The Area Meeting is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation formally established as a registered charity in September 2021 with its principal office at the Friends Meeting House in Huddersfield.
It represents the five local meetings in Bradford, Halifax, Hebden Bridge, Huddersfield and Scholes.
“The Area Meeting’s role is to develop and maintain a community of Friends, a family of local meetings who gather for worship and spiritual enrichment.”
Quaker Faith and Practice 4.02
The Area Meeting’s objectives as set out in the Governing Document are as follows:
- strengthening the life and witness of Quaker meetings both in the area of Brighouse West Yorkshire Area Meeting and beyond,
- spreading the message of Quakers and interpreting and developing the thought and practice of the Religious Society,
- undertaking Quaker service for the relief of suffering at home and abroad,
- funding the concerns that Quaker meetings in the area of Brighouse West Yorkshire Area Meeting or beyond have adopted or agreed to support,
- providing for the pastoral care of individual members and attenders including assistance to those in need and for education,
- maintaining and developing Quaker meeting houses as places for public worship and from which to carry our witness into the world,
- administering and maintaining the organisation of Brighouse West Yorkshire Area Meeting and contributing to the support of Britain Yearly Meeting.
The trustees support the Area Meeting in complying with the law relating to property, employment, etc., and in satisfying the requirements of the Charity Commission. To help with this they have created policies to describe how the Area Meeting deals with a variety of issues. The following policies are available to download as PDF files:
Each year the trustees report on the activities and the finances of the Area Meeting. The following copies of the Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts are available to download as PDF files:
The trustees of the Area Meeting are responsible for the three Meeting Houses and burial grounds in Bradford, Huddersfield, and Scholes. The Friends Meeting House in Halifax was sold some years ago and Halifax Local Meeting now hires a room for their meetings from the current owners of the building. In addition, there are three historic burial grounds without adjacent buildings.