Issue 07-02-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The idea of God
Among Friends there are two common ways of looking at the idea of God. First, as an eternal being or presence that permeates the universe – a being or presence that is beyond human comprehension and, yet, fundamentally real. Second, a more specific belief in which God has a role in...
Top stories
Forgiveness on the River Kwai
The opening of the film The Railway Man, based on Eric Lomax’s book, and the publication of Eric Cordingley’s Down to Bedrock: The Diary and Secret Notes of a Far East Prisoner of War Chaplain 1942–1945, will take many minds back, once more, to the prisoners who built the...
The curse of history
Recently, I walked to Meeting for Worship. Now, I’m sure many Friends do this every week and don’t give it a second thought, but in my case it took me three hours and even longer to return home because I made a small diversion by way of a...
Meeting for Sufferings: Speaking out
The rapid pace of change in the world of communications, including the development of social media, has prompted Friends to address the subject of ‘speaking out’ on behalf of Quakers in Britain. A Speaking Out Group, composed of three Friends and three members of staff, was set up in...
Meeting for Sufferings: Revision of Quaker faith & practice
Friends agreed to begin the process of a revision of Quaker faith & practice at Meeting for Sufferings, which was held at Friends House on Saturday 1 February. In the past year there has been a wide-ranging consultation about a possible revision. It was launched in June 2013 and closed at...
Meeting for Sufferings: Young people’s participation days
Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) heard a proposal for an annual day for young people aged 14-18 to happen alongside MfS – the aim being to engage with ‘the experiences and concerns of young Quakers’.
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Meeting for Sufferings: The Light
The decision to give an additional name – ‘The Light’ – to the Large Meeting House was raised by Jennifer Barraclough, clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting trustees, at Meeting for Sufferings. A Friend described the choice of the new name as inappropriate. Another person commented that the name was a public...
Meeting for Sufferings: Planned agenda for Yearly Meeting Gathering 2014
Chris Skidmore, nominated clerk of Yearly Meeting (YM), outlined the planned agenda for the event in Bath. He said that he did not see this year as one of big decisions but rather as the culmination of three years of exploration of what it means to be a Quaker today....
Meeting for Sufferings: Political engagement
Jessica Metheringham outlined her work in her first few months as parliamentary engagement officer for Britain Yearly Meeting and talked about the importance of political engagement. She described her role as ‘Speaking Truth to Power’ and said her work was ‘forty per cent parliamentary and political engagement; forty per...
Meeting for Sufferings: Vibrancy initiative
Friends across Britain were encouraged at Meeting for Sufferings to take part in an initiative to foster increased vibrancy in Meetings. Lizzie Rosewood, recently appointed as the Programme Developer for the Vibrancy in Meetings Initiative, spoke enthusiastically about her work and her visits in the past three months to...
Meeting for Sufferings: New trustees at Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Two new faces will be joining as trustees of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Friends were told at Meeting for Sufferings in the afternoon session. The search group – three people appointed by Meeting for Sufferings (currently Jonathan Dale, Sarah Richards and Deborah Rowlands) plus three trustees clerked by Tony Stoller –...
Meeting for Sufferings: Quaker UN Committe
A change has been made in the way in which people are appointed to the Quaker United Nations Committee. Following the 2012 review of the relationship between the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva (QUNO) and Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) has been asked to take on...
Meeting for Sufferings: YMG 2014 clerks
The Committee on Clerks will bring forward the following names for nomination to Yearly Meeting Gathering in Bath:
Meeting for Sufferings: Fair wealth T-shirts
Lancaster Meeting has designed T-shirts based on a graphic from the New Economics Forum showing how the welfare budget is spent (see above).
Experimenting boldly
I was excited when I first saw that there might be a new Quaker faith & practice. I value Quaker faith & practice highly and I have often come across a piece of writing and thought ‘that would go well in the next edition’. Then I had a chance...
L’Amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle (Dante)
The Love that moves the sun and the other stars And shows me, too, that those deep-seated scars Of separation, loss and hopelessness And wondering who I really am Can lead me to a deeper sense of holiness.
Eye - 07 February 2014
Memorable enchantment ‘Nestled in nature’ (10 January) inspired two Friends to share their own memories of the way in which Josefina de Vasconcellos and her artwork touched them. For Andrew Rutter, of Winchester Meeting, the photograph that appeared was already familiar: ‘I came across the same group in Cartmel Priory in...
Letters - 07 February 2014
Spiritual connotations Our Friend Peter Bolwell asks if we could ever convince ourselves ‘that the expression “nontheist” carries or implies any spiritual connotation whatever?’ (24 January). However, ‘Nontheistic religions are traditions of thought within religions, some otherwise aligned with theism, others not, in which nontheism informs religious beliefs or practices. Nontheism...