Issue 28-04-2017
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Being co-creators
The annual Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) Spring Conference was an inspiring event. The enthusiasm, interest, energy and inspiration I experienced among Friends over the weekend continues to be a great source of support and upholding for me, especially when I start to worry about political and social crises....
Top stories
The distance between
Sometimes God seems so close. It is almost as though I could reach out and touch Him. I have had this experience a couple of times in Meeting. Yet, at other times God, or the Light, can seem far away. However, one thing is for sure – it is never Him...
Credit unions
Many people want a loan and cannot, for many reasons, access the loan facilities at their local banks or building societies. It may be that they are not permanently employed, do not have a bank account, are a tenant (rather than a homeowner), have a county court judgement against them,...
Witness on Pendle Hill
Friends from far and wide will hold a half-hour Meeting for Worship on the top of Pendle Hill on 6 May to show solidarity with the anti-fracking movement. This position is not radical or controversial. On the contrary, it merely echoes mainstream views held by the general public.
What’s the point of a leaf?
During the Saturday afternoon break, while drinking a cup of tea sitting on the lawn in the sunshine, the clerk to the conference asked me what expectations I had come with. The honest answer was none, which I think was a surprise to her. I recounted that when deciding whether...
From the archive: Quiet heroes
The story of the shipwreck of Rendel Harris in the autumn of 1916 was recorded in the Friend at the time and quoted in this series before Christmas (25 November 2016). On his way home Rendel Harris was, unfortunately, shipwrecked again. It was a terrible twist of fate. The Friend carried reports of...
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Reflections on the ‘Red Book’: Membership
Overseers should be sensitive to the needs of attenders, including children and young people, and, when the time is right, encourage a consideration of membership… Whatever the method or moment selected, it is important for the applicant to become familiar, as appropriate, with our discipline: for example, meetings for church...
Dreaming the Spirit
Dreams can be a lot of things. Joyful ‘nonsense’ unrelated to daily reality – like the one about practising new dance steps with an elephant…when I’m really not the dancing type (or personally know any elephants). They may be an anxious reprise of the day’s hazards – I might...
Quakers urge fracking ban
friends are urging the Scottish government to ban fracking and unconventional gas and oil extraction. In a response to the UK government’s public consultation, Quakers are calling for bold steps to tackle climate change by supporting renewable, efficient energy instead.
Global Campaign on Military Spending
From 20 to 23 April, Friends joined four days of action on military spending organised by the Global Campaign on Military Spending (GCOMS).
Cuts to legal aid for prisoners are illegal
Cuts to legal aid for prisoners are unlawful because they are inherently unfair, the Court of Appeal ruled earlier this month in its judgement on a legal challenge brought by the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prisoners’ Advice Service.
Call to action
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) is calling on Friends to join thousands of people around the world to take action during the Global Divestment Mobilisation from 5-13 May.
Letters - 28 April 2017
Taking sides Peter Boyce (21 April) argues that ‘demonstrations, however well-intentioned, such as that of Greenham Common… represent the politics of hate, confrontation and violence… Taking sides leads to increased anger.’ This will surely come as a surprise to the thousands of Friends who marched to Aldermaston or who demonstrated against...