Issue 23-07-2021

Featured story

Thought for the Week: Robert Ashton gives his word

FREE 22 Jul 2021 | by Robert Ashton

A few months ago now, I wrote here about the eco-home I’m planning to build. I’m told it will be one of the most energy-efficient homes in the country. The article prompted several positive comments, with Friends offering encouragement. But what moved me most was the handwritten letter...

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Top stories

The key ingredient: Tony D’Souza has a tale from the Old Silk Road

22 Jul 2021 | by Tony D’Souza

‘Soon there were so many people there was not enough room in the courtyard for them all to search at the same time.’ | Photo: by Silas Köhler on Unsplash

Somewhere in the vast open spaces of Asia Minor, out on the Old Silk Road, there is a small town on a great plateau which stretches all the way to China. It is a flyblown little place and it owes its precarious existence to the old road which passes through...

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Through the ages: Daniel Clarke Flynn is still practising

22 Jul 2021 | by Daniel Clarke Flynn

'Suddenly, I am ten-year-old again, joyfully flying my kite in the Light of a gorgeous spring sky, with Wordless Knowing.' | Photo: by Anna Kolosyuk on Unsplash

One sometimes hears that ‘Youth is wasted on the young’. It is not. In the eighty-eighth – and last – year of her life, in a poem called ‘Wordless Knowing’ (26 October, 2018), Joyce Gee suggests that we carry our youthful amazement within us all our life. It simply gets buried under our adult...

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Future tense? Reg Naulty finds two friendly guides

22 Jul 2021 | by Reg Naulty

‘There is still an interest in mysticism.’ | Photo: by Chris Liverani on Unsplash

Many Friends are uncomfortably aware that, in ten or fifteen years, most members of their Meeting will have gone – and there are not many young (or even middle-aged) people to replace them. Some are given to wonder what will become of the public observance of religion.

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A rounded approach: Riana Taylor on Circles UK

22 Jul 2021 | by Riana Taylor

'We seek to prevent sexual abuse by engaging with those who are at the highest risk of causing it.' | Photo: by Anna Kolosyuk on Unsplash

We all agree that more must be done to end sexual abuse. For those who go on to ask ‘What can I do to make a difference?’, Circles of Support and Accountability (Circles) offers an answer. Our vision is ‘No More Victims’. We seek to prevent sexual abuse by engaging...

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In another word: David Heald’s Meeting replaces ‘overseer’

22 Jul 2021 | by David Heald

‘I took out my list of six possible names with some nervousness. How wrong I was to underestimate the power of the spirit!’

I will start in the middle of the story. It was a Meeting for Worship for Business and I was speaking about the latest discussions held by elders and overseers. I was sitting in my kitchen and talking via Zoom. I could only see four members of Business Meeting at...

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Surge of registrations for Yearly Meeting

FREE 22 Jul 2021 | by Rebecca Hardy

Over 1,800 people have already booked their place on this year’s Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG) – thought to be one of the highest numbers in recent years.. Clare Scott Booth, clerk of the Gathering, said: ‘For centuries, Quakers have come together in fellowship to see each other’s faces. This year...

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Quakers in COP26 cycle relay

22 Jul 2021 | by Rebecca Hardy

East Kent Quakers welcomed Friend Liz Cooper last month as she cycled from Broadstairs to Canterbury Meeting House as part of a relay leading up to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November.

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Quaker women honoured for sugar boycott

22 Jul 2021 | by Rebecca Hardy

A Sunderland Friend has spoken about the role that Quaker women played in the movement to end thhe slave trade. The talk by Ann Smith was made for the virtual unveiling of a blue plaque dedicated to the women’s activism.

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Nontheists gather for conference

22 Jul 2021 | by Rebecca Hardy

The Nontheist Friends Network has been meeting this month for its annual conference.

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Sculpture for Hitchen Peace Garden

FREE 22 Jul 2021 | by Rebecca Hardy

Hitchin Friends are planning to create a sculpture for their Meeting house’s peace garden.

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Philip Gross in ‘Outposted’ map project

22 Jul 2021 | by Rebecca Hardy

The Quaker poet Philip Gross has contributed to a map project exploring the mysterious sense of place.

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Meeting for Sufferings: Minutes from Area Meetings

22 Jul 2021 | by Joseph Jones

After lunch and notices the Meeting turned to minutes sent in from Area Meetings (AMs). There were twelve in total, plus minutes from Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) Central Committee, most of which related in some way to the restructuring at BYM. A threshing Meeting earlier in the week...

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Meeting for Sufferings: QPSW strategy

22 Jul 2021 | by Joseph Jones

Jeff Beatty, co-clerk to QPSW Central Committee, opened the item by expressing his hope that the concerns about restructuring set out in several AM minutes had been addressed in the earlier threshing Meeting. His co-clerk, Robert Almond, said he was glad to engage with the wider body of Friends, and...

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Meeting for Sufferings: Quaker Life update

22 Jul 2021 | by Joseph Jones

Restructuring in Quaker Life is largely complete and Rachel Matthews, the new head of supporting communities for BYM, offered an update on how the new arrangements in the department are working. She outlined what support was going to be available to Meetings, which included LDWs, Woodbrooke, and peer-to-peer networks. She...

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Hello, Stranger, by Will Buckingham

22 Jul 2021 | by Kathleen Bell

I was only a few pages into Hello, Stranger when I realised I wished to commend this book to fellow Quakers. Its subjects, which include the experience of being a stranger and the welcome we offer others, challenged me to consider what our current concern with inclusion requires.

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Letters - 23 July 2021

22 Jul 2021 | by The Friend

God and worship In a sharing session we explored what we meant by the words ‘God’ and ‘Worship’. We saw God as a metaphor for life-giving energy, the seed within, love, generosity, compassion and light, all those things that enable creation. Others, I think, would see God as all that...

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