Issue 08-09-2017
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Intelligent loving
I remember sitting ready for Meeting for Worship on the morning following the Dunblane massacre in 1996. I was in the quiet of the Meeting room and could hear Friends arriving, hanging up their coats and greeting one another in the foyer. One Friend, an active member of the peace group,...
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Faith and the future
Singing hymns in a beer tent is not the most obvious choice of activity for a tone-deaf teetotaller. But ‘Beer & Hymns’ is one of my favourite events at Greenbelt. I am able to belt out praise to God, my glass of Diet Pepsi held aloft, with no concern about...
Speaking out together
I recently unearthed these words in a greetings card from a children’s centre in the Philippines: ‘No one of us can light a fire to brighten the world’s darkness. No one of us can light a fire to warm all the world’s coldness. But we can open...
Words from Warwick
When George Lakey opened his heart to us in our opening session at the Yearly Meeting in Gathering at the University of Warwick, talking so movingly about his personal journey and the loss of his son, I thought my phrase for the week might be something to do with unconditional...
Slaying Goliath
‘There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war – at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in...
James Nayler
I am one of those people who needs to know the history of everything. Even when I had an eye operation, years ago, I was tempted to waste the surgeon’s time by asking him who invented that particular type of operation. Not only can I not understand Quakerism without...
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An open space
I began August at Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG) as I ended it at the Greenbelt Festival: with my tribe, my heart opened and mind expanded. The festival feeds a hunger across the churches. Someone at the Queer stall asked: ‘Why can’t church always be this open, thoughtful, loving, generous?’...
Texas Friends request prayers
Friends in Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey are asking Friends in Britain and around the world to pray for them. The home of the pastor at Friendswood Friends Church in the Houston area, the church building and many of the church member’s homes have been flooded.
Christian Aid urges flood action
Christian Aid is highlighting the effect of climate change in worsening the natural disasters being experienced in Texas and parts of Asia.
Quaker comment on North and South Korea
Quakers in Britain are continuing to monitor the crisis around North and South Korea.
Protest outside arms company’s office
Members of Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) protested outside Northrop Grumman’s office in central London on 30 August in opposition to Northrop’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its involvement in the arms trade. Northrop Grumman is the world’s fifth largest arms company. It has a longstanding partnership...
New QCEA brochure published
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has published a new brochure designed to raise awareness of the important work of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Formed after the second world war, the ECHR brings forty-seven European countries together under one common set of binding rules, designed to...
Sussex Ride and Stride
Quaker Meeting Houses (including Horsham Meeting House, right) will be among the churches and chapels open on Saturday 9 September for the 2017 Sussex Ride and Stride.
Peace Pledge Union
The Peace Pledge Union (PPU), an affiliate of the War Resisters’ International (WRI), an umbrella body of pacifist and anti-militarist groups around the world, is one of the groups hosting the annual meeting of WRI Council in London this month.
Eye - 08 September 2017
A long lost tradition was revived at Edgworth by Friends from Pendle Hill Area Meeting. John Griffiths, of Pendle Hill Area Meeting, told Eye: ‘On Sunday 9 July ten Friends, along with sheepdog Taff, reprised a long-lost tradition of holding a Meeting for Worship at the Old Quaker Burial Ground in...
Letters - 08 September 2017
Governance There are rumblings of discontent with our new system of governance, but let’s not blame charitable status. In UK law, the Society has always been a charity, and charities are exempt from much taxation because they are doing the work of the state in benefitting the community. Gift...