Issue 10-04-2015
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Hands
Hands can be used in many ways. They can attack or they can succor. For years I have been fascinated with my own hands. One regret I have is that I didn’t photograph them when I was younger. They were never elegant hands but rather square, practical and capable...
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Taking the next step
‘Taking the Next Step: in our commitment to become a sustainable community’ was the title of a Meeting of Friends in Wales residential gathering held between 27 February and 1 March at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). The idea for the topic of the weekend came from a session with Kindlers...
Hustings at Friends House
The international dimension to the general election was the subject of the first hustings to be organised in the Large Meeting House at Friends House in London. It was a revealing evening. The weakness of the smaller parties on international issues was rather exposed and the defensiveness of the two...
Quaker candidates
Fifteen Quakers are contesting the general election, all of them in English constituencies. Seven of the candidates represent the Green Party, four the Labour Party, three the Liberal Democrats and one the Peace Party.
Transgender and truth
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) experience has an uncomfortable place within faith groups. Quakers have gone much further than other faiths in embracing homosexuality, but only after many years of reconciling the personal experience of Friends with established social and moral attitudes. The Quaker Lesbian and Gay Fellowship ...
Patterns and examples
Would you go to a meeting if the recording clerk was listed as a speaker on ‘Talking dirty’? And what might you learn for your Meeting house? These were two of many topics of interest that were raised when staff, volunteers and trustees from a range of Quaker premises – from...
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Strong turnout for first Friends House hustings
More than 280 people signed up for an election hustings held at Friends House on 31 March. Five politicians had three minutes each to explain why voters should choose their party.
Friends House responds to online criticism
The leading gay rights activist Peter Tatchell has expressed disappointment that Quakers allowed Friends House in London to be used for an event hosted by an organisation that he says ‘supports Sharia executions’. Britain Yearly Meeting has defended the decision to let ‘The Light’ to the not-for-profit organisation MEND (Muslim...
QCEA hosts drones group
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) hosted the first meeting of a new informal group for NGO workers with an interest in issues relating to armed drones.
Ninth Low Carbon Commitment Forum
Eleven Central England Friends met recently in Birmingham to discuss ways to reduce their Meetings’ carbon footprints.
Trident briefing for Scottish Friends
A short guide for Quakers in Scotland on Trident and the general election 2015 has been prepared by Britain Yearly Meeting. The new document is supplementary to the larger General election 2015: a guide for Quakers briefing published earlier this year, Mairi Campbell-Jack, Scottish parliamentary engagement officer for Britain Yearly Meeting, explained...
Friend speaks out at ‘Bairns not Bombs’
Quaker Disability campaigner Nuala Watt took to the stage at the ‘Bairns not Bombs’ demonstration in Glasgow on Saturday 4 April. Nuala argued that the welfare state is a form of ‘defence’ for vulnerable people and that the government’s ‘defence’ priorities are all wrong.
New Quaker music group
Westminster Meeting’s Mike Brooks hopes to start a new Quaker music group. The new group will be open to musicians of all abilities. All instruments are welcome. The group’s focus will be improvisational and instrumental, rather than vocal.
Richard Plantagenet
For over 500 years Leicester was the resting place of a ruler and warrior. This man, who died a violent death, was taken into protective and prayerful custody by the grey friars. They did so to prevent further humiliation of the battered corpse by an excited mob, and then buried him...
Sharing the cloak
At the beginning of February around twenty Friends involved in various forms of Quaker chaplaincy met together at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham for a weekend conference, which was organised by Quaker Life. The aim of the event was to support and reflect upon this expanding area of...
Eye - 10 April 2015
Friends and felines Rosalind Kaye, of Colchester Meeting, came across Quakers in an unexpected place whilst perusing the recently reissued book The Fur Person by May Sarton. Written from a feline point of view, the ‘Fur Person’ of the title is confused about why the humans in his life keep...
Letters - 10 April 2015
Good Friday The observance of ‘Good Friday’ is almost universal in Christendom, yet the Bible nowhere states that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. This is mere conjecture due to the understanding of the Gospel text that states that Jesus had to come down from the cross before the Sabbath,...