Issue 11-05-2012
Featured story
Thought for the Week: The tale of a white feather
About eight years ago, when I was still working in the parks as a gardener, I picked up a white feather that was lying on the ground. I carefully put it into the woolly hat I was wearing in a sort of Robin Hood style and continued with my work.
Top stories
If you sit very still…
If You Sit Very Still explores the hidden area of traumatic loss, brutality and the restoration of the human spirit. In 1994, twenty-one years after her unexplained disappearance, Lucy Partington’s remains were discovered in the basement of 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester.
The ecumenical challenge
We challenge ourselves to be open to the Light from wherever it may come. Yet our pride in our tolerance of other faiths is often little more than a child’s delight on discovering new colourful toys, previously unknown. Cultural diversity is a wonderful benefit of immigration. Previous generations had...
The question that cannot be asked
David Boulton (13 April) writes that we are often perceived as a negative lot, but I wonder whether that is in fact so. We may tend to define ourselves in terms of negatives, but what Friends believe and how we try to lead our lives are, I would have thought, distinctly...
Fracking: is it safe and sustainable?
A recent report, commissioned by the government, has recommended that ministers give the go-ahead for companies to carry out controversial shale gas ‘fracking’ techniques. It’s timely that, as part of its new campaigning work, the Sustainability and Peace programme created by Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) is helping...
QSA calls for ‘London Living Rent’
Landlords are exploiting people on low incomes with rents way beyond affordable levels. That’s the view of Quaker Social Action (QSA), who have issued a call for a ‘London Living Rent’.
All articles
Conscientious Objectors Day
A strong Quaker presence is anticipated next Tuesday at noon in Tavistock Square, London, to mark International Conscientious Objectors Day.
Power of song in Palestine
People in Palestine are about to receive a new form of international solidarity – through the power of song. Singer-songwriter Penny Stone, who attends Quaker Meetings in Edinburgh, is taking a choir from Scotland to the Occupied Territories to back nonviolent struggles for human rights.
Mark Tully talks to Quakers
Broadcaster Mark Tully is to head the line-up of speakers at a gathering that will explore Quaker connections with India. Hindus, Sikhs and Christians will all participate in the conference, entitled ‘India: A source of universal spiritual inspiration’.
Christian Aid Week
Every donation in Christian Aid Week will have double the usual effect – because the government will match the contributions of individual donors. The Department for International Development will give Christian Aid the same figure that they raise in the week. This should be up to £5m. Christian Aid Week...
BAE boss grilled by Friends
A major British arms company was challenged to shift its business from weapons to renewable energy, putting their workers’ engineering skills to better use. That was the argument put to the board of BAE Systems last week by Rhiannon Rees of Croydon Meeting.
God: entity or spirit?
Rather than concerning myself with the insecurely founded biblical misunderstandings or misconceptions of mankind, whether in history or in modern times, I prefer to develop my own!
We are the weather…
We are the weather That rolls across the face of God… Who sighs in the sea Breathes in the wood Claps His hands across the mountain Weeps in the sky.
Eye - 11 May 2012
Alternative Quaker Dictionary From time to time there are complaints in the Friend about the obscurity of Quaker terminology. Paul Honigmann offers the following helpful suggestions: Advocacy: A form of egg-nog, much enjoyed by Friends in the Netherlands.
Letters - 11 May 2012
World Conference of Friends I have been encouraged by your reporting of the World Conference. However, I thought ‘Quakers urged to be the change in Kenya’ (27 April) contained some potentially misleading information. The controversies mentioned may benefit from more context and understanding to avoid exacerbating wounds in the Quaker world.