Issue 01-12-2017
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The art of war
I have been studying the great classic text The Art of War by Sun Tzu, written in the fifth century BC. It is a text of such subtlety, such understanding of human nature, and, it must be said – of such deviousness – that it makes Niccolò Machiavelli look almost innocent. It...
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A living reality
It is hard enough to be a teenager today. But some young people in the area where West and North Belfast meet, near the Peace Line, are facing the usual challenges of schoolwork, peer pressure and worry for the future against a backdrop of crushing poverty, violence and division. Quakers,...
Reflections on Bonn
When COP23 (conference of the parties) ended I had my usual post-COP experience: deep grief that I alone did not – could not – solve the climate crisis. But unlike past COP endings, with exhausting carbon-intensive flights, or a winter coat stolen (on the train from Paris), this time I rolled into...
Scottish Friends
My journey to Elgin, for General Meeting for Scotland held on 18 November, started early, leaving in the dark from Brechin and boarding the train in Montrose to the clamour of the geese rising from Montrose Basin. Travelling on the train, the early sun shone in a blue sky showing the...
Tears, love and laughter
Between 1652 and 1654 the ‘Valiant Sixty’ travelled in the ministry to spread the Quaker vision in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Today, ‘travelling in the ministry’ is underused as a way to reach out to people and support isolated Friends and small Meetings. Our experience whilst working at Swarthmoor Hall (2003-2011)...
Strictly
With my ‘serious’ Quaker ‘mind’ I snobbishly thought Strictly Come Dancing was an inconsequential frivolity – irrelevant in a deadly serious world. Three years ago, however, I encountered an episode of the programme and was utterly seduced. Since that first encounter I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the weekly viewing experience, though I...
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The Fearless Benjamin Lay
Benjamin Lay, the eighteenth century Quaker who used confrontational protest to persuade the Religious Society of Friends to oppose slavery, has been formally re-associated with his faith community after having been disowned for nearly 300 years.
Quaker call on climate change
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) is calling on the government to face up to the UK’s full obligations to tackle climate change.
ICAN wins Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace PrizE for 2017 has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the global network that supported the 122 states backing the recent UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.
Young Friends launch podcast
Young Quakers have created a new podcast.
Becoming new
A dozen French Friends met for a special sharing on the weekend of 11-12 November at the Maison Quaker of Congénies to consider the theme: ‘Every day is a new day?’ – a title that included an all-important question mark! An expert gave us a lecture and we shared our...
A meditation
When you are speaking, I am: Reading between your lines; Listening beneath your words; Interpreting...
Being still
A marvellous book by Mary Stone is a favourite of many RE teachers and contains a treasure trove of visualisations and stilling exercises that can be used in the classroom. It is entitled Don’t just do something, sit there and I turned to it recently when asked to talk...
Letters - 01 December 2017
Distressing deception I was reminded by your very powerful edition of the Friend focusing on Friends in Wales (17 November) of an incident some years ago which made me, as a well-meaning monoglot, feel very useless. I called on an elderly widow who had been visited by a group of children....