Issue 16-02-2024
Featured story
A problem shared: Linda Murgatroyd’s Thought for the week
A few Friends from Wandsworth and Wimbledon met recently to share our responses to the conflict in Gaza. It had been much on our minds but, wary of causing unintentional offence or hurt, and not knowing quite what to say, most of us had avoided the subject. Trusting our worship-sharing...
Top stories
Hear, hear: Kate Graham on the value of a ‘mini clearness committee’
Sometimes I feel like everyone is talking, but no one is listening. I sort my friends into those who I find myself talking to who listen to me, and those to whom I tend to listen. Those who talk happily, stop for a moment to ask ‘Oh, and what about...
Course of action: Georgeanne Lamont & Diana Lampen
It is proper that most of the money donated to helping refugees and asylum seekers benefits them directly; but this means there is little provision for the needs of those who provide that help. They are often isolated, stressed, and suffering from unfeeling and shifting official policies. They are sometimes...
Come to grief: Lloyd Pritchard’s enormity of inadequacy
All I can offer you for your grief is my inadequacy for the task of relating to it.
Cracking a book: Elizabeth Coleman on how Quakers should approach the Bible
Some Quakers have little knowledge of biblical criticism. So how should we read the Bible? It is a collection of books that say many different, often contradictory, things.
Friends pilot peer mediation scheme
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM)’s peace education team piloted a three-day sustainable model for peer mediation training last month.
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Inter Faith Network faces imminent closure
Friends are being urged to write to MPs and sign a petition to save the Inter Faith Network (IFN) from closure.
Quaker socialists discuss private schools
The Quaker Socialist Society (QSS) discussed how state schools and Quaker private schools can promote ‘life-long Quaker values’ last month.
European elections a ‘turning point’, says QCEA
Polls suggest that the European electorate is increasingly concerned with climate change, poverty, and public health, Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has said.
Peace cranes from Hiroshima
Quakers were involved in a ‘Trees of Peace’ installation on display in Coventry Council House last month; it will be touring Coventry libraries for the rest of 2024. The installation features more than 1,000 multi-coloured origami cranes handcrafted by school pupils in Hiroshima and a local school in Coventry. The project was...
Long-sighted: Rosemary Field on love after death
Last month, Kate McNally beautifully described her long-lasting relationship with her husband, and her knowledge of the unconditional nature of his love and God’s love (Thought for the Week, 26 January). I was similarly fortunate in a marriage of over forty years. Sadly, Julian, my husband, died five years ago....
Eye - 16 February 2024
A great people? A Friend from Scarborough shared a story of seeking a sight. Dilys Cluer told Eye: ‘Reading about the 400th anniversary this year, I thought about George Fox and remembered that in 2022 I ensured that my husband and I followed in his footsteps by climbing Pendle Hill before...
Friends’ Meeting House Pakefield
Too small to be called a hall a house in an overgrown garden, where old horizontal slabs hold faint names of the long dead.
Letters - 16 February 2024
Medicines shortage The current medicines shortage in the UK is unsatisfactory, unfair and, for some people, unsafe. Among others, patients needing hormone replacement therapy, oral antidiabetics, antiepileptics and some cancer treatments have increasingly found their medication unavailable. Over 100 drugs are reported to have ‘out of stock’ problems, double the number...