Issue 13-11-2015
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Acceptance and hope
As a prisoner with an indefinite sentence, I came to prison with a lack of direction, little to aspire to in the way of positive role models, and a pro-criminal attitude that I had built up over many years. However, I had always known, above all my many flaws that...
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Prison reform
Prison is a place where people are sent as a punishment, not for further punishments… Human beings whose lives have been reckoned so far in costs – to society, to the criminal justice system, to victims and to themselves – can become assets – citizens who can contribute and demonstrate the human capacity...
The climate in our prisons
‘Deeply unsettled’ is how I would describe the climate in our prisons today. Changes to the National Offender Management Service, introduced in the last parliament, have been far-reaching, especially with regard to the Probation Service, which has now been effectively dismantled; this ironically coincides with the centenary of a service...
Facing peace within prison walls
I believe peace is not gotten from a silver plate. You need to work for it. You have to do something extraordinary. Sometimes seeking for peace demands that you swallow your pride. Sometimes it means that you let go your power. The power in you… to dominate has to be...
Gleanings: Transformational listening
When I work with Quaker and other groups on their responses to climate change, people often focus either on what the government should do, or else on actions individuals should take in their lives.
Health through peace
Quakers’ unique contribution to the development of Peace Studies goes right back to George Fox who, in 1651 (at the age of twenty-six), wrote to the Commonwealth Commissioners about the ‘power that took away the occasion of all wars’ and nine years later, in a letter to Charles II, the restored...
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Voices and Choices in Hexham Abbey
An exhibition created by Tynedale Friends has opened as part of a two-week-long festival of remembrance at Hexham Abbey and its visitor centre.
‘Made of Money’ anniversary
Quaker Social Action (QSA)’s ‘Made of Money’ campaign is ten years old. Nearly 2,000 families have attended a workshop in the decade since the pioneering financial education project was launched. Four out of five participants are now £50 a month better off, thanks to the skills learnt at the workshops.
Friends Peace Team recalls Nepal efforts
The Friends Peace Team (FPT) Asia West Pacific (AWP) has published a report on its relief efforts following the massive earthquake in Nepal in April.
Friends consider the purpose of business
More than ninety Friends met on 4 November for the Quakers and Business Group’s eleventh annual conference.
Closer ties key for QPSW
Seventy-five Friends gathered at Swanwick, Derbyshire, from 30 October to 1 November 2015, for the annual Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) autumn conference.
Warwick pushes eco agenda
Warwick Friends recently held a sustainability forum as part of their bid to become an Eco-Congregation. The Meeting must meet certain criteria in order to become an Eco-Congregation. One of these is to organise a sustainability forum.
Long Lartin service marks Prisons Week
Sunday Worship on BBC Radio 4 on 15 November will be a special service recorded in the chapel of HMP Long Lartin, in Worcestershire, to mark the beginning of Prisons Week.
Lancaster Friends engage with local businesses
Lancaster Quakers have marked Living Wage Week (1-7 November) by writing to local businesses. Friends wrote of their interest in engaging businesses in conversation about the Living Wage. They also offered to explain it to any businesses who were still unaware of it.
Health Through Peace
A two-day event, Health Through Peace, is taking place at Friends House on 13-14 November.
Letters – 13 November 2015
A charter for carrying on as before The logic behind Ian Beeson’s letter (30 October) on the statement Our Faith in the Future needs to be underlined and answered. I offer some underlining: One assumes there was an evaluation of the preceding five-year-plan. In what ways does the new...