Issue 13-11-2020
Featured story
Thought for the week: Joseph Jones votes for a rethink
As we went to press, one of the two old men offered up to the US public was still contesting the presidential election result. Nothing wrong with age, of course, though this was not much of a demonstration of the old adage that it brings wisdom. Some were calling it...
Top stories
In your own times: Frank Regan picks up where Ecclesiastes left off
Ecclesiastes is my favourite book of the Hebrew Bible. He sounds like a dour, grim, melancholic, seen-it-all cynic. He sounds just like me, and maybe like you.
Never in doubt: white people need to make the case that black lives matter says Gillian Metheringham
As I was queuing for the supermarket checkout the other day I overheard the cashier and the customer before me in conversation. ‘It’s not black lives matter,’ one of them said firmly, ‘it’s all lives matter.’ The other was in such agreement that she anticipated the final three...
White poppies at Oxford Meeting
Oxford Meeting marked Remembrance Day this month by displaying a giant white poppy on the Meeting house exterior wall, as well as a white poppy wreath on the door.
General Meeting for Scotland met again by Zoom this month. Robin Waterston reports
The opening worship of this month’s General Meeting for Scotland (GMS) brought ministry on what we have lost from the pandemic, and what we have gained. The theme of how we adapt to the new situation recurred throughout the morning.
Pride and prejudice: Tony D’Souza probes populism
White people just don’t get racism. How could they when they have never suffered it? How can they understand when they belong to the tribe that perpetrates it every day all over the world? To understand it, you have to belong to a race other than the one that...
All articles
Quakers welcome Biden: ‘There’s a lot to do!
US Friends have welcomed Joe Biden’s US presidential win, saying that there is much work to be done. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) tweeted its congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, adding: ‘Democracy has prevailed. We can’t wait to work with you and the next...
Postponed COP26 inspires action
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has joined more than sixty UK faith representatives in writing to the prime minister about emission targets, as campaigners come together to mark the original date of the COP26 November climate talks. The letter calls on the government to commit to ambitious emissions reductions in line...
Overseas Operations Bill passes through Commons
Quakers have welcomed the news that a judge-led review into the handling of allegations against troops will run in parallel to the controversial Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, which passed through the House of Commons early this month. However, they said they were ‘extremely disappointed’ that the bill...
Friends invited to Fringe
A Cambridge Friend has set up a website for Quakers to post details of ‘fringe events’ taking place to coincide with Yearly Meeting (YM).
Safety first: Philip Austin from Northern Friends Peace Board
A few months ago, I was thinking of doing some work from the Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB) office again, after months of home-based working. But that will have to wait. Bolton, where we’re based, feels as though it’s been a bit of political football in the pandemic....
Conversations with a Blank Canvas by Isa Levy
Who is Isa L Levy? Difficult to define. Her brave memoir, Conversations with a Blank Canvas, explores the decades of her life from actor to artist, to arts psychotherapist, with many more labels in between. In 1998 she walked through the doors of her first Quaker Meeting after a chance encounter...
InnSæi, directed by Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir and Kristín Ólafsdóttir
I was recently prompted to watch Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir’s and Kristín Ólafsdóttir’s film and was immediately engaged and inspired. InnSæi is the Icelandic word for intuition. It means ‘the sea within’, like the borderless nature of our inner world, or it can mean ‘to see within’,...
Letters - 13 November 2020
Transformation is possible In the Friend of 30 October we heard about different strands of campaigning for climate change. I sometimes wonder why some actions are more effective than others. One of the many things I learn from early Quakers is that their actions flowed from their beliefs. Every act of...