Issue 10-01-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: A philosopher looks at science
What would they know about it? Quite a bit, actually. Scientists have replaced philosophers as gatekeepers of the real and, as a result, philosophers study science and scientists with the punctilious chagrin of the unemployed watching other people doing their job. Scientists, for their part, are usually unaware that philosophers...
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Seeds of inspiration
Three thousand feet above Lake Geneva is a spectacular building with turrets and spires, some four hundred rooms and stunning views over the lake and the surrounding Alpine peaks. Built in 1902 as the Caux Palace Hotel, it was the most expensive hotel in Europe and attracted the rich and...
A Quaker of the people
Though renowned for her social work in the slums and for her pacifism, Ada Salter’s life was also a spiritual journey. In the 1920s she and her husband, Alfred, created not just a model of municipal socialism but also a Quaker republic. The Salters’ socialism was not Marxist...
Prayer and presence
I often moan to myself that Friends don’t talk enough, for me, that is, about what we feel God to be – how we experience it/him/her; but I also know I don’t talk about it much either. I’m quite gregarious, certainly capable of opening the...
The power of Quaker values
From time to time there is the suggestion in the pages of the Friend that Quaker values are not the same as the values of society as a whole and that we have special messages for those who are not of us, if only they would pay attention. Do we,...
Quakers and healing
The fact that all references to George Fox’s healing ministry had been ‘edited out’ of his Journal was highlighted recently in the Friend (21 June and 30 August 2013). Some years ago, while studying at Woodbrooke, I was directed to a small tract or booklet, first published in 1964, by Edmund Goerke, which...
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New £2 coin under fire
A new £2 coin launched by the Royal Mint to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the start of the first world war has provoked criticism from leading peace groups and individuals. The coin depicts Horatio Kitchener and his slogan ‘Your country needs you’. Kitchener was secretary of state for war...
Salter statues campaign
The Salter Statues Campaign has now broken the £35,000 barrier in a fundraising campaign aimed at raising £50,000. In November 2011 the bronze statue of Alfred Salter was stolen from its location just east of Tower Bridge in London. A campaign was immediately started to raise £50,000 to replace it.
Philippines appeal
More than $20,000 has been raised by Friends worldwide to help victims of the earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Digital Voices in Wales
Friends throughout Wales are responding to a concern that the Quaker voice should be clearly heard among the many activities to commemorate the centenary of the first world war.
YM Gathering bookings open
Bookings for Yearly Meeting Gathering, to be held in Bath in August 2014, are now open. Friends House have provided information on their website that gives background and guidance for those Friends who wish to attend the largest Quaker gathering of 2014. It states that ‘online bookings can be made at...
Appeal for school governors
Up to one in four school governor positions is vacant in some schools in rural and deprived areas of England. SGOSS – Governors for Schools, the educational charity, has revealed that one in ten of the 300,000 governor positions across the country is not filled.
Eye - 10 January 2014
Nestled in nature In 1959 sculptor Josefina de Vasconcellos was commissioned by the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London to create a Nativity scene featuring life-sized figures. These became a regular sighting in Trafalgar Square Christmas displays.
Letters - 10 January 2014
Writing of the gospels Alec Davison has written a good story (20 & 27 December 2013). But is it ‘true’? Of course, we can’t go back 2,000 years, but we have got scholars and we can only trust them – or not. Only Matthew and Luke tell the birth stories of Christ. Mark comes...