Issue 14-02-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Piano
Like having a piano in the house We all need someone on whom to practise Love. Arpeggios of passion, chords of content, Persistent scales of care, with sharps or flats. Not necessarily the great concerto Of long-established wedded partnership –
Top stories
Faith – What’s God got to do with it?
‘Faith – What’s God got to do with it?’ was the title of a thought-provoking one-day conference held in January at Friends House in London. As I went to it I wondered if it would be a polemical event. Happily, it wasn’t: it was Quakerly, mutually respectful and informative....
Sustainability - Climate change policies: who really pays?
At Yearly Meeting Gathering in Canterbury in 2011 Friends committed to become ‘a low-carbon, sustainable community’. I was strongly moved, at the time, to minister that we also need to focus on collecting information to help us discern what climate change-related policies to advocate and support. Climate change policies, I...
Scottish honour for Jocelyn Bell Burnell
The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s national academy of science and the arts, has elected Jocelyn Bell Burnell as its first female president. Jocelyn graduated in Natural Philosophy from the University of Glasgow in 1965 and then gained her PhD from Cambridge in 1969. From 1982-1991 she worked at the...
Hexham Debate highlights arms trade
Writer and broadcaster Andrew Feinstein argued at the second Hexham Debate last Saturday that the arms industry is a ‘perfect storm for corruption’. Andrew, the director of Corruption Watch UK, an NGO combating corruption by governments and corporations, talked about ‘The shadow world: inside the global arms trade’. He...
Arms protesters found not guilty
Five peace activists were found not guilty at Stratford Magistrates’ Court in London last week on charges of aggravated trespass at a London arms fair. The activists, who included two with Quaker links, had been arrested at the London Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi) fair on 10 September 2013.
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Stratford trial
Gasps of relief and ripples of joy were felt amongst supporters in the public gallery of court room three at lunchtime on 4 February 2014 at Stratford Magistrates’ Court, London, when arms trade protesters Symon Hill, Chloe Skinner, Chris Wood, James Clayton and Dan Woodhouse were pronounced ‘not guilty’ of aggravated trespass....
Belief and membership
The essence of Meeting for Worship is that it is a gathered Meeting – one in which the presence of the spirit is the unifying factor – where we are entering the silence and creating a unity of thought and purpose.
Diversity: problem or opportunity?
Picking up some of the comments from the Friend recently, I’m finding it hard to recognise the Religious Society of Friends I have come to know and love. There are stories of Friends being admonished for reading the Bible during ministry or criticised for referring to spiritual experiences in...
Chaos
Do you Quakers believe in God? The news-reporter thrusts the microphone almost up your nose. Well? Do you? It’s a simple enough question – yes or no? Stop all this wishy-washy fudging – you’ve had long enough to think about it. Do you or don’t you?Â
Money for everyone
A citizen’s income (CI) is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income paid by the state to every individual as a right of citizenship in addition to other forms of income. Money for Everyone: Why we need a citizen’s income by Malcolm Torry demonstrates how such a policy can solve many...
Eye - 14 February 2014
Missed a trick? What does ‘community’ mean? How important are the tiny moments? What impact does the way we treat others have? Jill Allum, of Beccles Meeting, was struck by a story recently and got in touch to share some of its insights: ‘I’m just reading M Scott Peckâ€...
Letters - 14 February 2014
The Light Not liking the decision an appointed body has reached is not the same issue as whether or not the decision was reached in right ordering. Some Friends have expressed strong views against the use of ‘The Light’ as an additional name for the Large Meeting House. There is...