The Friend

Quakers and youth hostels

The practical nature of youth hostel work and the simplicity of youth hostels both reflect values and concerns associated with Friends and were part of the reason so many were attracted to the movement in its early days.

Those involved hoped that by bringing together people from different communities and backgrounds, youth hostels would contribute to world peace. The lack of a creed or a single leader for youth hostels and their robust democracy, taking account of all views, shows the influence of Quakers like TA Leonard, ‘Jack’ Catchpool, John Cadbury and many others who took part in creating youth hostels from 1929 onwards.

Taxes for peace

The centenary of the first world war presents an important opportunity for Friends to question how well we are actively living our Peace Testimony. As the last Friends who personally experienced military tribunals for conscientious objection reach advanced age, we feel called to ask: how well are we maintaining their legacy, and how can we carry it into this new age of modern warfare?

No room?

Ioften feel proud to be British – and occasionally very ashamed. One such occasion was when our government said they would only admit 350 unaccompanied refugee children into Britain, instead of the 3,000 pledged and enacted in law in an amendment to the Immigration Act 2016. Alf Dubs, author of the amendment, had come to Britain on the Kindertransport, widely acclaimed as an achievement of British generosity and tolerance. What a contrast to the recent announcement!

Observing Quaker bureaucracy

I attended Meeting for Sufferings in early February as a substitute alternate for our Area Meeting and found myself slipping into the role of observer rather than participant – a position more comfortable than reflecting, spiritually, on all the agenda items. Indeed, this seems to be an almost impossible task.

Reflections on the ‘Red Book’: True spiritual experience

‘Imprisonment… offers some protection to society by removing the offender. But consider how limited that protection is compared to what it could be. It puts the offender against property into a place where he is deprived of opportunities to practise the social rules about property; it puts the violent man into a subculture which is governed by violence; it puts the defrauder into a power system where corruption is rife; it puts the sexual offender into a place where sexual relief is only obtainable by substitutes… it puts those who need to learn to take control of their lives into a situation where all significant choices are made for them; and it puts the offender who is likely to reform into a milieu where most of the influences on him or her are criminal ones.’

John Lampen, 1987

Quaker faith & practice 23.101