Issue 28-01-2022
Featured story
Going concern: Joseph Jones’ Thought for the Week
Not all goodbyes are difficult, but the best ones are. An easy farewell tells us that we are not losing very much – that the parting is of small consequence. The ones that hurt are the ones that show us that we are losing something that matters.
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Our Friend in the north: Torbjörn Söderquist on the writer and activist Elin Wägner
Elin Wägner is not well known in the UK. But in Sweden she is famous as a feminist writer and activist. She was also a Quaker, which deeply influenced her life, her writing and her longing for social reform.
Having a word with yourself: Rosemary Brown to the letter
There are more than a billion English speakers in the world, and yet there is one simple word that has a different meaning for every one of us. It is composed of a single letter, but that letter is a capital. Its place in the alphabet is between H and...
A picture of health: Wendy Pattinson takes a hard look at medical provision
Our individual lives on Earth are limited by mortality. But we aspire to be part of the eternal, and the most fundamental expression of this is the hope that future generations will be able to live good lives.
Friends vow to continue police bill opposition
Quakers have vowed to keep opposing the policing bill as many ‘dangerous’ proposals are still in place. The government suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords on 17 January over the much-maligned Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. In what campaigners described as a ‘humiliating night for the...
Being Frank: Daphne Wasserman on Francis Camfield
Francis Camfield (circa 1628-1708) was one of the early Friends involved in setting up Meeting for Sufferings. He also gave a loyal address to Charles II, on the subject of the persecution of Quakers. Charles ‘appeared seriously affected with our complaint and sufferings’. Camfield later addressed both William III and...
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Campaigners slam military plans for refugees
Quakers and other peace campaigners have condemned government plans to deploy the armed forces to tackle refugees in the English Channel.
Penn Club lives on at St Katharine’s
Around one third of members of the Quaker-founded Penn Club have transferred to its new home at the Royal Foundation of St Katharine. The historic Bloomsbury club was forced to close in March 2021 due to Covid-induced financial difficulties.
St Andrews Friends plant trees
Quakers in St Andrews have planted two ornamental trees in a local park as a living witness to the imperative to tackle climate injustice.
Ulverston Quakers reflect on peace
Quaker involvement in international moves to ban child soldiers was highlighted in the press this month, when Ulverston Friends wrote about the Peace Testimony.
Spiritual Science, by Steve Taylor
Many of us do not realise how much our thinking is structured by materialism. Yet we Friends centre our lives around mystical experience, for which we have no material basis or explanation. It is the beating heart of Quakerism. Steve Taylor’s challenging book about panspiritism (the idea that spirit...
Letters - 28 January 2022
Population While it is inarguable that all women should have control of their bodies, it is the way this is pressed into the service of other pernicious arguments that is problematic. These arguments are striking both for their omissions, and for their whiff of ideologies of which we should be...