Issue 04-09-2015
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Kairos
Each one of us is unique, precious, a child of God Advices & queries 22 Do you sometimes indulge in the game of ‘people watching’? We may play it as we drink coffee on the terrace, or on the train, as a change from gazing out of the window. ‘What an...
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Quakers, arise!
When, years ago, I brought my new Swiss wife to live with me in Britain, she applied for British nationality, while retaining her Swiss citizenship. This required that she went to a lawyer and took an oath to be a faithful subject of the monarch: Elizabeth II. It troubled her...
Life and death
When I was nine my father put my dog down. She had heart failure and was breathless and slow, but she was not in pain. She loved my little sister and me sitting stroking her, and she was contented. But she was inconvenient: she dribbled as she went out to...
Gleanings: A simple lifestyle freely chosen?
The British government regularly surveys public attitudes on climate change and energy. Two-thirds of respondents say they are ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ concerned about climate change. Four-fifths support the use of renewable energy. They agree that people who fly should bear the cost of the environmental damage, but they do not...
Gifted by grief
Recently, an article in The Daily Telegraph entitled ‘We need to talk about death’ highlighted the way that we in the UK (and arguably the whole of Western society) are treating the one thing that will happen to us all. For example, despite over seventy per cent of people wishing...
‘Heads in the sand’ protest
Friends were among more than two hundred Irish campaigners who took part in ‘Heads in the Sand’.
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Meeting houses open doors in September
Almost forty Quaker Meeting houses are taking part in this year’s Heritage Open Weekend and Open House London Weekend.
Friends attend the Jalsa Salana
Marigold Bentley and Bessie White attended the Jalsa Salana on 23 August as interfaith visitors. The Jalsa Salana is a three-day gathering of Ahmadiyya Muslims. It was designed ‘to promote the peaceful teachings of Islam, and to counter extremist views and misinterpretations of the world’s second largest religion’, the organisers...
Scholars speak out at Woodbrooke
The four Eva Koch scholars presented their work to a fifty-strong audience at the Woodbrooke Study Centre in Birmingham on 22 August. Helen Chambers, Peni Connolly, Julianna Minihan and Haifa Rashed discussed work they had done during their six-week stays at Woodbrooke.
Keeping TTIP on the agenda
Stoke Friends recently took part in a national 38 Degrees event aimed at raising awareness of TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Peru plenary planning progresses
Preparation for the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC)’s next World Plenary Meeting are well under way, said the organisers. Four hundred Friends from around the world are expected to gather in Pisac, Peru, from 19 to 27 January 2016. The plenary will help shape the work of FWCC in the coming...
Revamped BYM website now available
The first pages of Britain Yearly Meeting’s new website went live on 1 September. New pages will be added regularly up until Christmas, although the existing site will remain live, as pages are moved across. Jane Dawson, advocacy and public relations team leader for Britain Yearly Meeting, explained to the...
Friends to witness at arms fair
Quakers will hold a silent vigil on the evening before DSEi (Defence and Security Equipment International), the world’s largest arms fair, in London.
Anglicans back papal call
The Church of England has called on congregations to join pope Francis in a worldwide call to prayer for the environment.
After the earthquake
The disastrous Christchurch earthquake of 2011 had far reaching consequences for many of New Zealand’s religious buildings. The Wellington Quaker Meeting House, listed as a ‘heritage building’ in 1983, was deemed ‘earthquake prone’ and now meets only ten per cent of the required standard. This led the Meeting to research the...
Eye - 04 September 2015
Quaker embroidery and fashion The Friend who convened the first Quaker Meeting in Ireland, in 1654, was celebrated in a week-long William Edmundson Homecoming event at the end of July (see ‘First Irish Quaker celebrated’, 7 August). The Homecoming saw a wide range of activities: from singing, poetry and readings through to...
Letters - 04 September 2015
Drugs The report from Tony and Voirrey Faragher (21 August) shows that the health and decriminalising drug use approach in Portugal cuts imprisonment and improves health. With the same decriminalisation policy applied in England and Wales 1,000 fewer people would go to prison. In June 2014 Navanethem Pillay, United Nations high commissioner for...