Issue 10-02-2012

Featured story

Thought for the Week: Faith in action

FREE 9 Feb 2012 | by Janet Scott

Touring a red light district and lunching with a group of women, most of whom are prostitutes, is not my normal way of spending a day. I was in India and visiting a church that had been started by a Quaker. It has a particular mission to the Devadesi (temple...

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Meeting for Sufferings: News in brief

9 Feb 2012 | by Trish Carn

Meeting for Sufferings Arrangements Group The terms of reference for the Meeting for Sufferings Arrangements Group were presented as they needed to be updated. The assistant recording clerk is now called the ‘deputy recording clerk’ and a change in the way members were appointed was explained. The changes were approved.

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Meeting for Sufferings: Speaking out

FREE 9 Feb 2012 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

The rapid pace of change in the world of communications, including the development of social media, has prompted Friends to address the subject of ‘speaking out’ on behalf of Quakers in Britain.  A Speaking Out Group, composed of three Friends and three members of staff, was set up in...

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Quakers and creation: Going to a ‘better place’?

FREE 9 Feb 2012 | by Stuart Masters

Mountain scene from Nagarkot, Nepal | Photo: thapa.laxman / flickr CC

Quakers in Britain have made a corporate commit-ment to become a low-carbon community – to being a people who live increasingly in harmony with the order of creation. Minute 36 of Yearly Meeting 2011 asserts that this commitment is consistent with our historic testimony: ‘…we are renewing our commitment to a sense of...

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Escaping victimhood

9 Feb 2012 | by Tim Newell

Escaping Victimhood workshops aim to help those who have been affected by the trauma of serious crime | Photo: fakelvis / flickr CC

After Sarah’s son was hacked to death she found that she could no longer see in colour. Years later, on the Escaping Victimhood workshop, she realised she could see a small blue flower – her colours had returned. She has now written about her experiences in a book.  When...

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A shift

9 Feb 2012 | by Sonja Rose

Somehow ‘doing’ has become a more conscious ‘being’ and what was an effort has become a gift | Photo: Lel4nd / flickr CC

A few years ago, a long-standing attender stood up during Meeting for Worship. His ministry was brief and memorable: ‘What do you do in Meeting?  I do not remember any ministry that might well have followed, but the question reverberated with us over coffee and beyond: it was decided...

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Faith groups criticise proposed welfare cap

FREE 9 Feb 2012 | by Symon Hill

Quakers have lambasted the government’s proposed cap on household benefits as ‘a blunt and cruel instrument’. They spoke out as the House of Lords rejected key sections of the Welfare Reform Bill.

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Quakers unite on alcohol pricing

9 Feb 2012 | by The Friend Newsdesk

Quaker action on Alcohol and Drugs (QAAD) has united with other faith groups in urging the prime minister to introduce a minimum unit price on all alcohol sold in Britain.

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Eye - 10 February 2012

9 Feb 2012 | by Eye

Universal Chorus at Ely Quaker Tapestry manager Bridget Guest and Roy Wilcock recently got some timely publicity for their CD Universal Chorus. BBC Television East Anglia paid a visit to Ely Cathedral to cover the opening of the 2012 Quaker Tapestry Roadshow in the Lady Chapel.

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Letters - 10 February 2012

9 Feb 2012 | by The Friend

Olympics Many Friends will be too young to remember the Quaker who won a silver medal in the 1,500 metres at the Olympic Games in 1920, served as secretary of state for commonwealth relations in Clement Attlee’s government and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1959.

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