Issue 23-03-2018
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Our Peace Testimony
It is helpful, I believe, to consider our Peace Testimony in two ways: ‘outward looking’ and ‘inward looking’. ‘Looking out’ embraces the big scale – wars in Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan or wherever. Often, in the face of this, we tend to despair and say: ‘But what can I do to change...
Top stories
Christ, mystery and faith
There is a charming, well-worn anecdote about a devout old Quaker couple. They were awakened one night by the sound of a commotion coming from downstairs. Shaking her husband the wife said: ‘Listen, I think there is a burglar in the house. Thee needs to go downstairs and investigate.’ Dutifully,...
Race, racism and marginalisation
We were standing at the platform waiting for a train after a weekend workshop when a Friend posed this question. ‘I am used to it’, I assured her and added: ‘It happens so frequently that I have come to expect it’. As the train was fast approaching and we were...
Language matters
Meeting of Friends in Wales meets in February, June and October each year in different parts of the country to give the widely scattered Friends a chance to worship together and to learn about and develop work of particular relevance in Wales – whether this is in geographical Wales, or in...
Young Friends in Brighton
Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) happens three times a year, where Young Friends (aged eighteen to thirty-ish) gather together for the weekend. Sixty-nine young adults from across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and descended upon Brighton to experience Young Friends General Meeting, which was held in the...
Friendly unity
A key question addressed at a conference organised by the Nontheist Friends Network (NFN) and held at Woodbrooke on 9-11 March was the future of Quakerism in Britain: In 2005 Quaker Studies analysed the trends of falling membership of the Society of Friends as dwindling to zero by 2032, when British Quakerism...
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Quaker home added to register of historic places
Friends in Philadelphia are celebrating the announcement that the former home of William and Letitia Still, Pennsylvanian Quakers and Underground Railroad leaders, has been awarded a place on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.
Friends gather to consider ‘The Changing Face of Faith’
More than fifty Friends gathered at Woodbrooke in Birmingham last weekend to take part in ‘The Changing Face of Faith in Britain: How should Quakers respond?’, a conference organised by Woodbrooke and Quaker Committee on Christian and Interfaith Relations (QCCIR).
Step forward for reuniting refugee families
Friends across the UK are encouraging MPs to support the Refugee (Family Reunion) Bill, which passed its Second Reading last week on 16 March.
BAE Systems drops arts festival sponsorship
Friends who campaigned against the BAE Systems sponsorship of the Great Exhibition of the North 2018 were celebrating last week as news broke that the weapons manufacturer had pulled out.
Porthmadog Friends debate climate change
Porthmadog Friends held a workshop on climate change as part of their Quaker commitment to becoming a low carbon community.
Quaker writer shortlisted for prize
Sally Nicholls, the Quaker author of Things A Bright Girl Can Do, has been shortlisted for the YA (Young Adult) Book Prize 2018. The writer appears on the shortlist alongside prestigious names such as Phillip Pullman and previous 2017 winner Patrice Lawrence.
Ireland Gathering
This weekend Young Friends from across Europe will be gathering in County Armagh in Northern Ireland.
Final journey
When I make my final journey, in the large black Bentley with the huge windows, I shall travel light. Men will stop, remove their hats, look down as I go past, a tribute to my lightness. Acknowledging my lack of weight women will pause their children’s play and bow...
For the love of steam
‘To be able to enjoy one’s past is to live twice’ Martial, Epigrams, AD 86 A while ago at Moffat in the Scottish Borders I bought a book entitled The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways. In his excellent narrative, author Michael Williams...
Eye - 23 March 2018
Young Friends reunite Links spanning over four decades were celebrated at a recent reunion of a Young Friends group that formed in the sixties and early seventies. On 14 March twenty-five Friends who had belonged to the Young Friends group of Lancashire and Cheshire Quarterly Meeting gathered at Frandley Meeting House.
Letters - 23 March 2018
Friends and Martin Luther The article by Stuart Masters in the Friend of 27 October 2017 warrants re-reading. Martin Luther lived in the first half of the sixteenth century in Germany, in very different times, location and circumstances from that of Friends, who formed themselves in civil war-torn England in the latter...