Issue 21-08-2015
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The healing power
Earlier this year, one Sunday morning in late February, Bath Meeting House was cold. The heating had broken down and a decision was made to cut the Meeting for Worship to half an hour. In these freezing, unpropitious conditions a Friend, Christine, read out Advices & queries 2: ‘Bring the whole...
Top stories
Dissuasion
Why are we, as Quakers, concerned about drug policy? We are concerned because of the global, national and individual consequences of drug policy that maximise harm to both drug users and the wider community and because of the serious impact in relation to suffering and inequality. We have both had...
Phlogiston and stuff
My first few chemistry lessons were about the phlogiston theory. It was a theory proposed in 1667 that sought to understand what happened during burning. The theory suggested that something – phlogiston – escaped during the burning process, leaving a dephlogisticated residue, the ash, behind. Things that burned well, such as wood and...
Spreading peaceful ideas
This year the winner was Charlotte Sowter. Her winning essay was on the subject of ‘How to spread peaceful ideas in your community’. How can we achieve true peace? How can we rise above our differences between other religions? Shouldn’t everyone have equal rights and be accepted more into...
The essence of Quakerism
Over the last twenty years I have been aware of a continuing trend for Quakerism to become more liberal as it has moved away from its Christocentric roots. As a member of the Quaker Universalist Group for twenty years that has seemed okay. It has now reached a point, however,...
The legacy of John Horniman
Many associate Quakers with chocolate making. Some mistakenly think Quakers were also involved in producing porridge oats. Few people associate the production of leaf tea with Quakers. John Horniman, born in Reading in 1803, was a Quaker tea merchant. Following the Quaker testimony of integrity, he wanted to demonstrate the honesty...
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Proposal to commemorate Quaker botanist
A York woman is hoping to create a heritage centre dedicated to Quaker botanist and philanthropist James Backhouse. Jane Cullen wants to transform a disused park-keeper’s lodge in West Bank Park in York into a café and heritage centre. She is currently fundraising to cover the cost of a...
Worcester Friends reach out
A post-Meeting conversation has inspired Worcester Friends to help tackle the lack of feminine hygiene products in developing countries. Sharon Multani-Colebrook, founder of local charity FEMpads, attended Meeting recently. She told Friends about her charity, which makes reusable sanitary towels for women who cannot afford them. In the case of...
New message for passers-by
The Euston Road façade of Friends House boasts two new banners. The identical banners say: ‘Quakers – led by faith to build a better world’. The message is a distillation of the Quaker Week posters: ‘Beginning with stillness, my faith becomes action’.
Friends consider gender issues
Manchester Friends took part in a session on gender on 16 August as part of Quaker Manchester Pride 2015. The session was entitled ‘Quiet lives filled with light’ and was led by Jennie Barnsley of Hardshaw and Mann Area Meeting. She drew on the research she did for her recent PhD, which...
Islamic leaders issue declaration on climate change
Islamic leaders from twenty countries have launched a bold Climate Change Declaration to engage the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. The sixty participants taking part in the Inter-national Islamic Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul on 17-18 August adopted the Declaration.
New face at QCEA
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has appointed a transition manager. Paul Musiol joins the Brussels-based team on 1 September. QCEA is ‘determined to increase the impact it has on the policies decided in Brussels’ and has hired Paul to review its work.
Quaker summer seminar in California
The Quaker Institute for the Future (QIF) held a research seminar at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, earlier this month that looked at how Friends can live in right relationship to each other and the environment.
Letters - 21 August 2015
Light within John Myhill’s Thought for the Week (14 August) is a wonderful reminder of the relevance of Meeting for Worship in our lives. The ‘Light within’, ‘practising spiritual speaking and listening in our Meeting for Worship’ are all words we need to hear again and again. I know how...