Issue 17-11-2023
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Infinite possibilities: Daniel Clarke Flynn’s Thought for the week
We were each born at a specific time, in a specific place, into a family, clan, tribe, country, nation, ethnicity, culture and language. All of these were coupled with traditions that emanate from the beginnings of human history. But the conflict we see today arises when we place these specifics...
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Conversation peace: Alastair McIntosh on Quaker reconciliation work in conflict zones
Something has always stuck in my mind from the late 1980s, when I served on what was then our Quaker Peace & Service committee, under the secretarial care of Ram Ramamurthy.
Brought to heal: Sarah Alldred and Penelope Gouk visit the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art
Quakers have a long history of opposing slavery, and were among the founders of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. This was a nonviolent social movement that led to the abolition of slavery across the then British colonies by 1833.
Much to recommend: James Nelson, an advisor to the project, on a UNESCO education revision
Nearly fifty years ago, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) wrote an influential ‘Recommendation’ on education for peace and human rights. This month, the forty-second General Assembly has ratified a new version. With wars raging in Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, and elsewhere, it seems especially significant that member states...
Leighton Park wins national award
Leighton Park, a Quaker Recognised Body, has won ‘Senior School of the Year’ in the Independent Schools Association (ISA) Awards 2023. The ISA is the largest independent schools’ body in the UK. This success comes on the back of Leighton Park also being acknowledged as one of the country’s best...
Park life: Tony D’Souza is a mine of information
More greetings from Australia! Some of what I have to tell you now will strain your credulity, and some of it will strain your imagination.
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FWCC hears ‘tough and painful’ testimonies
The Friends World Committee for Consultation Europe and Middle East (FWCC EMES) Peace and Service Network heard firsthand accounts from friends in Ukraine, Georgia, and Palestine last month.
BYM disappointed by king’s speech
The king’s speech, setting out the government agenda for the coming year, has ‘left Quakers deeply disappointed and concerned about the UK’s commitment to protecting human rights and to taking urgent action in response to climate breakdown’, Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) said last week.
Manchester Friends highlight inequality
Manchester Quakers held a garden party on the theme of wealth inequality last month. Jonathan Dale, who co-organised the event, said the party included: a talk on John Woolman’s prophetic stance on wealth inequality; a petition; and a closing Meeting for Worship. There were also children’s activities and...
Eye - 17 November 2023
On this day Just a few months into the second world war, the Friend of 17 November 1939 featured reports of conscientious objection tribunals and news from the Friends Ambulance Unit. However, something else was exercising ‘Watchman’, an anonymous regular column-writer: ‘A half-humorous reference recently in this column to our “innate Quaker...
Beneath sufferance stones
He had been digging his four year old daughter out of the earth. We know this because there was no choice, witnessing him burst his straining back, splitting spinal minor chords of both himself, as in parent and child, as in dead daughter. Now he lies fixed...
Letters - 17 November 2023
The indigenous Voice I too was disappointed that the Australian referendum rejected altering the constitution to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice (‘Splitting the vote’, 27 October). Since visiting my daughter and my sisters’ families in Queensland earlier this year, I have watched with dismay as the polls turned...