Issue 05-06-2015
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Thought for the Week: The religious dimension of money
Money must be important to us since we have so many words for it. There’s loot, buck, dime, quid, dough, bread, dosh, cash, readies, lolly, lucre, moolah, wonga, bob, tanner and many more. References to money also appear in many of the phrases we use, for example ‘to pay...
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One in Christ
Between 1414-18, in the midst of wars over three rival claimants to the papacy, the Council of Constance brought together European religious and secular leaders for protracted negotiations. These negotiations eventually resolved a major schism and led to the installation of Martin V as sole pope. Five hundred years later,...
Grieving
One of the certain things in life is death: the death of everyone and everything that we love and value, either because they die, or we do. This stark fact is inescapable. It is also inescapable that we will feel pain, of varying degrees, with each of these losses. I...
Gleanings: Deep nonviolence
In my twenties a friend took me to see Gandhi. The film portrayed Mohandas Gandhi as a role model for nonviolence and integrity – principles that shaped his choice of food and clothing, his treatment of people and animals, and his Satyagraha movement for Indian liberation. It made a strong impression...
The clock was striking thirteen
Everybody is a prisoner of time. We cannot avoid the inevitability of mortality. Shakespeare’s ‘seven ages of man’ (As You Like It) elegantly explains how our lives change. When agriculture was the main activity the seasons determined how people lived. The industrial revolution brought a new notion of time....
The Irish referendum
It was an extraordinary week in Ireland. First, we had the visit of prince Charles and Camilla. Their friendly visit to the West of Ireland and, especially, to Mullaghmore, where Charles’s great-uncle Louis Mountbatten was murdered by the IRA forty years ago, conveyed a wonderful sense of reconciliation. The...
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Divestment continues to strike a chord with Friends
The Friends World Commit-tee for Consultation (FWCC) is the latest Quaker organisation to consider divesting from companies engaged in the extraction and distribution of fossil fuels.
Hlekweni maps out its future
A new strategy was announced by the Friends of Hlekweni at a recent business meeting held at Milton Keynes Meeting House on 31 May. The strategy was the result of nine months’ work, following the closure of the Hlekweni Friends Rural Service Centre in June 2014.
Settle Friends raise the roof
The roof of Settle Meeting House has been stripped, repaired and replaced. Settle Meeting treasurer John Asher told the Friend that ‘while the Meeting house cost just £80 to build in 1678, the 2015 repair bill for the roof alone will be some £30,000’.
New notes at Bunhill
The Quaker Music Group has held its first meeting. Five Friends gathered recently at Bunhill Fields Meeting House in London. They brought with them ‘a whole bunch of instruments’, organiser Mike Brooks, of Westminster Meeting, told the Friend. These included a ukulele, a guitar, a viola, a violin, a recorder...
Eccles Friends enjoy a new room with a view
Friends in Eccles are enjoying their new garden room refurbishment after three years of hard work in planning, fundraising and building.
Fuel poverty tackled in joint effort
Churches, charities and an electricity provider have united to launch the first fuel banks in Britain. The Trussell Trust, National Energy Action, npower and Durham Christian Partnership are behind the pilot scheme. It is being trialled in Durham, Gloucester and Kingston-upon- Thames over a three-month period. Users of the service...
Student pressure prompts divestment U-turn
The campaign to promote divestment from fossil fuels, pioneered by faith groups such as the Religious Society of Friends, continues to gain momentum in Britain. Student campaigners in Scotland claim their actions have convinced the University of Edinburgh to rethink its recent decision not to divest from funds (see the...
Friends House to host major conference for health professionals
Friends House in London is to host a major two-day conference on ‘Health Through Peace’ in November. A coalition of health and peace organisations – including Medact, The Lancet, the Oxford Research Group, Saferworld, the Religious Society of Friends and Kings College London – hope to bring one thousand people together for...
The Meeting house plane tree
I looked at the tree with an upward glance When its thousands of leaves were in merry dance, Wrestling in joy with the boisterous breeze Like a sailing-ship on surging seas.
Eye - 05 June 2015
Magpies in the moment These words by Anna Bidder (Quaker faith & practice 21.08) prompted Vivien Whitaker, of Mansfield Meeting, to ask: ‘How often do we think of serving our Meeting as spiritual self-development?’ Vivien then told Eye about recent reflections in her Local Meeting: ‘After Meeting for Worship at Mansfield (26...
Letters - 05 June 2015
Vocal ministry Gordon Smith’s letter (29 May) on vocal ministry raised some deeply interesting questions with respect to expressing gratitude for Friends who have offered vocal ministry. Personally, I feel in 99.9 per cent of occasions when we offer vocal ministry, it is our ego that pushes us up on our...