Issue 20-01-2012
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Thought for the Week: Living in unity
‘How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity’ - Psalm 133 It is, indeed, very good and pleasant. We find our-selves enriched so often by sharing common worship with Christians from different traditions. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (18-25 January) is one time...
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Black Fire
The subtitle of Black Fire is African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights, though no definition of spirituality is given. I would offer: spirituality – a growing into relationship of self with deeper self; self with neighbour; self with cosmos; held together in an embrace of Spirit. What, then, would...
Reaching Out: Crossing continents
In January 2002 the first session of Quaker Quest opened at Friends House in London intending, ambitiously, to run for the whole year. Five years later, not only were sessions still going on thoughout Britain, but Australian and South African Friends were enquiring about it and it was beginning to become...
Quakers and ‘Occupy’
Quakers in Bristol and London have offered their support to members of ‘Occupy’ camps who are facing eviction. Bristol Cathedral have begun legal action to attempt to evict occupiers from cathedral-owned land. A court in London is expected to rule this week on the City of London’s request...
Restorative justice: A ray of hope
Robert Buckland, the Conservative MP for Swindon South, described the event as ‘the best public meeting I have ever attended’. It was full. It was business-like. It was factual. It was powerful – and it was Quaker-led. It was one of the most memorable events of late 2011 and it was...
Taking the right road
About twenty years ago my two sisters, quite independently, went travelling and, somehow, never got further than the USA. Personally, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to live anywhere other than England but they seem to have taken root there and I have given up hoping that they...
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QCEA lambasts arms exports report
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has described the European Union’s (EU) latest report on arms exports as ‘too late and incomplete’. The report on European arms exports for 2010 was released almost a year after the period it covers, on Friday 30 December 2011. QCEA last week joined ten other...
Citizens UK launches agenda
Quakers are getting ‘much more involved’ in Citizens UK, according to the organisation’s director, Neil Jameson. This week the group launched a ‘citizens’ agenda’ ahead of the London elections in May. Citizens UK is an alliance of civil society organisations, including faith groups, schools, trades unions and community...
Ulster Quakers respond
Friends in Northern Ireland are working together to produce a Quaker response to the NI Executive’s new Draft Programme for Government 2011 – 2015.
Death and dying
Quakers in Leeds are organising a conference to address ‘Death and Dying – the last taboo’. The conference will explore the ethical, spiritual and legal concerns around end-of-life care and assisted dying’. It will be held in Leeds on 12 May.
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
A number of Meetings are planning to open their doors to members of local churches as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from 18 to 25 January. In several towns, there will be prayers for unity in a different place of worship each day. Quaker Meetings including Kings...
The ‘Iron Law’
Exasperation would drive my mother to exclaim ‘“I-Don’t-Care” was MADE to care’. She was looking for an Universal Moral Law to counter some egregious act that had caught her eye. Happily, I was more successful. In my early twenties, thrashing around to fathom my own egregiosity, I uncovered a...
Departure
I am part of what once was But might be so again. Did we love once? Were we one? Two hearts with but a single rhythm?
Eye - 20 January 2012
Irish bats Friends have been creatively prompted by a recent story on ‘edible churchscapes’ in Eye. It considered the benefits of religious grounds as a rich habitat for interesting plants and wildlife. Janet Quilley, of Yorkshire, was reminded of a lovely poem by the late Joyce Neill, of South Belfast...
Letters - 20 January 2012
Support for John Voysey I do hope that Quakers will be seen to support any members who will be facing court cases because their conscience would not let them fill in the recent census (6 January). I do wonder why an arms manufacturing company should have a subsidiary that is so...