Issue 18-04-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The Cross
Good Friday draws nigh, and again we stand outside this nuclear submarine base at Faslane, gathered in this act of public worship, this ‘Witness for Peace’ of Scottish Christians Against Nuclear Arms. We stand – including the Catholic archbishop, a Church of Scotland convenor and me, a Quaker – on this podium...
Top stories
Prison in Bolivia
Before I set out for Bolivia I had been told that I must try to visit the prison of San Pedro in La Paz. The first person to mention it was a friend who tells a chilling tale of his twenty-one-year-old self smoking pasta with some of the inmates during...
Use a long spoon…
A few years ago, when I was serving as a trustee of the Quaker Tapestry, we engaged market researchers to assist us in improving the number of people coming in through the doors at Kendal. They told us that the two words that most turned people off were ‘Quaker’ and â€...
Limits to membership?
One of the key aspects of Quaker life that is likely to be struggled over when the next revision of Quaker faith & practice begins is what to do about membership. Should there be such a thing? What is it for? Is there anyone we would want to keep out...
Meeting for Sufferings: Quakers to stop offering civil partnerships
Same sex Quaker weddings will, henceforth, be registered as religious marriages and no civil partnership option will be offered, it was decided at Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) on Saturday 5 April. In 2012 MfS accepted the registration of religious premises for civil partnerships as a first step towards a change in...
Friends to protest at Eurosatory
French Quakers will again be holding a peace witness at the Eurosatory arms fair on the outskirts of Paris this June. The fair, held this year between 16 and 20 June, is the ‘second largest international land and air-land defence and security exhibition’ in the world. In 2012 some 1,432 companies exhibited and...
All articles
Militarism report published
The growing militarisation of British society in recent years has been highlighted in a new report published by Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW). Sam Walton, who wrote the report, entitled The new tide of militarisation, said that although militarism has always been an aspect of British society it...
Quaker young people living adventurously
Tuesday 14 April marked the start of the Quaker Tall Ship event for young people aged 14 to 17 from across Britain Yearly Meeting. This event, planned over the last eighteen months, sees forty young people, seven adult volunteers and one member of the children and young people staff become the crew of...
Wanstead Friends in the news
Friends in Wanstead are in the news with their campaign that urges people to pay an extra penny per pound in tax to protect the most vulnerable from the effects of austerity cuts.
Book sale success at Winchmore Hill
Book lovers descended on the historic Winchmore Hill Meeting house in north London on Saturday 12 April as local Friends held their fifth annual book sale. Thousands of books were on offer at bargain prices and the event, organised by Winchmore Hill Friends and Amnesty, was another ‘resounding success.’
Christian Aid Week to focus on peace
‘Peace and reconciliation’ is the theme of this year’s Christian Aid Week, which runs from 11 to 17 May.
Two worlds or one?
A play about the experiences of wounded soldiers, in their own words, is currently touring. The Two Worlds of Charlie F won an Amnesty Freedom of Expression award. A documentary about it was shown on BBC1. The drama is based on interviews with thirty-two wounded veterans, mostly from Afghanistan....
Spring
Winter drags on: Grey day pursued by Grey day. The sun Appears, winks a bleary eye, Surveys his pale cold kingdom And disappears once more Behind the draperies of cloud.
Eye - 18 April 2013
Steps toward peace For six months each year, a Friend from the Netherlands walks ‘for and toward inner peace’. Lucas de Groot walks, from April until November, with a cart, a harp and a tent. His pilgrimage takes him through Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Holland. On 1 April he set...
Letters - 18 April 2014
Membership I welcome David Hitchin’s second letter (11 April) and would like to comment on the significance of membership to both applicant and the Meeting, especially the importance of the visit for membership. For long-term attenders, the move into membership may confirm that the applicant is already a Quaker and â€...