Issue 14-01-2022
Featured story
Thought for the Week: John Lampen looks back and fore
At our last Area Meeting worship we remembered a Friend who had recently died at the age of ninety-one. The early nineties is the median length of Quaker lives, judging by the notices in the Friend. I found myself thinking that this means I might have another ten years, and...
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Mystery tour: Moira Fitt investigates some of the mystical roots of Quakerism
The early mystics of the eleventh to fourteenth centuries (and later) were all members of cloistered or monastic communities. This meant being committed to holy living twenty-four hours a day in very simple, prayerful circumstances, often largely enclosed, away from the world outside.
Meeting the challenge: Clive Ashwin calls for some discernment on how we worship
Quaker worship in the UK is, I believe, facing the greatest challenge in its 300-year history. This has arisen from profound and ongoing changes in the media landscape, notably the availability of virtual conferencing systems such as Zoom.
Eye on the needle: Nottingham clerks on vaccine access
It is morally important to vaccinate the whole world as fully and as quickly as possible against Covid-19. Millions are suffering because of lack of fair access to vaccines.
The Quaker Arts Network greeted 2022 with a celebratory concert of songs. John Sheldon was there
We started with ‘We do not own the world’ by Jenny Vickers. This is from a collection of Jenny’s settings of the Advices & queries and was presented as an audio-visual display. There was an uplifting approach to the music with the emphasis on ‘Rejoice in the splendour of...
Making a bundle: William Waddilove on a Quaker parcel project
Christmas is a great time for keeping traditions, and one of ours at Central England Quakers is the Christmas Parcels project. Last year, Covid meant we had to give vouchers but this year we packed 870 parcels.
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Make our hearts warmer, says Quaker Social Action
‘How do we make our hearts warmer?’ is the question we should be asking this year, says Judith Moran, director of Quaker Social Action.
Quaker prison chaplain awarded OBE
A Quaker chaplain for Wandsworth Prison has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Year Honours 2022 list.
BYM appoints two new local development workers
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has appointed two new local development workers (LDWs) to start early in the year. These are Ruth Audus and Melanie Thomas.
Quaker peace group backs Alternative Security Review
Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB) has said that a key priority for 2022 is engaging in the recently-launched Alternative Security Review, aimed at hearing marginalised perspectives.
Friends share sustainable buildings experience
Central England Quakers (CEQ) is sharing its experience of making Meeting houses sustainable with other faith groups. The commitment is one of two key objectives set out by the CEQ Climate Emergency Action group.
World Politics Since 1989, by Jonathan Holslag
The quotation at the beginning of this impressive book indicates a concern for morality: ‘No society is fortunate when its walls are strong while its morals are in ruins.’ Morality forms part of the book because of its connection with economics. In the west, a huge percentage of wealth is...
Of small and cumulative acts
Come gentle Shaper, caress my acts into a quieter fire. I am tired. I have forgotten the music of silent deeds. Sweep me into the threshing floor where corn and chaff are one until the gold begins to light the discerning into the willing stream.
Letters - 14 January 2022
John Macmurray Philip Waywell (10 December 2021) suggests that Quakers take another look at Plato’s ‘forms’ or ‘ideas’. He seems to suggest seeing God as a pointer to the idea or form of the Good rather than the other way round, which I find confusing. More helpful to me was the...