Issue 17-07-2009
Featured story
On being raised a Quaker
When I began attending San Francisco Friends Meeting with my parents in the late 1980s, we were lucky enough to find a small community of children around my age and a network of Friends willing to devote some energy to the ‘First Day School’, or Children’s Meeting. More likely...
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Q-eye: a Quaker look at the world
Pilgrims’ procession
It is a long way from Lindisfarne to the coasts of Essex, but in 653AD a Celtic missionary, saint Cedd, made the voyage and used the stones of a ruined Roman fort to build the first Christian church in the territory of the East Saxons. Through a happy chance, the...
The truth about Children’s Meeting
Robin You know the hardest and yet the simplest question anyone has ever asked me was ‘what exactly is a Qwacker?’ After correcting him I discovered that I really had no idea. I guessed some would call it a religion, but a religion that welcomes atheism, isn’t that a...
The life you can save
On your way to work you pass an unaccompanied toddler, drowning in a shallow pond. ‘Wading in is safe and easy, but you will ruin your new shoes… get your suit wet and muddy… and be late for work.’ Practically everyone would agree that you have a moral duty to...
Food, Friends and Fellowship
Food, Friends and Fellowship begins with a little about Quakers and sharing, then starts like any good meal with a grace. The introduction is followed by the recipes in sections: first we get ‘sweet things’ and then ‘savouries and things’; the savouries section being subdivided into soups, salads, fish, meat...
After silence, music
People are usually quite surprised when I tell them I’m a Quaker, generally because they can’t imagine someone like me being able to sit quietly for an entire hour. What really surprises people, however, is the fact that for a long time I kept faith and music...
On being raised a Quaker
When I began attending San Francisco Friends Meeting with my parents in the late 1980s, we were lucky enough to find a small community of children around my age and a network of Friends willing to devote some energy to the ‘First Day School’, or Children’s Meeting. More likely...
Letters - Restorative justice and victims of crime
Meeting to Welcome
Letters – Restorative justice and victims of crime
As Quaker Prison Chaplain to HMP Cardiff I was particularly pleased to be invited to join representatives from groups such as Victim Support to take part in the ‘public’ part of the SORI (Supporting Offenders through Restoration Inside) week-long course.
Letters – Sent to prison over peace protests
Letters – All-age worship
I find Walter Hayman’s letter regarding a baby in Meeting to a degree understandable but, while not knowing why the baby was there, I feel that many would relish a baby in their midst.
Letters – Children’s Meeting – best practice sought
The nominations committee of West Somerset Area Meeting, prior to bringing forward a name as children’s advocate for the Meeting, are examining the existing provision for children’s groups by its Local Meetings.
Every one is a part of the main
We have been to Britain Yearly Meeting once before and had a great time. One of the main attractions bringing us to York this summer is the social contacts, writes Tilly Goodwin. The last time I was there I met lots of interesting people who I haven’t really been...
All because of you, I am
This year Junior Yearly Meeting (JYM) will take place as an integral part of Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG); this has resulted in many changes to the previous four-day format. First, at just over a week the event is double the length. Although creating a lot of work for the arrangements...
Time to end our binge-flying culture
We are at a unique moment in history. Today we twenty-somethings are the most powerful generation that have ever lived. As scientists piece together the likely ramifications of our energy intensive lifestyles it is becoming more and more clear that we are the generation that have to start making fast,...
Friends employ children’s workers to enhance Meetings
When a new attender joined Carlton Hill Meeting in Leeds some fifteen years ago, Friends had to think how best to look after the gaggle of small children she brought with her. The solution they settled on? Paying someone to do it
Conference overshadowed by death
Bonnie Tinker, who was aged sixty-one, died when her bike collided with a truck near the Virginia Tech university campus. She was founder of Love Makes A Family, Inc, a group of families headed by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people.
FGC takes up green challenge
At the Friends General Conference Annual Gathering, speaker Shane Caliborne agreed to participate only on condition that Friends attempt to offset the carbon emissions produced by his travel to and from the event in Blacksburg, Virginia. By the end of the week, participants had made enough pledges to compensate...
Friends General Conference news
Adult Young Friends (AYF) at the Friends General Conference Annual Gathering in Blacksburg, Virginia, which brought together 1,200 Quakers from across North America earlier this month, spent much of the week focusing on issues of identity, in a move parallel to that of Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) in Britain.
Jordans rebuild recognised in awards
This prize is given by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) for the best examples of repair to the fabric of churches and chapels in England and Wales. The work must be based on the principles of conservative repair advocated by the SPAB.
Disquiet over Friends House renewables supplier
The controversial firm has been the subject of sustained campaigning over its plans to build a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, with many Friends involved in protests against the development. The Friend understands that a number of staff working at Friends House are upset by the move...