Issue 07-06-2013
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Reflections
Yearly Meeting for British Friends this year was a grounding experience characterised by Quaker discipline and service. Procedural concerns were expedited easily and without much contention and many routine internal issues needing approval were not ‘Quakered to death’ – as we Friends can do.
Top stories
Syria and peace
Our delegation met and spoke, at the Syrian parliament, with the governor, prime minister and seven other ministries. We were given details of the new constitution and political reforms being put in place and plans for elections in 2014. Government ministers admitted that they had made mistakes in being slow to...
Reflections on Yearly Meeting
I wonder if I am the only one to have come away from Yearly Meeting with an uneasy sense that something was not quite right? Here was an event that was superbly clerked and carefully organised. There were some excellent prepared contributions. And yet – something was lacking.
Britain Yearly Meeting 2013: Children and Young People’s Minutes
The Fox Cubs (0-3 year olds) Fox Cubs have been finding out about being quiet by looking at our candles and looking at the people on the special table cloth, borrowed from Rugby Meeting, made by their Children’s Meeting long ago. Fox Cubs have been reading stories,...
Is dialogue worthwhile?
Quakers crowded into a small meeting room to hear three Friends’ experience of dialogue with their local Jewish community. The room was full to overflowing as Annette Gamblin, Gillian Ashmore and Graham Torr of Kingston Meeting described their two-year journey of dialogue, culminating in a joint visit to Israel and...
How they trust one another!
At Yearly Meeting in 2005 proposals to restructure our governance met impassioned opposition from some weighty Friends. They feared that appointing small groups of trustees for Britain Yearly Meeting and for Area Meetings would result in an unQuakerly concentration of power.
All articles
Pilgrimage reaches Scottish parliament
The Pilgrimage for Peace and Economic Justice has reached Edinburgh and given witness at the Scottish parliament. The Pilgrimage set off from Iona, on the west of Scotland, on 19 May and a small, core group of pilgrims have been joined by supporters along the way.
Peer quotes from Quaker publication
An influential Quaker publication from the 1960s was quoted in the House of Lords debate, earlier this week, on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.
Major work at Westminster Meeting
Friends visiting central London this summer will have a chance to see the interior of King’s College Chapel.
One unholy journey
‘I guess’, wrote Jill Green in the beautifully illustrated leaflet, which was part of her show of twelve years’ work during Oxford Arts Week in May, ‘I guess I am asking to join the ranks of war artists’. She calls the show One Unholy Journey. This refers to her own...
Eye - 07 June 2013
Spotted at Yearly Meeting Eye’s elves were busy espying giggle-worthy tid-bits at Yearly Meeting…
Letters - 07 June 2013
Letter of thanks Thank you, Friends, for all your support at Yearly Meeting. I am very grateful to all those who assisted me in many different ways over the weekend, from pushing my wheelchair to taking my rubbish to the bin. It can be hard as a disabled person to...