Latest News
Equality Bill raises hopes of a religious character for civil partnership ceremonies
There is a possibility of significant movement on same-sex marriage within the next few months. Quakers are hoping to have an amendment added to the Equality Bill currently before the UK Parliament that would remove the bans on religious words and premises being used in civil partnership ceremonies and...
Quakers and the press move a little closer
Journalists may be allowed to report on future Yearly Meetings (YM), while texting and blogging in Yearly Meeting business sessions are set to be banned. Meeting for Sufferings gave a cautious thumbs-up to the proposal that outside media be invited to Yearly Meeting, recommending that open sessions should become...
New ways to tackle Quaker giving
Meetings struggling to send out the annual appeal for Quaker work will be able to get help from Quaker Communications Department (QCD) next year. Meeting for Sufferings agreed to a pilot scheme in which a ‘limited number’ of Area Meetings can have Friends House staff support the mailing and...
Friends among Friends
Before the devastating typhoons this year, Friends in the Philippines were not very aware of the international aspects of the Quaker family. Only a handful of evangelical Friends had ever travelled overseas, and few had met liberal Friends. The small number of unprogrammed Friends in the Philippines had only met...
Copenhagen cop-out?
Over a hundred world leaders converge on Copenhagen next week for the high level segment of the UN climate talks. They hope to conclude two years’ negotiations on greenhouse gas emission cuts for the rich world, limits on emission growth for the poor, and mechanisms for financial and technological co-operation....
Seeing ourselves as others see us
The Good News: people have heard of the Quakers. The Bad News: a lot of them think we are fundamentalists. These were two of the conclusions drawn from a wide market research survey backed by Quaker Quest that may change how Friends tackle outreach in future. The research was...
Activists challenge Friends House Hospitality bookings
Anti-extremism campaigners have expressed concern about bookings at Friends House. The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) had invited a leading Hungarian far right MEP and ally of the British National Party, Krisztina Morvai, to speak at their conference later this month. This invitation was subsequently withdrawn following the withdrawal of Labour...
Quakers keep close eye on finances
As the shockwaves of the dramatic cuts made by American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) – which recently cut its staffing by a half, reduced wages and cancelled programmes around the world – continue to reverberate (6 November), Britain Yearly Meeting is working hard to ensure that such a situation is not repeated here....
Cumbrian Quakers recovering from floods
Friends in west Cumbria are continuing to get back to normality following the flooding of the past two weeks. Keswick Meeting House was badly flooded but has been cleared of debris and is being disinfected and dried out with dehumidifiers.
Quaker Business Conference 2009 – Looking at Success
What is success these days for Quakers in the business world? Over forty-five Friendly business people (seventy-five per cent in membership, twenty-five per cent in sympathy, with a further twenty-five people prevented) met on an evening and throughout the following day, for Quaker Business Conference 2009 to work this year’s...