Issue 20-05-2016
Featured story
Thought for the Week: What is Truth?
Pontius Pilate asks Jesus the question ‘What is truth?’ and does not wait for an answer. Do Quakers walk away? Can we face the truth about ourselves? Do we even know it? When I was seventeen, I was part of a group of twenty or so young church people. Once...
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The Conscientious Objectors Stone
On Sunday 15 May a group of people gathered together in Tavistock Square, near Friends House in London, to commemorate International Conscientious Objectors Day. At the heart of this annual event is a piece of rock that has become an important focus for the witness of those who believe in the...
Rights of the child
Britain’s record on children is under the spotlight. This month the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) is examining the UK government’s record to determine how compliant the UK has been with regard to its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the...
Europe: The EU vision - Back to basics
As we approach the EU referendum, most of the discussion focuses on what would benefit the UK. But what would be best for Europe, or the wider world? Why was the European Union created? There are many factors. Let me tell you about one of them, since I knew the...
Doing things together
There are many things to cherish and protect in the culture of the UK: our freedom of expression, our rule of law, our multicultural cities, our bus passes for over sixty-fives, and the general respect for good neighbourliness, to name just a few.
Quaker faith & practice: Where love and truth cohere
‘Unless you speak the truth, there never will be love’ In our wonderful Quaker faith & practice the very first note struck gives us love and truth together as the leadings of God: never love without truth, and never truth without love. Most of us find that coherence hard. We...
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Friends remember conscientious objectors
Friends marked International Conscientious Objectors Day, Sunday 15 May, with a Meeting for Worship at the Quaker Service Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
Hospitality company reports solid profits
The Friends House Hospitality Company has posted its 2015 review, showing a strong performance.
QCEA highlights CETA risk
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has warned that a trade deal between the European Union and Canada, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), may slip ‘under the radar’.
George Fox features in BBC’s ‘Great Lives’
The 24 May edition of BBC Radio Four’s Great Lives programme will feature George Fox. He was chosen by Ann Limb of Milton Keynes Meeting, who will talk about his life and work.
Radio Four considers conscience
The BBC Radio Four Sunday morning service at 8.15am on 29 May will take as its theme conscience, to mark the centenary of conscription.
Photo contest winners revealed
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has announced the winners of its photographic competition.
Hustings briefing available
Britain Yearly Meeting has produced a guide to the European Union membership referendum.
Focus on living out our Quaker faith
More than 1,000 Friends are expected at Yearly Meeting 2016, which will take place at Friends House between 27 and 30 May. The main theme is: ‘Living out our faith in the world. Are we ready to meet the challenge?’
Magnolia moves at Friends House
The much-loved magnolia tree in the garden at Friends House is to be replaced. The tree graced the lawn outside the building for some years but had languished in a corner during renovation works.
Oneness in South Africa
Some sixty-three Friends from Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, plus children, with guests from Kenya and the UK, met for Central and Southern Africa Yearly Meeting at St Augustine’s Priory in the attractive countryside of the eastern Free State, South Africa, near the Lesotho border, from 27 April to 3...
In silence
In silence which is active the Inner Light begins to glow – a tiny spark. For the flame to be kindled and to grow, subtle argument and the clamour of our emotions must be stilled. It is by an attention full of love that we enable the Inner Light to blaze...
Eye - 20 May 2016
Making an entrance Smiles were seen blossoming on the faces of those passing Northampton’s Quaker Meeting House recently. ‘A ninety-one-year-old Friend arrived at Meeting with a flat tyre on her mobility scooter,’ Liz Redfern, a local Friend, told Eye. ‘Luckily she has a recovery contact, and look what they...
Letters - 20 May 2016
A forgotten hero In Bill Bingham’s interesting article about Albert Schweitzer (29 April) he mentions that German soldiers ‘at that time’ (world war one) had ‘Gott mit uns’ (God with us) carved into the buckles of their uniform belts. I spent the last eighteen months of world war two as...