Issue 30-03-2018
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Dancing with God
How often do we hear familiar words of advice and, perhaps because of their familiarity, take them for granted? Familiar words are familiar because they are repeated so often. Is this because of their deep spiritual meaning or perhaps their poetic resonance? Nonetheless, when life jumps up and hits you...
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Truth, garbage and politics
Quakers have a great concern for peace: it is one of our trademarks, one of our fundamental testimonies. We do all we can to reduce physical and emotional war and conflict at all levels. But there is another war going on out there, of which we might not even be...
Christ, mystery and faith
The loss of a broad cultural ethos, outlined in the article last week, with its presumed Christian narrative, has, I believe, left liberal Quakerism adrift: progressive and compassionate, but conflicted and incoherent – the ‘Democratic party at prayer’ – a faith increasingly reduced to a system of ethics devoid of any mystical...
Stansted Fifteen upheld
Friends in Chelmsford have been praised for the solidarity they have shown towards the fifteen Stansted protestors charged with terrorism offences for disrupting a deportation charter flight.
QCEA peacebuilding manual launched
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has just released a hands-on manual called Building Peace Together. The pack includes advice on peacebuilding principles drawn from eighty real examples from around the world. It also identifies the issues that cause conflict from justice to communication, with exercises designed to help...
Working in a Quaker School
Staff from Bootham School in York, Leighton Park in Reading and Ackworth School in Pontefract joined colleagues recently at Sibford School in Oxfordshire for the 2018 ‘Working in a Quaker School Conference’.
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Rwandan Friends face crisis over lightning rods
Rwandan Friends may be forced to close all their buildings, including the Friends Peace House in Kigali, because of a government decree over the issue of lightning rods.
Friends support anti-fracking vigil
Quakers from Lancashire and Yorkshire will be attending a Christian vigil for the No Faith in Fracking Interfaith Week of Action at Preston New Road fracking site in Lancashire on 27 April.
Peace Hub gets third birthday makeover
Peace Hub, the Quaker Peace and Justice Centre in Birmingham, re-launched its Centre this month, showcasing a new cafe-style layout designed to attract more visitors.
US Quaker candidate broadcast on the web
Six Quaker US Congressional candidates took part in a live web panel this week sponsored by the Friends Journal magazine and the Earlham School of Religion.
Nobel Peace Prize nomination
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has nominated the organisation Search for Common Ground (SFCG) for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. The organisation works to build peace in many of the world’s most entrenched conflicts, such as those in South Sudan, Yemen and Israel/Palestine.
American Quaker publishers raise funds to stay in business
Barclays Press, an American Quaker publisher, announced this month that it has made significant progress in raising funds to keep in business.
Universities divest from fossil fuel companies
Several more British universities have announced that they will divest from investments in fossil fuels.
Being human
I am really deeply disturbed by the arguments adduced by Lois A Chaber (Letters, 16 March) and Heather Brunskell-Evans (‘Gender and identity’, 2 March), and many others, it seems, warning of the dangers of allowing trans-women into women’s only spaces and of accepting the possibility that some young children may already...
From the archive: Advance and retreat
On 20 March 1918 the German army began what was to be a successful offensive in France. This had a great impact on Friends’ work. The 12 April edition of the Friend reported that at Meeting for Sufferings: Reference was made to the suffering even then being undergone by many men only a...
Welcome Friend
Visiting a different Meeting I was greeted at the door with a lovely smile, a warm handshake and the words ‘Welcome Friend!’ It really resonated with me, as a group of Chichester Friends have been working on a gender diversity inclusion statement, sharing experiences and paying particular attention to words,...
Letters - 30 March 2018
Gender and identity We are deeply disturbed by the recent article (2 March) and letters (16 March) about gender and identity. We were put on this earth to learn to love one another. This demands a profound respect for others and their life experiences, especially when they are different from our own....