EMEYF marks anniversary with all-age gathering
European and Middle East Young Friends (EMEYF) is marking thirty years as an organisation with an all-age gathering in Germany.
Rescuing Jesus
Very little is reliably known of Jesus of Nazareth. A vast amount – enough to fuel a world religion for almost 2,000 years – is claimed of him. There are fewer than a handful of authentic contemporary references to the Jesus of history. One is attributed to Josephus, the Jewish historian and turncoat....
Letters - 25 March 2016
What is God? In her devotional anthology, A Month with Isaac Penington, Beatrice Saxon Snell quotes from Penington’s Some Questions and Answers: ‘Question: What is God? ‘Answer: The fountain of beings and natures, the inward substance of all that appears.’ I find this beautiful and awe-inspiring and want to...
Property and social justice: a Quaker challenge
Is it possible to have social justice and property in a world of ‘monopoly money’ speculation and quantitative easing? Is it a challenge, a cause or just an oxymoron? For many years I was a business journalist before moving into the policy arena, advising the Scottish government on small business...
From the archive: Tribunals
In the edition of the Friend published on 31 March 1916 there was a contribution from the leading American Quaker Rufus Jones. It contained the words: We must set ourselves to practise the presence of God as the most certain of realities, and we must trust love as the most effective way...
Thought for the Week: The Judaean Spring
On Palm Sunday traditional Christians process around their churches, politely flourishing palm crosses. They are celebrating the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding a donkey along crowd-lined streets. The whole Easter story is a neatly-packaged summary of a series of fast-moving situations laced with gnomic statements that mostly make sense...
Eva Koch scholars announced
The Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham has announced the 2016 Eva Koch scholars. This year’s recipients of the scholarships are Jane Pearn, Joycelin Dawes, Anne de Gruchy and Rhiannon Grant.
Campaigners launch TTIP prayer pack
Campaigning organisation Global Justice Now has developed a prayer pack for those concerned about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Shed man recognised
The Friend who founded the UK Men’s Sheds Association has been named a ‘point of light’ by prime minister David Cameron. Mike Jenn of Friends House Meeting established the first community Men’s Shed in the UK in 2011 as a place for retired older men to make friends and...
Quaker philanthropist commemorated on stamp
The chocolate manufacturer Joseph Rowntree is among six humanitarians commemorated on special stamps issued on 15 March 2016.