Issue 19-06-2015
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Labyrinth
I have walked the labyrinth at Woodbrooke many times: it always teaches me something about my life and myself. I have vivid memories of my first encounter with it and the panic of getting totally lost – my childhood fear. Would I ever get out? What if I took a wrong...
Top stories
Hope, love and faith
Attending the climate negotiations in Bonn last week reminded me a little of a residential Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM). There were a couple of thousand people, a busy schedule of plenary sessions and side events, surprise encounters with familiar faces, chats on the grass in the summer sun and young...
Cinematic adventure
Quakers have been less than successful in growing their Meetings. Membership is steadily declining. However, modern communications may help. When our Local Meeting in Barnt Green decided that the old portable tripod screen needed replacing thoughts moved on to whether buying a digital projector was a good investment. The cost...
Cultivating the seeds of peace: Part two
In 1989, as mounting disorder signalled the approaching end of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Peace Committee invited Quaker Peace & Service (QPS) to send a team of Friends to discuss peacekeeping responses. Sue Williams and I made a presentation on Northern Ireland, describing how local community groups, unofficial peace projects,...
Meaning and purpose
Over sixty participants attended the Quaker Universalist Group (QUG) annual conference, which was held at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham between 15-17 May. Five speakers addressed the theme of meaning and purpose from different angles. Tony Philpott, known to many of us from his book From Christian to...
TTIP vote postponed
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) must wait for their chance to influence the direction of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), after the planned 10 June vote was postponed. A new date has yet to be announced.
All articles
From tiny acorns
Peace activists in Edinburgh hope to commemorate conscientious objectors with an oak tree and a plaque. A 453-signature-strong petition in favour of a memorial was taken to the Petitions Committee of the City of Edinburgh Council earlier this month. Approval was unanimous.
Friends join Flashmob for peace
Quakers were among some fifty people who took part in a ‘Flashmob for Peace’ in Manchester on 4 June. The group met outside the Central Library, in St Peter’s Square.
Quakers join Belfast rally
Friends from the north and south of Ireland took part in a rally in support of same-sex marriage held in the centre of Belfast on Saturday 13 June.
Ugandan orphan inspires Leighton Park students
Ugandan Nelly Aleto recently left her home country for the first time to visit Leighton Park School, where she spoke to students from year seven to year thirteen.
Birthday celebration for Faslane
Faslane Peace Camp turned thirty-three on Friday 12 June.
Mental health in Newcastle
Good mental health was on the agenda recently in Newcastle. Eighteen Friends gathered on 13 June for a workshop where they looked at ‘how to build, create and sustain a positive mental health community’ in their Meeting.
Armenian welcome for the WCC
The hundredth anniversary of the Armenian genocide has been maked by the World Council of Churches (WCC). Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, welcomed the executive committee of the WCC to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin last week.
Daisy
Daisy comes to Meeting, greets us as she enters with a throaty wruff, lifts her big body round to nose each person, fur softer than silk, eyes wet with doggy love. We sit in our silent circle.
Eye - 19 June 2015
Cake and the community It takes over 600 cups of flour to make 251 six-inch round cakes, American Friend Brittany Atkinson has discovered. Friends, members of the local community and Triad bakeries all baked a plethora of sweet creations for a Guinness World Record attempt by First Friends Meeting in Greensboro, North...
Letters - 19 June 2015
Seeds of peace John Lampen’s article (12 June) is compelling testimony. He points out that conciliation ‘used to be a major strand in Quaker peace witness’. He shares unease that peacemaking, today, ‘has developed into a profession with its own career paths’, while Friends ‘have developed other priorities’. Classic Quaker...