The Quaker Church in Bujumbura, capital of Burundi, has a dazzling gospel choir in sharply dressed lime and green, and a congregation of around 200. There are the same number of…
On the morning of 15 June 1916 Howard Marten, thirty-one, bank clerk from Pinner, Middlesex, and a member of Harrow Quaker Meeting, was escorted to the parade ground at Henriville…
This year we’re beginning to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the first world war. I was once asked by a national newspaper whether Quakers were pacifists as quite a…
More than two hundred people from twenty-seven countries attended the recent conference ‘Why War?’ in celebration of forty years of Peace Studies at Bradford University. In…
It has been said many times in the Friend (often by self-identified nontheists) that the way to deal with ‘the nontheism question’ is to engage with it, and that is why I…
Everyone knows what Quakers did in the 1914-18 war. Inspired by their historic Peace Testimony they were united in opposing it. While soldiers joined up to kill the enemy, Quakers…
In the light of recent discussions I find myself perplexed: am I a theist or a nontheist? It all depends on what you mean by ‘_ist’. I take an _ist to be someone who has come…
Jan Sellers of Wansteaad Meeting, London, is speaking on BBC Radio 4’s programme Something Understood on Sunday 18 May at 6.05am and then repeated at 11.30pm.
Two stories of violence are dominating the news, the kidnapping of girls in Northern Nigeria and the unrest in Ukraine. It is natural for Friends to find such events disturbing,…
Become a subscriber to enjoy unlimited access to our articles, dating back to 2009! Online subscribers get the Friend to their inbox each week, can comment on articles, and dive into our 1914-18 digital archive too!
Whether you are new to Quakerism or have been going to Meeting for years, you’ll find something here to inspire, inform and challenge you.
News | Views | Reviews
Written by and for Friends on the bench
Subscribe