Issue 14-11-2014
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Thought for the Week: Prisons Week
As we approach Prisons Week (16 to 22 November) it is worth remembering that the public do have a critical role to play in improving the outcomes of the criminal justice system and without their informed involvement and support any progress will be limited. The facts and figures about the deteriorating state...
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There’s a light that is shining
The Large Meeting House is open. The extensive renovation is finished. A massive project, completed on time. Traditionally the venue for Yearly Meeting, which determines the work and witness of Quakers, one thousand Friends are expected there in May 2015. Already, photographs on Twitter and Facebook of the stunning double-height vaulted...
Quakers: Agriculture needs you!
It was with some apprehension that I, a Quaker foodie, went to the annual conference of the Quakers and Business Group (Q&B Group) held at Friends House in London last week. This year the business Friends were highlighting our diets and the commercial reality of production. Did this...
Quaker prison chaplains
The Quaker Prison Chaplains’ Conference was held at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre on 3-5 October and the centre did its usual magic to the weather. The beautiful trees were burnished with autumnal sun.
Profound moments of light
I have been the Quaker prison chaplain at a prison for nearly three years. The prison is for women of all categories, from those who are serving time for council tax non-payment to those who are in for murder. The chaplaincy team has changed but I am still fortunate in...
But for the grace
It was Northumbria Area Meeting just over a year ago. The occasion was the launch of Twelve Prisoners and Quakers: Friendly Voices from HMP Frankland. Two Quaker chaplains read the testimony of a group of prisoners serving long sentences in a maximum security jail near Durham. The prisoners spoke inspiringly...
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Remembrance Sunday marked with olive branches
Friends from Middlesbrough Meeting laid olive branches at their local war memorial on Sunday 9 November. They had originally asked their local council and the Royal British Legion for permission to lay a wreath of white poppies on Remembrance Sunday.
QPSW host Putney Debate
The first of Occupy London’s Putney Debates, Crash, Cuts, Crisis – Causes, Consequences, Solutions was hosted by Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) on Monday 27 October at Friends House.
Large Meeting House reopens
The Large Meeting House at Friends House officially reopened on Monday 10 November, following a £4.5 million renovation. The refurbishment, which included a rebranding of the room as ‘The Light’, was carried out in the hope of making Friends House ‘a more versatile and sustainable building’ and ‘a major London conference centre’,...
Author explains ‘Quakernomics’ to Ipswich Friends
The role of Quakers in developing an ethical capitalism over the past three centuries was the subject of a talk by Mike King, author of the recently published book Quakernomics, held at Ipswich Meeting during Quaker Week.
New global peace prize announced
The winners of a new global peace prize were announced in London on Armistice Day, Tuesday 11 November. The ‘Tomorrow’s Peacebuilders’ award attracted entries from 225 grassroots peacebuilding organisations in fifty-three countries. The shortlist ranged from youth peace projects in Israel and Palestine to post-genocide reconciliation in Rwanda.
Citizen journalists
Citizen journalists interview a speaker at the Quakers and Business Group conference held at Friends House on Wednesday 5 November. Patrick Chalmers (with microphone) and Judy Kirby (on camera) talk to Philip Lymbery at the conference.
Shades of black and white
We are often reminded of the many occasions when a situation appears not so much in black and white as in shades of grey; in other words, we need to consider the nuances and use our imagination rather than confining ourselves rigidly to the rules that have been handed down...
Words: Elder
In 1653 the Quaker leader William Dewsbury wrote, in a letter: That in every particular meeting, Friends, there be chosen from among you, one or two who are most grown in the power and life, and in discernment in the truth, to take the care and charge over the flock of...
Letters - 14 November 2014
Conscientious objectors in Bentham I was very interested to read in Q-eye (31 October) of conscientious objectors (COs) in Bentham. The duration of the war was not the end of the Ford family’s favour towards COs. In 1930 Charles Ford appointed my father, Robert Forrester, as manager of the silk mill...