Is compassion failing or just ailing?

Dorothy Buglass reports on a stimulating and successful conference

by Dorothy Buglass 29th July 2016

Where can you go to listen to a Tibetan lama, a Jesuit priest, a Sufi Muslim activist, a Quaker and a social anthropologist in a single weekend? Answer: the Quaker Universalist Group (QUG) Conference, which was held from 8 to 10 July at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham and was attended by seventy Quakers and non-Quakers. The conference addressed the problem of why, given that all the major religions and secular philosophies teach the importance of the practice of compassion, this compassion appears to be failing to bring about a peaceful and just society.