Issue 20-04-2018

Featured story

Thought for the Week: Stepping off the treadmill

FREE 19 Apr 2018 | by Judy Clinton

There had been a sharp frost overnight. The sun appeared early and it was set for a beautiful day: oh what joy after months of winter gloom and cold temperatures! How blessed I am to be retired and therefore more free to seize opportunities as they arise. Today was undoubtedly...

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Top stories

Towards faithful progress

19 Apr 2018 | by Derrick Whitehouse

'If we become committed to a form of unselfish, mystical dynamism we will, without doubt, flourish and grow.' | Photo: Jeroen van Abeelen / flickr CC.

I wonder how many Friends remember the logo used initially by the Friends Home Service Committee, which later became Quaker Life? It depicted a tree, but the interesting point was that it not only presented the trunk and foliage but also, in equal measure, the whole root system. Along with...

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God, words and us: The river of the Spirit

19 Apr 2018 | by Alison Leonard

'In "God, words and us", Beth Allen makes a plea for Friends to find a theology which offers both healing and hope.' | Photo: skodonnell via iStock.

Well, how can I best express my thanks and congratulations to the thirty or so Friends who did the thinking, praying, meeting, listening and writing that gives the material for this book? And to the team who produced it, editing and arranging, providing footnotes where necessary and resources at the...

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Light, power and action together

19 Apr 2018 | by Richard Thompson

In December 2008, nearly ten years ago, I came across a remarkable sentence of George Fox and copied it into my inner diary: ‘You have the light to see all evil and the power to withstand it.’ Early Quakers lived that message and in spite of – or, perhaps, because of – the...

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Meeting for Sufferings: The Canterbury Commitment: where do Friends go now?

19 Apr 2018 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

A key item in the morning session of Meeting for Sufferings on Saturday 7 April was the report of the group appointed to review the work of the Britain Yearly Meeting Sustainability Group (BYMSG). The purpose of the BYMSG, which was set up as a working group of Meeting for Sufferings...

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Meeting for Sufferings: Response to the ‘post-truth world’

19 Apr 2018 | by George Osgerby

A minute from Southern Marches Area Meeting (AM) on ‘‘‘Post-truth world” – What can we do?’ was heard at Meeting for Sufferings on 7 April at Friends House in London.

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Meeting for Sufferings: Letter of Greeting to Ireland Yearly Meeting

19 Apr 2018 | by Ian Kirk-Smith

A letter to Ireland Yearly Meeting 2018, which meets in Limerick on 18-22 July, was agreed at Meeting for Sufferings.

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Meeting for Sufferings: Court and prison register

19 Apr 2018 | by George Osgerby

Meeting for Sufferings agreed to add to the court and prison register the names of three Friends whose witness was described on 7 April.

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Meeting for Sufferings: news in brief

19 Apr 2018 | by The Friend Newsdesk

Friends at Meeting for Sufferings agreed to register Quaker Bolivia Link as an external group for five years. Registration is to be reviewed by April 2023. It is the latest group to be registered as a Quaker Recognised Body.

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Quakers speak out against military action in Syria

FREE 19 Apr 2018 | by The Friend Newsdesk

Friends House released a statement on 12 April urging the UK government not to take military action in Syria and to work for peace instead.

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Rwandan Friends’ appeal success

FREE 19 Apr 2018 | by The Friend Newsdesk

Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) has closed the successful campaign to help Rwanda Yearly Meeting address an urgent need to install lightning rods on thirty-five buildings in Rwanda Yearly Meeting.

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Peace protestors make West Midlands ‘weapons inspection’

19 Apr 2018 | by The Friend Newsdesk

London Quaker Jo Frew was one of ‘The People’s Weapons Inspectors’ – Christian peace protestors who blocked the gates of arms manufacturer Roxel in the West Midlands on 7 April.

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Churches Together Birmingham survey

19 Apr 2018 | by The Friend Newsdesk

Quakers in Birmingham have been invited to take part in a survey to help find out how Birmingham Churches Together is working.

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Slow crawl

19 Apr 2018 | by Trish Munn

A small green insect slow-crawls the keyboard, a cumbersome climb on delete to home. Wait… It moves on for break, and then pause before travelling back to insert, which he did, or she. Now lost forever I’m afraid to continue lest squashing an insect prolong my karma.

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Eye - 20 April 2018

19 Apr 2018 | by Eye

Eighteen undisturbed graves thought to be from an old Quaker graveyard have been found under the grounds of the Corn Exchange on the Royal Pavilion Estate in Brighton, local Friend Tony Tree has told Eye.

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Letters - 20 April 2018

19 Apr 2018 | by The Friend

God, words and us Thanks to Hilary Johnson and Robin Bowman for their valuable report of a workshop on ‘God, words and us’ (6 April). The general trend of the book God, words and us is underlined by a pressure to abandon the term ‘theism’ while retaining the term ‘nontheism’, a...

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