Issue 22-11-2019
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‘Air is our Guru, water our father, and the great earth our mother.’
‘Highest is truth, higher still is truthful living’ These words of Nanak Dev Ji, Sikhs’ first Guru, resonate with Friends. As I write, thousands of Sikh pilgrims are crossing the border from India into Pakistan. For seventy-two years they have been denied easy access to Kartarpur Sahib, the gurdwara that...
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‘If she had lived her life with bitterness, she would suffer more.’
The campaign against apartheid in South Africa could not be said to have been nonviolent. Letlapa Mphahlele, while commanding a liberation army, ordered high-profile retaliatory massacres on white civilians. But after a radical transformation he has come to see the whole of humanity as ‘my people’. Last month he came...
‘A good deal of consultation is going to be needed and it has started already.’
‘Has anyone got a 4x4 and can help?’ asked the clerk. That’s not something you hear very often in a Friends’ gathering. But we were meeting in Newtown/Y Drenewydd and in generally-very-rural Powys there was, of course, a Friend with such a vehicle to hand. She set off...
‘Amid the sufferings we also see evidence of kindness and concern.’
I was born on the Isle of Man, as was my partner Tony’s father – his family going back for generations. So it has a special place in our hearts. Tony knew, from Friends at Douglas Meeting, of the Quaker burial ground in Maughold (a number of Friends lived there...
Why I Wear Your Socks Today
I wear your socks today so that I can see more deeply into the old woman ahead of me in the post office. She is ashamed to be so slow. She says sorry, sorry to the queue as she shakes in her girlish jeans. I repeat the words you taught...
‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’, by Yuval Noah Harari
This book gives a serious assessment of the challenges facing our world. Its author, Yuval Harari, is a professor of World History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This work consists of twenty-one essays on a wide variety of contemporary topics.
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‘A Word from the Lost’, by David Lewis
This fine book is both scholarly and approachable. The author sets out to explore James Nayler’s thought and theology and reflect on its relevance today, by contrasting it with later Quaker thought as shown in our books of discipline since Nayler’s time. He achieves his aim with aplomb,...
Campaigners call for fracking charges to be dropped
As hundreds of supporters signed a petition demanding that charges against anti-frackers should be dropped, Quakers highlighted a government document which suggested it could allow fracking to continue despite the highly publicised ban.
Scottish gallery ends BP partnership
There was good news for the many Quakers involved in protests against the petrochemical giant BP’s arts sponsoring this month when National Galleries Scotland announced that it will end its controversial relationship with the oil company in order ‘to address the climate emergency’. Climate campaigners hailed the news as ...
Military veterans call for minister’s apology
Friends have backed a group of twelve military veterans who wrote a letter to a Conservative minister calling on him to apologise after he encouraged people to ‘ignore’ white poppy wearers.
Oxford college holds Quaker-style Meeting
Twelve people came to a Quaker-style Meeting held at Harris Manchester College last week. Described as an ‘invitation to stillness’, the Oxford college held the event on 6 November and invited attenders to gather at the end of the chapel seated in an arc shape. The college said: ‘Someone may or...
QSA launches funeral poverty report
Quaker Social Action (QSA) launched a new funeral poverty report at Friends House in London this week, looking back on the work of QSA and setting out future plans. The event, ‘Speaking truth to power: tackling the UK’s funeral poverty crisis’, featured a talk from QSA’s director Judith...
Stratford Friends in remembrance vigil for civilians
For a second year running, Quakers in Stratford-upon-Avon held a vigil in remembrance of the civilian victims of war.
Letters - 22 November 2019
Loss of trust Tony D’Souza’s article on populism (11 October) adopts the narrative that our current political conflicts originate in the activity of ‘populists’ who manipulate public opinion by telling lies to undermine powerful ‘elites’ who have excessive influence over public affairs. There can be no doubt that such...