Light Groups

What is a Light group?

Simply put, a Light group is a group of people who meet to practise Experiment with Light together and witness the work of the Light in each other’s lives. While Experiment with Light can, of course, be practised alone, it is a valuable meditation to do as a regular practice. There is, however, also great benefit in the group experience: trust grows as the group learns to share its experiences openly.

Early Friends found this experience of opening to the Light in groups led to great love between them and enabled them to support each other unconditionally during times of great hardship. In our own time, it has been found that an active Light group in a Meeting can have a profound effect, nourishing and deepening its spiritual life.

There are active Light groups in many places around the world. To join a Light group, contact the relevant Meeting (list below) or contact us. You can also read the Journal which shares people’s experience of working with Experiment with Light.

Join a group

There is already a large number of groups running around the world. If you are interested in joining a group, please get in contact with us.

UK

If you are living in the UK and would like to find out whether there’s a Light group near you, please look at the list of active Light groups. This list is ‘to the best of our knowledge’ so if you spot any errors or omissions please contact us and we’ll update it.

Aylesbury• Aylsham • Banbury and Evesham (2) • Bangor (Wales) • Beccles • Bedford • Birmingham • Bognor Regis • Brighton • Broadstairs • Bury St Edmunds • Cambridge Hartington Grove • Cardiff • Chelmsford • Cheltenham • Chilterns AM • Clacton • Cockermouth • Colchester • Coventry • Darlington • Ely • Exeter • Forest of Dean • Frome • Glasgow • Godalming • Harlow • Harwich • Hebden Bridge •Hereford • Hertford • Hexham • Huddersfield • Inverness • Kendal • Lanark • Leicester (2) • Leigh-on-Sea • Lewes • Littlehampton • Liverpool • Long Sutton • Loughborough • Ludlow • Manchester South • Nairn (near Inverness) •Newcastle• North Somerset • Nottingham • Oakham • Okehampton • Orkney (Kirkwall) • Penzance • Perth • Poole • Saffron Walden • Sheffield Central • Shrewsbury • St Andrews • Stansted • Stourbridge • Swarthmoor • Swindon • Tavistock • Taunton • Telford • Totnes • Truro • Wanstead • Wallingford • Warwick • Watford • Winchester • Worcester • Yealand

Also Possibly: Chester and Canterbury.

North America

Canada
Vancouver Monthly Meeting (British Columbia)

USA
• Cockeysville (Baltimore, Maryland) • Durango Monthly Meeting (Colorado) • Durham (North Carolina) • Green Street (Philadelphia) • Indianapolis (Indiana) • Pima Monthly Meeting (Tuscon, Arizona) • Portland (Oregon) • Richmond (Indiana) • Santa Fe (New Mexico) • Santa Monica (California) • St Cloud – Unitarian (Sartell, Minnesota) • St Paul (Twin Cities, Minnesota) • Swannanoa Valley (North Carolina)

In addition, there are interested Friends in the following locations and your interest might help to start a group: Cincinnati (Ohio), Minneapolis (Minnesota) and West Knoxville Monthly Meeting (Tennessee).

Holding a Light group

There are two ways to get a Light group started:

  1. For one or more of those interested to attend a workshop – information about central workshops can be found on the Events page of the website;
  2. Holding an introductory workshop for your own meeting with a team of people from the Experiment with Light Network already experienced in this work and trained to introduce it to others. If this is of interest, go to the contacts page on the website and ask about arranging a day for your meeting.
    A workshop is an opportunity to experience the meditation for yourself and find out more about its origins. It also gives you guidelines for starting your own Light group, should you decide to do so. Ongoing help and support for Light groups are available from the Experiment with Light Network.

Refer to the Holding a Light group booklet for guidance, questions and counsel.

Reviewing a group

Good Light group practice includes a periodic (preferably at least annual) Light group review. Questions you might like to consider are:

  • Is the meeting-place, whether someone’s home, or a meeting house, still the best place to meet? Is the time of day and day of the week the best for the members who now attend? Are any prevented by either time or place?
  • Who is responsible for hosting and other arrangements? Can this responsibility be better shared out? Is the group able to welcome new members? How is this done? How are newcomers introduced to the process so as to make it clear?
  • Are communications with the Local and Area Meeting clear? Do members of the Local and Area Meetings know the group exists and what it does? Is the presence of the group beneficial to the Meeting as a whole?
    Have you considered making your individual experiences of the group the focus of an Experiment with Light meditation together? This can help us all to see more clearly and share from the heart.
  • It is recommended that the review itself be conducted by way of an Experiment, with a brief preliminary time to agree the way the review will be conducted and who will do what, a meditation, time alone and worship sharing, the only difference from normal practice being that notes pertaining to the Light group’s running can be taken during worship sharing as the basis of a report. The meditation can be adapted from the meditation on the individual or the meditation on the group can be used, whichever meditation is most familiar or agreed by the group.

After the day of the review, the agreed note-taker can circulate the notes (first ensuring that any personal and confidential information is excluded) to all members of the group. Once they are agreed, they may be forwarded to the Quaker meeting Clerk.