Issue 01-03-2013
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Fairtrade Fortnight
A few weeks ago I attended the Saturday morning service at a reform synagogue – my first in many years. It was a small, friendly congregation, quite different from the formal Judaism I grew up with. It felt particularly homely though, because of the posters declaring that this was a Fairtrade...
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Simple, active and present
Two years ago I began a study asking: how do Quakers and their clerks produce minutes? As time passed, the research broadened in scope and, a few months ago, I published a book on understandings of the divine, discipline, discernment and decision-making generally in Quaker Meetings for Worship for Business,...
Spare the clutch
Did you know that the clutch on your car is just a disc brake working in reverse? No? Depressing the brake pedal forces the brake pads onto the wheel discs causing friction to stop the car, whereas releasing the clutch pedal creates friction to match the clutch pad speed to...
The human predicament
The Royal Society published a paper this January, entitled ‘Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?’. It draws attention to the fact that all previous civilizations have collapsed, and observes that today, the world’s first global civilization is threatened with collapse from a variety of causes, such as...
Class and education
Academics, scholars, thinkers and clever people are seen as a class apart: a meritocracy distinguished by the mind and intellect and often unconcerned about worldly matters.
Spirit in the world
Some historians like to search for an event at the beginning of a century that serves as the signature of what the century meant for human history. Most might be inclined to choose the first world war as the event that most marked the historical march of the twentieth century....
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Call to action on military spending
The Northern Friends Peace Board has signed up to a Call to Action on military spending. It follows the announcement that the government ‘has revealed how it intends to spend £160bn over the next decade on new weapons systems, including a fleet of Trident nuclear missile submarines, two large...
Quakers join call for tough action on climate change
Quakers in Britain have joined with four of Britain’s major churches in urging the government to prioritise low-carbon power in the new Energy Bill. In a statement in the Financial Times, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Church of Scotland, Methodist Church, Quakers in Britain and United Reformed...
Swarthmore lecturer announced
This year’s Swarthmore Lecture, at Britain Yearly Meeting, will be given by Gerald Hewitson. Gerald, of North Wales Area Meeting, will deliver the lecture at 7pm on Saturday 25 May in the Large Meeting House in Friends House.
Ed Mayo to deliver the Salter lecture
The Salter lecturer at Britain Yearly Meeting this year will be Ed Mayo. Ed is secretary general of Co-operatives UK, the network for cooperative and mutual enterprises. He will deliver the lecture in the Large Meeting House at 4pm on Friday 24 May.
Quaker voice at Westminster
Quakers were represented at the Public Bill Committee for the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill held at Westminster on Thursday 14 February. The role of a Public Bill Committee is to collect evidence from a cross section of groups who would be affected by new legislation. The evidence is reported...
Church of England acts on GM crops
The Church of England national investing bodies have announced that they will actively use their position as investors to encourage a precautionary approach to genetic modification (GM). The investment bodies have adopted an updated and more detailed ethical investment policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Give over thine own willing
‘Give over thine own willing, give over thine own running, give over thine own desiring to know or be anything, and sink down to the seed which God sows in thy heart and let that be in thee, and grow in thee, and breathe in thee, and act in thee.’...
Eye - 01 March 2013
Friendly Bogeys As you flick through the pages of Fungus the Bogeyman, you will be in for a surprise. Raymond Briggs’ book features Bogeys, subterranean dwellers who enjoy things humans don’t: over-ripe food, damp, cold and the dark. The defences built along the borders of their land are topped...
Letters - 01 March 2013
Military values Owen Everett (22 February) is concerned at the growing influence of military values in everyday life. What values would these be, I wonder? The values that led army surgeons at the British military hospital near where I grew up in Malaya (as it was then) to work pro bono...