Latest News
Swedish Friends ponder neighbourhood questions
In May, Swedish Friends gathered at Svartbäcksgården, the retreat centre near Rimbo, for their seventy-sixth Yearly Meeting. The multifaceted theme for the weekend was peace; two local speakers put the Quaker peace declaration to Charles II in historical and philosophical context, and explored the difficulty of being peaceful...
Call to recognise peace heroes
Taking the equality challenge
The decision to accept this honour was not easy and has involved considerable soul searching. As a Quaker, I am called upon to witness to our Testimony of Equality and this is what compelled me to go to Riga PRIDE 2007 and the subsequent PRIDE parades in Central & Eastern (C...
Quakers at Eurosatory
Around twenty Quakers from across Europe witnessed at the Eurosatory arms fair near Paris this week, dressed in white and declaring that ‘War is not the Answer’.
Muswell Hill centenary
The first of our celebrations to mark 100 years of Friends in Muswell Hill was held on the weekend of 12 to 13 June. On the Saturday we had a garden party in our pretty organic garden, the pond on the left of the photo being an inspired solution to the puddles that...
News in brief
Peace tax Over sixty people gathered in Norway earlier this month to explore conscientious objection to war-related taxes. At least eight Yearly Meetings were represented at a Meeting for Worship. The conference was opened by the Quaker ecophilosopher Per Ingvar Haukeland speaking on ‘New Earth, New Peace: Listening...
News in brief
Quaker House Belfast Meting for Worship A special Meeting for Worship to lay down and celebrate the work of Quaker House, Belfast, was held at Frederick Street Meeting House on Saturday 5 June. People associated with the project came from all over Britain and Ireland to worship and to share...
Nuclear conference reaches agreement
A month-long United Nations conference to review progress on disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons ended with agreement to move forward in a number of areas. A breakthrough came when states agreed to convene a conference in 2012 aimed at achieving a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction,...
Sex and the Spirit
We arrived for ‘Sex and the Spirit’ weekend at Woodbrooke apprehensively. Would we be obliged to share aspects of our lives that we would rather remain private? Were we about to be sold a particular message with which we might not agree? Would the event be grounded in Quaker testimonies,...
Government faces questions over Trident policy
Days after taking power, the coalition government is under pressure over its policy on the Trident nuclear weapons system.