Issue 26-05-2022
Featured story
Bear in mind: Tony D’Souza’s Thought for the week
There is one idea at the heart of Quakerism, an idea that is as alive and as relevant today as it was in 1652. It is called ‘convincement’ and involves a personal experience of the divine. The truth at the heart of Quakerism is as simple and as stark as that....
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Woolf at the door? Jonathan Wooding investigates the author’s Quaker links
Let’s start with Mrs Ramsay, the principal character in Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse: ‘All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others.’
Trials witness
Four Quakers were among a group of twenty-four people who sat in witness outside the Crown Court last week, to remind jurors of their right to make decisions according to their conscience.
Sister act: Alison Richards considers Mary and Martha
Before Yearly Meeting, I was reflecting on the questions posed by the theme: ‘We have been asked to consider how we can release our energy, revitalise our communities and follow the leading of the spirit.’ My thoughts turned to the short episode in Luke’s gospel (10:38-42), where Jesus visits...
Come to good
I will not break a bruised reed. I broke a bruised reed. I did not come to own the world. I tried to own the world. I never blew out a sputtering candle I extinguished the wavering wick.
Eye - 26 May 2023
A touching thank you Jean Scott-Barr, of Reading Meeting, shared a heartwarming tale of a Friend’s bequest with Eye. She writes: ‘Many Friends knew, or knew of, Ted Milligan. He died in 2020 at age ninety-eight.’ Edward H (Ted) Milligan, among numerous Quaker connections, was librarian at Friends House for...
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Friends counter misogyny in schools
Quakers held an event earlier this week to find ways of countering the rise of misogynistic social media influencers such as Andrew Tate. Tate is linked to a rising number reports of misogynistic incidents in UK schools.
Earth Quakers launch new Vanguard protest
US Quakers are asking British Friends to join a new campaign against the large asset manager, Vanguard, urging it to end fossil fuel investment in companies that refuse to transition to climate-friendly models.
Oxfordshire exhibition for Artsweek
Seven Quaker women are showcasing their work at Oxford Meeting House this month, as part of Oxfordshire’s annual ‘Artsweek’ festival.
Quakers join calls for Palestinian justice
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of what is known among Palestinians as ‘the Nakba’ (the ‘catastrophe’) by signing a joint statement calling on the UK government to uphold its legal, moral and historic obligations to the Palestinian people. The Nakba refers to the beginning of more...
High stakes: Alison Mather on the new gambling white paper
After multiple delays, the government has finally published its white paper on gambling (High Stakes: Gambling reform for the digital age). In her statement, Lucy Frazer, secretary of state for Media, Culture and Sport, concluded that ‘it had become clear’ that children, young adults, and people at risk of harm,...
Country pursuits: Steven Burkeman finds citizenship
From a safe distance, a fourteen-year-old girl, with her mother and stepfather, watched in horror as her place of worship burned down. Someone had called the fire brigade, but the firefighters stood by (though they made sure the flames didn’t spread to any neighbouring buildings). Many years later – this...
Time For Socialism: Dispatches from a world on Fire, 2016-2021, by Thomas Piketty
This book is a call for more socialism. It also presents a case for the redesign of the European Union. Thomas Piketty envisages a large-scale re-distribution of income, using progressive taxation on super-rich corporations and individuals, whose wealth has increased by an astonishing amount since the low tax regimes inaugurated...
Style or Not to Style, That is the Question: A story of the book, by Gaia Vince
This short (ninety-page) book is imaginatively and clearly presented. It tells the story of the printed word, from the earliest of times until the present day. In particular, it tells the story of the printed word in York – and who better to tell the story than Michael Sessions, a director...
Letters - 26 May 2023
Vanguard investments I empathise with Christine Hayes’ concern about Vanguard investments (5 May). My short article in the Friend (22 October 2020) outlined the laudable history and investment ethos of the company, which is effectively owned by the people investing in its funds. It can almost be viewed as a kind of cooperative,...