Issue 24-04-2015
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Beyond mindfulness
Living in the present has long been a Quaker practice, but now the concept is intensified by mindfulness, which has become almost a cult movement. Like Christianity, the original emphasis has shifted. The Oxford Mindfulness Centre, for example, is part of the university’s Department of Psychiatry, where it is...
Top stories
Quakers and the European Union: the past
Quakers have been advocating for the European Union since 1693. This was the year William Penn wrote An Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe, by the Establishment of an European Dyet, Parliament or Estates. At the time, and in common with most of the second Christian millennium, Europe...
From the archive: Home and abroad
Throughout the war the Society kept its regular meetings and committees, though all the work was affected by wartime conditions. In April 1915 committees were preparing and publishing their reports ready for Yearly Meeting at the end of May. Friends’ Home Mission and Extension Committee ‘The meeting of the General Committee…...
The secret history of torture
Coverage of the Holocaust, relating to Holocaust Memorial Day, has prompted some odd memories. In the mid-1950s I was a national serviceman and was posted to northern Germany. On one occasion I and some other soldiers happened, to our surprise, on the site of the Belsen concentration camp.
The NHS: protecting a universal service
The NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 seeks to reinstate the legal duty of the secretary of state to secure and provide a National Health Service in England. This Bill has the formal support of the British Medical Association (BMA). The Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 11 March 2015 by twelve...
Housing and humanity
A webinar (online seminar) organised by Britain Yearly Meeting on 17 April saw Jenny Brierley, clerk of Quaker Housing Trust, and Judith Moran, director of Quaker Social Action, discuss the growing housing crisis in Britain today. Jessica Metheringham, parliamentary engagement officer for Britain Yearly Meeting, chaired the webinar. The housing crisis...
All articles
New Kinderstransport guide published
The Kindertransport is the focus of the latest Subject Guide of The Library of the Religious Society of Friends. The new guide gives details of Kindertransport information held by the library. This includes press cuttings and printed accounts of former Kindertransportees. It also provides information on where to find related...
Manchester and Warrington Quakers quiz candidates
The Social Justice Group of Manchester and Warrington Area Meeting has sent questions to local parliamentary candidates. The nine questions focused on peace, the environment, social justice and the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). They included ‘Are you in favour of Britain renewing its Trident nuclear weapons system?’ and ...
Dorking Friends host lively hustings
Dorking Quakers hosted an election hustings on 17 April, attracting 140 participants. All candidates in the Mole Valley constituency, which includes Dorking, took part, and each of the five main parties was represented.
The Retreat looks to the future
The Retreat, the York mental health facility, has applied for planning permission to build a new patient day care facility for the treatment of patients with eating disorders.
Friends explore end of life issues
Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC) is setting up a working group on end of life issues.
Anti-Trident event in Bournemouth
On Saturday 11 April a group of Quakers gathered in The Square, Bournemouth, to raise awareness of Trident and its proposed renewal.
Friend highlights green economy in Scotland
The sole Friend standing as a candidate for election in Scotland has highlighted the need to develop more jobs in the green economy.
BYM redevelops website
‘Quaker.org.uk’, the website of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), is being revamped. This will make it easier for users to find what they need quickly and easily, on whatever device they choose.
The Gates of Greenham
Thirty years ago, on Easter Monday 8 April 1985, what is reputed to be the largest gathering of Friends in the twentieth century assembled in the Royal Festival Hall, London. It was the premiere of a peace passion, The Gates of Greenham, to celebrate a four-year ongoing witness of the women’s...
How do we grow acceptance?
We tell ourselves that we are an inclusive Religious Society. But how well do we support and help those Friends who, because of increasing age, have difficulties with hearing or seeing, or for some other reason cannot participate in the Meeting as they once did?
Eye - 24 April 2015
Discussions with the dustmen A day out left Jill Allum, of Beccles Meeting, pondering some unexpected opportunities. ‘I stood with my four-year-old grandson, watching the dustcart pick up the green bins. “Work hard at school,” said a young smiling dustman, “then you won’t have to be a dustman.” “So...
Letters - 24 April 2015
Hustings and prisons Friends attending hustings will, no doubt, be ready to raise issues of welfare, economic justice and defence spending. There is another area for which we have always maintained a concern – prisons and prisoners. Huge changes and massive cuts to the Ministry of Justice (planned to continue in...