Issue 06-09-2013
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Be patterns
Poets are not absolutely necessary to the efficient operation of society. Trains will run on time without them. But poets can provide insights into the human condition. They can find images and symbols appropriate to our predicament. They can articulate the defining narratives of our age and our culture. They...
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Counting Quakers
The one-hundred-and-fifty-first Tabular Statement was published at Yearly Meeting 2013. It is a remarkable run of church statistics by anyone’s standards and, in spite of the Yearly Meeting minute authorising experimentation in gathering and presenting information about our membership, I fervently hope that historical comparability will be maintained.
Syria: What’s love got to do with it?
It has been said that ethics is a philosophical wasteland, largely dominated by disputes caused by pitching ‘my principles’ against ‘your principles’, but that one principle stands out from this mess. That principle, which is justified by its own logic and which gives rise to the basic humane responses of...
The Syrian crisis
In early September, when it looked as if parliament was going to sanction strikes against the Syrian regime, a few Beaconsfield Friends from Jordans Meeting felt we should write to the Beaconsfield MP to urge a peace-seeking role for Britain. Quakers in Britain had made a statement urging parliament...
Friends in France
France Yearly Meeting, which was held this year in Conqueyrac (Gard) in the south of France from 25-28 July, was a great success. Almost sixty Friends attended – more than double the figure for 2012. The theme of the gathering was ‘Learning to know each other in the eternal’ and, over the...
Syria vote welcomed
The clear decision of the UK parliament to reject military intervention in Syria has been welcomed by Friends House in London. Paul Parker, recording clerk of Quakers in Britain, said: ‘The government’s vote against military intervention in Syria turns a crisis into an opportunity.’
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Money and Quaker testimonies highlighted
A Friend will be travelling around the country during the next eighteenth months highlighting issues relating to money and the current financial system.
Southport Quakers launch peace essay competition
Southport Quakers have launched a competition for the best five hundred word essay on the subject of peace written by young people studying at Key Stage 4 and 5. The Dorothy Trippier Peace Essay Competition is funded by a legacy to Southport Quakers from Dorothy Tripper. The title for this year...
New light at Glenthorne
Glenthorne’s situation on the fringes of Grasmere village in the central Lake District, surrounded by mountains and lakes, gives it a special resonance for many Friends. Like many spiritual communities, the location and immediate environment can be as important as what happens within the walls and gardens.
Reflection: Words
If we live into extreme old age and have no particular disease, just the general deterioration of a long-used body, we can listen to advice on planning ‘a good death’ and wonder just when to put it into practice. Start at the biblical point of ‘three score years and ten’...
Word
The questing Spirit lights the receptive soul. Stirring, the mind in turn conceives a thought. The beating heart sends fresh blood to the brain To forge words whence the sentence may be wrought.
Eye - 06 September 2013
Crafting Quakers Mary Bradbury, of Cockermouth Meeting, got in touch with tales of Quaker crafts appearing in surprising places. It started with a stitch… ‘Some years ago I attended an embroidery class doing “colour through gold”. I made a piece which turned out as a blue cross on a gold...
Letters - 06 September 2013
Syria If military intervention in Syria is the answer, may I suggest we are asking the wrong question? Since when has military intervention resulted in amicable outcomes? With the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles freshly in mind, clearly a more thought out, joined up, strategic response can be the only answer. ...