Issue 15-03-2024
Featured story
Problem child? Jenny Webb’s Thought for the week
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...
Top stories
Examining our minds: Sylvia Clare on neurodivergence
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....
Friends lead Climate Choir to parliament
Around 150 singers gathered at the House of Commons’ ten-metre-high lobby last week to witness against Rosebank, the North Sea oil field.
Peace by piece: Ruth Kettle-Frisby says it’s more complicated than it might appear
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...
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...
Darling, save the last dance for me
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, ...
All articles
‘Offer real tax reform’, says BYM
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.
Friends mark Fox’s Cornish connection
George Fox’s Cornish connection will form part of the celebrations to mark the Quaker co-founder’s 400th anniversary.
No immediate community use for Woodbrooke building
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.
Campaign to protect Palestinian trees
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.
Good signal: Emma Roberts at the Quaker Prison Chaplaincy Conference
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...
Vital work: Linda Batten attends CCQW
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...
Eye - 15 March 2024
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...
Letters - 15 March 2024
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...