Issue 17-07-2015
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Be still and know God
What if… this really was the one answer to everything What if… there was absolutely nothing else to do but be still, and ask to know God
Top stories
Building community
A sunny long June weekend at Woodbrooke provided the setting for the Annual Meeting of FWCC Europe and Middle East Section (EMES) representatives, joined by other Friends from Britain Yearly Meeting, and the Central Executive Committee of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC). A Friend expressed the views of...
Expanding the Peace Testimony
Many of us have been attracted to Quakerism by the Peace Testimony, feeling intuitively that it was at the heart of the teaching of Jesus. I wonder if it is now the time to expand this insight to consider our violence toward the natural world. The words ‘God so loved...
A tale of two cities
If you’ve never been to Quaker House in Brussels, you’re missing something. It’s a fine Art Nouveau former townhouse, recently restored to its original splendour by the Belgian government, on a corner overlooking a leafy square. And if you’ve never been to Brussels, you’re missing...
Stocksfield hosts green gathering
Carbon footprint reduction was top of the agenda for a recent weekend course at Stocksfield Meeting House in Northumberland. The Footpaths Facilitators course was designed to give participants the skills needed to manage group interactions around carbon footprint reduction. They would then take this learning back to their own communities....
Ceilidh time at Woodbrooke
More than twenty pupils from seven UK and Ireland Quaker schools gathered at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre recently. The Year Twelve students – sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds – travelled to Birmingham from Ackworth, Bootham, The Mount, Sibford, Saffron Walden, Lisburn and Newtown schools.
All articles
Meeting for Sufferings: From sustainability to memorial plans
Four minutes were received from Area Meetings (AMs) for consideration by Meeting for Sufferings, held at Friends House, London, on Saturday 4 July. Wensleydale & Swaledale AM raised issues regarding sustainability, particularly new energy technologies and the importance of climate change adaptation. The minute has been forwarded to the Britain Yearly...
The dangers of TTIP
The title of Quaker MEP Jude Kirton-Darling’s Salter Lecture at Britain Yearly Meeting 2015 was ‘Trade deals: realistic concerns or rabble rousing?’ For me the wording either showed strong pressure from non-Quakers behind what she wrote or doubts about the Quaker testimony to equality. I trust the former.
A three-legged stool
What should be our priorities as Quakers in the light of the election result? How should we focus our energies? There are three ways in which social change takes place, and I believe that all are needed, like the three legs on a stool.
Women in War
Women and children are rarely, if ever, instigators of war; but, according to the UN, they account for the majority of those affected by armed conflict. ‘Women in War in Their Own Words’ is a celebration in words and music of the resilience, beauty and courage of the human spirit...
Eye - 17 July 2015
Riding for thyme Two Friends cycled 160 miles from Bethlehem to Jericho in June. Before our trusty readers get their maps out to check that distance, Eye should mention that they started from the village of Bethlehem in Wales and ended in Jericho, a suburb of the city of Oxford. Ann...
Letters - 17 July 2015
Taxes for peace Many thanks to Joshua Habgood-Coote and Joel Wallenberg (10 July) for reminding us of the ‘cotax issue’ – the conscientious objection to paying taxes for war purposes. This issue rightly caused our Yearly Meeting (YM) deep heart-searching in the 1980s. The 1987 minute quoted in the article was closely linked...