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Quaker activism rocks the country
2019 was a year in which Quaker activism rocked the country. Hundreds of Friends took part in the mass protest against the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair in September, shutting down the road for around nine hours and raising awareness of the world’s largest arms fair in...
Friends push for child smacking ban
Quakers helped changed the law last year when Scotland became the first country in the UK to make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their children. The move came after Quakers in Scotland campaigned for the ban. In March, General Meeting for Scotland made a submission to the...
Quaker in same-sex marriage denied CTE presidency
The news that Quaker Hannah Brock Womack had been blocked from her appointment as a Churches Together in England (CTE) president because she was in a same-sex marriage sent ripples through the press.
Quakers head to Glastonbury
Quakers undertook some musical outreach in 2019 when, for what is thought to be the first time ever, it had an official presence at Glastonbury Festival. Writing in the Friend, Joseph Fuller, from Cheltenham Meeting, who was part of the team of four who ran a stand in the Green Futures...
‘Stansted Fifteen’ receives suspended sentences
The year started with the high-profile news that the ‘Stansted Fifteen’ group of protesters, which included Friend Lyndsay Burtonshaw, were appealing their terror-offence-related conviction received at the end of 2018. The members of the End Deportations group were found guilty of blocking the take-off of a deportation flight in March 2017 at...
Historic England recognises beauty of Meeting houses
The beauty of Quaker buildings was officially recognised when seventeen Meeting houses were granted listed status or had their listed status upgraded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England.
Quakers pave way for climate emergency declarations
As 2018 drew to a close with the ominous warnings of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report tolling in people’s ears – that the human race had just twelve years to limit the most devastating impacts of global warming – a steady wave of councils kicked the year off by...
Quakers join call for politicians to promote ‘social cohesion’
Quakers are among a group of faith, belief and community organisations who have signed a statement calling on politicians to heal societal divides. The statement from The Faith and Belief Forum calls on politicians ‘to put social cohesion at the heart of their policies’ and says: ‘Challenging the growing polarisation...
Friends raise over £5,000 for homelessness
A Quaker from Blackheath Meeting in London raised over £2,500 for homeless people this month. Jo Keogh raised the amount (including Gift Aid) when she took part in the Big Sleep Out event in Trafalgar Square on 7 December as part of the World’s Big Sleep Out campaign. The team of...
Paul Parker explores extreme poverty and food banks
Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), took part in a Trussell Trust event for church leaders this month. The gathering explored the role of faith communities in addressing the effects and root causes of the extreme poverty which drives food bank use.