Issue 07-01-2022
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Jennifer Kavanagh re-reads Thomas Kelly
I have been re-reading the American Quaker, Thomas Kelly. Not the much-loved A Testament of Devotion but the less familiar The Eternal Promise, a series of essays written between 1936 and 1940. Writing in a world on the edge and in the early days of war, Kelly knew well what it is...
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Country pursuits: Helen Minnis wants a rethink on how we refer to other nations
One Saturday last month, a group of Glasgow Quakers gathered in the pouring sleety rain to do some gardening in Gilshochill. Gilshochill (pronounced Gilshie-Hill) is known as a ‘materially deprived’ part of Glasgow, and this group meets once a month to tend a beautiful garden, orchard and labyrinth that has...
A year of climate campaigning: What Rob Paton learned
I had been a ‘greenie’ for years, but not heard about Carbon Fee & Dividend (also known as Climate Income) until a Friend told me about it a couple of years ago. I visited the website of Citizens Climate Lobby UK – and wow! So simple. An arrangement that would turbo-charge...
Making a scene: Tedd George tells of his father’s quest to build Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre
On 9 November 2021, Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. On the same day, my sister and I published Stirring Up Sheffield: An insider’s account of the battle to build the Crucible Theatre. The book is based on the manuscript written by our late father, Colin George, who was...
Lover of Souls, by Journeyman Theatre
Don’t Journeymen Theatre come up with surprises for us all? Perhaps their best known play on a Quaker theme is Red Flag over Bermondsey, but there’s so much more in their body of work. Friends and guests flocked to Kingston Quaker Centre last month to watch a performance...
Conference calls: Richard Seebohm reports from Faith in Europe
The European Union is running a Conference on the Future of Europe, to finish in spring 2022. Contributions are invited from anyone who has a case to make, not only from within the EU.
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Quakers lobby for anti-nuclear ban
2021 got off to a positive start when the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was ratified.
Quakers rally for COP26
2021 was dominated by the twenty-sixth UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), with witness and discernment leading up to the gathering. Friends started preparing early with pilgrimages, relays, banner-making and art, including the Loving Earth project and the Pilgrimage for COP26, organised by Jonathan Baxter, who attends Glasgow Meeting.
New Yorkshire centre opens
Last year saw the first national Quaker centre open outside London for decades. The Quakers in Britain Yorkshire Centre opened in September as Friends continued the shift towards more local working.
Lobbying, protest and witness
Friends continued their witness last year with more taking part in Extinction Rebellion (XR) action, as well as Insulate Britain and youth climate strikes. In a year where the fundamental principle of protest came under threat with the imminent policing bill, Quakers took to the street to act out their...
Greenham remembered
The Quaker contribution to the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp was remembered in 2021 as peace campaigners celebrated its fortieth anniversary
Letters - 7 January 2022
Vaccine discrimination I applaud our Society’s commitment to stand against discrimination of all kinds but what about discrimination against the unvaccinated? It’s a hugely divisive subject and Quakers will be as divided on it as any other group. What I’m asking is an ethical question. NHS doctors...