Issue 14-10-2011
Featured story
Ethical Investment: Discerning the right thing to do
My ethics are my conscious behaviour. This behaviour can be selfish, like a small child, or caring, as with establishing a foundation for the care of historic monuments. My behaviour can be rules-based, like the ethical posture of the Co-operative Bank, or reasoned, as with Tony Blair’s war on...
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Ethical Investment: The situation today
This year’s National Ethical Investment Week (NEIW) will take place from 16 to 22 October. Ethical investing aims to allow investors to make money while also making a difference. NEIW is a campaign to ensure that everyone knows that they have green and ethical options when it comes to their financial...
Building a green economy
Originally written in 1910, the section of Quaker Faith & Practice quoted below is a succinct summary of what constitutes a right relationship with money in all its forms. Money is not just a neutral store of value, but a ‘store of values.’ How we use the credit at our disposal...
Is transparency everything?
How often have we, as individuals, been put off buying something because we are not really sure what it is we are actually buying into? Have you ever, for example, put off starting a pension, getting insurance, or even choosing an ISA (Individual Savings Account) because it is too hard...
Quakers reach out
A storytelling session in Lostwithiel and a Quaker-themed tour of Winchester were among the various ways in which Friends around Britain publicised Quakerism last week. They were two of the many activities to mark national Quaker Week, which ran from 1 – 9 October. The annual event is designed to promote Quakerism and...
Experiment with Light: A deeply healing process
Quakers are quite experienced at Meetings: Meetings for Worship; Meetings for Worship for Business; Meetings for ‘the solemnisation of a marriage’, etc, and, as we often joke among ourselves, Meetings about Meetings! For well over seventy years the Friends Fellowship of Healing groups have been holding Meetings for Distant...
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Quaker defies court ruling
An Essex Quaker is defying a judge’s ruling that he should pay overdue income tax, insisting that he will not contribute to the funding of war. Colchester County Court ruled that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had a right to demand the money from Roy Prockter,...
Children address UN body
The children of prisoners have, for the first time, spoken directly to a meeting of a United Nations body. The unique event was co-organised by the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO). The event in Geneva was a ‘day of general discussion’ of the UN Committee on the Rights...
Economic justice
Economic justice was one of the major concerns raised at Meeting for Sufferings. Helen Drewery, general secretary of Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), talked about the work presently being done on the issue by staff at Friends House.
Olympic Truce
The Olympics made a surprising appearance on the Meeting for Sufferings agenda, in response to a concern raised by Luton and Leighton Area Meeting. Friends in the area have expressed support for the ‘Olympic Truce’, a proposal that involves the cessation of military hostilities during the games. Supporters of...
Yearly Meeting 2012
Methods of political engagement – including active nonviolence and direct action – and economic justice have been suggested as the focus for the next Yearly Meeting of Friends in Britain, due in May 2012. The suggestions were made at Meeting for Sufferings (MfS), the national committee of British Friends, on Saturday 1 October. The...
Letters - 14 October 2011
Economic collapse Some of us have been talking for a long time about the ‘twin threats’ of peak oil and climate change. It’s now abundantly clear that we need to focus on the ‘triple threats’ of peak oil, climate change and economic collapse. Last week, on 1 October, seventy-five years...
Visiting the Arboretum – a personal experience
It was VJ Day in August 2008 and we arrived to see many British Legion members in uniform. Some had banners. Even David Cameron was there! My first response was: ‘I do not want to be here’ – and we nearly left there and then, but we stayed. Thank goodness we did....