Issue 04-01-2019
Featured story
Thought for the Week: My God
Who or what is my God? My God is the peace and inspiration that comes to me when I’m in natural beauty. It is that great moment of wonder at the gorgeousness of creation, and in it I expand out of my little, fretful, fearful, thinking-controlled self and simply...
Top stories
Waiting on the Light
All photographers who use natural light, as I do, have to wait upon this source, and also upon particular qualities of light to determine the outcome of the picture. Light is the primary agency, forming colours and tones, composition and shadows, and also mood. The pictures record how the light...
Climate change testimonies
The Quaker community circles the globe, spanning many diverse cultures and beliefs. Today, there are nearly 400,000 Quakers around the world in eighty-seven different countries. Climate change is already affecting the lives of many of our global Quaker family. The communities feeling the worst impacts are those most reliant upon the...
Listen to young people
Listening… space… believing in each other… The second Quaker Mental Health Forum was held on 3 November in the Priory Rooms in Birmingham. We hoped to offer those things we wish for everyone. As Friends shared, we opened ourselves to hear their ministry. A young woman described ‘the best day of...
Unity of creation
My first impression on reading chapter twenty-five of Quaker faith & practice (Qf&p) was that it is one that is going to be very easy to agree with. But then I remembered that Donald Trump is set on denying climate change, which he has described as a hoax...
Reconciliation in action
As a member of the Religious Society of Friends, the Peace Testimony is at the heart of my faith. This complements and nourishes my work as head teacher of an Anglican school in bringing about a learning community for the children and adults in which all are valued, where all...
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Stansted protestors ‘full of hope’
The ‘Stansted Fifteen’ group of protestors who were convicted under counter-terrorism-related charges have vowed to appeal against the verdict. The members of the End Deportations group, including one Quaker, were found guilty on 10 December of intentional disruption of services and endangerment at an aerodrome under the 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security...
Kingston and Wandsworth Area Meeting track carbon emissions
Friends from Kingston and Wandsworth Area Meeting have committed to recording their annual carbon dioxide emissions data in response to a concern about climate change. The action follows a long path of discernment and consideration, prompted by the Canterbury Commitment in 2011.
Teenage Quakers start group to help the ‘isolated’ young
Two fifteen-year-old London Friends have launched a teenage Quaker group in a bid to make Meetings less ‘isolating’ for younger attenders.
BYM seeks to document diversity of Friends in the UK
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has launched a survey with the aim of examining the diversity of the UK Quaker community.
Friends talk about Quakerism for BBC
Quakers Jennifer Kavanagh and Chloe Scaling talked about Quakerism in a BBC1 programme last month to mark Advent.
Meeting by candlelight
Our eighteenth century Meeting house still has small brackets along the panelling. which we assume held sconces for lighting. The candle holders, however, did not survive – they were presumably redundant after the introduction of gas and, then, electric light.
Letters - 4 January 2019
Hope Our book group has been working through God, words and us, edited by Helen Rowlands. I am somewhat unsettled by the following quote from the chapter on ‘reframing the issues’ by Beth Allen, where the question ‘How do Quakers show people who are in despair that there can be...