Issue 29-01-2010
Featured story
We are family
I have stories to tell. About Friends from another part of the world, their lives and about how we interact. I want to write of how we’re all part of one big family, united by our use of the name ‘Friends’. About how we in the minority are connected...
Top stories
Government makes religious same-sex union pledge
The government will consider measures to give legal recognition to religious same-sex partnership ceremonies, following campaigning by Quakers and other groups. The commitment marks a significant shift from the government’s previous position. Until this week, they had maintained that no change was needed to the law on same-sex...
Lessons from the Cadbury saga
Cadbury’s capitulation to Kraft has struck a body-blow at Quaker values. Any of us who saw or took part in the Leaveners’ production of George and the Chocolate Factory; those of us who have watched Cadbury’s laborious and painstaking moves towards Fair Trade; those Woodbrooke course-goers who sit...
Giving thanks to God on life’s highway
We set out to Kaptama, via Eldoret. Our car wasn’t working so we took a matatu (a shared taxi) to Eldoret, then picked up a car from a friend. This car was a minibus, like a matatu, or had been once. Now it had just four seats – three in...
Quakers and the Bible
The Bible seems to be much neglected in British Quakerism these days. It is largely a foreign rather than a familiar book to many of us. We mostly seem to hear of it from ‘Bible believing Christians’ who take it at face value, as literally the word of God. ...
Activists call for end to Haitian debt
Campaigners across the world are calling for the total cancellation of all Haiti’s debts following the earthquake that has killed up to 200,000 people in the country. Christian Aid has launched a petition to the chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, urging him to push for full debt cancellation....
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Christian groups aim to tackle poverty and homelessness
Insisting that ‘there is enough for all’, three Christian organisations have challenged prevailing economic ideas by encouraging people to share, exchange and re-use, in order to combat the hardships of the economic downturn. The call comes ahead of Poverty and Homelessness Action Week, due to begin on Saturday 30 January....
Army approach to London schools recruitment queried
Fresh concerns have been raised about military recruitment in schools, following evidence that poorer students are most likely to experience visits from the army. The news has fuelled worries about young people joining the armed forces because of limited employment opportunities. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and...
Brighton Friends to host Quaker tapestry in roadshow
Brighton Friends are gearing up for a major project, as the Quaker Tapestry holds its first roadshow visit to a Quaker Meeting house. The tapestry, which is housed in Kendal, usually visits a cathedral when it goes on tour each February, allowing it to be seen by over 10,000 visitors....
A key for the future
How do you cover a story like Cadbury’s takeover if you are a Quaker newspaper? Difficult. We are treading on hallowed ground here, speaking of legendary Quaker venture, of which British Friends are understandably proud. In some dimension of the Quaker consciousness, I am sure there is outrage....
A bitter end?
We hear many sentiments of dismay and regret that Cadbury has been gobbled up by Kraft. Unfortunately very little is said or written about the choice of a capitalist company structure which made this possible, even inevitable, where power is ceded to shareholders. The moral stature and practice...
Letters - 29 January 2010
‘No’ to the Old Testament
A literal reading of the Old Testament is seriously damaging the Palestinian people. For it is written within the Old Testament, clearly and repeatedly, that God has given the whole of Palestine – and more – to Abraham’s seed. Here is the text of the covenant made with Abraham (Genesis 15:18): ‘Unto...
Eyewitness - 29 January 2010
End of two legends Eye was sad to see the demise of the American photographer Dennis Stock at the age of eighty-one. Stock took pictures of film stars and jazz musicians but the shots Eye loved were the ones he took of James Dean, legendary mixed-up young man whose career...