Issue 03-11-2017
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The dull door
It was a lovely warm late afternoon in June. I was visiting the local Quaker Meeting to observe a new tutor teaching her second course for the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA). The subject was ‘Overthinking’.
Top stories
To be a pilgrim
In the summer I walked the Camino Portugués. I walked from Porto, starting along the coastal route, then moving on to the central route, directly north up to Santiago, where, at the end of the journey, I went to the pilgrims’ office and received my ‘Compostela’. This is a...
Truth and integrity
I find it quite easy to lie. During my childhood I would tell little white lies, sometimes quite large lies and some very bizarre lies, like the time when a schoolmate asked me why I had orange marks around my mouth and I replied that I had eaten chapattis – when...
A hard message
Diana Francis has opened up the topic of equality and inclusiveness among Quakers (1 September), and her analysis of the Religious Society of Friends as a largely white, well-educated organisation is honest and refreshing. I am grateful to her and truly appreciate her desire to make the Society more inclusive.
Streets in the sky
When I was a boy in the 1950s I became fascinated by high-rise blocks of flats. From the public library I had consumed architecture books with photographs showing exciting apartment blocks in other parts of the world.
Friends in community
The Quaker Life Representative Council (QLRC), which met on 13-15 October, is a community. Ninety Quakers are assembled together. Christ dances with us, fizzing and stimulating. A Friend told me she is pleased to see strong and stable Friends who can ground our gathering. I am free to float like...
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Peace activist Friend wins ‘not guilty’ verdict
Quaker peace activist Sam Walton and Methodist minister Daniel Woodhouse were found not guilty of criminal damage at Burnley Magistrates’ Court on 26 October for attempting to disarm Typhoon fighter jets at a BAE Systems factory in Lancashire on 29 January.
Chichester Meeting affirms statement on diversity
Chichester Meeting has affirmed a statement on diversity after a group of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning) Friends spoke at Sussex West Area Meeting in October 2016.
Young Friends General Meeting ’best-attended in years’
Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) was held at Redlands Meeting house in Bristol from 20 to 22 October with over eighty Friends in attendance. It was the best-attended YFGM in recent years.
Patchwork quilts and eiderdowns
The forest is alight this year, the trees they are ablaze October’s colours fill the woods, in a million joyous ways The ash leaves burn whilst the oak leaves sway ...
Thee and thou
We were eight of us in the car. A few weeks earlier we had all moved into one house to start an intentional, open, Quaker community in Pittsburgh. We had heard about Conservative Friends in Ohio and wanted to see what they were like. Friends welcomed us, wearing Quaker dress. â€...
Letters - 03 November 2017
Power of forgiveness The ‘Thought for the Week’ by Mike Lambrix and the article by Jan Arriens (20 October) highlight the inner struggle we all experience, and the power of forgiveness. Recently I invited Jean Paul Samputu, from Rwanda, to speak to the West Berkshire Peace and Integration Forum. The audience...