Issue 11-10-2013
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The gravestones
Gathered from the grass around the Meeting house, the gravestones are laid together here, huddled close, slab against slab, face upwards, lapping up the sun and rain of so many years, covered sometimes with blown leaves or snow, their carved letters and numbers filling with moss.
Top stories
Souvenirs: A play for survivors
Write to Life has never had an impact like it. There was rapt attention and laughter. But by the end, at least half the audience was in tears and all the performers near to it. Thus writes Sheila Hayman, coordinator of Freedom from Torture’s creative writing group, Write to...
British Quakers: Mission and message - Our message
There will probably be many Friends in the Yearly Meeting who are uncomfortable at the thought that we might have a collective message and mission to the world but Quakers throughout history always have.
Drones
Friends have been urged to take part in the Drones Week of Action, running from 5-12 October. It is organised by the Drone Campaign Network – which was co-founded by Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) – as part of International Keep Space for Peace Week.
Meeting for Sufferings: Call for fossil fuel disinvestment
Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) has encouraged Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees to give up BYM’s investment in fossil fuels. The recommendation reflected a groundswell of conviction that investment in fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with the 2011 Quaker commitment to become a low-carbon community.
Meeting for Sufferings: Friends develop dialogue
The decision made in April 2011 to boycott goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories continues to prompt challenging questions for Friends in Britain, Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) heard on Saturday 5 October. Quakers in Britain were asked, earlier this year, to recommit to ‘developing dialogue and understanding with Jewish...
All articles
Meeting for Sufferings: Responding to government cuts
‘We find ourselves utterly at odds with the priorities in our society which deny the full human potential of millions of people in this country. That denial diminishes us all.’ Quaker faith & practice, 23.21 Meeting for Sufferings reaffirmed support for this statement made by London Yearly Meeting in 1987.
Meeting for Sufferings: Funding Britain Yearly Meeting
The re-introduction of a quota to Meetings was rejected by Friends at Meetings for Sufferings (MfS). Britain Yearly Meeting trustees had concluded that a re-introduction of the quota would not be the right way forward. MfS was asked to consider this.
Meeting for Sufferings: Young Friends welcomed
The presence of a group of young Friends, who shared in worship at Meeting for Sufferings on Saturday morning, was very much appreciated by those present.
Meeting for Sufferings: Area Meeting Concerns
Probation Service Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) has requested advice from Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) following receipt of a minute that set out a concern over changes to the probation service. The concern was raised at Telford Meeting and supported by Worcestershire and Shropshire Area Meeting (AM)....
Meeting for Sufferings: Canterbury Commitment update
A Yearly Energy Survey (YES) is being developed to provide a ‘simpler and more robust’ tool to monitor energy use.
Meeting for Sufferings: New vision for British Quakers
The five-year vision for Quakers in Britain is being developed and will be set out in a new long-term framework document for 2015-20.
Meeting for Sufferings: Exhibition space sought
Artistic Friends have a dream – that one day they will be able to enjoy seeing displays of art in Friends House.
Discernment and decision-making
When I typed up our Monthly Meeting minutes in the 1980s, there would regularly be forty-four members plus three attenders. Now, we usually have around half that number. Similarly, in our Local Meeting for Worship for Business (MfWfB), the numbers have dropped. I hear this is the disturbing case all...
Goodness circles
After the stillness of Meeting for Worship, we converse. That spontaneous conversation may be the highlight of the Meeting. For some it may be the best conversation of the week. We are in a heightened state of awareness of that of God in one another. Do we do enough to...
Eye - 11 October 2013
Knitting against nukes Pink wool, knitting needles and a vision of a peaceful future. These are the ingredients of an unusual protest against nuclear weapons. Wool Against Weapons is the brain-child of Jaine Rose, along with Angie Zelter from Action AWE, who aims to knit (with the help of fellow...
Letters - 11 October 2013
Death and dying Further to Alison Leonard’s thoughtful and wide-ranging articles (30 August to 20 September), I believe the original intention of the Quaker Concern around Dying and Death was to produce a document entitled A Quaker view of death and dying. At the 2010 Quaker dialogue it was stated that it...