Issue 03-10-2014
Featured story
Thought for the Week: A religion of the Spirit
When he began his travels around England in the 1650s George Fox, who is regarded as the founder of Quakerism, did not set out to create a new sect – nor did those who gathered with him. The early ‘Friends of the Truth’, as they were known, felt that an urgent...
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Open to new light
Quakerism is a faith rooted in tradition. It is also a faith that embraces change. The change, however, from an old building to a new one can be challenging. It means leaving a valued part of the past behind. It can also, as in the case of the new Kingston...
From the archive: Service for peace
Since the outbreak of war we have suggested that the threefold duty of the Society of Friends at the present time is to bear witness to its Peace Testimony, to prepare for, and make its contribution towards, the Reconstruction after the war, and to undertake National Service on behalf of...
Robert Spence
Robert Spence was born in Tynemouth in 1871 into a Quaker family and trained as an artist in London and Paris. While he painted in oils, he is best known for his dry-point etchings. Many of his etchings were based on events described in The Journal of George Fox. His style...
Words: Worship
I love words just as I love silence. In fact, each takes value from the other. A self-declared nontheist Friend at Meeting tells me that if I need to know what a word means, I should simply look in the dictionary. Usually the literal meaning of the word is given...
‘In the manner of Friends’
Is our much treasured method of deciding business ‘in the manner of Friends’ exclusive to our Society? Does it only work for Quakers, or is it, in one form or another, exportable to other religious or even secular communities? Might we be sitting on a secret that should be shared...
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A sense of wonder
My awakening to ecology or ‘sustainability’, happened in the 1960s when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring. She was alerting scientists and the public to the dangers of ‘miracle’ chemicals. Much of the science was above my head but what I did understand made perfect sense to me. We were poisoning...
A spirit of openness
Many Friends around the world are unambiguous about what they mean by God. For example, Northwest Yearly Meeting in the USA states in its Faith and Practice, ‘We believe God is the Creator and Sustainer of the cosmos…’ In Britain Yearly Meeting we are much less certain. Our Advices &...
Meeting for Worship
The first thing that hits you is the silence. It’s quite frightening initially, especially to us Europeans for whom the absence of noise usually means something has gone horribly wrong, so don’t be scared, just listen to the silence… Listen to it, savour it, roll it around in...
Icons
Vaideeni, Romania It’s a long way from gothic-gaunt steeples meant to prod God beyond reach. This one’s a gingerbread loaf. Colours like a country fair, flocks of saints up the walls, rugs, candlelight, grannies in headscarves, golden syrup of polyphonic chanting.
Surveillance, secrecy and sovereignty
When I was a member of Chester Women for Peace in the 1980s, campaigning against US cruise nuclear missiles, several peace women suspected their phones were bugged. Police would turn up at the corner where they had agreed, on the phone, to meet for the protest; there was a pause...
Commemoration
The centenary of the start of the first world war poses a dilemma for many Quakers. Should we ignore the commemorations, out of a fear that they might encourage militarism? Should we respond, in an authentic way, to the tragic loss of a generation and accept the risks of being...