Issue 07-04-2017
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Thought for the Week: Holding in the Light
Since my early years I have had a sense that there was a universal presence which, back then, I thought of as, for instance, looking after ‘all ponies everywhere’. I didn’t directly relate these ideas to going to church with my family – which happened most Sundays; but when in...
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Coming full circle
I grew up among the beautiful fells in the English Pennines that form the ‘backbone’ of hills and mountains that stretch south from the Scottish border to Derbyshire. The distance between the two areas is perhaps 260 miles. It is not difficult to sense ‘the Beyond’ from the tops of these...
A bundle of insights
‘What is most personal is most universal,’ said Carl Rogers, the well-known psychologist. We can discover the truth of this in the new play by Lynn and Dave Morris, The Bundle. It follows one woman’s journey from a heartless home and abusive marriage in Chechnya through her escape to...
Finding the right words
Last year was undoubtedly one that left many Friends feeling speechless. Events of enormous significance – from Brexit to the election of Donald Trump; from the siege of Aleppo to record-shattering global temperatures – frequently found us searching for the right words to articulate our fears, our sorrows, our hopes and our...
Albert Schweitzer
In January 1965, as we were travelling by boat down the west coast of Africa, I put the antenna of my short wave radio out of the porthole and heard station after station celebrating Albert Schweitzer’s ninetieth birthday at his hospital at Lambarene in the West African territory of Gabon....
Embracing the darkness
‘But you have to go through darkness in order to see the light. If you’re always in light, you don’t see it anymore. And this is the whole element of struggle – the courage to go through darkness in order to achieve light – which is the same in music...
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Meeting for Sufferings: Stewardship and sharing stories
The central role of the gathered Meeting for Worship in the life of Quakerism was highlighted at Meeting for Sufferings held at Friends House on Saturday 1 April. Ursula Fuller, clerk of the Quaker Stewardship Committee (QSC), spoke to the report of the Committee in the morning session and talked about...
Meeting for Sufferings: BYM trustees report
A maximum of £533,000 of legacy funding has been committed to continue support for the Geneva Quaker United Nations Office’s (QUNO) project on Human Impacts of Climate Change, Meeting for Sufferings heard. Speaking to Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees annual report, Ingrid Greenhow, clerk of BYM trustees, said the new...
Meeting for Sufferings: Area Meeting minutes
Transgender and non-binary inclusion In the afternoon session of Meeting for Sufferings Friends heard concerns from three Area Meetings in different parts of Britain. North-East Thames Area Meeting was commended by Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, for ‘making the running’ on welcoming and nurturing people who are...
Meeting for Sufferings: Proposed revision of QSC terms of reference
A note from the Church Government Advisory Group (CGAG) concerning the proposed revision to section 14.40 of Quaker faith & practice was heard by Sufferings.
Meeting for Sufferings: Letter to Irish Friends
The draft of a letter of greeting from the Quaker World Relations Committee to Friends attending Ireland Yearly Meeting at the High School in Dublin over the weekend of 20-23 April was accepted.
Nuclear weapons treaty talks
Positive progress was made at the nuclear weapons treaty negotiations that recently concluded at the United Nations in New York.
South African Friends voice concern
The Quaker Peace Centre in Cape Town sent a letter to Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa, before he controversially sacked Pravin Gordhan, one of his leading critics, who is the minister for finance.
Quaker attempts citizen’s arrest
A Quaker peace activist attempted to put a Saudi general under citizen’s arrest in London on Thursday for his part in the war in Yemen.
The oldest Quaker Meeting house?
A new book on Airton Meeting House has prompted an intriguing question: is it the oldest extant Quaker Meeting house?
Letters - 07 April 2017
Look Inwards The ‘terrorist attack’ on Westminster is still so new it doesn’t have a label but already we are trying to make sense of it – to fit it into our world view. The consensus seems to be: ‘We’ll never understand why he did it.’ Yes we will. ...