The Swarthmore Lecture has two key purposes: to interpret to Quakers their message and mission and to make the wider public aware of the spirit, the aims, and fundamental principles of Friends.
The Swarthmore Lecture usually takes place each year during Britain Yearly Meeting. The lecture is funded for and organised by Woodbrooke and is an important part of Woodbrooke’s learning programme and has a key place in the life of Quakers in Britain.
If you enjoy the Swarthmore lecture and would like to support Woodbrooke in providing future lectures then please consider making a donation to support this important part of our work.
If you would like to receive updates about the Swarthmore Lecture, please sign up here.
2026 Lecture
We’re delighted to share that Stuart Masters will give the 2026 Swarthmore Lecture, which will take place during Britain Yearly Meeting from 1–4 May. His lecture will focus on the faith and practice of the first Friends and explore how their complex legacy presents Quakers today with a range of challenging choices and dilemmas.
Stuart will explore the diverse mix of characteristics visible in the early Quaker movement that produced several creative tensions which subsequent generations have had to navigate. These include the tensions between inward experience and outward tradition, communal order and individual freedom, the quietist and the charismatic, and the new creation and the world. He will argue that engaging with these issues can help Friends better appreciate the diversity present within the global Quaker family and enable them to discern how to respond to these dilemmas today.
You can read the full announcement here.
2025 Lecture
A Testimony of Community by Emily Provance
In her lecture Emily engaged with the challenge of how people can live and cooperate in community, especially when those communities are not ones that we have chosen. Emily presented a testimony of community drawn from books of discipline used across Friends’ theological spectrum and in many parts of our global community. In her lecture Emily offered a “sense of the meeting,” using the collective wisdom of our immensely diverse Society to suggest how all people—Quaker and not—can survive and thrive as an immensely diverse humankind. Read more about Emily’s Lecture here.
Emily’s lecture took place as part of Britain Yearly Meeting 2025 on Saturday 24 May. You can watch or listen the full recording of the lecture here:
Resources
We have published a resource to accompany Emily’s lecture. This includes an introduction which is a written version of the spoken lecture and all 92 of the minutes written as part of the lecture. You can download a pdf using the links below, there are two versions optimised for you to print on different paper sizes – A4 and US letter size. Please download the version you wish.
Preparing for the Swarthmore Lecture
Interview with Emily Provance
Get to know the 2025 Swarthmore Lecturer, Emily Provance, in conversation with Aled Vernon-Rees, Woodbrooke’s Communications Officer.
Tracing The Threads of Quaker Community
Read Emily’s blog post which shares insights from the research behind her upcoming Lecture, drawing on Quaker texts from across traditions to explore how we live and thrive in community.
Reflecting on the Swarthmore Lecture
The Meaning of Community: Exploring the 2025 Swarthmore Lecture
We are offering four in-person workshops, led by Emily Provance, that build on the themes of her 2025 Swarthmore Lecture. Throughout the day, Emily will guide participants in exploring the meaning of Quaker community and its central role in Quaker theology and spiritual life.
Find out more and book your place for Leeds (21 June), Coventry (28 June), Bristol (5 July) and Edinburgh (12 July)
Past Lectures
The lecture series has been running for over a hundred years, having started in 1908.
See details of past lecturers and access video and audio recordings here
The publications relating to past lectures can found in local Quaker meeting libraries or be purchased from the Quaker Centre Bookshop.
About the Swarthmore Lecture
Each year there is a spoken lecture and supporting publication, as well as usually audio and video recording and in recent years live streaming of the lecture. Those giving the lecture often lead courses at Woodbrooke to allow in-depth exploration of the subject explored in the lecture.
The Lecture is funded by Woodbrooke and overseen and supported by staff and the Swarthmore Lecture Committee. The committee is responsible for discerning lecturers and topics. It considers Friends who may have a message for the Yearly Meeting and issues of concern and interest to Friends or which bring Quaker witness, faith and practice to a wider audience. The committee considers names put forward by Friends, relevant themes, and its own leadings.
If you would like to suggest a lecturer and/or theme, please download and complete the Swarthmore Lecture Proposal Form.
Further Information
For more information about the Swarthmore Lecture contact Simon Best, Head of Programmes & Partnerships. Email: simon.best@woodbrooke.org.uk
