Issue 05-08-2022
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Daniel Clarke Flynn takes his choice
From an early age, I heard the advice ‘Be yourself’ but didn’t have a clue what that meant. All I knew about myself is what others told me, particularly those who used the words, ‘you should’ or ‘you must’. I was never asked what I wanted. I was told...
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Ill, at ease: Barrie Mahoney on dealing with terminal cancer
Following my ‘Travelling hopefully’ article (13 May), I have received a number of emails, enquiries and comments asking for more information about how I am dealing with my terminal illness. They usually ask if I am having counselling or other support. My answer is that I usually find what I need...
Through the eyes of the children: a lament
We were taught to look for the good in everyone. But when your eyes are filled with the blood of your brothers; your ears echo with the cries of your sisters; your head overwhelmed with numbers beyond counting of splinters of dreams scattered profusely over broken pavements, how then are...
Evil’s advocate: Clive Gordon reads from Isaiah
In Isaiah 45:7 God says, ‘I make peace, and create evil’ (King James Version). Startling, no? Both ‘peace’ and ‘evil’ do carry a broad connotation in the Hebrew original, which leads to wide variations in translation (the general context of this chapter is of war, suggesting that the word evil here...
Assuring witness: Melanie Jameson on criminal justice work
You may be wondering what has happened to Quaker criminal justice work. Wasn’t it being laid down? And wasn’t there rather a fuss about it at Meeting for Sufferings? ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’. This time last year, Quakers in Criminal Justice (QICJ) learned that, due to restructuring, our work...
Stopping traffic: Charlotte Ward on modern slavery
In May, Boston Meeting hosted a talk on modern slavery. We had two very interesting speakers, both of whom clearly felt very passionate about their subject.
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BYM joins calls to end closure of Gaza
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has joined calls for the UK government to take urgent action to end the blockade of Gaza.
Friends mark Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day
Central England Quakers are preparing for their annual Coventry Hiroshima Remembrance at Coventry Cathedral. Now in its thirty-fifth year, the service will be live-streamed from the nave of Coventry Cathedral on 6 August. The day is to mark the seventy-seventh anniversary since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima – and...
Play to mark Hiroshima wins award
The Quaker actor and playwright Michael Mears has won an award for his play based on the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Stratford Quakers house Ukrainian refugees
Quakers in Stratford-upon-Avon have welcomed a Ukrainian family to the warden’s flat at their Meeting house. The accommodation became vacant in April following the death of the warden. The family – husband, wife and teenage son – arrived in mid-July through the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Woodbrooke talks of ‘period of significant change’
The Quaker study centre Woodbrooke has issued a statement signalling ‘a period of significant change’. Describing how ‘the pandemic has changed Woodbrooke irrevocably’, the statement published on 28 July says that ‘new challenges have brought long-standing issues of financial sustainability into sharp focus’.
Conversation piece: Terry Faull meets a sceptic
It all began with a casual conversation. Most of us have had one of these, often with someone to whom we have just been introduced. But in this one, after the usual exchanges of ‘Where do you live’, and ‘What do you do?’, came: ‘I understand you are a Quaker....
Safe keeping: Abigail Maxwell on radical vulnerability
The Quaker Meeting is not a safe space. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Here, we meet God in ourselves and others, which may change us. The door is open, and Jesus’ brothers and sisters may come in: hungry, sick, convicted.
Letters - 05 August 2022
From heads to hearts I really enjoyed Michael Saunders’ ‘Back from the Dead’ (8 July). Whenever I reflect on ‘Death of God’ theology I am, in a very roundabout way, reminded of those words of Eckhart von Hochheim: ‘I pray to God, to rid me of God’. In so many ways...