Issue 06-08-2021
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The Swarthmore Lecture, 2021: Kinder Ground: Creating space for Truth, by Thomas Penny
Thomas Penny took the platform at The Light to deliver his challenging and timely lecture. He was supported there by a group of Friends, who he’d invited to uphold him. On YouTube more than 700 live viewers logged on, with more Friends expected to join watching parties in the following...
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Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG), 2021
Session One ‘We are not seeking a consensus, we are seeking the will of God,’ Friends were told at Session One, as 545 screens were filled. This reading (from Quaker faith & practice 2.89) set the tone for the session, which Clare Scott Booth, clerk of Yearly Meeting (YM), introduced before nominations...
Gorman Lecture 2021: Old Roots, New routes, by Sam Donaldson
Beginning his lyrical and meditative lecture, the poet and mindfulness mentor Sam Donaldson set a stark scene for the 300 Friends in Zoom attendance. ‘Our numbers continue to dwindle’, he said: ‘statistically, we may not be here in 100 years time.’ And this decline ‘is happening at a time when our world...
The Retreat Lecture, 2021: Equality, truth and privilege in mental health, by Alison Mitchell
Alison Mitchell is the development officer for the Quaker Mental Health Fund (known until last year as The Retreat York Benevolent Fund). She has worked for more than three decades as a mental health social worker. During that time, she told some 250 Friends, she had had a good view of...
Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG), 2021: Fringe and preparatory events
Many thanks must go to the committees, staff, groups and individual Friends who have been able to put together, and support, such a full Community and Fringe programme. Several of these groups were available for conversation at the Groups Fair, which ran over Saturday afternoon and Sunday night. Friends could...
Friends pilgrimage for COP 26
South West Friends were the latest Quakers to take part in a national relay aiming to shine a spotlight on the upcoming 26th UN Conference of the Parties (COP26).
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Quakers lobby against Yemen arms sales
The Scottish Quaker parliamentary engagement officer Andrew Tomlinson is urging Friends to support a parliamentary motion on the Yemen crisis: The motion submitted by Alex Rowley MSP in July highlights the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen and raises concerns about the way in which the UK is enabling this conflict...
Romford Quakers plant seeds for Hiroshima Day
Romford Friends marked Hiroshima Day by planting seeds from a ginkgo biloba tree that survived the atomic bomb blast in 1945.
Quakers highlight vision for climate talks
Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) has released a video based on a climate workshop it held this summer. The presentation on YouTube outlines the importance of the COP26 climate talks in November and how Quaker activism and lobbying can help. According to the presentation, the talks since 2016 have focused...
Chichester Friends host Philip Gross workshop
The Quaker poet Philip Gross ran a workshop last month with Chichester Friends as part of the Chichester Festival. The two ‘Words and Silence’ sessions on 3 July also included a reading from the TS Elliot Prize winner’s own poetry and his book Between the Islands.
Letters - 2 August 2021
Asylum Last week marked the seventieth anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which outlined the legal obligations of states to offer protection. This principle is now under attack by the British government, which is proposing legislation to make it very difficult to claim asylum in the UK. In future, those who...