Issue 07-08-2020
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‘If we are to live in the “now”, what do we do with those two bookends, past and future?’
‘He who kisses the joy as it flies, Lives in eternity’s sunrise’ William Blake. Blake the visionary captures a thought that is much with us at the present time. In the Covid crisis we have, of necessity, found ourselves detached from our normal daily round. In an effort to...
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Quakers gather online for Swarthmore Lecture 2020
Almost 2,000 Friends gathered online to hear the 2020 Swarthmore Lecture by social scientist, writer and broadcaster Tom Shakespeare last weekend. In Openings to the Infinite Ocean: A Friendly Offering of Hope, Tom Shakespeare considered hope in an era of pandemic, climate emergency and rightwing populism, quoting poet Grace Paley’s words: ...
‘Sometimes wealth and fame bring the opposite to all that is good in life.’
A few weeks ago, at the height of the Covid-19 crisis, I thought to myself: ‘In a few weeks’ time I could be in intensive care or dead’. It’s normal at my time of life to look back and evaluate the course of one’s life and, as Corona...
‘Where there is the greatest evil, there is also the greatest good.’
‘I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love which flowed over the ocean of darkness. And in that also I saw the infinite love of God; and I had great openings.’ Many Friends will recognise these words from...
‘It will take technology, money, energy and faith.’
I don’t imagine you ever thought eyeball cameras would become the most vital ingredient for waiting on God. Yet now, in our brave new Covid Quaker world, I find myself researching them, along with microphones and speakers. Paul Hodgkin’s observation in the Friend a couple of weeks ago...
‘Would our forebears recognise what we are doing as true worship?’
Worship is central to everything Friends do. My Meeting is investigating blending Zoom with the physical Meeting, but what is the worship we are planning to share?
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Manchester Quakers commit to BLM review
Central Manchester Friends have pledged to develop an anti-racism programme in response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
UK universities with arms trade links
British universities are increasingly beholden to financial arrangements with arms firms due to Brexit and government cuts, an author who specialises in the arms trade has asserted.
Friends rally for ‘stigmatised’ drivers
International Friends came together for a Quaker-led initiative to support communities and truck drivers crossing parts of Africa.
‘Tax Justice Sunday’ worship
A Woodbrooke tutor, Val Jenner, led a Quaker all-age Meeting for Worship themed around tax justice to mark Tax Justice Sunday. The member of Selly Oak Meeting said the Zoom session on 14 June drew on material about tax avoidance provided by Church Action for Tax Justice (CATJ) and child-friendly activities...
Revision Committee gets creative
The Book of Discipline Revision Committee has launched a creative project Open to New Light based on Quaker artistic contributions in order to inform their work.
Notes from an Apocalypse: A personal journey to the end of the world and back, by Mark O’Connell
How will humans respond to a species-threatening event? Mark O’Connell attempts to answer this question in this very timely new book, written before Covid-19.
The Boy With Two Hearts: A story of hope by Hamed Amiri
This is an inspiring, yet easily read, book about asylum seekers; some Friends may have heard it as BBC Radio 4’s ‘Book of the Week’ a few weeks ago.
Accompaniment, Community and Nature by Jonathan Herbert
Jonathan Herbert started his journey as an accompanier at eight years old, sitting on the vicarage doorstep with rough sleepers. He has since practised accompaniment in urban Liverpool, rural Dorset, the Solomon Islands, Uganda and Palestine. Decades later he has formulated his ideas on the subject, which, he claims, is...
Eye - 7 August 2020
Meeting with martins Sixteen Sundays of lockdown prompted Jane Woodford, of Dundee Meeting, to reflect on some unexpected company. She writes that, during lockdown ‘I haven’t been able to get to Dundee Friends Meeting House which is ten miles from our home in Perthshire. My husband, an attender, had...
Letters - 7 August 2020
Tolerance and kindness Martin Drummond’s response (10 July) to RV Bailey’s poem (18 June) has caused me concerns that linger. I offer an alternative interpretation. Advices and queries 18 starts with: ‘How can we make the meeting a community in which each person is accepted and nurtured and strangers are...