Quakers and the Tobin Tax

02 February 2012 | by Mark Frankel

There has been comment in the Friend about a Tobin Tax, or Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). I offer the following based on some professional knowledge. To call the FTT a ‘Robin Hood tax’ is wrong: it is not about robbing the rich to give to the poor but about taxing...

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Letters - 03 February 2012

02 February 2012 | by The Friend | 1 comment

Plain Friends In answer to Alan Russell’s question (6 January): ‘Plain Friends. What are they, please?’ May I offer the following information…  The largest gathering of Plain Friends occurs in the mid-western state of Ohio, USA, where the last Yearly Meeting of Conservative and Plain Friends was held.

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Quakers?

02 February 2012 | by Fran Handrick

For the first fifty-seven years of my life, to my knowledge, I had never encountered a Quaker. Now I find they are everywhere. I almost feel as if I am being pursued!

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Are we afraid to die?

02 February 2012 | by Jill Allum

Gravestones of the Qigham family at Quaker Meeting House, Coanwood | Akuppa / flickr CC

We sat around a candle, eight of us, in a Friend’s home. I had been asked to run a ‘dying workshop’ by another Meeting. A special couple in my Meeting had just lost their very disabled fifty-year-old daughter. Real words of comfort were needed. We let our thoughts go...

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Reaching Out: Publishing truth - Quaker Quest style

26 January 2012 | by Michael Hennessey

Words from all five of the Reaching Out articles were used to make this ‘word cloud’ showing the frequency of their usage. | Wordle.net

A quest is powered by questions. On a Quaker Quest these questions will be spiritual ones of profound significance to those who ask them. Seekers dare to cross the threshold of a Quaker Meeting house for the first time because something stronger than their apprehension impels them in the search...

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Thought for the Week: Speak up, speak out!

FREE 26 January 2012 | by Stevie Krayer

‘The Holocaust’ by George Segal in San Francisco. | @bastique / flickr CC

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out  Because I was not a Communist

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Olympic opportunities

26 January 2012 | by Peter Green | 1 comment

Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort . . . | akiwitz / Wikimedia Commons

How do you respond to the idea of the 2012 Olympics in Britain? With excitement and anticipation, with resentment and doubt, or with indifference?  In the midst of our often mundane and busy lives, the Olympic Games taking place in Britain this summer represents a tremendous opportunity: an opportunity for...

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The White Book of Carmarthen

FREE 26 January 2012 | by Symon Hill

The White Book at Caerfyrddin | CND Cymru

Quakers in west Wales are preparing for a historic visit – by a book. The White Book of Carmarthen, launched by Welsh pacifists, is touring Wales and is expected to be welcomed shortly at Carmarthen Meeting.

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Christian unity experienced

26 January 2012 | by Symon Hill

Several Quaker Meetings have welcomed worshippers from local churches in celebration of the week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In a number of towns, united worship was held at a different place of worship on each day of the week, which ran from 18-25 January.

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Swiss banks criticised

26 January 2012 | by Symon Hill

Friends in Geneva have strongly criticised Switzerland’s banking and financial systems. Geneva Monthly Meeting said that institutions in their city are responsible for ‘acute social and economic difficulties now experienced around the world’.

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