Issue 14-07-2023
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A bigger picture: Gill Sewell’s Thought for the week
Iwoke with some excitement – I was going on an outing. Before getting on with my adventure, I had a quick look at the Bible text for the day. It was Matthew 6:19-20: ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth… store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.’ I donâ€...
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Brought to book: Kate Macdonald on Elfrida Vipont and The Lark on the Wing
In the 1970s, when I was reading my way through Aberdeen Children’s Library, I discovered an old novel from the late 1940s. It was about a girl who decides she wants to be a singer, and all the characters wete Quakers. I had never heard of Quakers, but I...
Journeymen Theatre closes
Journeymen Theatre has given its last performance, after thirteen years of touring issue-based dramas across the UK.
Eye - 14 July 2023
Friends and a fugitive What do a police officer, a Quaker, and a telegraph operator have in common? They all played a part in a historical true crime case! The first time telegraph technology performed a vital role in the capture of a suspect, and Quakerism’s unexpected role, saw...
A welcome, change: Tricia Bridgewater reports from gathering of Crynwyr Cymru/Quakers in Wales
We were delighted that our blended Meeting went ahead this year – last year’s had to be changed to online-only due to train strikes. Heat and humidity had been forecast, and arrived about noon, but the mist and rain that met us when we arrived in Swansea station was a...
4am
A pencil of light pokes its way between the curtains. Plays upon your eyelids. You wake. Slowly your mind unscrambles. Your body moves stiffly towards the morning. Time future, past, present assemble. A choreography of space unfolds. A woodpigeon sings on a tree, somewhere. The patterns of yesterday’s fears...
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JSO protestor disrupts Quaker Meeting
A Just Stop Oil (JSO) protestor visited a Quaker Meeting last week to read a prepared statement pressing Friends to take more urgent action on the climate emergency.
Quakers consider ethical socialism
Friends discussed the ‘future of ethical socialism’ this month, as twenty-two members of the Quaker Socialist Society (QSS) gathered at Woodbrooke for the first in-person Meeting since the pandemic.
BYM urges more relief for climate-hit nations
Quakers have welcomed announcements that the World Bank and the UK government will allow countries suffering extreme weather events to pause their debt repayments. Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has been calling for debt relief for climate-hit nations since COP25 in Madrid.
French Friends speak on riots
Quakers in France quoted the 2022 Swarthmore Lecture in response to the rioting that took place in France this month.
Yearly Meeting 2023: Final session
‘We are aware there is unease,’ said elders, as the afternoon of the extra Yearly Meeting (YM) session opened, before reading Quaker faith & practice 3.06: ‘The unity we seek depends on the willingness of us all to seek the truth of each other’s utterances.’
They also serve: Harry Albright on non-Quaker staff
Most of my adult life has involved some form of Quaker service. I have held unpaid roles and paid ones at local, national and international levels.
Letters - 14 July 2023
Clerking by Zoom How do clerks feel the sense of the Meeting when there is a large gathering of Friends? At this year’s Yearly Meeting hundreds joined online with hundreds in the Meeting house, with three clerks at the table. They sought discernment on issues affecting the relationship between...