Issue 14-08-2020
Featured story
‘Somewhere along the way I realised I would never amount to very much. What a relief that has been.’
‘If we are getting older it will be harder to acknowledge that we have not been called to spectacular service, that we are unlikely now to make a stir in the world, that our former dreams of doing some great healing work had a great deal of personal ambition in...
Top stories
Central Edinburgh Friends host BLM artwork
Central Edinburgh Meeting House is hosting artwork in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as part of a Scotland-wide art project.
‘Please let your servant be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry.’ (2 Kings 5:17)
The book of Bible stories I was given as a child was affected by the post-war rationing of paper. It was close print; there were few illustrations and they were small, simple line drawings. The only colour in the book was on the front cover, which carried a picture of...
‘Those who love the world can be glad that it will continue after their death.’
There are people with a rare genetic disorder which means that they do not feel pain. People with this disorder generally have shortened lives, during which they have to deal with injury and disability. Pain is good. Without it we are much more vulnerable to injury.
‘Yes we claim to be friendly, nice people. But these dynamics are more subtle than that.’
I recently gave a presentation on Quaker Meeting houses. When researching it I discovered that there were many more than I expected, dating back to when, in some parts of the country, it is said that ten per cent of the population worshipped as Friends of Truth. I have read...
‘They came from different parts of Scotland, including one of the islands.’
Scotland’s geography has meant that more people have found it easier to attend Zoom Meetings, including some who have never been before.Scottish Friends have a yearly enquirers day and so we decided to use Zoom for this too. Nine people signed up for the day, which started at 10.3...
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VJ Day 75 plans ignore nuclear bombings
The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) has strongly criticised British ministers after Boris Johnson failed to mention the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when announcing plans for VJ Day 75 (Victory in Japan).
Exeter Friends in Hiroshima peace vigil
Exeter Quakers held a socially distanced peace vigil exactly seventy-five years after the second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
Friends House to reopen
Friends House in London will reopen from September 1, it was announced last week. The site will be open for meetings of up to thirty delegates and the cafe will also be reopening from the same date. Meanwhile, the self-catering accommodation of Swarthmoor Hall in Cumbria is also reopening from 14 August....
Black Lives Matter banner set on fire
A ‘Black Lives Matter’ banner installed by Quakers outside a Meeting house in the US was set on fire, in a third act of vandalism this summer.
QSA advises on funeral price controls
Quaker Social Action (QSA), which has just announced plans to merge with Quaker Homeless Action in the autumn, has responded to an ongoing investigation into rising funeral costs.
‘Caroline provided Virginia with a role model of an independent woman.’
In Simon Webb’s review of Virginia Woolf’s biography of Roger Fry in the Friend last month, he was right to point out that Virginia Woolf was not a Quaker. But she had much closer contact with Quakerism than is often realised – in particular with something quite like Quakerism...
Apeirogon: A novel by Colum McCann
This book moved me in a way that few novels have ever done. I could only read a few pages at a time, so powerful was the effect on me. I was often close to tears.
Humankind: A hopeful history by Rutger Bregman
This book presents scientific evidence showing that it is reasonable to hold a more realistic and positive view of human nature than is common. Many environmentalists see humans as a destructive plague on the earth. And the news gives a dispiriting picture of human beings. But Rutger Bregman points out...
Letters - 14 August 2020
Article and picture Were you teasing your readers when you used a plate from a version of Linnaeus’ sexual system of plants to illustrate an article which urged us to move beyond Linnaean systems of thought (31 July)? I liked both the article and the picture, and it reminded me...