Culture Articles
The Black Book: The Britons on the Nazi Hitlist, by Sybil Oldfield
Learning how to recognise the seeds of conflict and of peace is vital to Friends. Learning from history is an essential part of the process. In the late 1930s, while parliament considered allying with Germany to defeat communism (the greater threat, as some saw it), the Nazi party prepared a...
Poetry for Christmas
‘Asylum seekers’ Poem by Rainbows Children’s Meeting Mother and child are fleeing in the night. The brutal soldiers search for them behind, And in the sky ahead, the stars are bright. The tired donkey follows Joseph’s light, ...
The counsel of trees
Live adventurously. When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts in the service of God and the community ? Let your life speak. When decisions have to be made, are you ready to join with others in seeking clearness, asking...
Islam: Context and complexity, by Paul Stenhouse
Paul Stenhouse came into prominence because of the work he did on medieval Samaritan texts. That work required research into Middle Arabic, on the grammar of which he became an authority. He was also fluent in contemporary Arabic and Hebrew, so he was in a good position to write about...
Poem: Rare Bird, a glosa for RS Thomas
Grey waters, vast as an area of prayer that one enters. Daily over a period of years I have let the eye rest on them. Was I waiting for something? ...
Respect, compiled by the anti-bullying team at Ilkley Grammar School
During dark days we all need to hear positive messages. This short book describes an anti-bullying team at a Yorkshire comprehensive school made up of students and three staff. They describe themselves as ‘passionate about our role… because… bullying can have a hugely devastating impact on young people’s...
Iris Murdoch: A guide to the novels, by Peter Whitfield
The difference between a religious and a non-religious person is not a question of what one believes, where one belongs, or how well one behaves, but whether one prays. Here’s Iris Murdoch talking about Immanuel Kant: ‘Surely, prayer (or something like it) is as essential as duty; and is...
A History of the Bible: The book and its faiths, by John Barton
Two religions, Judaism and Christianity, draw their basic convictions from the Bible, yet each draws very different key ideas from the material they cherish.
Conversations with a Blank Canvas by Isa Levy
Who is Isa L Levy? Difficult to define. Her brave memoir, Conversations with a Blank Canvas, explores the decades of her life from actor to artist, to arts psychotherapist, with many more labels in between. In 1998 she walked through the doors of her first Quaker Meeting after a chance encounter...
InnSæi, directed by Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir and Kristín Ólafsdóttir
I was recently prompted to watch Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir’s and Kristín Ólafsdóttir’s film and was immediately engaged and inspired. InnSæi is the Icelandic word for intuition. It means ‘the sea within’, like the borderless nature of our inner world, or it can mean ‘to see within’,...