Issue 11-09-2020
Featured story
‘I see frightening things and good things side by side.’
The room where I meditate looks out over the roof tops of our town, from the mayor in his grand house to the prostitutes at the Red Lion. From here I try to see things as they are, without judging, simply noticing what is. I see frightening things and good...
Top stories
XR arrests in doubt
Netpol, the network for police monitoring that was co-founded by Quaker Sam Walton, has raised questions over the legality of arrests made at a recent Extinction Rebellion (XR) action. ‘We are hearing that a group of @XRebellionUK cyclists are being kettled and arrested on Lambeth Bridge,’ Netpol tweeted. ‘This reminds...
‘People of faith need to take back the words “security” and “defence”.’
Back in March, the organisers of Eurosatory 2020, the French ‘defence and security’ exhibition, cancelled this year’s event in Paris. It would have been the world’s largest weapons trade fair, selling military equipment from tanks to missile systems. The organisers indicated that they couldn’t protect the health and...
‘The inner monster you have locked away for years will be transformed if you listen to its story.’
One day Francis of Assisi and his closest companion, Leo, were out walking. Noticing that Leo looked downhearted, Francis said, ‘Leo, why are you looking so sad?’
‘Our online worship is disciplined, deep and much valued.’
Stocksfield Meeting, part of Northumbria Area Meeting, sits on the A695 in the Tyne Valley and is on mainline bus and rail routes between Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle. A former Co-op dairy, then an office, the building was gifted to the established but homeless Stocksfield Quakers some forty years...
Ways to Kiss the Earth by Linda Murgatroyd
Last summer, an art exhibition called Seeking Routes was held at Swarthmoor Hall. It showed work in which Friends explored Quaker experience and action in building a more sustainable Earth. This book presents a selection from the exhibition and its five themes: ‘Reverence for Nature’; ‘Spiritual and Creative Process’; ‘Climate...
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Brummana School steps up after explosion
The principal of the Quaker Brummana High School in Lebanon has described how students supported the community after the devastating explosion in Beirut last month left thousands injured and hundreds dead.
Friends support new children’s rights bill
Quakers in Scotland are supporting a new bill to enshrine children’s rights into Scots law. Friends joined forty-nine other members of Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights) in writing to MSPs to welcome the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill, which was...
UK trains human-rights abusing states
Peace campaigners have called on the UK government to review its military collaborations after it was revealed that since 2018 the UK has provided military training for seventeen countries classed as having human-rights abusing regimes.
Climate funding for Quaker-founded store
A ‘not for profit’ shop which grew out of a food cooperative started by local Quakers thirty years ago is expanding in a bid to promote recycling and ‘zero waste’.
Talking About Skin: A memoir, by Rosa L Carter
Rosa Carter, who is a Staffordshire Quaker, has written a fascinating memoir. Although originally only intended for her three sons, it has now been published for a wider audience. It should be essential reading for white Quakers who wonder about the lack of black people within the Religious Society of...
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad
For many Friends, the violent death in Minneapolis of George Floyd has felt impossible to discount or ignore. But like others I have been uncertain about what would be an appropriate response. ‘Black Lives Matter’ has not leapt to the top of our Society’s national agenda, though we have...
Poem: Friend
I never knew you were a Quaker. I might have guessed. A silence in the midst of argument; A pause for thought. A sense that something else was going on Quietly, all the time.
Letters - 11 September 2020
Replace heat with light How refreshing to read Oliver Műller’s letter (21 August) calling on Friends to accept the challenge of discussing views which they do not find immediately appealing. It brings to mind John Stuart Mill’s assertion that: ‘He who knows only his own side of the...