The Friend is a weekly magazine in which Friends speak to each other and to the wider world, offering their insight, ideas, news, nurture and inspiration.
Nurturing Quaker community, each issue offers a space for Friends to share their concerns, and to support each other in faith and witness.
The Friend: enriching, inspiring and connecting the Quaker community since 1843.
A young man started working at our local post office. He was tall, thin, shy and serious. He was very, very slow in attending to customers. He painstakingly and meticulously attached stamps straight and in an equidistant position relative to the corners of envelopes. Money was carefully and slowly put in the relevant places beside him. Parcels were put in the sacks slowly and precisely, and woe betide anyone who had come to renew their road tax or to deal with more complicated matters: every detail was attended to in the same slow and fastidious manner. He addressed customers with quiet, polite respect with the same care – and slowness.
I have been exploring how to ‘speak out’ as a Quaker since the Fair Penny petition was endorsed by Wanstead Local Meeting and North East Thames Area Meeting in 2013. This involved signing a petition, online or on paper, to tell the government: ‘I would pay an extra penny per pound in income tax to protect the most vulnerable from austerity cuts.’
Petitions have always been an important part of Quaker activism – for example, in the abolition of the slave trade. Signing turns a thought into an action, and, once you’ve signed, you can encourage others to follow suit. Your signature can help to influence change.
When in a knotty discussion about the meaning of life, I sometimes say that I have two little characters sitting on my shoulders and muttering into my ears: one is a believer, the other is a sceptic. These two characters have been very active of late, muttering to me from both sides, and I’m trying to listen equally to them.
I get the message on my phone at 11:30pm on Monday night. I am texting my brother about taking Mum to an unexpected doctor’s appointment the next day. Our Mum is ninety-six. Is there any point in the referral? Why are we going? Mum is nearing the end of her life. She’d been out of it – eyes closed, not responding – when I’d seen her on Sunday. Today she had been more alert. But living for what? For me? For us? Then comes the intrusion into our own private, personal concerns. A bomb explosion, death in Manchester Arena, Victoria Station, where we often go.
Friends around the UK and beyond have expressed sorrow and solidarity with the people of Manchester following the attack at the Manchester Arena on 22 May.
A few years ago I visited the St George Coptic Cathedral in Stevenage as part of an interfaith coach outing. On that occasion the curtains in front of the sanctuary were closed and, although the icons on the screen were beautiful, the space felt nothing out of the ordinary.
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Written by and for Friends on the bench
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