Culture Articles
Three special places
Not so far from my home in Stafford are three special places. Special because they give genuine worth and dignity to the lives of particular individuals, and in so doing give meaning to all our lives. Cannock Chase’s German War Cemetery, Commonwealth Cemetery and Katyn Memorial are all to...
Yes to the troops, no to the wars
Yes to the troops, No to the wars: Quaker House, 40 Years of front-line peace witness by Chris McCallum. Fayetteville, NC: Quaker House. ISBN: 0-945177-51-8. $15.95. Quakers have an interesting history: mostly middle to upper middle class, they have recently had relatively little contact with the working class world...
From sea to the Oval Office
HMS Resolute and how she prevented a war: from the Canadian Arctic to the President’s desk by Elizabeth Matthews. Auxilium ab Alto Press. ISBN 978 0 155203 96 3. £9.99. Did you wonder why Barack Obama was taking his place in the Oval Office behind the ‘Resolute desk’? This novel of historical fiction provides...
A personal portrait of India
Ashram Diary by Thomas Matus. O Books. ISBN: 978 1846941 61 0. £11.99. Diaries and journals have a particular attraction. Informality, intimacy, and immediate impressions open up the writer’s mind and heart to the page. These diaries cover the years from 1984 to 2004, years during which Matus, a Benedictine monk from the New...
Jonah on display
When I was invited to give the Bible half hours at New England Yearly Meeting in the summer of 1967, I chose to give my first talk on the Book of Jonah. Apart from the Psalms, Jonah is my favourite part of the Hebrew Bible. Pretty well everybody knows about Jonah...
Leviathan
What does ‘God’s will’ really mean?
This is a book about discernment, how we use the experience of God as a guide to living our lives and making decisions, both as individuals and as Quaker Meetings.
YMG showing for student’s film
Multi-weavers
Quaker composer and weaver Nigel Morgan has arranged an afternoon concert of English Renaissance lute songs, featuring works by Thomas Campion, John Dowland and Henry Purcell. The event includes the premiere of his own ‘Improving Silence’, three songs on Quaker texts. Soprano Alice Fox, also a Quaker, will sing, and...
A new kind of growth
Twitter Friends of mine will know that I arrived a day late at the table. It took me some time to orientate myself, and understand some of the complexities of Yearly Meeting Gathering. The rest will no doubt follow in good time. Still, like the labourers in the vineyard, in...