Issue 15-03-2024

Featured story

Problem child? Jenny Webb’s Thought for the week

14 Mar 2024 | by Jenny Webb

In the canonical Gospels we only read about Jesus’ life from the age of twelve, when he is visiting the temple. But we can learn more about his childhood from texts known as the Infancy Gospels. The Infancy Gospel of St Thomas, for example, thought to be written in the...

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Top stories

Examining our minds: Sylvia Clare on neurodivergence

14 Mar 2024 | by Sylvia Clare

The rainbow infinity neurodiversity symbol, created by Judy Singer

Isaac Pennington said that ‘All our words, all our conversation, yea every thought in us, is to become new.’ What does this mean? My understanding is that it asks us to explore inside ourselves, to examine our minds, our assumptions, our belief systems, and our paradigms of how life works....

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Friends lead Climate Choir to parliament

FREE 14 Mar 2024 | by Rebecca Hardy

'A ‘flash mob’ singing Handel’s Hallelujah chorus, reworded with the lines: ‘Fossil fuel profits are outrageous – Stop Rosebank! Stop Rosebank!’ | Photo: The Climate Choir, courtesy Linda Murgatroyd

Around 150 singers gathered at the House of Commons’ ten-metre-high lobby last week to witness against Rosebank, the North Sea oil field.

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Peace by piece: Ruth Kettle-Frisby says it’s more complicated than it might appear

14 Mar 2024 | by Ruth Kettle-Frisby

‘Peace is not sufficient alone; it must always coexist with truth and justice.’ | Photo: by Paul Moody on Unsplash

Back in 2016, The Guardian commissioned a short thought piece from the rapper Akala. He talked eloquently about how ‘The propaganda of “British values” is a distortion of history’. I showed the piece to my coaching group – I was teaching Philosophy A Level, and ‘British Values’ had been recently introduced to...

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Consciousness Beyond Life: The science of the near-death experience, by Pim van Lommel

14 Mar 2024 | by Daniel Clarke Flynn

‘Van Lommel doesn’t say, “This is the Truth”. What he says is “Let’s keep an open mind”, which is what good scientists should do anyway.’ | Photo: Book cover of Consciousness Beyond Life: The science of the near-death experience, by Pim van Lommel

This book is much more than its subtitle. When I wrote a simple thank-you to its author, he sent me an article that ends with this extraordinary statement: ‘Consciousness seems to be our essence, and once we leave our body, leave our physical world, we exist as pure consciousness, beyond...

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Darling, save the last dance for me

14 Mar 2024 | by Steve Day

'Between every orchard and meadow you plant for peace fly a flock of white doves already set free...' | Photo: by Zac Ong on Unsplash

Not a neat map with a route-proofreading of sorrows. We find ourselves inherently happy. Your twitch to my itch, my blistered kissed lips and your sculptured jaw-line moving prime numbers into play. We approach a kinda Dhammapada climbed neither high nor higher. To that far place where no sun shines, ...

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‘Offer real tax reform’, says BYM

FREE 14 Mar 2024 | by Rebecca Hardy

Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has joined ninety organisations in urging the UK government to offer real tax reform. The call came after the government announced a 2p cut in national insurance in its 2024 budget.

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Friends mark Fox’s Cornish connection

14 Mar 2024 | by Rebecca Hardy

George Fox’s Cornish connection will form part of the celebrations to mark the Quaker co-founder’s 400th anniversary.

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No immediate community use for Woodbrooke building

14 Mar 2024 | by Rebecca Hardy

The Bournville Village Trust (BVT) has said that the historic site of the Woodbrooke Study Centre will become part of its long-term asset management, with no immediate plans to use it for the community.

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Campaign to protect Palestinian trees

14 Mar 2024 | by Rebecca Hardy

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), a World Council of Churches programme managed by Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), has highlighted a campaign to protect trees in Palestine.

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Good signal: Emma Roberts at the Quaker Prison Chaplaincy Conference

14 Mar 2024 | by Emma Roberts

Last October, twenty-seven Quaker prison chaplains from around the country, representing all categories of prison, met for an annual conference to explore the topic of ‘The Light Within’. Our subject invited reflection, learning and a deepening of our understanding of ourselves and the work we do. Set in acres of...

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Vital work: Linda Batten attends CCQW

14 Mar 2024 | by Linda Batten

Twenty-eight Friends met online in February for a gathering of Crynwyr Cymru/Quakers in Wales (CCQW). We used a clever Zoom system that enabled English-speaking Friends to hear a simultaneous translation of the Welsh spoken during the Meeting. This wasn’t without hiccups, of course, but those of us who...

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Eye - 15 March 2024

14 Mar 2024 | by Elinor Smallman

Glimmers of light and love Setting aside the Eye mask for a moment, and (fair warning) getting more serious than usual, I wanted to share something with you, my trusty readers. I was bereaved in November last year. I lost my mother, who was not only my best friend but...

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Letters - 15 March 2024

14 Mar 2024 | by The Friend

First encounter In this week’s Friend (1 March), Jim Norris fears that George Fox’s close connection with Elizabeth Hooton of Skegby near Mansfield is being overlooked in the centenary celebrations. He and other readers will be glad to know that in the Quaker Arts Network film project recently featured...

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