Issue 13-03-2015
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Thought for the Week: Gifts and ministry
Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, posed an important question in the first issue of the Friend in 2015. He wrote: What is your ministry? Ministry, he suggests, is not only what we are prompted to say in Meetings for Worship. It is what we are led to say...
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A family at Woodbrooke
I am writing this article looking out over the beautiful grounds of Woodbrooke on a bright January morning. Many of you will be familiar with Woodbrooke, but for those who are not, it is a Quaker study and conference centre, located in Birmingham. I am here with my partner, Tim,...
Total communication and the kingdom of heaven
In a recent BBC Radio 4 programme the comedian Paul Merton joked: ‘One of the key qualities of a good actor or comedian is sincerity – and if you can fake that you’ve got it made!’ Seriously, though, there is an interesting point here: we all have ‘sincerity antennae’! They usually...
Lest we forget
Amongst the many events intended to keep alive the memory of the Nazi genocide of Jews, in January I attended a Holocaust Memorial Day event in York. A Jewish Quaker gave a harrowing account of her grandparents – murdered in Auschwitz. The murder of millions of Jews seventy years ago and...
By convincement
With some trepidation, I find myself wanting to write about God and membership of the Religious Society of Friends; and about that old-fashioned word, convincement. I first found Friends over thirty years ago, having moved away from the Anglican church and its theology, but not from what I understood by...
Quaker Trust confirms end of controversial funding
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) has announced that it will not fund the campaign group Cage again. The decision was announced on 6 March and follows a request from the Charity Commission to JRCT and the Roddick Foundation for ‘unequivocal assurances’ that they ‘have ceased funding Cage and have no...
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Quaker students in living wage campaign
Ten Friends are among those campaigning for the University of York to become a Living Wage-accredited employer. The university’s Labour Club, Socialist Society, Liberal Democrats and Greens have joined Friends in demanding that all university staff be paid a living wage.
Anti-fracking Friend arrested in Downing Street
Banbury Quaker Paul Mobbs was arrested on Thursday 5 March for blocking the entrance to Downing Street. He had hoped to make a citizen’s arrest of members of the government. Paul wanted to perform a citizen’s arrest because he believes that members of the government are guilty of misconduct...
QARN welcomes Detention Inquiry report
The findings of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into the Use of Immigration Detention in the United Kingdom Report have been welcomed by the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) as ‘a starting point for change’. Sarah Teather MP chaired the Inquiry. Its findings were released on 3 March and listed four...
FAU records made more accessible
Personnel records of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) in the first world war are now available online. The records are free to access and cover FAU membership between 1914 and 1919.
New booklets highlight housing concern
The Quaker Housing Trust (QHT) has published two booklets in advance of the general election to highlight a concern over housing in Britain today.
…In Everyone?
Much quoted among us, It’s our firm tenet: There is that of God In everyone.
Eye - 13 March 2015
Cafe confusion James Joyce fan Tim Jerram got in touch with Eye after reading ‘The battle for Bewley’s’ (20 February). ‘I’m delighted to see you mention this campaign and the Harry Clarke windows (which were described at the Youghal Historical Society’s conference on Quakers in Ireland last autumn)....
Letters - 13 March 2015
Labels One of the most adult essays I have ever read was David Bone on terrorism and labels (27 February). Keith Wedmore It is hard not to agree with everything that David Bone says in his piece. However, I do have one concern. Surah 5:32, which, as David wrote, states that ‘the...