Issue 12-04-2019
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Thought for the week: Harvey Gillman’s future tense
Some weeks ago a Friend read from Sydney Bailey’s Swarthmore lecture, Peace is a process, which is now Quaker faith & practice 24.57. Sydney Bailey writes: ‘The follower of Jesus is to discover and then promote the Kingdom of God. That Kingdom has two tenses: it is already here, in...
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‘It is soul-crushing and miserable for anyone to live pretending to be something they are not.’
In my working life I have spent over thirty years in a gender identity clinic, working with and trying to help people whose sense of themselves doesn’t fit the gender role they were assigned at birth. I’m a doctor – effectively a practitioner scientist – and in the course of...
‘What’s your perfect Quaker Meeting?’ ‘A swimming pool.’
‘In a true community we will not choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. Instead, our companions will be given to us by grace. Often they will be persons who will upset our settled view of self and world. In fact, we might define...
‘The organisation has grown massively, and Quakers need to be part of it.’
A group of ‘Earth marchers’ shared breakfast at Bedminster Meeting House on Saturday morning, 30 March, passing through en route from west Wales to London. One of them, Myfanwy, who cares for her elderly mother, had walked the first leg from Cardigan two weeks before. Another, Blake, had joined them in...
I wish
For myself I wish… I would like some football boots, I would like some football boots, I would like some football boots and a gaming PC, PS4 keyboard and a mouse. I would like an Xbox, I’d like some more bedclothes I would like a Yorkie bar
Meeting for Sufferings: Diversity and inclusion discussed
Quakers were asked if they were ‘up for the challenge’ of addressing the issues of inclusion and diversity at Meeting for Sufferings on 6 April. Speaking about her work as inclusion and diversity coordinator for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), Edwina Peart spoke about her diversity and inclusion survey and a national...
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Meeting for Sufferings: Court and prison register
Friends considered changing the name of the Court and Prison Register after a particular case was brought to their attention. But several voices expressed unease at changing the name after such a long history.
Meeting for Sufferings: Vibrancy in Meetings project reviewed
In the afternoon session representatives looked at potential next steps for the Vibrancy in Meetings programme. Along with a summary project review from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) Charities Evaluation Services, Friends were given a report on future options being considered by Woodbrooke and Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM)...
Quakers welcome end to five-year fracking dispute
Quaker anti-fracking campaigners are celebrating the news that fracking company Cuadrilla will not appeal against the refusal of planning permission for a second shale gas site in Lancashire. The announcement on 22 March that the company will not pursue plans for Roseacre Wood near Blackpool ends a five-year planning dispute between...
Quaker-inspired co-housing project
A radical housing project inspired by Quaker principles is being set up in the south west of England.
Petition against thanksgiving service for sea deterrents
Friends have joined other Christians in condemning a service at Westminster Abbey to mark fifty years of the UK having nuclear weapons at sea.
Quaker MEP calls for Vote Leave ministers to go
Molly Scott Cato MEP has renewed her call for the ministers behind the Vote Leave campaign to be sacked. The demand came after the campaign group dropped its appeal against the Electoral Commission’s ruling last year that it broke the law by funnelling hundreds of thousands of pounds of...
QPSW Spring Conference
More than a hundred Quakers gathered for the Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) Spring Conference in Alfreton, Derbyshire last month.
‘This Evil Thing’ to mark CO release centenary
The playwright Michael Mears, of Wandsworth Meeting, is staging his play This Evil Thing to mark the centenary of the first release of conscientious objectors (COs) from prison.
Quakers to welcome worldwide Friends to Yearly Meeting
The Quaker World Relations Committee (QWRC) has invited Quakers from other parts of the world family to Britain Yearly Meeting 2019. Lee Taylor told the Friend that this year it has invited Arne Springorum, from Prague Recognised Meeting, and Ludwig van Quirog, from Philippines Yearly Meeting. She said: ‘They are both...
Letters - 12 April 2019
Love language I identify with all the ideas in George Macpherson’s ‘Words on the Word’ (22 March) except the opener: the right of humans to rule the planet, which I find a possibly dangerous notion to start with. I love language and literature, reading and writing both prose and poetry....