Issue 15-06-2018
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Lessons
‘Lessons will be learned.’ How often have we heard this from a politician or the head of an organisation when things have gone horribly wrong, or to quote the usual phrase ‘the outcome is not acceptable’? Yet, if we are honest, we know that lessons are not left behind when...
Top stories
Freedom and speech
Who should and should not be permitted to hire our Meeting houses? What criteria should guide refusal? These questions are faced by all Meeting houses that hire their premises to other groups and were central to an instructive story that unfolded in Cambridge Jesus Lane Meeting last year.
The simplicity of love
Many people, especially the young, no longer find that religion gives them satisfactory answers to the question of the real meaning of their existence. In response to this, they are on the search for a different spiritual way, more meaningful and experiential. It is a spiritual restlessness, an instinctive search...
I see you now
I have looked into your eyes, spoken no words except ‘Forgive me. Please forgive me’.
Reframing our thinking
Language can become a barrier to thought and communication rather than a facilitator of it. I think that three words –‘religion’, ‘transcendent’ and ‘personal’ –have each suffered this fate, and they need to be refreshed. While sensing the impatience that such a suggestion may bring, I nevertheless offer it for...
Making a difference
The words ‘Love the person you are and make a difference’ could have come straight out of Quaker faith & practice, or be part of somebody’s ministry during a Meeting for Worship on a Sunday morning. If I think about what draws me to Quakers, this sentence probably sums...
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Army visits: concerns are recognised
Quakers’ ongoing concern about the rise of militarism in Scottish schools received good news this month when a report by the Scottish parliament called for a ‘Child Rights Impact Assessment’.
Friends pull together for Beverley appeal
Friends from Beverley Meeting have said they are ‘delighted’ with the generous donations they have received towards their Meeting house appeal.
Quakers protest against Paris arms fair
Quakers from France, Finland, Holland, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the UK came together this month to form a strong protest against the Eurosatory arms fair in Paris.
BYM warns on Lobbying Act’s effect
Quakers have backed a report claiming that the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act is limiting the charity sector’s ability to campaign.
Statement calls UK to join United Nations Gaza Inquiry
Britain Yearly Meeting has said it is ‘appalled’ that the UK government abstained from a recent UN Human Rights Council vote to establish an independent Commission of Inquiry into the violence against Palestinian civilian protestors on the Gaza border.
Winchmore Hill’s Open Gardens
Around 150 people came to Winchmore Hill Meeting House last weekend as part of the London-wide event, Open Gardens.
Cambridge Friends at Fair
Cambridge Friends drew interest in their outreach stall at Strawberry Fair on 2 June, a music and arts event which attracted around 35,000 visitors to Midsummer Common in the city.
Quakers and Shakespeare
Through most of our history, Quakers were strongly discouraged from going to the theatre. Friends once objected to Shakespeare being studied and performed in Quaker schools. Our attitudes changed gradually, with the formation of the Quaker Youth Theatre in 1976 as a key moment. Nowadays we have excellent touring Quaker drama...
Experiencing music
It may seem curious to be reviewing a book on music and spirituality for a Quaker publication, when Quakers have a history of rejecting music (and the other arts) as an avenue to spiritual experience. Ormerod Greenwood’s Swarthmore Lecture of 1978, Signs of Life: Art and Religious Experience, brought the...
Eye - 15 June 2018
What a funny lot Quakers are called ‘a peculiar people’ Who sit in a room without any steeple. It’s hard for a stranger to tell who is who – Who is the leader? Who sits in the pew? The minister changes from minute to minute And mostly there’s silence,...
Letters - 15 June 2018
Violence against women How exciting to read Joel C Wallenberg’s article (1 June). It reiterated a concern adopted recently by West Scotland Area Meeting to raise the issue of violence against women. In the West of Scotland we participated in the sixteen days of activism against gender-based violence campaign in 2017,...
Mailing ‘The Friend’
The Friend has been investigating alternatives to the polythene wrapper that we presently use and liaising closely with our printers. They hope to be able to offer options, such as a potato starch wrapper, in the near future.