Issue 15-06-2012
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Father’s Day
Once in a Catholic church in the Netherlands I saw a statue of Joseph the carpenter holding the infant Jesus. It was carved from wood and Joseph’s hands were those of a workman, rough-hewn and large, but cradling the baby with gentleness. There were about three candles in front...
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Early Quakers as mystics
Give over thine own willing. Give over thine own running. Give over thine own desiring to know or be anything, and sink down to the seed which God sows in thy heart, and let that be in thee, and grow in thee, and breathe in thee, and act in thee,...
Economic justice: Should Quakers speak out about banking?
The features that made the international financial system a source of enormous instability for the real economy have, since the crisis of 2008/9, remained substantially unchanged. Of course, human wickedness has been pilloried; but it is the features of the system as a whole that make bubbles, crashes, currency speculation and...
Stevenage Meeting takes direct hit
An eighteen-year-old woman was arrested after crashing a car into Stevenage Meeting House. The woman was detained on suspicion of taking a car without consent, failing to stop and other driving offences after she walked unhurt from a black Vauxhall Corsa. It had smashed through a brick wall of...
100 days of peace launched
Hundreds gathered last weekend at St Martin in the Fields Church, Trafalgar Square, for an all-night Vigil for Peace to proclaim the first day of the ‘Sacred Truce’ – the Olympic 100 Days of Peace.
Kingston Quakers promote dialogue
The Kingston Quaker and Jewish Dialogue Group is continuing its work to promote dialogue and reconciliation. A UK Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum, hosted by the Dialogue Group, will be held on 19 June in Kingston Liberal Synagogue. Seham Abu Awad, a Palestinian who has lost a brother, and...
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Friends witness at Faslane
Scottish Friends are approaching their twentieth year of witnessing for peace at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde in Scotland. There will be a Meeting for Worship at the north gates of Faslane on 24 June. The witness is held six times a year and Friends come from Glasgow,...
European Quakers condemn Eurosatory
Quakers in Belgium and Luxembourg have condemned the Eurosatory arms fair being held this week in Paris. The biennial arms fair is one of the largest in the world and attracts producers and buyers from all over the globe. This year there are more than one thousand exhibits.
Rowntree Trust wins major award
A prestigious international prize for innovative philanthropy has been awarded to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT). The prize was given in Belfast on 8 June at the twenty-third Annual General Assembly and Conference of the European Foundation Centre entitled ‘Peace Through Social Justice – a Role for Foundations’.
Faith and clarity?
Homo sapiens are a social species and, probably, the only species with the ability for self- reflection. As all social animals do, we find that life in community works far better if cooperation, not conflict, is the norm; hence the growth of ethics – the means of codifying and conveying to...
Being challenged
Throughout the worship-sharing phase of the ‘Being a Quaker’ session at the recent Britain Yearly Meeting various thoughts floated across my mind as possible pieces of ministry.
‘Are you a Holy Man, Dad?’
Alarmed, I looked at the boy; was I a kill-joy? Did I look askance at fun?
Letters - 15 June 2012
Skyspace I am sad that we won’t be going ahead with the James Turrell Skyspace in the Large Meeting House. However, on reflection, I saw in my mind’s eye a dandelion puffball. It’s a beautiful elegant sphere and then the wind blows on it. It’s destroyed –...