Arts Articles
Gathering - an exhibition of painting and poetry in Lewes
The Hop Gallery in the East Sussex town of Lewes is an ideally light and airy exhibition space for ‘Gathering’, a collaborative venture where the work of three creative Quakers can be seen from 6 to 21 November. The exhibition has been staged by Ann Johnson and developed around twenty-five of her...
Quaker thought in poetry
I’m a Quaker and I’m a poet. Both of these aspects of who I am are full-time. They’re not always compatible. There are things I write that I wouldn’t submit to a Quaker publication. There are facets of my Quakerism that don’t go into my...
Quaker thought in literature
Meetings
Talk and tango
Talk Together, a new initiative, met for its inaugural conference this August in Oxford. Aimed at teaching students conflict resolution skills and providing a forum for students from either side of a conflict to come together, I was lucky enough to attend as a ‘neutral’ student. As a group of...
Three special places
Not so far from my home in Stafford are three special places. Special because they give genuine worth and dignity to the lives of particular individuals, and in so doing give meaning to all our lives. Cannock Chase’s German War Cemetery, Commonwealth Cemetery and Katyn Memorial are all to...
Jonah on display
When I was invited to give the Bible half hours at New England Yearly Meeting in the summer of 1967, I chose to give my first talk on the Book of Jonah. Apart from the Psalms, Jonah is my favourite part of the Hebrew Bible. Pretty well everybody knows about Jonah...
Leviathan
Multi-weavers
Quaker composer and weaver Nigel Morgan has arranged an afternoon concert of English Renaissance lute songs, featuring works by Thomas Campion, John Dowland and Henry Purcell. The event includes the premiere of his own ‘Improving Silence’, three songs on Quaker texts. Soprano Alice Fox, also a Quaker, will sing, and...
Viva Voting! Viva Zille!
The first South African election of 1994 – after apartheid – is right up there with the fall of the Berlin Wall as one of the mythical events of democratic history: the long queues, the long waits, the good-humoured patience and stoicism, the transcendent joy of a country full of people...