During the 21st century, Quakers in Britain have renewed their historic witness on mental health with conferences, workshops, publications, and films. In 2015 they formed a Quaker Mental Health Group, consisting of Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs, Quaker Disability Equality Group, Quaker Life (focused on the quality of Quaker meetings), the York Retreat, the Retreat Benevolent Fund, Woodbrooke, and Young Friends General Meeting. Although this grouping is not currently active, in 2023 a comparatively new and very active group called Quaker Voices on Mental Health (QVoMH) achieved Quaker Recognised Body (QRB) status.
But in April 2025, the QVoMH Steering Group wrote to all approximately 200 QVoMH members about the need for a non-temporary clerk (or clerks), together with the need for increased capacity to contribute to several key Steering Group roles, by December, in order to keep QVoMH going. Now in 2026, and in spite of consistent efforts by the QVoMH Nominations Group and the Steering Group, QVoMH is still without a newly appointed Clerk (or clerks), and still without increased capacity. Consequently the organisation is now on ‘Pause’ (although the Special Interest Groups and the 'Welcome the Month' online worship continue). The ‘Pause’ is expected to last until our Annual General Meeting in the autumn, when either a permanent Clerk(s) with paid admin support will take over; or QVoMH will be laid down.
During 2025 we learned that Friends would also like to see more of a networked connection developing, perhaps reminiscent of the Quaker Mental Health Group, between everyone working to support mental health, wellbeing and mental illness across BYM. And we were increasingly aware of the rise in mental illness, often in relation to traumas of many sorts, especially among children and young people.
Of course the Steering Group hopes that QVoMH will be able to pick up after the ‘Pause’. But much of what we have been doing to try and recruit a new Clerk and more capacity to keep Quaker Voices going, and continue to deliver our current programme, has clearly not worked. Now it is time to try something different.
So following the ‘Pause’, will QVoMH resume in some way? This paper suggests one way forward, re-defining QVoMH itself as a very different, exciting new project.
During 2025, a recurring thread in conversations and discussions with Friends, was this question: “How can Quaker bodies involved in mental health work more closely together?" And a recurring thought, drawn as much from QVoMH history as from the 2025 situation, involved a radical change, as follows.
The current network of QVoMH members might be expanded, transitioning into a much wider network of all Quaker voices and organisations whose work and interests relate to mental health in some way. This could involve linking together the many Quaker Recognised Bodies where mental health matters, together with all Quaker meetings (Local, Area, ‘Quarterly’, non-geographic, central staff, even international), in relation to mental health. Offering resources and support newly recruited from a very much wider field, this new project would be fundamentally about working in partnership with others, aiming to develop a new and sustainable network through which all Quakers could be supported to speak up and work for mental health, across the Society of Friends, and beyond. But such a transition calls for vision, purpose and capacity.
Our QVoMH Constitution, originally adopted in March 2023, already describes us as “a national network of Quakers who have a concern for mental health and wellbeing. We want to see mental health services reformed in ways that are true to Quaker testimonies and grounded in experience and action. We believe this is central to our corporate Quaker witness. The network will also offer safe opportunities for Friends to explore their own mental health, creativity and spirituality”. This vision continues to underpin the way forward proposed here, no longer referring just to current QVoMH members, but now to other groups of Friends across BYM with differing primary concerns (for instance Quakers in Criminal Justice, the Quaker Disability Equality Group, or Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs). For all these groups and many more, mental health and wellbeing underpins their work. Could this new Quaker Voices on Mental Health project develop a sustainable network to connect and support them all?
We have an inward and an outward vision for our service: both inner (for mental and spiritual health and wellbeing within ourselves, when we deepen our relationships and connection with others through Special Interest Groups, Welcome the Month and other activities where we can meet, and share in the moment); and outer, where we influence and support the work for mental health of Local and Area Meetings, Britain Yearly Meeting, other Quaker Recognised Bodies, and beyond.
One might argue that our purpose would be to try something different, simply in order to survive; but that isn’t enough. Our stated purpose in publishing our book ‘Quaker Voices on Mental Health’ was “to bring before Friends the urgent need for a renewed focus on mental health within the work of Britain Yearly Meeting”. That purpose remains. And now, transitioning to this wider perspective would be timely, building on the expanding awareness among Friends of mental health issues brought by the book’s publication and distribution in 2025. The new project would continue to work for a renewed focus on mental health within the work of Britain Yearly Meeting, building a mutually supporting network available to all aspects of Quaker Life and Quaker Recognised Bodies, underpinning our corporate Quaker witness. Significantly within this purpose lies having the capacity to continue offering, developing and supporting safe opportunities for Friends to explore their own mental health, creativity and spirituality.
That brings us to capacity. How could we do this, when at this point we can’t even keep going as we are? We have discovered over the course of 2025 that, for a variety of entirely understandable reasons, our QVoMH membership is not able to volunteer significant increased capacity to take on roles; nor to generate sufficient finances to pay others to do so.
At the heart of QVoMH’s current situation is the need for a new Clerk(s), willing to take over in the autumn at the end of the ‘Pause’. If there is no new Clerk(s) by then, QVoMH will be laid down. What can be done differently, to make it possible to recruit a new Clerk(s) between now and then?
We know from past experience that having a paid Administrator is critically important for this particular organisation. This is because the membership is largely made up of Friends with ongoing involvement in mental health that rules out capacity to undertake significant roles. But for any prospective new Clerk(s), the guarantee of a partnership with a paid Administrator changes the ‘job description’. In 2025 the role of the Clerk was mainly administrative, and that would no longer be the case. The role would become creative and exciting; challenging in a very different and much more satisfying way. This would be about developing a new QVoMH Network in mutual partnership with others working for mental health and wellbeing across the Society of Friends.
In order eventually to emerge from the ‘Pause’ with our vision, purpose and capacity intact, what needs doing? There are three tasks, all do-able by the members of the current QVoMH Steering Group and QVoMH Nominations Group, with members’ occasional support as needed. These are:
Action on the first two tasks is well under way. Pending outcomes, the third requires the involvement of the new Clerk(s). But once the first two elements are in place this could be achieved in time for the autumn AGM. This is when we hope to transition out of the ‘Pause’ and into the new project of a wider QVoMH Network.
If this proposal gains traction, details will need to be worked out. But for example, activities might include support for Elders and Pastoral Care Friends who are facing issues relating to mental health in their meetings; offering advice to Local Meetings on how they can become more dementia-friendly; supporting the development of a variety of new Special Interest Groups as the need and interest for them emerges; maybe even developing Quaker advocacy for groups and individuals that are marginalised through mental ill-health.
This project’s input will be a new partnership of QVoMH Clerk and Administrator. The outcome will be a new and sustainable network that connects and supports Friends, their meetings and organisations across BYM in relation to mental health. The impact of the project will be a renewed focus on mental health within the work of Britain Yearly Meeting, building a mutually supporting mental health network available to all Friends, to all aspects of Quaker Life and Quaker Recognised Bodies, underpinning our corporate Quaker witness.
RR, March 2026
A copy of this paper can be downloaded as a PDF file here.