Issue 18-01-2013

Featured story

Thought for the Week: Love nurtures

FREE 17 Jan 2013 | by Janet Scott

You are my friends if you do what I command you… This is what I command you: Love one another.  John 15:14 and 17

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Top stories

Changing lives

17 Jan 2013 | by Teresa Belton

'My true friend, the mirror...' | Photo: Photo: Jan Arriens.

Recently, LifeLines – an organisation whose members correspond with prisoners on death row in the US – has been marking its twenty-fifth anniversary. Over that time we have put over 5,000 people in this country in touch with condemned men and women. From the outset, there has been a close Quaker involvement – not...

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Back to Berlin

17 Jan 2013 | by Christine Hayes

Closing of the border between the two parts of Berlin. Taken at the Brandenburger Tor 13 August 1961. | Photo: Photo: Steffen Rehm via Wikimedia Commons.

I am almost a birthright Friend, having grown up in Sutton Meeting. During the second world war Friends at the Meeting developed a special relationship with young German prisoners of war at the nearby camp, inviting them into their homes and, also, to Meeting for Worship.  My parents kept...

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Belonging and responsibility

17 Jan 2013 | by Elders and overseers of Hemel Hempstead Meeting

At Hemel Hempstead, elders and overseers meet once a month. Two items always appear on the agenda – Pastoral Care and Membership. Numerically, Hemel Hempstead is a big Meeting, with forty-one members, yet we regularly only average seventeen Friends at Meeting for Worship. Five are attenders. They give great support to...

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12-12-12

17 Jan 2013 | by Judy Moody-Stuart

Waiting patiently... | Photo: Photo courtesy Judy Moody-Stuart.

It was a good day. It was a day when I stood quietly – waiting patiently. I encountered a small number of memorable people, some family and friends, some passing strangers, and, towards midnight, a Quaker.

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Spiritual revival

17 Jan 2013 | by Martin David

Whilst looking at the historical record of humanity you may find many spiritual revivals... bursting forth like herds of deer from quiet leafy woodlands. | Photo: Photo: Shaun Dunphy / flickr CC.

Whilst looking at the historical record of humanity you may find many spiritual revivals, examples of which seem to spring up unexpectedly at various places and times – bursting forth like herds of deer from quiet leafy woodlands.

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All articles

Government agrees to publish Trident review

FREE 17 Jan 2013 | by Symon Hill

Quakers have welcomed government plans to publish a review on alternatives to the Trident nuclear weapons system. The review, carried out by Liberal Democrat MPs, was promised in the coalition agreement but the Ministry of Defence had said they had ‘no plans to publish’ it following its submission to the...

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Recognition for Bristol Quaker

17 Jan 2013 | by Symon Hill

A Bristol Quaker has been recognised in the New Year Honours list for her work in using therapy to promote social justice.

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Q&B call for new laws on tax cheats

17 Jan 2013 | by Symon Hill

Quaker business people have called for new laws against corporate tax avoidance. The Quakers & Business Group (Q&B) wrote to George Osborne to ask for ‘changes to UK law and regulation which would encourage companies to pay their taxes in full’.

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Sidcot students help fund food bank van

17 Jan 2013 | by Symon Hill

As more people become dependent on food banks, students at a Quaker private school have raised money to help to fund one of them. Sidcot School usually raises money to tackle poverty overseas, but rising poverty in Britain prompted students to help out local people.

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Roseline Akhalu appeal

17 Jan 2013 | by Symon Hill

The home secretary has said she will push ahead with attempts to deport a Nigerian with life-threatening kidney disease. Human rights groups have reacted with dismay to Theresa May’s decision to appeal against a court ruling that Roseline Akhalu should be allowed to remain in the UK.

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Catholic pacifists plan Ash Wednesday protest

17 Jan 2013 | by Symon Hill

Catholic pacifists have appealed to members of other Christian traditions to join them in an act of witness at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) next month.

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The M25: a national treasure

17 Jan 2013 | by Sylvia Edwards

Motorways are mooted by engineers but brought to life by planners who deem six lanes sufficient for orbital traffic to flow peacefully round London glinting in the sunshine, shining in the rain.

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Eye - 18 January 2013

17 Jan 2013 | by Eye

Oaty connections In overturning every pebble in Friends’ collective literary rockeries, a host of oats has been found – though not porridge. Eye was delighted when Owen Everett, of Watford Meeting, drew our attention to John O’Keefe’s eighteenth-century play, Wild Oats.

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Letters - 18 January 2013

17 Jan 2013 | by The Friend

Trident Michael Bartlet’s clear summary of UK Trident (4 January) encourages us to remind Danny Alexander MP of the medical consequences of nuclear war – the subject of an authoritative report by the British Medical Association in 1983. Non-state terrorists are unlikely to be deterred by Trident; but a nuclear war between...

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