Issue 01-07-2016
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Good neighbours
The result of the referendum has highlighted a difference between ‘direct democracy’ and ‘representational democracy’. More than seventeen million voted to leave the EU. No proposition has ever gained more votes in the democratic history of the United Kingdom – but the final result revealed a very Disunited Kingdom.
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A helping hand
Suzanne (Jill) Bennett is fifty-seven and a member of Sidmouth Meeting. She took off to travel through South America on her own earlier this year with the intention of making her way slowly down the continent – travelling, exploring the culture and offering her services as a nurse wherever she felt...
Road blocks
After three years of considering ‘What it means to be a Quaker today’, Britain Yearly Meeting has now just had the second of three sessions focused on ‘Living out our faith in the world’. How far are we getting in these long discernments?
Return to Calais
‘Have conditions in “the Jungle” improved since you were there in January?’ asked my son, to which I replied: ‘Just as one gets used to the sight of snails in an English garden, so one quickly becomes acquainted with rats. Everywhere.’
Quaker renewal: A shared language
One of the ways that contemporary Quaker practice has become impoverished is by the loss of a shared spiritual language. Instead of a common vocabulary for sharing our experiences and understanding, we have a multitude of individual languages that often rely on borrowing from a wide range of other traditions.
Quaker comment on EU referendum
Britain Yearly Meeting has made a statement on the EU referendum. The statement expressed concern that the outcome of the EU referendum and the campaigning that led up to it had ‘shown up and sometimes exacerbated divisions within and between our communities’.
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QCEA reaction to referendum result
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has highlighted the importance of Quaker values in the wake of the result of the EU referendum.
Step forward for peace education in Zimbabwe
The Quaker charity Friends of Hlekweni has joined with a number of other charities and faith groups in a peace education pilot project in Zimbabwe.
Refugee Week 2016: Different pasts, shared future
Refugee Week 2016 took place across Britain between 20 and 26 June. This year it celebrated acts of welcome shown to refugees by individuals and communities across the United Kingdom and Europe. Friends were among those who took part.
Being and doing
Quakers from Belgium and Luxembourg held their residential Yearly Meeting in Maldegem Youth Hostel, between Bruges and Ghent, from 10-12 June.
Leap looks back at 2015
Leap Confronting Conflict, the national youth charity founded and supported by Friends, has published its 2015 impact report.
Launch of peace festival at Sidcot
The first ever Festival of Peace held by Sidcot School, the Quaker school in Somerset, attracted more than 300 visitors.
Learning through peace
Britain Yearly Meeting staff were among those who led sessions at a national conference for primary schools on peace education, which was held on Friday 24 June at Friends House.
Friends attend WCC event in Norway
Five Quakers were present in different capacities at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee meeting in Trondheim, Norway from 22-28 June. The Friends were able to meet with a local Quaker for Sunday worship.
Eye - 1 July 2016
Friend retraces steps at Woodbrooke Australians are known for their love of travelling – and age is no barrier when it comes to Quakers. Last month Australian Friend Dorothy Benyei made a nostalgic visit to the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham as part of her ninetieth birthday celebrations.
Letters - 01 July 2016
Jo Cox’s legacy I was at a very low ebb, praying daily ‘lead me from anxiety to serenity’ to no avail. This unusual state of mind, for me, was due to the deterioration in health of two of my closest friends; the refugee crisis; and the looming cloud of ...