Reviews Articles
Yes to the troops, no to the wars
Yes to the troops, No to the wars: Quaker House, 40 Years of front-line peace witness by Chris McCallum. Fayetteville, NC: Quaker House. ISBN: 0-945177-51-8. $15.95. Quakers have an interesting history: mostly middle to upper middle class, they have recently had relatively little contact with the working class world...
From sea to the Oval Office
HMS Resolute and how she prevented a war: from the Canadian Arctic to the President’s desk by Elizabeth Matthews. Auxilium ab Alto Press. ISBN 978 0 155203 96 3. £9.99. Did you wonder why Barack Obama was taking his place in the Oval Office behind the ‘Resolute desk’? This novel of historical fiction provides...
A personal portrait of India
Ashram Diary by Thomas Matus. O Books. ISBN: 978 1846941 61 0. £11.99. Diaries and journals have a particular attraction. Informality, intimacy, and immediate impressions open up the writer’s mind and heart to the page. These diaries cover the years from 1984 to 2004, years during which Matus, a Benedictine monk from the New...
What does ‘God’s will’ really mean?
This is a book about discernment, how we use the experience of God as a guide to living our lives and making decisions, both as individuals and as Quaker Meetings.
YMG showing for student’s film
A new kind of growth
Twitter Friends of mine will know that I arrived a day late at the table. It took me some time to orientate myself, and understand some of the complexities of Yearly Meeting Gathering. The rest will no doubt follow in good time. Still, like the labourers in the vineyard, in...
The life you can save
On your way to work you pass an unaccompanied toddler, drowning in a shallow pond. ‘Wading in is safe and easy, but you will ruin your new shoes… get your suit wet and muddy… and be late for work.’ Practically everyone would agree that you have a moral duty to...
Food, Friends and Fellowship
Food, Friends and Fellowship begins with a little about Quakers and sharing, then starts like any good meal with a grace. The introduction is followed by the recipes in sections: first we get ‘sweet things’ and then ‘savouries and things’; the savouries section being subdivided into soups, salads, fish, meat...
Quiet sensibility and unobtrusive skill
The Cinder Path by Andrew Motion. Faber and Faber. ISBN: 978 057124 492 8. £12.99.
Allotments are back in fashion!
Judy Kirby recalls the Allotment Committee’s work from 1926 to 1946 and Molly Scott Cato looks at the current Stroud Cooperative Agriculture project