Issue 29-04-2016
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Hallowed be thy name
Early in Meeting for Worship a Friend rises to announce a death. One of our number has lost a son-in-law. We are asked to hold the family in the Light. Soon thereafter our Friend rises again. She says: ‘I must add that the young man’s name is Scott.’
Top stories
Making a choice
‘You should go, you might find it interesting’, a prophetic voice on my left announced at my first elders and overseers meeting, following a long discussion on attendance at Yearly Meeting. I had been debating with myself for weeks, having never been during my eight years of membership. How right...
From the archive: Paying the price
The Friend carried an evocative report in the issue of 7 April 1916 that conveyed some of the effects of the battle of Verdun, which had brought a stream of refugees from the bombarded village through Bar-le-Duc. A Friend who had witnessed the event, S Margery Fry, wrote the report: Nothing we...
Europe: Facts and feelings
Recently on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, I heard Larry Summers, one of several US politicians urging the British to stay in Europe. It was thoughtful and heartfelt and this distinguished group of Americans, seldom united politically, are of one voice on the subject. It deserved a considered reply from...
Equipping for ministry
Our group, some twenty-two Quakers from the UK, Norway and Finland, ‘graduated’ from the Equipping for Ministry course in January 2013. Was that the end of our community? Absolutely not. In 2013 we went to Norway and met the Quaker community there. Hill walking has a different meaning in Norway and is...
A forgotten hero?
If the object of the exercise is to ‘Let your life speak’, then perhaps Friends might care to look for a suitable role model as inspiration? I have always turned to Albert Schweitzer as a very worthy example of one man’s ability to rise to the contemporary spiritual challenge...
All articles
Irish Quaker records move online
Over 1.5 million Irish Quaker records are now available online. This is the first phase of a major project to digitise all surviving Quaker records in Ireland.
Alternatives to military spending: the votes are in
Over 1,000 people voted online last week in the Global Campaign on Military Spending UK’s annual bid to see how the public would like its money spent.
New education book
Quaker Values in Education (QVinE) launches a collection of personal reflections at their conference in Friends House on 30 April.
Quaker staff oppose military tax
A group of Britain Yearly Meeting employees has written to the Treasury to conscientiously object to their taxes being used ‘in war, for war, or for the preparation for war’.
Friends focus on strengths
Diane Randall, executive secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) in the United States, gave the keynote address at the Quaker World Relations Committee (QWRC) Consultative Forum on 23 April. The address, delivered via Skype, was entitled: Working together in the world: what do we do best and where...
Young Friends gather
Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) is taking place at Liverpool Meeting House from 29 April to 2 May.
Women in Black
Friends from Inverness Local Meeting are taking part in a silent, women-only vigil on Saturday 30 April. They are among the members of ‘Women in Black’ who meet in Inverness town centre on the last Saturday of each month to mourn all victims of war and conflict.
Dying matters
Dying Matters Awareness Week 2016 will take place from 9 to 15 May, its organisers have announced.
Indra’s net
When Indra made the world, some Indian sages said, he shaped it as a net. At every intersection on the net the god fastened a pearl.
Letters - 29 April 2016
Be kind Thank you Jill Allum for your article ‘Be kind’ (8 April). Sadly, I relate very much to all you said. I wonder, could it be that over the years Friends have become very good at ‘saving the world’ because it’s about fixing things? But, there are some things...