Issue 21-03-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The cornerstone
Silence is the cornerstone of character.’ A friend read these words today, breaking the silence and politely interrupting my thoughts. My attention had just been drifting out of the window to the world outside of the Meeting house, blown around by the fresh winter landscape. I had been reflecting...
Top stories
Sustainability - Transforming ourselves, transforming the system
Government negotiators have just completed a week of talks on climate change in Bonn – their first meeting since Warsaw last November. There will be several more such gatherings leading up to next year’s Paris conference, where they hope to agree meaningful post-2020 emission cuts. The inter-sessional gatherings in Bonn...
Returning to Zimbabwe
There is a joke doing the rounds in Zimbabwe. A tourist at the airport is asked: ‘Have you learnt any Shona during your holiday here?’ Shona is the majority language in the country. The tourist replies: ‘Yes. Magetsi ayenda’. This means ‘The electricity/power has gone’. Joking aside, and...
Etty at Jesus Lane
On 8 February 2014 the American actress Susan Stein performed her one-woman play Etty at Jesus Lane Meeting House in Cambridge, sponsored by Cambridgeshire Area Meeting. It was a great success. More than forty Friends and non-Friends paid rapt attention as Susan delivered her powerful performance of Etty’s words, based entirely...
Population really matters
The concerns of investors, looking for convenient and attractive profits, and environmentalists looking for sustainability seem at odds. Take three countries – X, Y and Z – with similar resources and population densities. All are currently ‘sustainable’ and are determined to remain democratic. However, they are each subject to different democratic...
Politics
Whilst visiting a Meeting in England a few months ago, a Friend’s ministry was highly critical of current government policy on the matter of state benefits and greatly supportive of Labour party criticism. During the subsequent coffee session I asked another Friend whether she thought a Tory could be...
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Playing God
Fourteen years ago agriculture in Britain was changing dramatically. A new technology, which had already been carried out for several years in America, was being introduced here in Britain. It was called ‘genetic engineering’. The whole concept of traditional agriculture was to be changed by science. The scientist would be...
World war one resource pack launched
Quakers in Britain have released a free resource pack that tells the stories of the early stages of world war one from a Quaker perspective – Witnessing for peace on the centenary of World War I. Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, said: ‘This is the beginning of...
Peace witness priest imprisoned
A Catholic priest has been sentenced to twenty-eight days in prison for non-payment of fines arising from numerous nonviolent peace protests against war and war preparations.
Initiative launched to combat modern slavery
A ground-breaking ecumenical initiative to combat modern slavery and human trafficking has been backed by Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and pope Francis. The historic agreement to help eradicate an injustice affecting up to twenty-nine million people, by setting up the Global Freedom Network, was signed on 17 March.
African Quaker peacebuilders’ exhibition
The work of African Quaker peacebuilders is being highlighted by an exhibition and book – This Light that Pushes Me – to be launched at Friends House in London on 9 April. The peacebuilders come from nine sub-Saharan African countries and all have experienced some form of violence.
Letters - 21 March 2014
Testimony to equality I think Friends are using our testimony to equality more and more as the yardstick in deciding moral and practical questions. This is a very good thing. But I sometimes worry in case it might establish a form of ‘political correctness’ that would inhibit us from marvelling...