Issue 04-02-2011
Featured story
The ministry of words
The organisation, Quakers Uniting in Publications, was informally begun in 1983 by a group of Friends with a concern for the ministry of the written word. The group, consisting originally of Quaker publishers and booksellers, now includes over a hundred members including authors, bloggers and editors from all over the world....
Top stories
An early Quaker woman printer
Printing was a dangerous occupation in 1643: Parliament’s Licensing Order of 1643 instituted pre-publication censorship; registration of all printing materials with the names of author, printer and publisher in the Register at Stationers’ Hall; search, seizure and destruction of any books offensive to the government; and arrest and imprisonment of any...
The wrong silence
Friends with diverse conceptions of God and relations to Christianity often say that they feel inhibited: that it is difficult to express their outlook freely with other Quakers; to give spoken ministry, or attend their Meeting, as often as they would like; to feel welcome or at home in their...
Close the gap
The gap between rich and poor is the key issue facing the UK – and the government’s cuts will make it worse. That’s the belief of Church Action on Poverty (CAP), whose ‘Close the Gap’ campaign was launched on Monday, when church leaders delivered a letter to the prime...
Referendum result in Southern Sudan
In early January 2011 a referendum took place in Southern Sudan to determine whether the region should remain part of Sudan or become independent. The preliminary final results of the referendum have just been published and almost ninety-nine per cent (98.83%) voted in favour of independence. This July is the predetermined date...
Film highlights effect of library closures
The effect of government cuts on the library service has been highlighted in a specially produced film which had its premiere on an exterior wall of the British Library in London on Wednesday 2 February.
All articles
Rethinking our Peace Testimony
Jill Allum is right to call for fresh thinking about our peace testimony (21 January). As the context in which we live changes, so we need to change the ways in which we express our peace testimony. This requires renewed discernment as well as fresh thinking. Thinking will not help, without...
If an armed person entered… (my Meeting)
In her appeal for ‘fresh thinking’ about the peace testimony entitled ‘Dilemmas of a pacifist stand’ (21 January), Jill Allum makes good points about its mid-seventeenth century historical context, and challenges its contemporary implications. This is helpfully set in its own context by Betty Hagglund from the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker...
More faith than hope
A Roman Catholic peace activist is serving a thirty-day sentence in Wandsworth Prison following a nonviolent protest against the arms trade.
Quaker physicist dies
Scientists and peace campaigners have been paying tribute to the Quaker physicist Theo Tulley, who has died aged 92.
Letters - 04 February 2011
Cycle to Yearly Meeting Gathering Cycle, carbon free, over two days from London to Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG), Canterbury. This is an invitation to start your holiday a day earlier, arrive with friends of all ages and bring your own bike for the campus. In 1388 Chaucer’s pilgrims walked. In 2011...
At the chink: a reflection on music
One of the most painful consequences of losing my hearing was no longer being able to listen to and so to experience music; one of my greatest regrets is that I had not been taught to read a musical score and ‘hear’ it in my mind, as I can still...
Eye- 04 February 2011
Snowdrop Sunday The photograph of their snowdrops on our front cover has prompted Eye to congratulate Ettington Meeting, near Stratford-Upon-Avon, on their creative outreach work. The meeting has a beautiful garden and ex-burial ground which is covered in snowdrops at this time of year. Our Friend Jill Boucher tells Eye...