Issue 29-06-2018
Featured story
Thought for the Week: An open mind
I was conscripted in 1954, in my teens, long before I knew anything of conscientious objection or pacifism. I was posted to the Royal Engineers to train as a field engineer in skills connected with weapons and explosives use, bridge-building, mine clearance and so on. On a number of occasions I...
Top stories
Building partnership and trust
On 15 June I attended an open conference in Friends House, London, on Time for Change: New Approaches to National Security. It was organised by Rethinking Security, a network of organisations, academics and activists who share a concern about the current direction of national and global security. The conference was hosted...
Letters of a conscientious objector
On 4 November 1916 Frank Sunderland – a pacifist from Letchworth in Hertfordshire, north of London – was formally arrested for refusing to take up military service under the Military Service Act 1916. He was court-martialled as an absentee, classed as an ‘absolutist’ conscientious objector and on 15 November sentenced to six months’ hard labour at...
Sons and mothers
On the 7 June 1918 the Friend contained notices of the deaths of Norman Gripper and Hugo Jackson, members of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) working in the Section 14 ambulance convoy. More details emerged over the following weeks. On 14 June the Friend published a report from the FAU, which contained the following: ...
Quaker understandings of truth
Pontius Pilate said ‘What is truth?’ – leaving these words to echo down the ages. Around sixty people mulled over this question at the Quaker Universalist Group’s (QUG) annual conference, which was held on 13-15 April at Woodbrooke, and it proved a timely topic when terms such as ‘post-truth’ are...
Friends act on animal rights
Quaker Concern for Animals (QCA) took part in a demonstration in Parliament Square, London, last week to put a stop to the transportation of animals.
All articles
New approaches to national security
Friends House in London hosted a conference last week to explore new and current approaches to national security. ‘Rethinking Security’ on 15 June brought together a wide range of academics and activists determined to put human rights at the centre of the security debate.
Historical Society’s journal goes digital
The Journal of the Friends Historical Society has been digitised after a two-year process that involved transferring hundreds of pages of text from printed issues. The publication, which launched in 1904, has made all issues from 1903 to 2013 freely available online.
Successful Refugee Week concludes with ‘These Walls Must Fall’
Four hundred people gathered at Friends House, London, last week for a high-profile arts event after a lively and successful Refugee Week.
Bath Quakers run End of Life course
A group of Bath Friends have created a course to explore End of Life Matters (ELM). Hazel Mitchell, from Bath Meeting, told the Friend: ‘There was a feeling among the group that people didn’t have a chance to talk about their concerns about death and dying.
New book launched
A book called The Conscientous Objector’s Wife was launched at the Quaker Centre Bookshop at Friends House this week. The book is a collection of letters between English pacifists Frank and Lucy Sunderland.
Protest vigil at Church of England Conference Centre
Five Quakers joined a vigil at a Church of England conference centre last week to protest against a military conference sponsored by arms companies. The protest, organised by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, was to demonstrate against the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) Land Warfare Conference held on 19 and 20 June at...
Eye - 29 June 2018
The beauty of nature Blossoming blooms have inspired Rosie Adamson-Clark, of Bolton Meeting. She told Eye about the burgeoning roses in her walled garden: ‘After four years of aphids, black spot, rust and mites on the roses and me spending hours chopping heads and leaves off, finally they look bloomin’...
Letters - 29 June 2018
Equality and inclusion This year’s Yearly Meeting epistle urges us to see one another whole and make eyeball-to-eyeball contact as the way to build true community. At Area Meeting, following a reading of this, there was an invitation to turn to a neighbour and look them straight in the...