Issue 21-02-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Signs of hope
When our daughter Moya was born we held a ‘welcoming’ celebration for her at home, reading out this passage from the prophet Isaiah: ‘See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in...
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Saving the Meeting house
During the second world war a number of British cities came under attack from the air. The most vulnerable were those that were playing the most significant part in the war effort and in the life of the country generally. Such cities included Liverpool, Manchester, Southampton, Coventry (where the Anglican...
Sustainability series - The Canterbury commitment
Last summer I was one of three Friends who surveyed Yorkshire Meetings on their engagement with sustainability. Our findings surprised and encouraged us. Most of the Meetings were doing something. Nearly half were making major investments to green their Meeting houses. Many Friends were making efforts in their own lives....
Be a good person
My mother was German Jewish, my father German atheist. They divorced when I was four, for personal not political reasons, and I was brought up by my liberal Jewish grandparents. I enjoyed going to synagogue with them on feast days but on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, my father...
Structures and spaces
It is interesting that the alternative ‘public’ name chosen for our Large Meeting House is The Light. It feels unfinished: a light what? A light hall or room? A lighthouse perhaps! Ironically, it is expected to mean more to the non-Quaker users of Friends House than to Friends. It seems...
Patterns and examples
I have a difficulty with our ‘testimonies to the grace of God as shown in the lives of deceased Friends’. Many Friends enjoy reading them, and so do I. And yet… I have a stop in my mind, both with the practice and with the words.
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Lessons learned at Winchmore Hill
Winchmore Hill Quakers have announced that work will begin this spring on renovations to their Grade II listed Meeting house. The news that work will start soon marks a significant success for local Friends and their fundraising campaign. Winchmore Quakers are keen to share with other Friends and Meetings...
Scottish referendum on the agenda
The forthcoming referendum on Scottish independence will be raised at next month’s General Meeting of Friends in Scotland. ‘One of the challenges in this debate and decision is where to begin’, Christine Davis writes in the current edition of the Scottish Friend. In the article she outlines some...
2015 Swarthmore Lecture
Diana Francis, the peace activist and conflict transformation expert, will be the 2015 Swarthmore lecturer, the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre has announced.
Audio initiative at Friends House
Friends who were not able to attend the recent conference at Friends House in London entitled ‘Faith: What’s God got to do with it?’ can now listen to what they missed.
John ap John
Have you ever heard of John ap John, Of Coed Cristionydd not far from Ruabon? Son of a modest arable farmer, More solid than John and a great deal calmer, John now thought it was time to move on.
Letters - 21 February 2014
The curse of history Rosalind Mitchell made some very good points about the location of Meeting houses (7 February). Surely it is better to close and sell Meeting houses in what are now out of the way places and hold Meeting for Worship in urban centres. Our outreach should be to...