Issue 16-05-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Not knowing
In the light of recent discussions I find myself perplexed: am I a theist or a nontheist? It all depends on what you mean by ‘_ist’. I take an _ist to be someone who has come to a conclusion: in this case, about the nature of ultimate reality. For them...
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The Fox Report: Squalor in London
Mahder Redie has not slept since finishing an eight-hour cleaning shift at 7am. It is noon on Thursday 3 April. Since 8am he has been waiting for the repairman, as arranged with his landlord. Mahder, thirty-five, prepares lunch for his pregnant wife and daughter in the closet-sized kitchen. His wife Hiriti...
Conscription and conscience: Part one
On Sunday 2 August 1914 Britain saw the country’s biggest ever anti-war demonstration (before 2003): fifteen thousand people in Trafalgar Square led by Keir Hardie, fifty thousand in thirty-two English towns, and an estimated hundred thousand in Scotland led by James Maxton. A National Peace Emergency Committee was formed. Two days later...
Adam Clarke is new Leaveners’ director
Adam Clarke is the new director of The Leaveners, the Quaker community arts project founded in 1978. Adam has extensive experience in the arts. He has worked as a practicing contemporary artist throughout the UK, specialising in arts and ecology, while continuing to nurture a career in projects/events management...
American Quakers highlight environmental destruction
Friends in America have been at the forefront of a campaign to force PNC, one of America’s ‘Big Five’ banks, to pull billions of dollars from its support for companies involved in a destructive form of coal mining. The bank is funding big mining corporations that use huge...
Mansfield Friends open 1647 Garden of Reflection
Friends in Mansfield have developed their beautiful walled garden into a place of contemplation for Quakers and visitors. George Fox experienced his first ‘opening’ in Mansfield in 1647 and the garden has been named, in celebration of that event, the ‘1647 Garden of Reflection’.
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Death of Quaker poet
The distinguished Quaker poet Gerard Benson has died at the age of 83. Gerard was well-known as a driving force behind the popular ‘Poems on the Underground’ scheme, which was set up in London twenty-eight years ago.
Blue plaque for John Henry Barlow
Birmingham City Council will be erecting a blue plaque to the memory of John Henry Barlow on 17 June. John is being commemorated for his contribution to peace, his work with the Friends Ambulance Unit, and as a pioneer of social housing.
Quakers and labyrinths
Jan Sellers of Wansteaad Meeting, London, is speaking on BBC Radio 4’s programme Something Understood on Sunday 18 May at 6.05am and then repeated at 11.30pm.
‘The Peace Testimony is a tough demand’
Two stories of violence are dominating the news, the kidnapping of girls in Northern Nigeria and the unrest in Ukraine. It is natural for Friends to find such events disturbing, and in similar cases I have heard remarks like: ‘I’ve been a pacifist for many years, but this time...
Belonging in Europe
‘Remember your responsibilities as a citizen for the conduct of local, national and international affairs.’ - Advices & queries 34 Our European Friends in QCEA in Brussels hope very much that the people of Britain will vote in the forthcoming European elections. Unlike our UK elections, where your vote...
Eye - 16 May 2014
Friendly footie Fairtrade footballs are making their way into Zambian prisons with the help of Martin Schweiger, of Leeds Meeting. He writes: ‘Sport is a good starting point for many to improve their lives and the welfare of their families. The picture shows some fairtrade footballs I have been able...
Letters - 16 May 2014
Enemies of Israel? The shockingly unjust accusation Sarah Lawson (2 May) has levelled at British Friends should not go unchallenged. I well remember seeing her advert announcing the creation of a group called ‘Quaker Friends of Israel’. Since I consider myself a Quaker (and Jewish) friend of Israel, I contacted her...