Issue 15-09-2017
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Making the crossing
The concept of life as a journey is a familiar one. Applicants for membership of our Society often speak of this move as being ‘part of their journey’, and a whole chapter of Quaker faith & practice is given to accounts of journeys.
Top stories
Quakers without borders
The sixtieth anniversary of Border Meeting in continental Europe was celebrated by sixty-three Friends and Young Friends from Great Britain, Ireland, the Republic of Georgia, Russia, and from elsewhere in Europe at Maison Notre–Dame du Chant d’Oiseau in Brussels earlier this month. Friends moved from the theme of â€...
The Judas Passion
The Passion story is told for the first time from the perspective of Judas Iscariot in a new work for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: The Judas Passion. Sally Beamish, who is a member of Glasgow Meeting, has composed the music and she explains that her Quaker background...
Quakers seized at arms fair
At least eight Quakers were seized by police while engaging in a peaceful witness against the world’s biggest arms fair in London on Tuesday 5 September.
Friends march for animal rights
Members and supporters of Quaker Concern for Animals (QCA) joined thousands of vegans as part of a global campaign for animal rights on Saturday 2 September.
Art in the frame at the arms fair
A feature of the protest at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DESI) arms fair this year was the prominence given to art and creative expression.
All articles
New report on child immigration detention
The plight of immigrant children detained in Europe is the subject of a new report published by the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA).
JRF highlights the costs of poverty
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has issued a new report, Counting the cost of UK poverty, as part of its ‘Solve UK poverty’ campaign.
Woodbrooke success prompts change
The Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies (CPQS) at Woodbrooke in Birmingham has been renamed the Centre for Research in Quaker Studies (CRQS).
Quaker Week
Friends will be addressing, in diverse ways and through different events in Meetings throughout Britain, the theme ‘In turbulent times… be a Quaker’ during Quaker Week 2017.
An alternative manifesto
Theresa May described the 2017 general election, a few weeks before it was held, as ‘the most important election this country has faced in my lifetime’. She hoped it would produce a ‘strong and stable government that works for every one of us’ – but I was not convinced. I fear I...
Business and fun
Every year London West Area Meeting holds an ‘Awayday’ – or what we call an Area Meeting Gathering. We recently had our fourth and we now think we have finally cracked how to make it work.
A long way down
The title poem of Averil Stedeford’s The Long Way Down: Poems of Grief and Hope sets the tone for this recently published collection of poetry. It is simple, explicit and accessible, yet contains personal and poignant truths.
The debate
Like those quotidian voices, And the child in the warm kitchen Clinging close to her father’s knee; Against that well-armed hot debate, In the shell blasts of emotion, By a chamber carried about On the batons of fear and hate, My small poems were swept away – They said, with...
George Jacob Holyoake
In 1842 George Jacob Holyoake became the last person in this country to be convicted of blasphemy in a public lecture, delivered at the Cheltenham Mechanics Institute. In reply to a question from the audience, he had wondered that, in view of the cost of the church, whether we were not...
Eye - 15 September 2017
Venturing to Foggy Bottom Twelve Friends from Ipswich recently explored Bressingham steam museum and gardens in Norfolk, started by Alan Bloom, a Quaker. Lydia Vulliamy, of Ipswich Meeting, told Eye about a ‘brilliant day out, suitable for all ages’.
Letters - 15 September 2017
Quaker Week As Quaker Week approaches the call goes out again for the need to attract new members, accompanied by hand-wringing about the present composition of members and attenders. I am haunted by the question of what exactly these potential joiners are being asked to join. I no longer know,...