Issue 31-07-2015
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Patterns of Life
There is a possibly apocryphal story about a monastery where the monks honoured the sacredness of every human encounter by saying of visitors, ‘Jesus has arrived’. The monastery was a popular refuge for gentlemen of the road; one busy day, such a guest was received and a young monk called...
Top stories
Pacifism in war
Conscientious objection to military service during the second world war is a significant chapter of Quaker history. The Religious Society of Friends has a long history of pacifism and is respected for its noncombatant work, most notably with the Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU), which was established in 1914. So, gaining conscientious...
From the archive: Moving towards conscription
Letter to the Friend ‘Do we not owe a… duty to our young men and those who are of enlistment age who are like-minded, in view of the insidious danger of forced labour and compulsory military service? The danger is creeping nearer, like a snake in the grass… One notes...
Trade deals and transparency
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a series of trade negotiations being carried out, mostly in secret, between the EU and the US. TTIP was the subject of my Salter Lecture at Britain Yearly Meeting 2015. For some, the title of the lecture – ‘Trade deals: realistic concerns or rabble-rousing?’ –...
Friendship knows no barriers
Our Children and Young People’s committee in Hampstead had been discussing the possibility of planning an All Age Worship for some time. At our regular meeting in March we decided to take the plunge and fix a date! The Kites Are Flying! by Michael Morpurgo – newly purchased for our...
Where do I stand?
In saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s sermon ‘The Roe and the Young Fawn’ there is a beautiful, mystical passage in which he writes of his experience of the Divine Spirit: I admit that the Word has also come to me… but, although he has come to me, I have never...
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Friends target MPs over welfare
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) and individual Friends contacted members of parliament (MPs) in the run-up to last week’s second reading of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill to highlight the affects it will have on the poorest and most vulnerable. BYM staff developed a briefing for MPs. In it,...
Cadbury connection with historic Qur’an
The parchment of a section of the Qur’an in the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birming-ham has been radiocarbon dated to between AD 568 and AD 645. It has been confirmed as one of the oldest surviving texts of the Qur’an in the world and the announcement of...
George Weidenfeld thanks Quakers
Former publisher George Weidenfeld recently acknowledged his debt to British Quakers when describing his support for the rescue of Syrian Christians. George Weidenfeld is among the funders of Operation Safe Havens, organised by the Barnabas Fund, which works on behalf of persecuted Christians. The first stage in the project saw...
Australian Friends fined for tea-party protest
Three Australian Friends – known as ‘the Quaker Grannies’ – were fined 500 Australian dollars (£238) each for blockading a military training session in Queensland earlier this month. Dawn Joyce, Jo Valentine and Helen Bayes held a tea party at the gates to the Shoalwater Bay Training Area to create dialogue with soldiers taking...
Meetings asked for help
Chayley Collis, a Huddersfield Friend, has developed a survey on renewable energy and fossil free divestment for Meeting houses and other Quaker buildings.
American Friends School closes
George Fox Friends School in Cochranville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, has closed due to poor enrolment levels and a shortage of funding. Business manager Janet Eaby told local publication Lancaster Online that the economy, competition and the ongoing maintenance needs of the school building had all played a part in the...
Midsummer Meeting
On a bright summer’s day in a small country town Meeting began when the first Friend sat down. Hard on her heels came a youth at a jog, A hiker, a biker, a dentist, his dog. A visiting family filled the back row And all let the silence gather...
Eye - 31 July 2015
Dancing in the waves A passing encounter filled Jill Allum and her husband Phil, of Beccles Meeting, with unexpected joy. ‘Phil and I were at Lowestoft walking along the beach. We sat on the stones near the rumbling waves. I looked up and a little distance away was a young...
Letters - 31 July 2015
Gift Aid I understand and respect the concern that Mary Upson (17 July) has raised about Gift Aid but I don’t agree with it. In a messy world I believe charitable giving is good and necessary, so I am glad governments encourage it by subsidising charities through Gift Aid, even...