Issue 23-08-2019
Featured story
‘God is already within us, part of the natural world as much as our bodies.’
Although I’m not a nontheist, since Neil Morgan mentioned my book Telling the Truth about God (9 August) I do have some ideas for him. First, what does anyone think we’re doing in Meeting for Worship for Business? Here are four possibilities: making decisions; looking for the will of...
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‘The challenge to faith rooted in experience is processing concepts that transcend any individual.’
Sustainability and the climate emergency seem like obvious bedfellows but how, within the ever-fluctuating meta-Venn diagrams that encapsulate modern life, does Origen fit into the picture? Take a step back. Start with the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impacts of global warming. It...
‘I was quite nervous, checking we had the obligatory flowers, and coffee for afterwards.’
I wouldn’t say I am a dedicated Quaker, so the idea that I’d play a part in setting up a new Meeting might seem absurd. My attendance has always been sporadic, but everywhere I have lived in the UK I have always sought out the Local Meeting – and...
‘Gangs are successful because they provide members with a sense of belonging and purpose.’
Recently I had to advise my teenage nephew that it was safer to stay indoors after dark. A young boy of colour, he was visiting from Australia and was staying briefly in a deprived part of London. I told him not to go out at night because of the danger...
‘This is the certainty in which I hope to be enveloped.’
In chapter two of Quaker faith & practice, Friends describe their experiences in Meeting for Worship. In particular, 2.11 reminds us that individual experience, valuable as it is, ‘is not sufficient, and in a Meeting held in the Spirit there is a giving and receiving between its members, one helping another...
‘Human chain’ for Peterloo massacre
Around 150 people showed the power of silent action with a ‘human chain’ around the wall of the Central Manchester Meeting House to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo massacre. According to Manchester Friends, part of the wall surrounding the Meeting house was standing in 1819 when the massacre happened, during...
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‘Sweetness of Unity: Three hundred years of Quaker minuting’ by Judith Roads
In the preface to this book, the author writes that it is aimed primarily at those with some experience of Quakerism and who understand something about Quaker processes. Those interested in language or historical aspects of business English may also find nuggets of interest. Those who are, have been, or...
The last days
If these days are the last days I will prepare my hours a will and testimony each breath a gift each smile a legacy to pass on to the soil for the next great ascendency
Meeting pulls MP talk amid threats of violence
Brighton Meeting House was the third venue in less than a week to cancel an event with MP Chris Williamson after they were warned that there may be violence. The Derby North MP was suspended from the Labour Party in February for claiming that Labour had been ‘too apologetic’ in...
BYM on IICSA
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has begun a new investigation into child protection in religious organisations and settings.
Protestors removed from Pride
Quakers supported a group of LGBTQ+ people who were removed from a Pride event in Surrey this month for protesting against the event’s sponsors BAE Systems. The attenders carrying anti-BAE banners said they were thrown out of the event in Woking Park on 10 August. However, the organisers are reported...
Funeral debt on BBC
A woman who was supported by Quaker Social Action’s (QSA’s) ‘Down to Earth’ programme spoke on a BBC news programme this month about her struggle with funeral debt following her brother’s death.
Quakers at the Fringe
The Quaker singer-songwriter Majk Stokes performed new material at the Edinburgh Meeting House, when, for its thirty-first year, the building became Venue 40 for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Letters - 23 August 2019
Veganism and open doors I felt proud to see The Guardian Live talk at Friends House London in April hosting Greta Thunberg, Anna Taylor and Caroline Lucas MP. We have an ageing population at our Quaker Meeting houses throughout the country and in order to attract the younger generation I...