Conscientious objectors remembered

Friends across Britain marked International Conscientious Objectors’ Day on 15 May

Friends across Britain marked International Conscientious Objectors’ Day on 15 May.

Liverpool Quaker Peace Group and Merseyside Peace Network organised a stall, where they drew attention to the fact that ‘conscription is still a reality in many countries’.

Edward Bruce, convenor of the Peace Group, said: ‘We have found it so rewarding, engaging with the public on peace issues, and the almost one hundred per cent positive response that we have received from passers-by has been really encouraging.’

Liverpool Friends also held ‘An Evening of Art and Peace Building’, with a workshop on The World is My Country by Emily Johns and Gabriel Carlyle of Peace News. This was a celebration of the people and movements that opposed the first world war, illustrated by posters created by Emily.

In Portsmouth, Friends held a Meeting for Worship, as they do every year. This year eight Friends were joined by the local Anglican parish priest.

‘In addition to other ministry, part eight of the 1660 declaration to king Charles II [the Peace Testimony] was read,’ Portsmouth Quaker Sarah Coote told the Friend.

An open Meeting for Worship took place at the Quaker Service Memorial, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

Anthony Wilson, a trustee of the Quaker Service Memorial Trust, said: ‘Our Meeting for Worship remembered past and present objectors, while acknowledging the difficult logic of their refusal to take up arms in a world where forceful aggression was being resisted by the population as a whole.’

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