Culture Articles
The last days
If these days are the last days I will prepare my hours a will and testimony each breath a gift each smile a legacy to pass on to the soil for the next great ascendency
‘Sweetness of Unity: Three hundred years of Quaker minuting’ by Judith Roads
In the preface to this book, the author writes that it is aimed primarily at those with some experience of Quakerism and who understand something about Quaker processes. Those interested in language or historical aspects of business English may also find nuggets of interest. Those who are, have been, or...
‘The impact is heightened by the curator’s imaginative use of the historic setting.’
The principles of stewardship and reverence guide Seeking Routes, an art exhibition currently showing at Swarthmoor Hall. The theme is sustainability, the fragility of the natural world, and the artistic and spiritual response to it.
Looking for cows
After Meister Eckhart We went looking for God the way one looks for a cow: expecting warm flanks, soft cheese while all the universe ran away from us, its rivers of milk
‘Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the road to war’, by Tim Bouverie
What is of special interest to Friends in this story, so well told by Tim Bouverie, is the strong inclination to pacifism which existed in Britain between the wars, and the huge efforts of Neville Chamberlain to preserve peace. Bouverie writes: ‘The campaign against the arms manufacturers was continued by...
Words to conjure with
It’s OK – you don’t have to call yourself a Christian. That’s a word where too many difficult relations Are all too ready to drop in, some of whom You really wouldn’t want to meet for a coffee However many custard tarts were on offer.
‘Stop Being Reasonable: Six stories of how we really change our minds’, by Eleanor Gordon-Smith
At the end of anti-religious polemics, there is often the conclusion ‘since there is no evidence for religious belief, you shouldn’t have any – if you do, you’re irrational,’ as though that were straightforward. One is interested to find, at the end of her book about being rational, Eleanor...
Luminary
In memory of RS Thomas You say the mystic, when she’s not a poet, fails to mediate the – hang on – mysterium tremendum et fascinans, (that’s God), and then you riddle us with the immediacy of the mystic Deus absconditus. So, God’s absconded, and the mystic’s in...
‘War is much bigger than just the military offensive.’
I would like to ask children and young people who may be reading the Friend for some help, conversation and contacts. We are a group set up by Southern Marches Area Meeting to support a project to promote understanding and sympathy for the plight of noncombatants during war. You will...
‘The Educated Underclass: Students and the promise of social mobility’ by Gary Roth
Having returned to bus driving in 1998, I became a member of ‘the educated underclass’. Simply put, I was educated above my job’s needs, yet economically unable to mix easily with equivalently educated – wealthier – people. There are growing numbers like me in Britain since the backdoor privatisation of UK higher...