Latest News
Art the Arms Fair donates work to the Peace Museum
The partly Quaker-founded Art the Arms Fair, which was formed as ‘creative resistance’ to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair in London, has donated some of its work to the Peace Museum.
FWCC launches second sustainability webinar
Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) has released a video of its second webinar on the theme of sustainability and climate justice. The project follows the success of the first webinar ‘Quakers Coming Together to Care for the Earth’ in July 2019 and was launched on FWCC’s YouTube channel this...
Chichester Meeting draws closer links in LGBTQ communities
The Chichester Quaker Sexual Orientation Gender Identity Inclusion (SOGII) group is growing closer links with the Quaker Gender and Sexual Diversity Community (QGSDC) as a result of Chichester Meeting’s LGBTQ sessions. Maria Martin, from SOGII, told the Friend that she was very excited to link up with the group...
Meeting for Sufferings: Appropriate oversight
Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) received a minute from Central Yorkshire Area Meeting (AM) regarding the suitability of the term ‘overseer’ to describe Friends who have oversight responsibilities in Meetings. The AM minuted: ‘We recognise this concern, but there are differing views on the issue. We feel that the continuing use...
Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting reviewed
Recording clerk Paul Parker said that, in 2019, Yearly Meeting asked MfS to carry out a review of Yearly Meeting (YM) and Yearly Meeting Gatherings. He had been asked to provide a process for that. Such a review was last carried out in 2006.
Meeting for Sufferings: Nominations
MfS returned to the issue of nominations processes, which it had considered in November 2018. Recording clerk Paul Parker presented a draft terms of reference for a new committee, with the provisional name of ‘Gifts for Service Committee’, which would combine the work of the Central Nominations Committee (CNC) and the...
Meeting for Sufferings: Trustees report
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) treasurer Linda Batten introduced the budget for 2020. ‘Quakers matter, and the work that Quakers do matter,’ but membership is decreasing and so income is falling. ‘There is no magic money tree,’ she said, so it is important to both manage the work that is done and...
Meeting for Sufferings: Other business
Meeting for Sufferings agreed to register the Quaker Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse as a Quaker Recognised Body.
Meeting for Sufferings: Clerk retires
Assistant clerk Margaret Bryan reminded Friends that ‘this Meeting marks the end of Anne [Ullathorne]’s service as clerk of Meeting for Sufferings (MfS), having been the assistant clerk for three years beforehand and having had service on the committee as a rep’.
New Holocaust Memorial Day prayer
Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith leaders have created a prayer for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2020 echoes its theme of ‘Stand Together’, which encourages communities to unite to prevent the spread of hate and division.