Issue 03-12-2021
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Roy Stephenson escapes the wilderness
Just recently I’ve found myself filled with the image of Jesus, immediately post-baptism. As he comes out of the water, he receives a message that tells him his true identity. What does this do to him? In the first place, it complicates the business of being human. The gospel...
Top stories
Saving grace: Tony D’Souza on pharisees, ancient and modern
That morning was different. The people came and he started to teach as usual, but then the door flew open and the pharisees burst in with the woman.
All of a peace: Don Rowe on nonviolence training in Zimbabwe
In 2015, when Friends of Hlekweni (FoH) developed a new five-year plan, we decided to try to introduce a peace-building strand into the schools we were supporting. I’ve had a long-standing professional interest in values education, including various forms of peace education, and although I wasn’t clear about the...
From strangers, the truth: Jenny Webb on asylum
Some Navajo people prefer to be known as the Diné, which means ‘the people’. But if ‘we’ are ‘the people’ then maybe others do not qualify as people. And maybe this was once used as a justification for marauding, killing, and enslaving people.
Street Friends send letter about Clarks strike
Street Meeting has sent a letter to the new CEO of LionRock Capital, the company which is now the majority shareholder in Clarks shoemakers, once a Quaker company. Friends have been working on the statement for weeks, Sheila James told the Friend. Meanwhile some local Quakers have been supporting the...
Identity crises: Paul Hodgkin rewrites Advice 42
One of the strengths of Quakerism is its ability to renew itself. We refashion actions and beliefs in the Light that breaks into our own times. And if our times are about anything, they are about the crises of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss.
All articles
Quakers consider next steps for climate justice
Friends have been reflecting on the next steps for climate justice after a ‘disappointing’ COP26. As London Quakers gather this weekend to consider ‘Stubborn Optimism’ in the face of the challenge, other Friends are discerning how to move forward. Writing on the Quakers in Britain website, Olivia Hanks called COP26 â€...
Army under spotlight for abuse allegations
Quakers are among campaigners who have called again for the army to lose the power to police itself after more allegations. Several sexual abuse claims in the army have recently made headlines, including an alleged cover-up over the murder of twenty-one-year-old Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru in 2012, and twenty-one-year-old Olivia Perks,...
Quiet Company wins award
The hospitality team at Friends House has won a prize for the ‘Best Client Support During Covid-19’ at the London Venue and Catering Awards 2021.
The Quiet Haven: An anthology of readings on death and heaven, compiled by Ian Bradley
I am often influenced by the cover of a book. This was so with this lovely publication: the calm stretch of water, the single rowing boat beached on the shoreline, oars at the ready. It evinces a deep calmness and conveys a feeling of continuity and peace. It seems that...
Black Jesus
After the man was lynched, the hickory licked lightning from a white sky. The fiddler came that night and cut its trunk. The devil burned his hand, the scald of wood was still alive.
Letters - 3 December 2021
Universal basic income I have listened to a recording of a talk by Natalie Bennett about universal basic income (UBI), and realise that my article in the Friend of 12 November missed an important aspect: freedom. Under capitalism, much of people’s time is controlled by their employers. Under communism,...