Issue 10-03-2023
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Thought for the week: Jenny Webb’s adaptive learning
The topic of our Children’s Meeting was ‘Food’. How could I approach this in a Quakerly way, while being accessible to children aged between five and nine? I decided to set a simple quiz with true/false answers. One of the questions was: ‘Wasps make honey: true or false?’...
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Body language: Deborah Rowlands on the Yearly Meeting’s consultation on membership
As many readers will know, Meeting for Sufferings is engaged in a consultation about membership. Working through Area Meetings, the consultation asks some questions that seem simple, but they go to the heart of our sense of belonging: Why do we have membership? What is it for? Is it still...
Woodbrooke building closes after 120 years
After 120 years of providing Quaker fellowship and ministry, Woodbrooke Centre is to close to the public this autumn.
Sign of the spirit: David Abbott has a fictional but informative account
It was the first in-person Meeting since everything. Given that the average age of the attendees was over seventy-five, there had been understandable concerns.
Last Sunday
To Harvey Gillman Last Sunday I was prompted by love and truth to read out your poem ‘Gloria’ for it seemed particularly apt. Walking to our Meeting House in the keen east wind, I’d passed the bus stop, next bus fifty minutes hence.
The Thirteenth Angel, by Philip Gross
Philip Gross is not a Quaker mystic, if that’s what you’re thinking when you see the word ‘angel’ in the title of his latest book of poems. He’s not a Quaker ranter, either, I might say – not angry and satirical, which he could have been, what with...
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Quakers criticise Prevent review
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has criticised the findings of the long-awaited review of Prevent, the government’s counter-terrorism programme. The report calls for its focus to shift more towards Islamist terrorism instead of rightwing terrorism. This was because there had been a significant growth in the latter type of referrals,...
Call for churches to reflect diversity of UK
Churches are often seen as ‘white, middle-class spaces’, a new report has shown, underlining that to reach more people, they need to reflect ‘the diversity of the UK’. This includes appealing to more working-class people, communities facing racial injustice, people with disabilities, LBGT+ communities, and more.
US Friends host concert of spirituals
US Friends marked the historical ties between Quakers and black freedom seekers last week with a concert of spirituals.
Meeting for Sufferings: Quakers hear proposal to form communications group
The morning session of 4 March opened with a proposal for a new Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) Communications Group, following December’s request for the Arrangements Group to consider action on the matter. The proposal follows a report from the group appointed to review Yearly Meeting (YM) and MfS, which highlighted...
Meeting for Sufferings: Book of Discipline Revision Committee
The next main item on the agenda was an update from the Book of Discipline Revision Committee (BDRC) on the feedback it had received regarding some draft material on nominations and marriage.
Meeting for Sufferings: Lancashire Friends speak on ethical employment practices
Friends in Lancashire Central and North AM then spoke about their work preparing to produce a resource on spirit-led ethical employment practice. This process would involve starting with a blank page, focusing on the future and creating a series of advices and queries.
Meeting for Sufferings: BYM trustees report
In the last morning session, Caroline Nursey, clerk of BYM trustees, spoke to a report from BYM trustees. There were twelve trustees at their February meeting, she said. ‘It was in the second session that we considered the deepest issues – equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and reparations’ and ‘what that...
Eye - 10 March 2023
Gracing the airwaves ‘God, thank you for revealing the comic essence, the absurdity, of experience. Thank you for showing me the spirit which comedy represents – and for accepting those moments where we “tie down the angel in us” and succumb to comic relief.’ Comedian and Quaker Pope Lonergan delivered a...
Letters - 10 March 2023
Negative terminology I read the article ‘Out of service’ in the Friend (24 February) with interest, but soon felt saddened and frustrated by the language and terminology still being used about people with disabilities. There are so many problems with the term ‘confined to a wheelchair’ suggesting that the person never...