Issue 27-01-2017
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Thought for the Week: Truth and turmoil
Reflecting on the political upheavals of recent months in Britain and abroad, I have been wondering about the parallels with England at the time of the civil war in the seventeenth century. The deposing and beheading of Charles I was not envisaged at the outset of the war, but it...
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A quiet victim
I met Bart only once, more than forty years ago. He and his wife Jo were Dutch. He was my mother-in-law’s cousin and my wife’s godfather. I remember him, at their small house in Hengelo, as a quiet, kind man. During the second world war he was a...
Witness at Burghfield
‘Success is not one of the names of God’ - Martin Buber On 13 December I was sitting on a train heading down from Hull to Reading to stand trial, alongside Hannah, Ellis, John and Gillian, for our nonviolent direct action against Trident at AWE Burghfield. We were pretty certain that,...
Images of Christ: Twelve encounters with Jesus
If you live within reach of London, you have less than a month to hotfoot it round to the British Museum, and, in their ‘South Africa: The art of a nation’ exhibition, see one of the most surprising religious images of the late twentieth century.
Images of Christ: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Before Christmas I was lucky enough to see, in Edinburgh, Johannes Vermeer’s Christ in the House of Martha and Mary in the Scottish National Gallery. It confirmed to me the idea of this series. My choices, in selecting twelve images of Christ, are bound to be personal, so where...
From the archive: 1917
It was the year of the Russian Revolution; the year the United States entered the war; the year of the advance into Palestine with the surrender of Jerusalem to the Allied forces, and the declaration by the British government of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations; the year of the Irish...
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QARN statement on forced migrants
The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) have made a written submission concerning forced migrants to the Home Affairs Select Committee on an effective immigration policy and urged the Committee to have a wholehearted commitment to the humane and generous treatment of forced migrants coming to Britain.
Quakers building a living wage community
South East Scotland Area Meeting is now an accredited Living Wage employer.
Grants announced by JRCT
A wide range of groups working to create a better society has been supported in the latest round of grants awarded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT).
Doing something
Dear Friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere… if you learn all the right words but never do anything? These words, from James 2:14, are taken from a book entitled The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language by the American clergyman, scholar and author Eugene H Peterson.
To reach out widely
Working on outreach is exciting and fills me with optimism for potential growth in Quaker worshippers. We use many approaches, including media coverage, social media, stalls at big festivals and advertising. However, advertising can be an uncomfortable issue for some Friends. Surely people will find their way to Quakerism if...
Letters - 27 January 2017
Experience and belief We had several ministries today but two stood out: a Friend described how a patient in hospital, faced with imminent death, decided the most caring thing he could do at the end of his life was to use his estate to set up a home for the...