Issue 23-09-2022
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Thought for the week: Joseph Jones’s game theory
One of the things I most cherish about worshipping with Friends is our determination to recognise the sacred in the everyday. Most famously, perhaps, this means we resist designating certain times or events as ‘special’. But the day-to-day search for meaning goes deeper than that. It’s a commitment to...
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Rub of the green: Rebecca Hardy talks to co-leader of the Green Party, Carla Denyer
You are a mechanical engineer by training. When did you first become acutely aware of the climate crisis and realise that you wanted to actively work towards tackling it? It was part way through my degree actually. Of course I was aware of climate change, throughout school and college etc,...
Walking cheerfully in a time of darkness: Harvey Gillman wrestles with something
About four years ago I decided I would no longer organise weekend retreats. I had said all I had to say. There was a danger of becoming a cliché. Then came Covid and lockdown. During that period, I was able to fulfil one of my ambitions: to edit and put...
Making waves: Tim Gee visits Friends bordering Russia and Ukraine
When I close my eyes, to sleep, rest or pray, I find my mind going to Central Europe – in particular to a ship docked in Estonia’s principal port, where 2,000 Ukrainians, mostly women and children, wait to work out what’s next for them.
Peace by piece: George Lakey’s research into nonviolent resistance
As a 1950s undergraduate, new to Friends’ worship, I dug into the history of the Quaker movement. I found extraordinary achievements in conflict situations – early Quakers waging ‘the Lamb’s war’ to change laws and practices in Britain, and crossing the Atlantic to challenge the theocracy of Puritan Massachusetts. I...
Hope so: Roland Carn on a notion that goes deeper than optimism
I’m getting worried by the pattern that I see. The pandemic and the war in Ukraine show how the world economy is an interdependent system. The refugee crisis and the inability of the UK and the USA to deliver promised help to Ukraine shows the disastrous inadequacy of our...
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Friends get ready for Quaker Week 2022
Friends are celebrating Quaker Week this year with the theme of ‘Share your light’. With a particular focus on welcoming families, Quakers up and down the country are holding outreach activities for the week beginning 24 September, including a ‘Picnic for Peace’ in Henley and a talk on ‘Quakers: More than...
Quakers call for interfaith commitment to climate justice
More than sixty Friends issued a rousing call to action to ‘open ourselves to this pregnant sense of the present’ after attending a three-day gathering aimed at tackling the climate crisis.
City of London witness for John Woolman anniversary
Quakers are honouring the 250th anniversary of John Woolman’s death with silent witness in the City of London.
Stop decline of ‘truth in public life’, Quaker MP tells parliament
Action must be taken to reverse ‘the decline in standards in public life’ if parliament and our democracy are not to be undermined, Quaker Ruth Cadbury told other MPs at a Westminster Hall debate on 7 September.
Campaigns build against ‘unworkable’ Rwanda deportations
Huddersfield Quakers joined local protests across Britain this month in a rally against forced asylum deportations to Rwanda.
Old Rage, by Sheila Hancock
As many readers will know, Sheila Hancock takes her Quakerism seriously. In this latest work of autobiography (covering 2016 to 2021), she begins with a note about becoming a dame. Should she accept? Is it in keeping with a Quaker belief in equality? She decides that to turn it down would be...
Faith songs
I I have faith, not in God, but in the infinite tenderness of your touch, in the fragility of this.
Letters - 23 September 2022
Different views Thank you Clive Ashwin (9 September) for highlighting the different views about Boris Johnson, which have divided our country. I do think Deryck Hillas’ comments (5 August) were a bit brisk, for the Friend’s letter page, but if we cannot communicate about the issues of Truth and Integrity in...