Reviews Articles
Radical Quakerism
Quakers must be not be afraid to take extreme positions and proclaim them to the world. That was the message from Simon Best, who delivered this year’s George Gorman Memorial Lecture in Canterbury on Sunday. Hundreds of Friends of varied ages displayed a range of reactions as Simon...
Prayers for daily life
Many of us find difficulty with prayer. We want to give thanks. We hope for peace and for an end to the sufferings of others. We may find it easy to offer up spontaneous thanks to God for the blessings of this world, but to engage in daily prayer is...
Stuffed and starved
This book will make you angry. And if you still have any illusions that the majority of those who process and manufacture our food have our best interests at heart, then they will be dispelled. Today on this planet, 800 million people are hungry, and they are outnumbered by one billion...
Drawing infinity
These are the words of one Harrogate Young Quaker reporting back to the main Meeting on their Sunday morning activity. Robin Wilson had been enthusing them with his fascination for infinity and he has now written a short and wonderful book entitled Of Infinite Beauty: a Quaker explores infinity.
Simplicity made easy
Simplicity. What does it mean? This has been a challenge to me for many years. Some people seem to feel that it is a movement backwards towards an older, supposedly simpler, way of living – growing our own food, avoiding electrical equipment such as computers and so on. For me, this...
What is Evil?
My wife and I once ran a course at Woodbrooke on responding to evil, in which painful experiences were lovingly shared. But three participants were dissatisfied. They wanted metaphysics: is evil real, or is it only a shadow, the absence of good? What is its power? Can it control us...
Living Adventurously
‘Before we love others we need to love ourselves. How do we treasure our own Light and gifts. How do we learn to share what we have to offer? Do you seek to find the place where your own talents and the world’s needs meet?’ This is number...
In comes the citizen approach
Beyond the Profits System: Possibilities for a Post-Capitalist Era by Harry Shutt. Zed Books. ISBN 978-184813-417-1. £12.99. How are we to get through the current global financial and economic crisis? Harry Shutt, who saw the storm clouds approaching several years ago, offers some radical solutions to the problems...
It’s the economy, clever
The end of money and the future of civilization by Thomas H Greco Jr. Floris Books. ISBN 978-086315-733-2. £12.99. Prosperity without growth by Tim Jackson. Earthscan. ISBN 978-1-84407-894-3. £12.99. Back in the 1970s, an academic called Theodore Roszak roused some of us with fighting talk...
Honouring death through dance
Soul Play is a gentle and intimate dance-theatre duet that explores the moments following a young man’s death. Kate Flatt devised it in response to her own grief upon the death of family members. A secondment at a local hospice as part of a Rayne Choreographic fellowship encouraged this...