Issue - 15 November 2013
Featured story
Thought for the Week: A forgotten world
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord… when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:3...
Top stories
‘A horrible, horrible place’
Quaker prison chaplains are a truly remarkable species. They work in some of the nastiest places in the country, with people who have often done truly dreadful things, who are regularly vilified in the press and for whom the prospect of being given the vote is enough to make the...
Left behind
The last execution in Britain took place in 1964. Yet, the death penalty continues to affect people from the UK. In 2013, the UK Foreign Office reported that there were twelve British nationals facing the death penalty abroad and a further fifty-five facing charges carrying a possible death sentence. Capital punishment not...
One in five
Dyslexia is the most well known specific learning difficulty (SpLD). SpLD, a term that is often misunderstood, covers a variety of conditions, including dyspraxia, attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (ADHD) and dyscalculia. Typical areas of difficulty are short-term memory, processing of language-based information, organisation and sustaining concentration.
A sensible drugs policy
In the eighteenth century, in England, Quakers established the first modern hospital for the treatment of mental disorders – the Retreat at York. Previously, the method had been to imprison the mentally ill. They were often chained to walls and lived in appalling conditions. Today, we have people who are addicted...
How it began
On 11 July 2000 the prison vicar broke the dreadful news to me: ‘Your brother Daniel has died. He took his own life.’ I sat in the office in pure silence, trying to absorb what I was told. ‘You’ve got it wrong,’ I said. ‘I’m waiting to see Daniel when...
All articles
British Quakers: Mission and message - Expressing the faith
For me ‘expressing our faith’ has two distinct and yet interrelated facets. The first is how we tell people about the Quaker way. The second is what our faith leads us to do – how we bear testimony to what we believe and how we let our lives speak. The...
A call from Busan
‘I am ready to go to prison but is there not another way, a way of peace!’ This was the plea of a young Korean man, planning to be a conscientious objector (CO) to military service in a country that sends its COs to prison. A large proportion of the...
Spring change for Friends House garden
The garden at Friends House is due to be reshaped next spring to give better access for wheelchair users. Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees approved the plans for major works at their October meeting.
Prisons Week
The number of children whose parents are in prison is one of the issues being highlighted by Prisons Week, which runs from 17 to 23 November. The concern has been raised by Bob Wilson, secretary for prison chaplaincy of the Free Churches Group, who said that 200,000 children were affected by the...
Remembrance Sunday peace witness
Friends from Mansfield, where George Fox experienced his first ‘Opening’ in 1647, held their Meeting for Worship outside their Meeting house on Remembrance Sunday.
Eye - 15 November 2013
Pure gold Beyond Forgiving, a film produced by Newbury Friend Howard Grace, has won the Golden Award for Inspiration at the International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration and Equality (IFFPIE). The film has also won an Award of Merit at the Best Shorts Competition 2013 and has been selected for the...
Letters - 15 November 2013
That Old Lie ‘Grandparents’ day’ at our grandchildren’s primary school is where we tell the children about our school days; before mobile phones, computers and even television but not, in my case, as one child asked, before electricity! I have written before on what I believe to be some...