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First Irish Quaker celebrated
Eighty Friends were among close to five hundred people who travelled to Mountmellick, Ireland, last week for the William Edmundson Homecoming. The week-long celebration was organised by Mountmellick Heritage Society to commemorate the life of the Englishman and Friend, who came to be known as the ‘Irish Hammer’.
Quaker Tapestry reaches out
The Quaker Tapestry is on the road again – for the fifteenth successive year – travelling to Northern Ireland for the first time. The 2015 roadshow will appear in Scotland first, at New Lanark Mills World Heritage Site in August, and then in September visit Northern Ireland where it will be on display...
Film fans appreciate Quaker silence
Waiting & Silence, a short film showing a Meeting for Worship, was screened at the Aperture Festival at the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland last week. The film was made by Corrymeela community member, and Quaker, Paul Hutchinson, and shot at Coleraine Meeting House.
Service in the spotlight
An exhibition on ‘Quaker Service’ has opened at Peckover House, a National Trust property in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. It tells ‘how the work of Friends goes on, bringing relief to war-torn areas, or to any region where aid or repatriation is needed’, according to the National Trust.
QSA funeral work makes award shortlist
Quaker Social Action (QSA)’s ‘Down to Earth’ campaign has been shortlisted for a prestigious Third Sector Award. The funeral poverty project is competing for the Breakthrough of the Year award. It is up against significantly larger charities, including Cancer Research UK and the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative.
Friend greets Mennonites
Gretchen Castle, general secretary of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), offered ecumenical greetings at the recent Mennonite World Conference global assembly in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Friends tread ancient paths
Labyrinths were at the centre of a recent course at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
Friends target MPs over welfare
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) and individual Friends contacted members of parliament (MPs) in the run-up to last week’s second reading of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill to highlight the affects it will have on the poorest and most vulnerable. BYM staff developed a briefing for MPs. In it,...
Cadbury connection with historic Qur’an
The parchment of a section of the Qur’an in the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birming-ham has been radiocarbon dated to between AD 568 and AD 645. It has been confirmed as one of the oldest surviving texts of the Qur’an in the world and the announcement of...
George Weidenfeld thanks Quakers
Former publisher George Weidenfeld recently acknowledged his debt to British Quakers when describing his support for the rescue of Syrian Christians. George Weidenfeld is among the funders of Operation Safe Havens, organised by the Barnabas Fund, which works on behalf of persecuted Christians. The first stage in the project saw...