The Friend

Follower of fascism? Catherine Henderson on immigration and asylum in Britain and the USA

It is unsettling being in the USA at the moment. I am not American, but am staying in Illinois with my daughter and her family. Our nearest big city is Chicago, but we feel relatively cocooned. What is happening in Washington is, in the main, a shadow in the background, a little like Covid was until you were directly affected, which generally happened sooner or later.

Future tense: Geoff Fielding outlines the ongoing potential of Quakerism

I am one of the oldies and wrinklies of Quakerism. Fitting a common profile, I came to Quakers after sixty, and am a member of a Meeting that has no regular young attenders. So I was at first surprised to hear that, amid the statistical background to last year’s Future of British Quakerism Conference, some Friends were inspired. I might even suggest that, had George Fox been reading the same reports, he would not have been. Where, I imagine him asking, has the life, the vitality and the enthusiasm gone?

Only connect: Gerry Winnall plans the Earth Care Gathering

About three years ago, a Friend in my Local Meeting ministered her concern about the climate crisis. Her tears led us to a series of worship-sharing sessions where we gently deepened our connection to our planet. Since then, Exmouth Meeting has held monthly Healthy Planet vigils in the town centre. Personally, I swam in the sea more, grew in gratitude for my deepening connection to the land, and involved myself in numerous community environmental projects, including co-facilitating a climate café in town.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

At the book launch for this addition to Agenda Publishing’s ‘Short Histories’ series, the author Martin Shaw said that the reason he couldn’t use the abbreviation ‘CND’ rather than ‘Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’ in the title was that no one under the age of fifty knew what it stood for. But thankfully, at the event (which took place at the London School of Economics (LSE)), there were a number of students present. They mostly appeared to be under fifty, and were keenly taking notes. 

Jesus in His Time

This book vividly conveys what it could have been like to be with Jesus, listening to his poetic teaching, watching his powerful healing, and experiencing his overwhelming love and concern for everyone around him. 

Poem: The garden

No longer paradise,

fruit tree and Father gone;

     she asks,

     ‘where have you taken him?’