Issue 18-02-2011
Featured story
Quakers: good employers?
Victorian Quakers have a good image. They are hailed as exemplary employers and pioneers of social change and, in most cases, they were: but in 1888, conditions at a Quaker-owned company were so bad that they triggered one of the first major strikes in British history.
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Meeting for Sufferings
The introduction of Saturday’s preparation group on Meeting for Sufferings focused on four specific questions. In the event, more than half the comments and questions focused on our role with the Occupied Settlements. This is a concern of many Friends. Some Friends discerned a leading for Sufferings to reconsider...
Arms and Egypt
The close relationship between several arms-producing countries in the European Union (EU)and the regime of president Hosni Mubarak in Egypt has been brought to light. In recent years the Mubarak regime has benefitted from a sharp increase in arms sales from EU countries. The evidence was found in an...
Supporting both sides
Meeting for Sufferings has discussed the possibility of a boycott of Israeli goods and businesses – or rather, more specifically, a boycott of goods produced in the illegally occupied territories.
The problem of unanswered prayer
Prayer can take many forms but, if we pray at all, petition can be one of the most puzzling. The Bible is full of unanswered prayers. ‘O my God’, cries the Psalmist, ‘I cry in the day-time, but thou answerest not; and in the night season, and am not silent’ ...
Religion is ‘allowed to be difficult’
‘It’s simple but it’s not easy,’ said the meditation leader as those gathered together came out of a period of silence.
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Eye - 18 February 2011
The tapestry on tour Quakerism’s humble history is being displayed once more in the grandiose confines of an Anglican cathedral. This year the annual roadshow of the Quaker Tapestry takes thirty-nine panels to Blackburn cathedral. A volunteer from the Tapestry told a curious Eye that the exhibition is tailored...
Letters - 18 February 2011
Declining child numbers I am glad that Daphne Hill has written on her concern about diminishing numbers of children associated with Meeting (11 February). Children being part of Meeting is a great joy, but we need to ensure we nurture them and their parents when they come to Meeting. I have...
Is intent an illusion?
Sixty murderers can teach you a great deal about the law, especially if you get to know them really well, as I did over five years in Parkhurst Prison. A good number of them were not murderers at all – the law is quite clear that you have to have the...
Working out belief
At the heart of our Quaker approach is the idea that we must all be seekers after truth, that each one of us has that of God within us, and must find our own way to the inner light. It is important for us as Quakers to be able to...
Postgraduate degrees in Quaker studies
Three Friends have become the latest to receive postgraduate degrees in Quaker Studies.