Issue 23-09-2011
Featured story
The spirit of creation
The National Gallery, in London’s Trafalgar Square, contains some of the finest paintings in the world. They are an enduring expression of the very best in humanity – especially of that need within the human spirit to create and celebrate.
Top stories
Quakers protest at arms fair
Quakers joined in blockades and sit-ins in protest at the London arms fair last week, while many more Friends took part in lawful demonstrations. Friends from Bedfordshire went so far as to hire a coach to travel to London and lobby their MPs. Quaker banners were prominent when around 150...
The uncomfortable truth …
Many of us think of ‘money’ in terms of ‘cash’: the tangible notes and coins used for making everyday payments in retail stores. These notes – and all other denominations – originated in, and were distributed from, the Bank of England printing works. But a modern economy could not function with cash...
The inferior sex?
Mary Wollstonecraft, an eighteenth century dissenter and staunch pioneer of women’s liberation, fought against the exploitation and subordination of women by men. In 1792 she published her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. It was not a well-received work, and many people at the time thought her book...
Quaker political engagement
Background Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) first appointed a parliamentary liaison secretary in the 1980s and, at that time, an assistant or intern was also appointed. An informal support group developed into a Public Affairs Group, which was laid down in 2008, leaving Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) Central Committee...
Pilgrimage
Somehow, this is not footfall. The tired glance is missing, and the peculiar ache of distance. Jerusalem, Medjugorje, Croagh Patrick – a list of names. Dust, horizons, remembering.
All articles
Eye - 23 September 2011
A Quaker Jamboree Eye was delighted to hear about the first Leicester Area Meeting Jamboree, which took place on Saturday 17 September. The event brought together almost a hundred Friends of all ages from Leicester, Loughborough, Oakham and Rugby Meetings for a day of worship, activities and cups of tea! The...
Letters - 23 September 2011
The letter killeth In the thirty years that I have been reading letters in the Friend there have been many occasions when one person has taken exception to the words of another. Some words, when used in legal contexts or in science, have very precise meanings. Others, in less formal...
JRF and JRHT announce new chair of trustees
Tony Stoller, editor of The Friends Quarterly, is the new chair of trustees for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT). A former radio regulator, Tony is taking over the role from Debby Ounsted, who is stepping down after five years in the role. Tony...
Quaker presence at party conferences
British Quakers are to have a formal presence at the conferences of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
Former Ackworth student arrested
The $2bn alleged banking fraud by a trader at UBS, an investment bank, has exposed ethical failure at both the corporate and the individual level, a member of Quakers and Business has stated.
Same-sex civil marriage by 2015
There has been a mixed reaction from equality campaigners. Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone said that a consultation on the subject – delayed from this year – will begin in spring 2012. ‘To deny one group of people the same opportunities available to another is not simply discriminatory, she said, ‘It is simply...
Prison population highest ever
There were 87,120 people in detention on 16 September, of whom 95.1 per cent were male. The number is less than 2,000 places short of the ‘usable operational capacity’ of the prison system. The previous week’s figure had already broken records.