Issue 31-05-2024
Featured story
An honest living: Roger Babington-Hill’s Thought for the Week
In Roger Lipsey’s book Gurdjieff Reconsidered, an exploration of the quintessential Western esoteric teacher of the twentieth century, there is reference to Katherine Mansfield’s visit to The Prieuré, a former priory where Gurdjieff had established his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. Mansfield, a modernist writer and...
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Meeting for Sufferings: Election preparation session
Timely Meeting More than fifty-five Friends gathered online on 22 May for a Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) preparation advocacy session about the upcoming general election. The session was clerked by Elizabeth Allen, assistant clerk for MfS, who started the Meeting by saying how ‘amazing’ and ‘timely’ it was that the Meeting...
Friends protest weapons at US base
Quakers took part in protests this month to prevent the return of US nuclear weapons to USAF Lakenheath.
Speak as you find: Marigold Bentley gets people talking
During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January, I asked the minister of a local active church why that church had refused to allow the local Palestine Group to meet there. He went pale, took a few steps back, and said well, it is too political. In further...
For conscience’s sake: Simon Webb recounts an early episode in the life of John Woolman
War gatecrashed the journal of the US Quaker John Woolman on the ninth of August 1757. As part of the French and Indian war that was raging at the time, the French commander Louis-Joseph de Montcalm marched on the British-held Fort William Henry in the province of New York at the...
Tunnel vision? Stevie Krayer’s personal take on the Gaza statement
I was impressed by the powerful ‘A different future is possible: Quaker organizations share a vision for peace in Palestine and Israel’ statement signed by American Friends Service Committee, Quaker United Nations Office and others, including our own Yearly Meeting. In fact, when it first came to my attention I...
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Quaker calls for action on prisons
The Quaker writer and broadcaster Tom Shakespeare has called for new thinking to fix the current crisis in UK prisons. Against a backdrop of overcrowding, violence and high rates of reoffending, the former Swarthmore Lecturer said we need a clearer vision of what prisons are really for. ‘We want...
Quakers in Scotland urge government to act on climate
Earlier this month, Quakers in Scotland called on John Swinney, the new Scottish first minister, to take urgent action to tackle the climate crisis.
London Quaker cycles for Gaza
A Lewisham Quaker cycled twelve miles up a French mountain to raise £13,000 for aid to Gaza.
Quakers lobby MPs on conflict minerals
Quakers spoke in parliament this month about the need to ensure that the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) benefit from minerals mined in their country,
Another England: How to reclaim our national story, by Caroline Lucas
The starting point for this book is its author’s profound sadness at the outcome of the Brexit referendum. Caroline Lucas, of the Green Party, makes a timely attempt to deal with that shocking political decision, in a way that allows those she refers to as ‘progressives’ to move forward....
Eye - 31 May 2024
Crack those knuckles and get your pens at the ready, Friends – the second in a series of crosswords exploring the Quaker Tapestry is ready for you! This time Eye delves into some of the varied and passionate concerns celebrated by the those creative stitches. You can find out more about...
Doppler
the distance of far away of far before this (now) and each day passing each night falling (behind) and stars signalling a universe a timeline of here and there a life of echoes of belonging (and leaving) a life smaller than a grain of sand.
Letters - 31 May 2024
Down with the kids Barrie Rowson suggests that we could say ‘spiritual mindfulness’ instead of ‘worship’, to be down with the kids (16 May). In my experience, young people are put off less by words like ‘worship’ and more by our attempts to paraphrase our faith and witness in the terms...