Issue 12-02-2016
Featured story
Meeting for Sufferings: Creating connections
People are often perplexed when they first hear the phrase ‘Sufferings’ or ‘Meeting for Sufferings’ being used by Quakers. Whatever could this mean? For eighteen months, from 2014 to 2015, members of the Meeting for Sufferings Arrange-ments Group (MSAG) have been visiting Friends in their Meetings around the country. It is an...
Top stories
My son broke the law
On the morning of 13 July 2015 I woke up to news reports that a group of thirteen people had been arrested as they blockaded a runway at Heathrow Airport. My first thought was whether my son Sam might be one of them. Within minutes of checking online I found widespread news...
The best thing I have never done
He was struck on the head by a rock and received emergency treatment in Nablus. David reflects on his experience. I sat in the olive grove and watched as eight or nine young men ran down the hill at us, clutching rocks the size of small grapefruits. They shouted at...
Gleanings: Losing liberty?
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. - John 8:32 A simple lifestyle freely chosen is a source of strength. - Advices & queries 41 My lifestyle choices – especially cycling and being vegan – are partly an assertion of my freedom, self-sufficiency and individuality. It helps that...
Trident
In 1660, Quakers told Charles II that ‘all fightings with outward weapons’, was contrary to the will of God and the teachings of Jesus. At that time, the only outward weapons at their disposal were knives and swords, able to kill or wound a single person at a time. Nuclear weapons,...
Meeting for Sufferings: Private sponsorship of refugees
Friends at Meeting for Sufferings, held at Friends House on Saturday 6 February, addressed the subject of the plight of refugees and how Quakers might respond to the present crisis. Those present were asked to help test whether Quakers might support a private sponsorship scheme that would enable a significant number...
All articles
Meeting for Sufferings: Progress on sustainability
Frances Voelcker, a member of the Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) Sustainability Group, spoke to the group’s written report. She stressed that only half of Area Meetings have appointed representatives to attend the Sustainability Gathering at Swanwick, Derbyshire in March, and urged others to get involved.
Meeting for Sufferings: Our Faith in the Future
Meeting for Sufferings continued with its work on the new framework document, Our faith in the future. The focus remained on life in Area Meetings. Friends gathered in ‘home groups’ to consider what Our faith in the future means in practical terms and how they might recognise achievement of the...
Meeting for Sufferings: Britain Yearly Meeting budgeting process
Meeting for Sufferings was informed of a minute from the Church Government Advisory Group (CGAG) held on 14 October 2015 on budgeting and updates to Quaker faith & practice (Qf&p) and their response to a concern over ‘lack of clarity about accountability’.
Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting 2016
Deborah Rowlands, Yearly Meeting clerk designate, made several suggestions for encouraging Friends to attend Yearly Meeting 2016. She recommended urging new people from Area Meetings to participate, and in particular encouraged the involvement of children and young people. She also stressed a new feature – participants arriving at Friends House on Friday...
Meeting for Sufferings: Looking ahead to April
Clerk Ethel Livermore explained that the next Meeting for Sufferings, on 2 April, will focus on ‘Quaker values are active in the world’.
Meeting for Sufferings: Epistle from World Plenary
Extracts from the epistle of the Friends World Committee for Consulation World Plenary held in Pisac, Peru, were read by the clerk of Meeting for Sufferings, Ethel Livermore.
Friends back Stop Trident events
Britain Yearly Meeting has given its support to two major Stop Trident events to be held later this month.
Friends host workshop on Iona
Iona Abbey, one of the oldest and most sacred religious places in all of western Europe, is to be the venue for a workshop run by Quakers in early April.
Housing takes centre stage
Friends House will play host to a conference on housing on Saturday 20 February.
Friends to demonstrate at Willesden
Quakers will attend a demonstration outside Willesden Magisrates’ Court on Wednesday 24 February in support of Sam Sender, of Ealing Meeting, who is being sentenced that day.
East Cheshire Quakers mark centenary of ‘conscience clause’
East Cheshire Quakers are leading up to their exhibition ‘War and Conscience: Choices Then and Now 1916-2016’, at Macclesfield Library, with a preliminary promotional display (see photograph).
When my time is up…
Your death may not be accompanied by a single and a Youtube video, and attract worldwide attention like David Bowie’s, but it is still certain to happen. For years, especially in younger days, when life throws so many possibilities at us, we never give it a thought, but then...
Eye - 12 February 2016
Celebrating a century Dorothy Smith recently celebrated becoming a centenarian. Friends in Lichfield joined her to mark this milestone birthday. Rhoda Wharton told Eye: ‘We sang happy birthday and Dorothy blew out the one candle on the cake! ‘As a child Dorothy attended Bull Street Meeting and became a member...
Letters - 12 February 2016
‘What lies beyond’ Readers of an Anglican heritage will surely recognise the George Herbert poem, to which Roger Seal refers in his ‘Reflection’, (5 February) as being the hymn ‘Teach me, my God and King’. My 1950 copy of it has this as No 337. Interestingly, the final verse of the hymn refers...