Issue 31-03-2023
Featured story
Thought for the week: Abigail Maxwell hopes so
My young Friend asked me, do I have hope for the future? I was silent. With the ozone not fully healed, chemicals bioaccumulating, CO2 emissions continuing, and trillions of plastic particles in the oceans, why do we not despair?
Top stories
Joy to the world: Priscilla Alderson on how to protect children from mental distress
Years ago, a residential Quaker event I attended seemed to contradict itself. Some sessions were on nurturing peaceful inner spirituality. Other sessions, on vital problems from international injustice to the climate crisis, stirred up anxiety and distress. I asked a group of older Quakers: what should we do first? Work...
Blue plaque for Hilda Cashmore
Bristol Friends have helped fund a blue plaque to remember a pioneering Quaker community worker.
Retreat and go on: Bob Johnson on William Tuke
William Tuke (1732-1822), who founded The Retreat, still holds two surprises for us. The first is the breathtaking simplicity of his approach; the second is its extraordinary success. Who would have guessed that the way to cure wayward people was to treat them as you wanted them to be, not...
Pacifism on show: Oliver Robertson finds a way through Moral Maze
Things move fast in the media. Late on Monday afternoon, Britain Yearly Meeting got a query about a programme broadcast just two days later. Could the Quakers speak about pacifism on Moral Maze, a hard-hitting debate show on BBC Radio 4?
Cop out? John Tranter on the Casey Report
In 1984 I witnessed the Brixton uprising. I was working and living around the area, and the unleashing of the pent-up frustration of the Afro-Caribbean community was no surprise. I heard two narratives: one from the state, implemented via the police and supported by the mainstream media, and the other, the...
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QCEA highlights climate breakdown and militarism
Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has launched a new report Storytelling from the Frontlines: Forefronting the voices of communities most affected by militarism and the climate crisis.
Friends criticise immigration bill
The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) has backed criticisms of the government’s controversial immigration bill, urging it to be withdrawn.
Quakers lobby Labour Party on democracy and justice
If elected, Labour must focus on prevention, rehabilitation, and restorative justice to repair the criminal justice system, Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has said.
BYM Quaker speaks about pacifism on BBC radio
Quakers were invited to speak about pacifism this month on BBC Radio 4.
It’s a simple idea, says Christine Downes-Grainger: Reinstate Recognised Meetings
During a Business Meeting recently, we pondered whether the four members who still go fairly regularly to our once-a-month Meeting for Worship are able to open up and run it. ‘We need a more nimble approach to being a Quaker,’ said one Friend.
You Matter: The human solution, by Delia Smith
Yes, this book is by that Delia – the one who taught us to cook, the part owner of Norwich City Football Club. The years have passed and she has turned from food and football to philosophy. Much influenced by the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the (almost heretical) French...
Eye - 31 March 2023
‘A spiritual tool that… reduces stress, quiets the mind and opens the heart. It is a walking meditation, a path of prayer, and a blueprint where psyche meets Spirit.’ This description of labyrinths from Lauren Artress, founder of the organisation Veriditas, spoke to Eye. Labyrinths can vary from large-scale walkable...
Today I am giving up judgement
It drops but not like a knife skittering across the kitchen floor… The faces across from me: wind- bitten, old and close as mountain streams bloom in the rose steam of Hibiscus tea. I wonder how I hadn’t noticed their beauty in just this way before. Even the dog...
Letters - 31 March 2023
Migration The current row over Gary Lineker’s comments on Twitter concerning home secretary Suella Braverman’s language about asylum seekers runs the risk of distracting us from the latter, and from the intentions of the government regarding policy on asylum in the UK. It is the opinion of Crawshawbooth...