Issue 18-11-2016
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The supermoon
Monday night was a bit of a letdown for watchers of the sky across the greater part of Scotland. It was billed as the night of the ‘supermoon’ – that time, once in a generation, when the moon comes close enough to be bigger and brighter than we have mostly ever...
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Enough is plenty
The theme and content of the Agape Centre event was inspired by the Joy in Enough movement: a challenge to Christians in Britain, and an invitation to all people of good will, to join in building a just economy within the ecological limits of the Earth. The title of the...
Broadening community
How is your community doing? What is your community? Is it just your Local Meeting, or perhaps a neighbouring one too? The old Lancashire and Cheshire General Meeting still organises regional gatherings to broaden our community, deepen our understandings and have fun. I look forward to the next one already.
‘Creating a Just Scotland’: tax and land reform
Scottish Quakers, through the Parliamentary Liaison Function Group, held a symposium on 29 October on the subject of tax and land reform. At 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning it was a surprise and a joy to see that the hall was packed with over 180 people wanting to hear about and...
Only One God?
‘RAF bombs can only alienate opinion and postpone reconciliation and peace,’ says Tommy Gee in his article ‘Forgiveness and reconciliation’ (8 January). I could sit in silence with that profound phrase for a long time – just letting its implications sink into my very soul.
Clearness rapids
I came to Yearly Meeting, earlier this year, with an empty mind. Nothing in the Events Listing or the Agenda grabbed me as especially interesting, or relevant to where I am or what I am doing. As the Yearly Meeting unfolded, in worship, in business, in interest groups, and personal...
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Coventry Quakers celebrate community
The importance of community among Friends was highlighted recently in Coventry Meeting when local Quakers made a special effort to bring all of its members together for worship.
Australian Friends in climate change call
Australia Yearly Meeting presiding clerk Jo Jordan, on behalf of Australian Quakers, has signed an interfaith statement on climate change (COP22).
Episcopalians help Friends in Brora
A Quaker worshipping group established last year in Brora, in the Scottish Highlands, is growing thanks in part to the help and involvement of the local Episcopalian community.
New exhibition opens at Peace Museum
A new exhibition at the Peace Museum in Bradford is showcasing its distinctive textile collection. The exhibition is entitled ‘Challenging the Fabric of Society’ and includes a wide range of items from the collection.
Peace Hub backs ‘Power for Good’
‘Power for GooD’ is the theme of Anti-Bullying Week 2016 (14-18 November). It has provided the perfect opportunity for the Peace Hub in Birmingham to kick-start its own new project ‘We are Powerful’.
Quaker website on award shortlist
Britain Yearly Meeting’s website, which was relaunched in 2015, was recently shortlisted for a Premier Digital Award.
White poppies laid in Leeds
Members of the Leeds Peace Link Group laid a white poppy wreath at the Leeds War Memorial in Victoria Gardens on Sunday 13 November.
White flowers in Cheltenham
On Remembrance Sunday, Alison Crane, Dorothy Carson and Rowland Carson of Cheltenham Quaker Meeting took part in the wreath-laying ceremony at the Cheltenham War Memorial. They laid a specially-commissioned wreath of mostly fresh white flowers with a few Royal British Legion red poppies included. The attached card read: ‘In memory...
Bury St Edmunds silent vigil at war memorial
Bury St Edmunds Quakers were joined by friends in a silent vigil at the war memorial on Angel Hill during the afternoon of Remembrance Sunday.
Volunteering at Woodbrooke
In 2014 I went to the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham with my husband to have a holiday and an opportunity to explore the lovely village of Bournville. I had always wanted to visit and it was a real treat staying at the Centre. I hoped I would return in...
The grapes of wrath
The Bavarian regiment in which Adolf Hitler served in world war one was first engaged by the Black Watch near the village of Langemark on the road to Ypres. The Black Watch were regular troops of the British army and could fire their Lee Enfield rifles at the rate of...
Thoughts on committees
Oh what a pity, another committee has messed it up again And safeguarding measures that give me no pleasure are driving me insane. Whatever I do – in a moment or two – we’re back in square one again. Every time a plan is tried, it goes straight down the drain.
Letters - 18 November 2016
Simplicity I suspect that when early Quakers referred to simplicity they used it to mean the opposite of duplicity rather than complexity. In later centuries it came to mean the opposite of complexity and/or extravagance and as such is still an attractive concept. It can also mean naivety or...