18 September 2009
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Coming back
I loved autumn last year. I loved red and gold caught in sparkling sunshine, crisp air laced with bonfire smoke and frost, wellies and crackling leaves, whirling birds against a sharp blue sky. It felt like one of those perfect autumns from poetry, from childhood. Seasons of mist and mellow...
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Quaker approach to business under the spotlight
Quaker attitudes to business and employment have been in the spotlight this week, following the attempted takeover of Cadbury by American food giant Kraft. On BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day on Friday 11 September Catherine Pepinster, editor of Catholic weekly The Tablet, used the news story to fulsomely praise...
Should assisted suicide be sanctioned by law?
Recent high-profile cases, such as those of Debbie Purdy and Sir Edward Downes, have intensified the debate about whether it should be made legal to assist a person to take their own life. The archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster, with chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks, published a joint statement objecting...
The future begins today
‘How can we integrate our buildings with our witness and service, and with our testimonies for peace and justice? Ten years ago we saw a moral imperative – to minimise this Center’s impact on the earth. Friends Center now represents the marriage of our faith and our practice.’ In their...
Sinners accepted
If someone had greeted me at my first Meeting for Worship and asked: ‘Are you here to worship God?’, I’d have run a mile. I was a bewildered agnostic; my light was a guttering candle in danger of being extinguished. At the lowest ebb of my life I turned...
Introducing Young Friends General Meeting
Young Friends General Meting (YFGM) has, on occasion, felt itself to be the black sheep of the extended Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) family. Often out of touch with the rest of the family, introspective at important occasions, wrapped up in its personal issues and unwilling to take part in family...
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Helping street people
Two years ago, in a city I shall not name, I changed my route to work and came across a sight I shall never forget. There, sitting in the street, was a young mother with her baby. I could see from a distance that there was some rawness about...
Log off
I recently quit the popular networking site Facebook. When asked why I explain how it encouraged me to be nosy, to spend hours pouring my attention and energy into an electronic interface, to maintain relationships in a way that required the least time and the least effort. I had begun...
Yes to the troops, no to the wars
Yes to the troops, No to the wars: Quaker House, 40 Years of front-line peace witness by Chris McCallum. Fayetteville, NC: Quaker House. ISBN: 0-945177-51-8. $15.95. Quakers have an interesting history: mostly middle to upper middle class, they have recently had relatively little contact with the working class world...
From sea to the Oval Office
HMS Resolute and how she prevented a war: from the Canadian Arctic to the President’s desk by Elizabeth Matthews. Auxilium ab Alto Press. ISBN 978 0 155203 96 3. £9.99. Did you wonder why Barack Obama was taking his place in the Oval Office behind the ‘Resolute desk’? This novel of historical fiction provides...
A personal portrait of India
Ashram Diary by Thomas Matus. O Books. ISBN: 978 1846941 61 0. £11.99. Diaries and journals have a particular attraction. Informality, intimacy, and immediate impressions open up the writer’s mind and heart to the page. These diaries cover the years from 1984 to 2004, years during which Matus, a Benedictine monk from the New...
Something about something
Can a person be an atheist and a Quaker? Of course the question can be turned on its head. Is it possible to be both a Christian and a Quaker? I guess the answer depends on what kind of Christian. Unlike atheists who, I am led to think, are pretty...
Too much, too soon?
The English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a curriculum for children from birth to five years of age, which became statutory in September 2008. It’s the first time the government has imposed such an extensive legal framework on early years settings (including any Quaker schools with early years facilities)....