Issue 12-08-2016
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Being a Quaker
If you embrace life and love with a hope that finds light in the now and may or may not call it God… but feel it, breathe it, reach for it anyway.
Top stories
The Quest of Quakers: what is it?
Truth Quakers are Friends of Truth, seeking it wherever it may be found. Bearing witness against all dogma and creed, we are an open-minded Society ready to explore not only our spiritual experience but also fresh thinking and research in all fields of human discourse in the sciences, arts and...
Spiritual healing
Sixteen of us gathered at the Glenthorne Guesthouse and Conference Centre, Grasmere, on a beautiful spring day in May. Two spiritual healers, Patrick Muganda from Kenya and Allan Holmes from Cockermouth, had joined together to present a day of spiritual healing, to tell us of their respective ‘calling’, compare their...
Treasury of Blessings
Brian Bridge, a member of the Russian Orthodox church and an attender at Epping Meeting, has written a fascinating history of an Anglican group with strong Quaker connections and affinities: Treasury of Blessings: The Servants of Christ the King, 1943-2014 (SCK) was formed in England during the second world war,...
Plainly and peacefully speaking
Cultural festivals are good places for Quaker outreach and engagement, though they involve a lot of work! The annual National Eisteddfod is one such opportunity, this being the primary Welsh language cultural event, which lasts a week. Quakers in Wales are always engaged with it, as also with the Royal...
Famous Quaker site now in national park
Firbank Fell, where George Fox preached, has become part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park despite being in the neighbouring county Cumbria.
All articles
Oscar winner boosts Conscience campaign
The campaign for the right to allocate taxes to nonviolent peacebuilding rather than to military spend received a big boost last week when Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance pledged his support.
Friends further understanding of Islam
Newcastle Meeting recently hosted a visit from four representatives of the Islamic Diversity Centre (IDC) North East.
BP renewal of arts sponsorship prompts opposition
The decision by oil giant BP to renew its arts sponsorship in Britain has been met with widespread criticism from Quakers and others.
Judi Dench contributes to Olympic ceremony
Oscar winner Judi Dench, who has been associated with Quakers all her life, featured in the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games broadcast across the world on Saturday.
The Kindlers adopt new structure
Twenty-two people attended The Kindlers annual general meeting (AGM) held recently at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
Somme FAU witness on BBC Radio 4
A feature based on five diaries written at the battlefront of the Somme by Quaker William Farley Rutter of Shaftsbury in Dorset was broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme on 7 August.
Friends back Living Wage
Mid-Thames Area Meeting has under-taken to pay its employees the Living Wage.
Hiroshima day 2016
Inverness Friends were among Quakers throughout Britain who took part in events and vigils on 6 August to commemorate the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
‘Café culture’ still alive
The Quaker Centre Café will not be completely closed until 15 August (see the Friend 5 August). A reduced service will be offered for staff and visitors to Friends House.
A lively gathering
Quakers in Yorkshire enjoyed a lively gathering at Christchurch on The Grove and Ilkley Meeting House on 16 July. About sixty Friends attended the event. After welcoming Friends with tea and coffee we assembled in the worship space in Christchurch for Meeting for Worship during which the clerk read from Quaker...
Liverpool Blitz
The night that the old Liverpool Meeting House was blitzed Gordon Henderson was a young member of Liverpool Meeting. The old Hunter Street Meeting House, which dated from 1791, had become surrounded by run-down property. Some years earlier Liverpool Council had indicated that they intended to acquire the Meeting house by...
Redefining anti-Semitism
Quakers have always had a certain sympathy for the Jews. Like them, we were once excluded from the professions, so went into banking and commerce, and we were particularly active in the Kindertransport. More recently, however, our relations with the Jewish establishment have become a little strained, owing to our...
The use of language
‘Self-serving obfuscation’ is a fancy phrase, but what does it mean? It is about using language to confuse and to avoid real dialogue and communication.
Eye - 12 August 2016
Let’s not advertise our enquirers’ phone line, nor the email address for enquiries, nor our activities. Let’s suggest that enquirers come to a silent Meeting for Worship first, rather than a discussion. We’d better not wear name badges.