Issue 18-08-2023
Featured story
Weathering the storm: Tony D’Souza’s Thought for the week
You couldn’t call it a big boat – about twenty-five feet long – but it was perfectly designed for fishing on an inland lake. It was nimble and easy to sail. But when a storm broke out without warning, it was suddenly in great danger.
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Rime and reason: Jonathan Wooding investigates Samuel Taylor Coleridge
One night in 1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was busy turning a dream into a poem. The text became famous as ‘Kubla Khan’, but it was never fully completed – Coleridge was interrupted by a ‘person from Porlock’ and found that the rest of the poem ‘had passed away like the images...
Friends uphold arrested Ukrainian pacifist
Quakers are upholding a Ukrainian conscientious objector whose apartment was raided by the Ukrainian authorities. He was arrested for ‘justifying Russian aggression’.
Just algorithms: Siani Morris calls for AI regulation
Ruth Jones’ suggestion (23 June) that Quaker principles could help inform an ethical artificial intelligence (AI) gives food for thought. Quaker business ethics do have a great deal to offer when considered against current AI systems that make life harder for the weakest in society.
Serving time: Jonathan Ranger has a good example
On 12 July the Howard League for Penal Reform (HL) held a special meeting – an appreciation of the service of its director from 1971 to 1982. This was Martin Wright, now aged ninety-three, whose Quakerism has always informed his criminal justice work. Martin is recognised as a key instigator of Restorative Justice (RJ),...
A work in progress: Howard Grace looks for the next step in human evolution
I recently watched the thought-provoking film Oppenheimer. It’s based on the life of J Robert Oppenheimer, the man who led the Manhattan Project – the scientific scheme that eventuated in the atom bomb being dropped on Hiroshima. At the end of the film, after the bombs have been dropped, Oppenheimer...
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Friends oppose British Museum BP links
Quakers were among a group of campaigners calling for the British Museum to rename its BP Lecture Hall.
BYM and other churches launch wills initiative
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has joined over 100 churches to launch a new partnership to create local and global change through gifts in wills.
London Quakers explore ‘Climate Fresk’
London Quakers are hoping to hold another climate justice gathering in Friends House, after the success of this year’s event.
QSA volunteer shortlisted for award
A Quaker Social Action (QSA) volunteer has been shortlisted for a national award for his work for a QSA project.
And This Shall Be My Dancing Day, by Jennifer Kavanagh
Jennifer Kavanagh’s publications on various aspects of Quaker spirituality will be well known to readers of the Friend. Her latest book is a novel, but it is nevertheless deeply imbued with Quaker sensibility – without ever explicitly mentioning Quakerism. It is an unusual, kind and uplifting book. It manages to...
Eye - 18 August 2023
A serendipitous snap David Fish, of Rugby Meeting, shared this beautiful image with Eye, along with a touching tale of good timing. He explains: ‘The hand is William Waddilove’s, supporting a perfect Japanese crane of peace. ‘William, of Coventry Meeting, has supported the city’s Hiroshima Remembrance event for...
Poem: Barcelona blues
The polar bears have flown to Barcelona for their summer break. Sit sipping sangria on the Ramblas, loll on promenades in hats and shades, tourists like the rest of us.
Letters - 18 August 2023
Woodbrooke I view the coming closure of Woodbrooke with a sinking feeling. Not because I shall miss the conferences and courses, informative and enjoyable as those have been over the years, nor the washing up of the cooking utensils, which I seemed to do on every visit in the 1980s,...