Issue 07-06-2024
Featured story
Rebel with a cause: Sanjive Mahandru’s Thought for the Week
At a mental health conference last month I learned how black people are about eight times more affected by mental health issues than the white population of the UK. I am a brown Indian Quaker, and suicide has affected my family, so I attended because I too am affected by...
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Friends talk restorative justice at UN
Friends highlighted the issue of restorative justice at this year’s United Nations (UN) Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.
Open door policy: Fred Ashmore on how London Quakers created a safe space for conversation
Quakers, we hope, can speak their mind among Friends, and feel safe to do so. But this has not always been the case. The contentious matters of sex and gender, for example, have been difficult to approach for some, and so London Quakers have endeavoured to provide a space in...
Eye - 07 June 2024
Quaker campers Friendly fellowship around the campfire: the Quaker Campers group has been meeting annually since 1979. As the weather warms and thoughts turn to more outdoor pursuits, James Priestman, of Ealing Meeting and clerk of the Quaker Campers group, told Eye about their 2023 event. ‘We pitched camp between 29 July and 5...
It’s good to talk: Beth Allen says informal conversation is important for the Quaker business method
Can conversations help us make good decisions? I think we might be able to answer this question by looking at a few things I’ve observed in the development of our Friendly community. I’m not a sociologist; what follows are just my own amateur reflections.
Casualties of war: Rachel Taylor counts the cost
Public discussion about the casualties of the violence in Gaza is widespread. A change to the way in which the UN publishes data led to accusations that fatality numbers were being manipulated; but in fact there had been no significant change, just a poorly-communicated switch in how they were presented.
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Quakers reject plans for national service
Peace campaigners have accused the Conservative Party of trying to introduce ‘conscription by stealth’.
BYM backs ICJ on Gaza
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has joined twenty-one other charities calling on the UK government to ensure Israel complies with its obligations under international law. This includes immediately halting its military offensive in Rafah.
Friend in Baltic ‘walk for peace’
A Cornwall Friend is walking 700 miles from Tallinn to Warsaw in the name of peace.
Hammersmith Friends awarded civic honours
Two Hammersmith Quakers received civic honours this month for their work with refugees.
Meeting for Sufferings: Opening
Robert Card, clerk to Meeting for Sufferings (MfS), started the morning session on 1 June by reminding Friends that it was the last Meeting of the triennium. ‘We’ve done a lot of work,’ he said, mentioning updates to church governance, climate work and – most importantly, perhaps – the experimentation Quakers have...
Meeting for Sufferings: Quaker Concern Over Population (QCOP)
After some routine business accepted on draft minute, the room turned to its first main item of the day: whether or not to renew Quaker Concern Over Population (QCOP) as a Quaker Recognised Body (QRB). Discernment on this had been postponed from the last Meeting. Also for discernment was the...
Changes to the Quaker Marriage Declaration
Changes to the Quaker Marriage Declaration was next on the agenda. Following an agreement in December 2023 to allow different pronouns in the declaration, Friends now received draft amendments from the Church Government Advisory Group for Chapter 16 in Quaker faith & practice: 16.52 (in English) and 16.53 (in Welsh). The changes proposed that...
Britain Yearly Meeting trustees report
Friends then received a report from Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees, with some surprise last-minute changes. ‘I was going to give a two-minute presentation,’ Marisa Johnson, clerk to trustees, said, detailing their upcoming Meeting at Swarthmoor Hall on 7-9 June. ‘But this is not what I’m going to do.’
Solitude
How sweet is harmless Solitude? What can its Joys controul? Tumults and Noise may not intrude, To interrupt the Soul That here enjoys it self, retir’d From Earth’s seducing Charms; Leaving her Pomp, to be admir’d By such as Court their Harms; While she, on Contemplations Wings,...
Letters - 07 June 2024
National Service Does the Tory Party think by bringing in National Service and teaching young people to kill that this will prevent them taking knives and using them as weapons? Val McFarlane Judas The article by Hilary Johnson in the 17 May edition of the Friend, focusing on Judas Iscariot, brought...