Issue 23 and 30-12-2022
Featured story
Born leader: Joseph Jones’s Thought for the week
The problem with a modern Quaker Christmas – or perhaps the modern Quaker’s problem with Christmas – is threefold, it seems to me. It begins, of course, with the knowledge that our beloved forbears shunned the season altogether. Christmas, no more of a holy day than the other 364, also had a...
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‘Commentary’, by Clifford Haigh, December 18, 1970
During one of the first of the power cuts of last week (1) I was glad to retreat for a time from the semi-darkness of Drayton House to a neighbouring church still brightly lighted. Heaven will forgive me, I hope, for using the church as an office for a while and...
‘For younger readers: Balthasar’s Cloak’, by Geoffrey Weeden, from December 22, 1972
In a church in Ravenna in Italy there is a very old mosaic picture. It shows the three Wise Men, Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar, carrying their gifts to Bethlehem. Balthasar wears a rich purple cloak with a gold hem and a jewelled clasp. This story is about Balthasar’s cloak. ...
‘Derry Christmas’, by Will Warren, from January 7, 1972
The contradictions, the contrasts, ever present in Derry are accentuated at Christmas time. During the preceding days the explosions were stepped up considerably. One day I was talking to a Derry Friend in the War on Want shop as dusk was falling. A sudden blast shook the building, and customers...
‘Timely thoughts on Christmas’ by Margaret C McNeill, from December 21, 1973
I love Christmas – including all the trappings that I vaguely feel are unQuakerly. I love carols and candles and Christmas trees; the giving and receiving of tokens of good will and remembrance; the conviviality of a good Christmas dinner. Yet I imagine I am by no means alone in feeling...
‘Commentary’, by David Firth, from December 14, 1979
Enthroned amid the mercantile splendour of the toy department, Father Christmas sat beaming. Suddenly his eyes narrowed to slits, and he hissed, ‘I’ll give you just five seconds to get out of here!’ The objects of such startling venom were four children, who had formed up decorously and piped...
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New CEO for Woodbrooke
Woodbrooke trustees have announced the appointment of Mandy Cooper as the new permanent CEO to lead the charity into 2024 and beyond.
George Fox 400 programme launched
A ‘George Fox 400 programme’ will be officially announced by Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) on 1 January 2024. The programme of events is to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the co-founder of the Quaker movement, George Fox.
Stop selling arms to Israel, Quakers tell UK government
Quakers joined calls on the UK government to suspend arms sales to Israel due to the ‘clear risk’ that the weapons might be used in violation of international law.
Quakers join hundreds to defend jury rights
Quakers were among around five hundred people who gathered at more than fifty Crown Courts across England and Wales to uphold the rights of juries earlier this month.
Quaker artwork set sails to Norway
A Quaker artist’s work will start the new year at sea, on board a cruise ship bound for Norway.
Nuclear family Christmas
There are lights in all the houses, she says to herself, (no one else being available). Standing deep, in discarded wrapping paper, by the window in a darkened room, she stares…
The tall red candles
‘The holly bears a bark as bitter as any gall.’ – Old Carol
Eye - 22 and 29 December 2023
Quaker phrases Eye hopes this issue finds you curled up under a blanket with a cup of something warm and comforting. If you have a pen or pencil to hand, why not pass a minute or two seeking some familiar Quaker words and phrases? And if they aren’t familiar,...
Letters - 22 and 29 December 2023
A Christmas wish If each country spent the billions they spend on killing us in wars on the sick, homeless, the poor and hopeless and bereft people of their counties, what an amazing, wonderful world we could create. No families, huddled in shelters, in camps larger than cities. This is...