Issue 08-05-2020
Featured story
‘Now we must try to retain that sense of mystery while physically separated from one another.’
One of the most important things in any Quaker Meeting is the sense of fellowship. We come together because, for most of us, the truth we find within is more readily approached in the company of others. An invisible fellowship envelops us all.
Top stories
‘Poetry can be a way of escape or a revelation, trite or profound.’
An increased proportion of mail to the Friend at the present time is in the form of poetry. Creativity is in the air. There are more television programmes on the arts and crafts, as well as shows for children to use their skills in new and exciting ways. Theatres are...
‘His sermons are filled with a humour born of setback and humility.’
With the simple and deep gift of time in my hands – time in our garden – I find myself dipping into John Donne’s sermons. It feels right. He was writing them in a time of plague and he was a man who consistently believed in mercy, in prayer and in...
‘Archetypal figures empower us to help bring love, truth and justice into our world.’
On Easter Sunday my wife and I had our Meeting for Worship alone by a pond in our village’s nature reserve. Arising into me came the story of the Christ figure of the first Easter Sunday. According to chapter 21, tacked on to John’s gospel, followers of Jesus fished...
‘Somehow we even managed to fit in free time and a Saturday evening entertainment.’
It must be more than twenty years ago that I first took part in the annual Quaker Choral and Chamber Music weekend at Charney Manor, where singers and instrumentalists of all ages gathered to sing, play and live together for a weekend of intensive musical and spiritual fellowship. A lot...
‘Why not celebrate our our beliefs as interpretations of an experience that is beyond description?’
Someone commented: ‘Thank you for sharing your belief.’ That caught my attention – I thought I was sharing my experience. I began to wonder: are they the same thing? Is belief an interpretation of an experience? What is experience without a belief? Is it a question of perspective? How much of...
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Air strikes on Iraq during Covid ceasefire
The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) has said that the UK Ministry of Defence faces urgent questions after it was revealed that the Royal Air Force staged air strikes in Iraq when Boris Johnson was still in hospital. The incident was posted on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) website on 25 April...
DR Congo town hit by devastating floods
The Quaker Congo Partnership UK charity has highlighted devastating floods in the city where its partner church’s office is based. The city of Uvira in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding areas were hit by ‘horrendous’ floods in April, affecting some 80,000 people and destroying thousands of properties.
BYM protest military taxes to HMRC
Forty-nine staff members of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) have written to HMRC to protest against the uses of taxes for military purposes. The action, which is taken every year, is part of a campaign organised by ‘Conscience – Taxes for peace not war’. The letter says: ‘The government’s response to...
Central England Quakers on Earth Day
Climate campaigns need to engage with the heart as well as the mind, experts at a Quaker-facilitated Earth Day Gathering said. The recommendation was one of many that emerged from the online event on 22 April organised by Central England Quakers, Footsteps (Faiths for a Low Carbon Future), Climate Action Network...
Quaker Africa Interest Group highlights food insecurity
Food insecurity is a key issue in several African countries, according to the Quaker Africa Interest Group. Lee Taylor, co-clerk of the group and member of Milton Keynes Meeting, told the Friend that a Zoom meeting on 23 April organised by the Quaker Africa Interest Group, involving Quaker and other charities...
Quakers call for ‘liveable income for all’
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has written to the prime minister asking him to ensure no one is left without a liveable income during the COVID-19 crisis. The open letter backs the New Economics Foundation’s (NEF) proposal for a temporary minimum income guarantee which would be unconditional and not means...
‘What You Have Heard Is True: A memoir of witness and resistance’, by Carolyn Forché
In 1977, Carolyn Forché was twenty-seven, and had already packed a whole life into those years. She had won the Yale Younger Poets competition, translated poetry by Salvadoran émigré Claribel Alegría, received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and begun teaching at a Californian university.
Eye - 8 May 2020
Keeping it simple Quakers in Maldon have devised a form of worship that uses technology in a way that is accessible for those who struggle with video software. Local Friend Margaret Smith told Eye all about their email-based Meetings for Worship on Sundays, which have been ‘very powerful and had...
Letters - 8 May 2020
Open our hearts I gained some momentary comfort from Frances Voelcker’s article (10 April) identifying opportunities within the current crisis for a new, fairer world order to materialise. The premise is that this aspiration could be facilitated by Bank of England-issued money for essential services, moving us towards the levelling...