Culture Articles

My Old Execrable

27 September 2018 | by Gillian Allnutt

And the earth gave way unexpectedly like a newly arthritic knee and left me

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Poacher’s pilgrimage

27 September 2018 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

Rodel, south Harris, the start of the pilgrimage. | Alastair McIntosh.

Alastair McIntosh, a Scottish Quaker, writer, broadcaster and activist, records, in Poacher’s Pilgrimage, a twelve-day trek from the bottom of the Isle of Harris to the top of Lewis in the Hebrides.

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Camel scorpions

13 September 2018 | by Martin Schweiger

'The version of Christianity brought south along the Nile Valley into Africa by the eunuch must be one of the earliest versions of the faith.' | Shaun Osborne / flickr CC.

Albert Delma’s new work, Camel Scorpions, is a weighty book of almost 600 pages, which rapidly becomes really entertaining, readable and informative. The main character is a country vicar, Martin Kimpton, from Herefordshire, who has developing doubts about the historical authenticity of Jesus. He focuses his attention on the period...

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Life in uncertainty

13 September 2018 | by Bob Morley

'See here – a new born child / Created by love into the world.' | GioRetti / flickr CC.

See here – a new born child Created by love into the world. Brought from timeless eternity Into uncertainty. The illusion of time and space Now fuels the human race, Needing an identity in every place, Creating uncertainty.

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The email and the picture / The picture and the email

06 September 2018 | by Mick Bow

'Then The Beloved showed me a picture of / – A beautiful, breathing, flexing Pearl...' | Elinor Smallman.

The email and the picture Aaaargghhhh! They’ve done it again! What a ridiculous email! Don’t they think about others?!! Why doesn’t someone speak to them?!!!

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First confession

06 September 2018 | by Reg Naulty

Chris Patten, perhaps best known as the last British governor of Hong Kong, was also an MP for thirteen years and held ministerial posts under Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Later, he was a commissioner in the EU, chairman of the BBC Trust and chancellor of Oxford University....

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Jesus, revolutionary of the poor

16 August 2018 | by Stuart MastersIn his most recent book, Jesus, Revolutionary of the Poor: Matthew’s Subversive Messiah, Quaker prison chaplain an

In his most recent book, Jesus, Revolutionary of the Poor: Matthew’s Subversive Messiah, Quaker prison chaplain and Bible scholar Mark Bredin presents Friends and the wider Christian church with the uncompromising message of Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus, Revolutionary of the Poor reveals a God who identifies with the poor,...

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Travels of a TEFL teacher

16 August 2018 | by David Westgate

Pat Stapleton’s name will be familiar to many Friends, as she and her husband were the first representatives at the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) Brussels office from 1979 to 1983. Her internationalist outlook goes back further in her life, however, and is fully evident in the delightful book Travels...

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Moscow diary

09 August 2018 | by Alastair Hulbert

The year 1991 was a momentous one in the Soviet Union. It led up to the resignation of president Mikhail Gorbachev and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of the newly independent Russian state. Marjorie Farquharson was an Edinburgh Quaker who set up Amnesty International’s...

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In Quaker Meeting

09 August 2018 | by Lesley Morris

'Breathe the natural order' | Julio Ribeiro / flicker cc.

this morning I practise sitting still in the top of a tree legs abreeze

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