Nurturing ideas and actions that interpret and manifest Quaker values for the 21st century, in harmony with kindred spirits from wherever they come.
New Jordans is both a place and an idea
The place is the historic Quaker Meeting House in Jordans in Buckinghamshire, now being restored after a serious fire in March 2005, and home to a worshipping community.
The idea is that New Jordans will nurture and facilitate thinking and activities which embody Quaker values in ways that speak to the world of the 21st century.
Embodying Quaker Values
The connecting thread for all its work will be the values that Friends share with many others. The Quaker aspiration of 'seeking that of God in everyone', and treating them accordingly, finds different manifestations in other traditions, but the values of tolerance, respect, understanding, bringing out the best in people and seeking peaceful solutions to conflict are widely held, and it is these values that will inform everything that New Jordans tries to do.
Thus as well as being a place of worship, New Jordans will seek to engage with the world as we find it and to some of the concerns that arise.
Inspired by and contributing to the work of the Society of Friends worldwide
New Jordans will remain a beautiful and widely known place of worship in the tradition of the Society of Friends, as it has been for most of the time since 1688. It will play as full a part as it can in the development of the work of the Society in the 21st century, both within the UK and internationally.
Reaching out and welcoming, locally, nationally and internationally, to people and concerns.
New Jordans will also reach out beyond the Society, and will be open and welcoming to anyone who wishes to participate, and to such concerns as it can accommodate.
We will actively encourage people to come to enjoy its pleasant atmosphere and beautiful surroundings. From time to time there will be social and cultural events such as open days, concerts, plays and lectures, which will be a focus for this. And it will be a place for peaceful contemplation and renewal for anyone who wishes.
We will also seek to involve people in initiatives and projects that we have initiated, and we will welcome kindred activities that have originated elsewhere.
New Jordans will reach out to the community surrounding it and will aim to become more integral to its life. At the same time we will seek to contribute to work at the national level, both within the Society of Friends and more widely. And we will seek to make connections with Friends worldwide, as well as engaging with broad global concerns, such as anti-slavery, and the UN.
Learning, educating and informing
We intend New Jordans to be a place of learning for us and others, and to be a source of information for anyone who is interested. We seek to learn from all that happens there, and we will aim to educate and inform anyone who comes and is interested.
An Information Centre will explain something of the history of the Society in the UK and beyond, together with the contextual factors that have influenced it over the centuries. There are Friends all over the world and something of their story and context will be told. Many American visitors know New Jordans as the place where William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, is buried and this and the subsequent American tradition will be an important feature.
The Centre will also explain some contemporary activities and projects. The work at the United Nations is one example. Peace and reconciliation and conflict resolution activity will be an important strand. Concerns for the developing world will also be significant.
There will be a library, exhibitions and displays, interactive computer activities and Internet access. And from time to time there will be organised events, initiated by New Jordans or by others. These may be workshops, retreats, school visits, or any other format, constrained only by the limited residential facilities currently available at the nearby Youth hostel.
Enriching, complementing and collaborating with others engaged in related endeavours
We do not seek to compete with or duplicate the endeavours of others, but rather to offer what we can do well and collaborate wherever we can achieve more together than separately.
Initiating, facilitating, nurturing and welcoming activities and people.
We will start some activities ourselves. Some will be led by others, but we may contribute in some ways. We will welcome and support these in whatever way we can.
Informed by the past, active in the present, working for the future
Through all the above we seek to make a positive difference to the present and future of world in which we live.. We will draw on the lessons of the past wherever these can illuminate and inform what we do, and assist others in doing the same.
Businesslike in everything.
We will undertake all the above in a business like manner, employing the best current practice and in accordance with the principles of the Society of Friends..
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