Issue 15-12-2017

Featured story

Thought for the Week: How much do we need?

FREE 14 Dec 2017 | by Judy Clinton

The other day I passed by a garden on one of my local walks around the estates in which I live. I always enjoy looking in people’s gardens. That day I spotted a gorgeous rose overhanging the pavement. It was a deep peach colour. When I bent down to...

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Top stories

Quaker Social Action (150 years): Judith Moran

14 Dec 2017 | by Ian Kirk-Smith and Judith Moran

In October Judith Moran, director of Quaker Social Action (QSA), won the Outstanding Individual Achievement award at the 2017 Charity Times Awards. The award came just two weeks after she was highly commended in the CEO of the Year category at the Third Sector Awards. The Outstanding Achievement Award is given...

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Quaker Social Action (150 years): Down to earth

14 Dec 2017 | by Giles Robinson

Death is an expensive business. An average funeral bill in the UK currently sits at £3,784, almost double what it was ten years ago. This dramatic inflation is having a devastating effect. According to insurance company SunLife’s research in 2017 up to one in seven families are facing significant financial concern...

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Quaker Social Action (150 years)

14 Dec 2017 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

Horace Warner was a Quaker and a self-taught photographer born in 1871. He became Sunday school superintendent of the Bedford Institute Association, one of nine Quaker missions in London’s East End fighting alcoholism and prostitution, and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries began recording the lives and living...

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Images of Christ: The Presence in the Midst

14 Dec 2017 | by Rowena Loverance

Detail of 'The Presence in the Midst'. | Photo: NTPL, National Trust images.

Almost all the art works in this series have been either in churches or in public galleries. Last month’s was the nearest I could come to an image of Christ in an outside space. But I also wanted to point you towards one in a domestic space. And thatâ€...

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Passing over

14 Dec 2017 | by Nick Wilde and Alison Leonard

At Yearly Meeting Gathering last summer a special meeting was held at which the Quaker Concern Around Dying and Death (QDD) passed its work over to Quaker Life. Quaker Life Central Committee has agreed to set up a Quaker Life Network ‘cluster’ on the theme of facing the end of...

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All articles

Meeting for Sufferings: Revision of the ‘Red Book’

FREE 14 Dec 2017 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

In 1994 Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) approved the current Book of Discipline. Minor changes to the ‘church government’ sections of the book have been made since then. In 2014 Yearly Meeting in Bath considered whether the time was right for a new revision and a Book of Discipline Revision Preparation Group was...

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Meeting for Sufferings: Friends in Wales and Scotland

14 Dec 2017 | by George Osgerby

Meeting for Sufferings on 2 December heard from Gethin Evans, who was standing in for Christine Trevett, clerk of Meeting of Friends in Wales. He delivered his opening remarks in Welsh. He then said: ‘Worry not, Friends, I shall not continue in the language of heaven.’

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Meeting for Sufferings: BYM trustees

14 Dec 2017 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

Ingrid Greenhow, clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting trustees, spoke about the business at the trustees’ meetings in September and November and updated Meeting for Sufferings on the 2018 operational plan. The plan was presented within the framework of the Our Faith in the Future document.

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Meeting for Sufferings: Young Friends

14 Dec 2017 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

A group of young Friends attending Meeting for Sufferings brought the average age of the gathering down dramatically.

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Meeting for Sufferings: Area Meeting minutes

14 Dec 2017 | by George Osgerby

Trustees are not aware of any companies in the West Bank in which Britain Yearly Meeting has invested, Meeting for Sufferings heard on 2 December.

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Meeting for Sufferings: Court and prison register

14 Dec 2017 | by George Osgerby

Sufferings heard that Ian Bray, from Brighouse West Yorkshire Area Meeting (AM), was arrested in London in October as part of an action to highlight air pollution. He was sentenced to one week in prison. He had pleaded not guilty, along with three others, to charges of criminal damage and...

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Friends visit Congo Quakers

14 Dec 2017 | by The Friend Newsdesk

Three Friends from the Quaker Congo Partnership UK recently visited the Quaker community in South Kivu despite advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office not to visit the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Ron Waddams painting on display at Palestinian Mission

FREE 14 Dec 2017 | by The Friend Newsdesk

A work by the artist Ron Waddams, who was a member of Jordans Meeting, was unveiled at the Palestinian Mission in London at a ceremony on Tuesday 28 November.

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Church and Peace warns on EU ‘Instrument’

14 Dec 2017 | by The Friend Newsdesk

Church and Peace – the ecumenical Peace Church network made up of communities, training centres, peace organisations and peace-service agencies in Europe – has warned against the extension of the European Union’s ‘Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace’ to include military support to third countries.

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Quaker Tapestry launches 2018 calendar

14 Dec 2017 | by The Friend Newsdesk

The Quaker Tapestry in Kendal, Cumbria, has produced a calendar for 2018.

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Eye - 15 December 2017

14 Dec 2017 | by Eye

Being friends together A Feast of Faiths in Lougborough saw a Friend take to the stage. Anthony Gimpel (aka ‘Mama Bear’), of Loughborough Meeting, told Eye that the performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears took place at the annual Feast of Faiths held by Loughborough Council of Faiths: ‘A...

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Letters - 15 December 2017

14 Dec 2017 | by The Friend

What can we do about Brexit? I do not share Clive Ashwin’s optimism (24 November) about the future of the UK post-Brexit. The media have recorded downside risks that concern many politicians, economists, bankers, leaders of industry and others whose views should be considered with respect. Clive bases his views...

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