Issue 19-05-2023
Featured story
‘Practice resurrection’: Dana Smith’s Thought for the week
For me, practising resurrection means slowing things down. Right down, often to the point of stopping. It might involve lying on the ground, preferably outside (this may mean getting mud on the yoga mat). It means not carrying a device on which I can be reached. It almost always involves...
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In living memory: Anne M Jones on the importance of vigil
Each month, a group of about twenty people gathers outside the Home Office. It’s a vigil, held to acknowledge the deaths of people fleeing wars and famine, seeking sanctuary in Europe. The vigil is organised by Westminster Justice and Peace group, and the London Catholic Worker. I have been...
Meeting the challenge: Tim Gee on the World Plenary
I began this year as an online participant at Southern Africa Yearly Meeting. Physically I was just south of Manchester in England. Mentally and spiritually, though, I was in South Africa.
Quakers witness against Barclays bank
Bristol Quakers took the lead in environmental protests at Barclays Annual General Meeting (AGM) this month, with the help of activist singers.
A class act? Toby Spence on the virtues of a Quaker education
In August, my direct relationship with Quaker education will come to an end. This will bring a conclusion to decades of my family’s involvement with Quaker schools, from attendance at Bootham, Great Ayton, Ackworth, the Mount and Saffron Walden, to leadership and trusteeship roles at Sibford. This includes people...
Love and ecological collapse: Joseph Jones hears Rupert Read give this year’s Salter Lecture
The question ahead of this year’s Salter Lecture – ‘The Horrible, Wonderful Truth About Climate’ – was not whether Friends would find its subject matter important, but whether anything new could be said on an issue that already unites most Quakers – often to the point of exhaustion. In finding Rupert Read,...
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Quaker continues to resist deportation
A Quaker human rights defender is facing another struggle against deportation, with local Friends rallying to raise funds and offer support.
Conscientious Objectors’ Day
Quakers gathered across the country to mark Conscientious Objectors’ (CO) Day this week. With events in Liverpool, Brighton, Manchester, Leicester and Leeds, Friends joined other campaigners to stand in solidarity with COs past and present, and the many people around the world who are imprisoned or forced to flee for...
New building for Korean peace school
Over 100 people gathered at a new Quaker-initiated school on the edge of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in South Korea this month, to mark the completion of its new building.
Migration Bill is ‘shockingly cruel’, say Friends
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) and the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) have signed a joint solidarity statement with 174 other organisations on the Illegal Migration Bill.
Nomad Century: How to survive the climate upheaval, by Gaia Vince
This book is subtitled ‘How to survive the climate upheaval’. Given the state of the world my grandson will inherit, I decided to buy it for him as an antidote to the economics he will soon begin studying. I ended up borrowing it myself.
Eye - 19 May 2023
Collective nouns Eye’s challenge to find a collective noun for a Friendly flocking (28 April) has had some intriguing suggestions: ‘A Discernment of Quakers’ Helen Tyas ‘A Peculiarity of Friends’ Marie Noon ‘A Quirk of Quakers’ Anon What say you, Friends? Any other offers? Finding Friends A solo jaunt had...
The Meeting
In the soul’s deepest recesses there is a meeting like winds passing and beholding each other in mutual rapture. ‘You are here at last,’ breathes the soul in welcome, ‘you have come’.
Letters - 19 May 2023
Our future direction I was pleased when Charles spoke of seeing himself as a defender of faiths, rather than as defender of the (Anglican) faith, as it seemed to show a broader vision than nationalism. So I was rather taken aback when I heard that the general public was being...