and third Sundays of each month are usually in New Plymouth and held in private homes from 10:00am on Sundays for morning tea, fellowship and silent worship.
The fourth Sunday is usually held in South Taranaki. COVID restrictions permitting, we meet at the Elizabeth R Rest Home, Stratford.
When there is a fifth Sunday, the meeting is arranged to be especially family friendly with child centred activities provided.
Online meetings
During the COVID lockdowns, Meetings in New Zealand were conducted via Zoom.
Several Meetings continue to offer meetings for worship through Zoom and anyone is welcome to join.
Click here to view a list of the online meetings and contact details.
Monthly Business meetings
Taranaki Monthly Meeting was an autonomous body of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Aotearoa New Zealand anda registered charity. It held meetings to discuss and make decisions on the first Sunday of each month. Some of the topics are supplied by the national body called the Yearly Meeting through a Yearly Meeting Clerk's Letter sent to all monthly meetings and other topics are local matters. All members and regular Attenders are encouraged to attend and all have equal say in the business meeting.
Monthly Meeting is at 11:00am on the 1st Sunday (except January) following Meeting for Worship. Fellowship time and morning tea is at 10:00am.
Monthly Meeting is usually held in the clerk's home or another Friend. Contact the Clerk for confirmation.
Quaker Action Network Discussion Group
A monthly discussion group on topics of interest to members was a new activity for 2019. It was held in Waitara during the week at times to be advised. Contact Anne for details 021 211 9489.
During COVID-19 Lockdown discussion was held weekly via Zoom.
During 2020 the group became more proactive on Maori Wards and environmental action.
Spiritual Nurture Group
In 2020 we began a Spiritual Nurture group. From August it was based on a Woodbrooke online course.
In 2021, the group focused on the Bible as a Resource uisng material provided by Elizabeth Duke of Dunedin Monthly Meeting.
In 2022, the group continues to meet monthly. The facilitator is Margy-Jean. Contact clerk@tn.quakers.nz for more details and to join.
Quaker Circle for the Quaker Curious
A Quaker Circle is an outreach meeting held on 2nd Sundays of the month in New Plymouth. New comers are especially welcome. The venue is the Community Hall at 32 Leach Street, CBD New Plymouth. Time 3:00-4:30pm. We start with afternoon tea and a welcome to newcomers with a brief introduction to Quakers and fellowship. This is followed by Quaker Silence and sharing. No need to ring, just come along.
Other Activities
Over the new Year in 2016-17 and again in 2018-19, Quakers in Taranaki hosted the Summer Gathering of Friends for 7 days at Vertical Horizon, Inglewood. 140 Friends aged between 10 months and 93 years from all over New Zealand and also visitors from Canada, USA and the UK enjoyed a varied programme of talks, discussions, activities, music, dancing and walks.
We celebrate World Quaker Day on October 6
- 2018 we celebrated with a Quaker Chocolate cake and morning tea and then gave donations of home baking and produce to the New Plymouth Men's Overnight Shelter.
- 2019 we enjoyed morning tea and a visitor from Richmond Meeting in the UK, Mary Russell. To support the theme of sustainability, we launched a project to grow native trees from found seedlings to plant out at a later date.
- 2020 we provided a food hamper to New Plymouth Men's Overnight Shelter
- 2021 we invited members of the Bahai Faith Community to share our Silent Worship and talk about the beliefs of each group.
History
Taranaki was originally part of the Wellington Six Monthly Meeting covering the lower North Island and later the Wellington Monthly Meeting which formed in 1912.
From 1932 to 2017 Taranaki was part of the Whanganui-Taranaki Monthly Meeting, for many years as a Recognised Meeting but in the last decades operating mostly as a Worship Group.
In the summer of 2016-2017 Taranaki Friends hosted Summer Gathering which brought our isolated group closer to other Friends from all over New Zealand. During 2017 Taranaki Quakers held a series of workshops to learn about the structure of the Society in New Zealand and to discern how we wished to participate in the future. For various reasons, including environmental concerns about fossil fuel use to attend Monthly Meetings in Whanganui (a two hour drive away), we decided that it was time to step up and play a full part in the Society by taking on the responsibility of becoming a monthly meeting serving Taranaki members. Correspondingly we put our request to the December Monthly Meeting in Whanganui who agreed with the formation of two new monthly meetings. This was approved by Yearly Meeting in early 2018 to be effective from 1 January 2018. Our first projects were to begin an Outreach programme by hiring a public venue at the Adult Literacy Rooms in Liardet Street, New Plymouth for an advertised monthly public meeting; and to host the 2018-19 Summer Gathering in Inglewood, Taranaki.
By mid 2022, most of the original founding group of the Taranaki Monthly meeting had either died, moved out of the district or were limited by ailments. The Taranaki meeting had recruited new attenders through its outreach activities and two Friends had transferred to Taranaki from other meetings so the numbers actively attending had remained very much the same. Two worship groups were opreating one in new Plymouth and one in Stratford and Meetings for Worship were being held every Sunday. Of particulary interest to Friends was teh active Spiritual Nurture programme which Friends were keen to continue. When the clerk, Liz Bridgeman, decided to sell her home in New Plymouth and relocate to Auckland to be closer to her grandchildren recently arrived from the UK, concern about the future viability of running a monthly meeting was expressed. A series of workshops, clerked by the Yearly meeting Clerks, was held by the group to determine the future shape for the meeting. It was decided that to continue to operate as a Monthly Meeting was no longer sustainable. Agreement was reached with Whanganui to reform as a single Taranaki Worship Group under the Whanganui Monthly Meeting. Some of the key reasons for the formation of a separate Monthly Meeting were no longer a block: the prime one being that the establishment of online Zoom meetings during Covid lockdowns which now meant attending the monthly business meetings no longer required a two hour road journey each way which were harmful to the environment.
The application to disband Taranaki Monthly Meeting in order to renuite with Whanganui was presented in the December 2022 Yearly Meeting Clerk's Letter and appoved effective form 1 January 2023.