Issue 08-01-2016
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Thought for the Week: Spiritual hospitality
In his day, George Fox had good reason to raise objections to the established church: its rigid doctrines; its hireling priests and their demands for the payment of tithes to keep the edifice in being; but all parties to those times have moved on, if not necessarily in the same...
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On balance
About a year ago I attended a presentation by a security expert on the subject of keeping your personal IT presence safe. It included using passwords with lots of letters, buying extra software to ensure your firewall was in tiptop shape, and filtering out any emails that contained certain words. â€...
Scottish Friend meets first minister
Pamala McDougall, General Meeting for Scotland representative Friend, was among members of ACTS (Action of Churches Together in Scotland) who met first minister Nicola Sturgeon late last year.
Bishop in Meeting house role
The new bishop of Taunton, Ruth Worsley, will officially re-open Taunton Meeting House on 9 January. Clerk John Ainsworth told the Friend: ‘We have invited the bishop of Taunton to open our Meeting house in a spirit of ecumenical cooperation, which reflects our commitment to being a vibrant part of the...
Leaveners turn to film
The latest project from the Leaveners, the Birmingham-based Quaker arts charity, is inspired by the concept of ‘Neighbours’. A group of ten- to twelve-year-old children, helped by animator Nigel Smith, produced two stop motion animation films for the project. The films were entitled Broken House, Broken Heart and What you...
Woodbrooke welcomes new face
Martin Layton has been appointed as senior programme leader at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
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Churches at heart of help for homeless
More than 2,000 people will be welcomed into church-run night shelters across the UK this winter, according to a report from the Christian homelessness charity Housing Justice.
EMES worship in Pisac
The Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) has released details of the worship slot for its Europe & Middle East Section (EMES) at the upcoming plenary in Peru.
Friends extend welcome at Christmas
Refugees were among those who found a warm welcome at Meeting houses over the holiday period. Stockport Meeting invited asylum seekers staying at a local hotel to lunch at the Meeting house on 2 January.
The Good Syrian
The parable of the Good Samaritan has an often overlooked companion piece in the New Testament. I write ‘often overlooked’ not because the passage is not very familiar but because commentators on this passage usually have bigger issues on their mind and the underlying humanity of the story is missed.
War and peace
Two conflicting views about the use of force by an individual were reflected in the Friend in the edition of 11 December 2015. One, in an article, states the one hundred per cent pacifist position with complete confidence, but no apparent understanding of the difficulties faced by those who do find themselves...
Forgiveness and reconciliation
Our excellent Asian doctor in Uganda was called doctor Ahmedi. He was a Muslim. In the nineteenth century some Ugandans had been converted to Muhammadism by Arab slave traders long before the Christian missionaries won converts by providing education and medicine.
Talking about death
Many Friends will be aware of the Death Cafe movement, which has spread worldwide following its inauguration in London in 2011. Some Quakers are involved in hosting one, or providing the Meeting house as a venue for one, or through attending one in the community.
A New Zealand Psalm 23
How the shepherd loves his little woolly charges! Trot, trot, trot they run on their little stubby legs towards the spring green pasture tingling in their nostrils where he has brought them.
Eye - 08 January 2016
Hope in Sierra Leone A school in Rokel, Sierra Leone, has been affectionately dubbed ‘Sidcot School’ by its students. Dorothy Crowther, of Keswick Meeting, told Eye that Sidcot School in Somerset has sent its Rokel ‘namesake’ books and school uniforms. She explained: ‘Sierra Leone has been declared free of Ebola...
Letters - 08 January 2016
Qualified pacifism It seems, from the opening sentences of Quaker faith & practice (Qf&p) 24.21, that Isaac Penington may have been a qualified pacifist and that, for him, peace was an ideal (or ‘better state’) towards which we should strive in less than ideal circumstances. He ends by saying...