Issue 20-04-2012

Featured story

Thought for the Week: The cornerstone

FREE 19 Apr 2012 | by Edward Hoare

Silence is the cornerstone of character.’ A friend read these words today, breaking the silence and politely interrupting my thoughts. My attention had just been drifting out of the window to the world outside of the Meeting house, blown around by the fresh winter landscape.  I had been reflecting...

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Top stories

Prostate cancer and the love of God

FREE 19 Apr 2012 | by Noël Staples

Micrograph showing prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma. | Photo: Photo: Nephron via Wikimedia

1 February was quite a day! I went for a sigmoidoscopy to check for diverticulosis. This revealed a normal, healthy sigmoid. Then my life fell apart.

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Quakers in the World (Latin America): A way of life

19 Apr 2012 | by Ian Kirk-Smith and Trish Carn

The Meeting room for Mexico City’s Monthly Meeting | Photo: Photo courtesy of Mexico City Monthly Meeting

Tomas Estrada Palma, the first elected president of Cuba, was fluent in English, a naturalised United States citizen and spent ten years in a prison in Barcelona. He was once princpal of a Quaker school.  The story of Quakerism in Latin America is a rich and interesting one – from...

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Low carbon, sustainable fun

19 Apr 2012 | by Laurie Michaelis

Sowing the seeds of a community | Photo: Photo: ïCliff / flickr CC

At Yearly Meeting Gathering, in Canterbury in 2011, Quakers made a commitment to become a ‘low carbon sustainable community’. Since then many Friends have been reflecting on the practicality and politics of energy conservation, nuclear power and solar panels. But what about the ‘community’ bit of the commitment?

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Quakers gather in Kenya

19 Apr 2012 | by Symon Hill

A view of Kabarak University campus | Photo: Photo copyright: FWCC (www.saltandlight2012.org)

About a thousand Quakers from around the world are meeting in Kenya this week for the World Conference of Friends. It is one of the largest Quaker gathering for forty-five years.

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Coke in the café

FREE 19 Apr 2012 | by Symon Hill

Friends House have defended their decision to sell Coca Cola products in their café despite ethical concerns. The café has previously stocked alternative colas made from companies regarded as more ethical. Coke and Diet Coke went on sale in the café last week, priced at seventy pence per can.

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All articles

Danny Dorling to deliver Salter Lecture

19 Apr 2012 | by Symon Hill

One of Britain’s leading writers on equality is to give the annual lecture of the Quaker Socialist Society (QSS) ahead of next month’s Yearly Meeting of British Friends.

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Ireland Yearly Meeting

19 Apr 2012 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

Ireland Yearly Meeting was held for the first time at the headquarters of Irish Quakers at Stocking Lane in Dublin.

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Redland fire

19 Apr 2012 | by Symon Hill

Friends at Redland Meeting in Bristol say they are grateful that nobody was hurt in a fire that has put their Meeting house out of use for weeks.

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Arms dealers touring with David Cameron

19 Apr 2012 | by Symon Hill

Senior executives from six arms companies are accompanying David Cameron on his current tour of Asia.  The prime minister has defended their presence in his delegation, saying he is happy to sell arms to Indonesia.

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God and life

19 Apr 2012 | by Robert Daines

Firstly, put on your reading glasses to prevent your vision clouding over. These glasses change the word God into the word Life with a capital ‘L’. The glasses will also work for any other word that occupies the ‘God’ slot such as ‘Lord’ or ‘Father’.

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Eye - 20 April 2012

19 Apr 2012 | by Carboholic

Alright, I admit it. I am a Carboholic. I’d like to say it’s not my fault, but they tell me at Carboholics Anonymous that we always say that, you know, trying to blame someone else. Own the problem, they say. If you try to say it’s someone...

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Letters - 20 April 2012

19 Apr 2012 | by The Friend

Deafened by silence All credit to some forty-plus Leicester Friends who have made a statement opposing any thought of military intervention in Iran. On the downside, I find the lack of a statement by Meeting for Sufferings/Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) on the situation in Syria very disappointing. I would...

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