Issue 19-10-2018
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Quaker belief
Everything that is sacred and that wishes to remain so must envelop itself in mystery. - Stéphane Mallarmé The subtitle of Quaker faith & practice is ‘The Book of Christian Discipline’, reflecting our Christian origins. Today, the basis of Friends’ spiritual life and practice is not solely confined to...
Top stories
Food justice
In a decade of working with groups of committed Friends on sustainable living at Woodbrooke and elsewhere, there is one issue guaranteed to bring the room to an uncomfortable silence: food. The question of the food we eat – and the mountain of injustices loaded into our shopping trolleys and onto...
Friends and the mind
Why have ‘mental health’ issues become so prominent in government and media spheres? Individuals, families, communities, nations and, indeed, populations can be seen to be behaving strangely, becoming depressed, irrational, deranged, even violent or self-destructive. Observers have recorded this through the millennia of written and oral history.
Friends and equality
Borders Meeting, which includes Quakers from Germany, France, the Benelux countries, Switzerland, Ireland and UK, was held in the youth academy at Walberberg near Cologne on 7-9 September. The subject for our gathering was: ‘The Testimony of Equality.’ There is only one fundamental testimony for Quakers. There is that of...
On prayer
If someone asked: ‘Do Friends pray and, if so, why, and how?’my answer would be: ‘Yes, they do pray.’ There are interesting, anonymous, contributions on this subject in the small booklet Twelve Quakers and Prayer produced by Quaker Quest. There are differing opinions regarding this practice. Some letters to...
Glimpses of Eden
Jonathan Tulloch will be known to many, not only for his novels, which have been serialised on BBC Radio 4, but also for the series of gentle, thought-provoking passages he writes regularly in the ‘Nature Notebook’ in The Times and, probably more amongst Catholics, in The Tablet. Glimpses of Eden: Field...
All articles
Meeting for Sufferings: Sufferings reaffirms boycott commitment
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees asked Meeting for Sufferings for advice and discernment regarding a proposal to explicitly exclude investments in companies profiting from the occupation of Palestine from BYM’s investment policy.
Meeting for Sufferings: Four specific proposals on sustainability
It has been ‘a long journey’ for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) on the issue of sustainability, Anne Ullathorne, clerk of Meeting for Sufferings (MfS), said on 6 October at Friends House in London. She added: ‘We haven’t got to the end of it yet.’
Vibrancy in Meetings: Beyond the pilot
The pilot programme of the Vibrancy in Meetings project will come to an end in December 2019, Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) heard on 6 October.
Meeting for Sufferings: Cautious optimism for Circles UK
Meeting for Sufferings welcomed an update from Claire Cooper, parliamentary engagement officer for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), on the status of Circles of Support and Accountability (Circles UK).
Quaker pushes OU access for prisoners
A Quaker Open University (OU) manager is driving access to education in prison by developing a ‘virtual learning environment’ so students can access their materials in a digital format.
St John Ambulance allow white poppies
The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) has welcomed St John Ambulance’s decision to allow workers to wear white poppies in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday.
Friend tells of her life on the West Bank
Quaker Hannah Larn shared her experience as an ecumenical accompanier in the West Bank and Palestine with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine/Israel (EAPPI) at Welwyn Garden City Meeting House on 7 October.
NFPB explore peace witness in Lincoln
The Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB) met in Lincoln recently, where members explored the nature of their peace witness and reported both positive and negative experiences.
‘Shadows of war, prospects for peace’
York Quakers held a day conference at Friargate Meeting House on 6 October as a contribution to the ‘York Remembers’ season, marking the end of the war in 1918.
‘Awakening Compassion’ in London
Four members of Quaker Concern for Animals (QCA) joined a monthly event in Trafalgar Square, London entitled ‘Awakening Compassion’.
QAN update
The Quaker Arts Network (QAN) has updated its website, inspired by a successful QAN Day that attracted people from the US, the Netherlands and Scotland.
Chris Alton talks Quakerism on Young Artists website
Chris Alton, the Quaker artist and 2018 Swarthmore lecturer, was interviewed on the ‘web platform’ Young Artists in Conversation this month.
Letters - 19 October 2018
Travelling through time I read with great interest the article in the Friend of 5 October, especially in respect of the fact that light from the Andromeda galaxy has taken two million years to reach us. As someone who studied geology many years ago I can cope with the concept of...