Reviews Articles
Exploring doubt
The cover of a book does not usually influence me but I admit to being immediately moved by this one. It shows a photograph of a lowering, open sky and the hauntingly bleak, flat marshes of the north Norfolk coastline: wild, wet and wind-swept, beloved of artists, walkers, bird-watchers and...
The Quaker business tradition
Ten years ago I came to Quakers as a direct result of repeatedly hearing, over the years I was in business, that there were famous businesses of yesteryear run by a group of people called Quakers, who were leaders in industrial innovation and driven by their religious fervour. These businesses...
Feast or famine?
‘Food for myself is a material issue: Food for my neighbour is a spiritual issue.’ - Leo Tolstoy A small, easy to read book, Feast or Famine? How the Gospel challenges austerity, came to me at a time when most of us in Britain were celebrating the Christmas period, and...
Faith in politics? A testimony to equality
Catherine West is a Labour MP and a former leader of Islington council in London. With Islington councillor Andy Hull, she has written Faith in politics? A testimony to equality ‘a call to action, to encourage us as Quakers to own the challenge of inequality, offering civic leadership in all...
The silent cry
The mystic, I believe, is not a special kind of person; but every person is a special kind of mystic. Some people often suspect that mysticism is for weirdoes. On the whole the conventional churches of every faith do not like it, for it takes its authority not from church...
Chrysalis
The background for the early memories of Jane Simmons, the teen heroine of Chrysalis, Sue Parritt’s latest book, is the ‘swinging sixties’. Sue, who became a member of Bournemouth Meeting in Hampshire in 1967 at the age of sixteen and has worshipped with Australian Friends since 1970, has a strong Quaker...
Taking a stand
There have been many responses to the centenary of the first world war and it is worth reflecting, at this time of remembrance, on the distinctive perspective offered by Quakers.
Marcus Borg and God
Borg, Marcus Borg. I met him about six years ago. He was introduced to me by a Friend from another Meeting when we were on a course at Woodbrooke – and it was love at first sight! Well, not quite ‘sight’ as he wasn’t there in person. The Friend recommended...
A long way down
The title poem of Averil Stedeford’s The Long Way Down: Poems of Grief and Hope sets the tone for this recently published collection of poetry. It is simple, explicit and accessible, yet contains personal and poignant truths.
George Jacob Holyoake
In 1842 George Jacob Holyoake became the last person in this country to be convicted of blasphemy in a public lecture, delivered at the Cheltenham Mechanics Institute. In reply to a question from the audience, he had wondered that, in view of the cost of the church, whether we were not...