Issue - 4 April 2014
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Thought for the Week: Quaker Meeting
The buddleia spikes, long unpruned, Surge forward like spear throwers And the gust wrenches the yew boughs In which a collared dove is cradled, Unperturbed. The elements are speaking In wild discordant tongues, as if Some Pentecostal spirit is set To invade the calm of this
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Conflict resolution in Kiev
The events in Ukraine can be seen in different ways. Just among my own family and friends, there are differences. My parents voted for Viktor Yanukovych. They believe in supporting Russia and friendly relations between the two countries. My friend supports the people who were on the Maidan in Kiev....
The treatment of prisoners
1955. Anthony Eden was elected prime minister. Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Elvis Presley made his first television appearance. And the United Nations developed a set of standards for prisons – the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (or SMR for...
Spiritual practices
I have loved this opening advice in our little book of Advices & queries since I came to my first Quaker Meeting some twenty years ago. I knew, from my first hearing of it, that it was a deeply significant advice, but I took a long time to begin to...
Historic day welcomed
The historical moment when the first same sex marriages became legal in England and Wales on Saturday 29 March was warmly welcomed by many Quakers in Britain. Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said it marks a real step forward in equality: ‘Quakers see God in everyone and...
QAAD acts on FOBTs
Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs (QAAD) has supported a petition organised by Hackney Council that highlights the problems of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). FOBTs are roulette-style slot machines placed in betting shops and have become a growing concern of QAAD.
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Gerald Hodgett Awards
Three Gerald Hodgett grants have been given to Quaker studies students and graduates to turn their research findings into practical resources for Meetings and Friends, the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre has announced. The three projects explore areas of interest and discussion amongst Friends. Two offer workshops that Meetings may...
Perspectives of belief
Nontheism can be a puzzling and controversial concept to some people. At the recent weekend conference of the Nontheist Friends Network entitled ‘Nontheism among Quakers and beyond’, which was held at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, perspectives of belief were looked at in some detail. The vicar of the...
Remembering the war
Friends have found it difficult to know how to mark the anniversary of the start of world war one without being either nationalistic or sentimental. At Penrith Meeting we decided to have a reflective session where Friends would bring family stories to share together. We had a picnic lunch...
The nature of God
Theism is a seventeenth-century word developed from theos – the Greek word for God. The dictionary definition says ‘the form of the belief in one God as the transcendent creator and ruler of the universe’. In other words, the Christian God, self-existent and irreducible: the prime creator of all that exists.
Eye - 04 April 2014
The fellowship of Friends A source of consolation and strength, a deep personal bond… what does friendship mean to you? In Five hundred years of friendship, a new series on BBC Radio 4, the history of the meaning and experience of friendship is being explored by Thomas Dixon, director of the...
Letters - 04 April 2014
Membership The polarisation between Martin Phinn’s iconoclastic view (7 March) and Elaine Miles’ rather harsh judgment (21 March) reflects the question Margaret Heathfield posed in her 1994 Swarthmore Lecture Being Together: are we a movement or a church? The faithful, long-term attender is a helpful reminder to the rest of us that...