Issue 29-08-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Logos
In order to follow the Christ. We must give up our personal desires.
Top stories
Transfiguration and welfare reform
How are the government’s welfare reforms affecting the lives of people in our society? It is a question that many Friends have been addressing at national and local level. Meeting for Sufferings, for example, asked representatives to find out what was happening in their local areas.
Coffee, muffins and outreach
It is Friday evening. The traffic rumbles by on the road outside. Passersby can see in. ‘Quaker Meeting in progress’ is on the board outside. We sit in a small circle in a bright and comfy café – ‘Kraftea Coffee’ – coloured cushions, cupcakes and muffins, sparkly glass containers full of biscuits –...
Gathering under the stars
As the rain cleared, Friends started to arrive on foot, by bike, car and motor home. We came from all parts of Britain Yearly Meeting, including four Friends from Orkney. We were blessed with a very large field, well away from the noise of the main road. The brisk fifteen...
Time for change
In discussions concerning the criminal justice system (CJS) there is often an elephant in the room. As two organisations working on CJS issues recently put it: ‘The over-representation of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) individuals at every stage of the CJS is widely recognised by researchers, practitioners and service...
Our aging process – a wish list
If you gathered a group of fifty- to ninety-year-old Quakers together and asked them what they would prioritise for their own older age, what do you think they would say? A workshop at Yearly Meeting Gathering entitled ‘Our Aging Process – A Wish List’ invited participants to consider the following questions: ...
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New challenge for the Leaveners
The Quaker arts group the Leaveners has announced a new partnership with youth charity The Challenge. In the first of what will hopefully be a series of activities, twenty-four Birmingham fifteen to seventeen year olds will meet on 6 September to create a giant map of their city. They will work...
Quaker school pioneers Passivhaus design
Friends School of Portland, Maine, broke ground on 7 August for its new school building, which will be built on Passivhaus design principles. The new school will meet a rigorous, voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, thereby reducing its ecological footprint. Passivhaus design uses solar gain and carefully engineered...
QARN campaign for immigration detention time limit
The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) is campaigning for a time limit for immigration detention. In the year to the end of March 2014, 2,991 people were in detention in the United Kingdom, a rise of five per cent on the previous year.
Friends support Manchester Pride
Over the bank holiday weekend Manchester and Warrington Area Meeting once again celebrated Manchester Pride with a variety of activities. Mount Street Meeting House hosted its popular Quaker ceilidh with a live band. There was an outdoor Meeting for Worship in the centre of Manchester and, as usual, a Quaker...
Restoration work at Quaker burial ground in Wicklow
An Old Quaker graveyard in County Wicklow, Ireland, has been transformed by the efforts of a local heritage group with the support of Irish Friends.
Prompted by conscience
The project group worked with the key question: ‘Do conscientious objectors in world war one matter?’ Using this question they have explored the historical significance of conscientious objectors and other war resisters and learnt about how other students across Europe regard the significance of people who stood out for peace...
Eye - 29 August 2014
Facilities for the feathered An account of a historic bird bath has fluttered into Eye’s mailbag. Judith Niechcial, clerk of South East London Area Meeting, got in touch to tell all. She writes: ‘Petts Wood Local Meeting was sadly laid down in April this year. Among the items from...
Letters - 29 August 2014
Swarthmore Lecture 2014 ‘Open for transformation: being Quaker’ was the title of the 2014 Swarthmore Lecture. ‘Open for transformation’ – Amen! Halelujah!! A real wake-up call to all of us. May we hear Ben Pink Dandelion’s message and act on it, because, as Richard Rohr writes, ‘Transformed people transform people’. David L...