Issue 07-06-2023
Featured story
Returning evil: John Lampen’s Thought for the week
In a recent letter (16 June), Gerard Bane asked whether ‘Resist not evil, but return evil with good’ is still a defining feature of Quakerism. After many conversations with Friends, I have concluded that, if non-resistance means doing nothing about evil, we do not accept this maxim – and nor did Jesus,...
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The rest is silence: Jonathan Wooding on the moral philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein
George Fox’s Journal played a not-insignificant part in the life and work of one of the twentieth century’s greatest philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). He kept a copy with him for many years, even giving one as a gift to a fellow philosopher.
Korean peace school building celebrated
Quakers have taken part in celebrations to thank people for supporting a Quaker-inspired school on the edge of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) in South Korea.
Finding a place: Barrie Mahoney’s ‘spiritual tape recorder’
Quakers are used to sitting quietly and opening our minds to the Spirit, or whatever we call what it is that refreshes us, gives us purpose, and makes us whole. We find this during the stillness of Meeting, or a peaceful walk. Or maybe while we are doing the ironing....
Halewid
In a well slept morning sing senses from the first flush in lush language of birdsong, the choral chorus greeting the hāliġ(1) hour. Follow the sky’s creased curves of sunrise, its night rain pools puddle down the ground.
Yearly Meeting 2023: Final session
‘Today is all about listening,’ Adwoa Burnley, Yearly Meeting (YM) clerk (pictured), told Friends gathered for the extra YM session on 1 July. ‘Listening to God, listening to each other, listening and being heard.’
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Quaker stands for MP in July by-election
A Quaker in Yorkshire is standing for election to be an MP, using artificial intelligence (AI) as a way of engaging with the constituency.
New peace network for Wales
Two organisations with Quaker roots are behind a new campaigning network in Wales. It has been set up to map the rise of militarism in the country, and bring people together to challenge it.
BYM urges MPs to reject anti-boycott bill
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has asked MPs to reject the government’s controversial anti-boycott bill.
New site for Quaker-inspired eco village
A Quaker-inspired co-housing community has bought a new site in Cornwall. Jackie Carpenter, from Bude Meeting, set up the Four Seas Climate Change Cohousing Community (CCCC) as a radical cohousing project based on the Quaker testimonies of truth, peace, equality and simplicity.
Song of home: Alison Richards plays it by ear
I frequently find myself stuck with an ‘earworm’, a repeating fragment of music that I can’t shake from my head. I often wonder why a particular piece of music gets lodged. As I write, the chorus of the African American spiritual ‘Steal Away’ is playing on an internal loop: ...
Returning evil: John Lampen’s Thought for the week
In a recent letter (16 June), Gerard Bane asked whether ‘Resist not evil, but return evil with good’ is still a defining feature of Quakerism. After many conversations with Friends, I have concluded that, if non-resistance means doing nothing about evil, we do not accept this maxim – and nor did Jesus,...
Letters - 07 July 2023
Windrush and housing Many of us will have recently seen the TV programme about the 802 migrants who came to Britain in 1948 from across the Caribbean. They had been promised a start by a Jamaican newspaper advert, but they weren’t expected by the British government and were initially not welcomed....
Eye - 7 July 2023
A revolutionary role Friendly finances may have had an unexpected role in the US American revolution. While reading some biographies of the signatories of the US Declaration of Independence, one Friend saw Quakers putting in a surprising appearance. They write: ‘Quakers were opposed to its signing (“we… utterly reject any...