Issue 20-07-2018
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Thought for the Week: Words
Some weeks ago, a correspondent to the Friend suggested that we should stop using the word ‘worship’ on the grounds that it not a good description of what happens in our Quaker silence. She asked: ‘How does this in-language impact on people outside Quaker circles?’ Thinking about this yardstick, I...
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The suffering of animals
This spring I followed ‘A Quaker Response to Animal Suffering’, a Woodbrooke online course, which was an exploration of attitudes to animals, through historical, theological and cultural perspectives. It also included a very clear picture of the uses (and abuses) we make of animals today, and how people are working...
Evidence?
‘It is not true, as theism asserted, that there is a personal being above and beyond the world that literally created the world and intervenes in its affairs as an external agent. There is no evidence for such a being in experience or science.’ – God, words and us The quotation...
Hope, action and transformation
There’s a walk I go on from home which takes me past my old school. It looks smaller now, despite having new classrooms and a lick of paint, but children play outside it as they always did. The other week I met a man who’d been to visit...
Forever in our hearts
A large heart in a mid-green colour, not quite lime green, sits beside the words ‘Forever in our hearts’ on top of the white cover shrouding the skeleton of Grenfell Tower in London. I stood among local people during the morning interfaith service there on 14 June, people sobbing loudly, others...
To Russia with love and truth
If British Friends are to exercise that life that takes away the occasion of war, fuelled as it is by distrust and alienation, then surely they should look again at Russia with love and truth? In what has been described as the new cold war, this service vitally needs strengthening...
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Friends protest Trump visit
More than 150 Quakers gathered in Euston, London last week to stand against US president Donald Trump’s visit to the UK.
Quakers voice PIP concern
Nineteen Quakers in Manchester and Warrington have written letters to their MPs about the distress and hardship caused by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) scheme.
‘Block Around the Clock’ anti-fracking camp
Around ten Quakers took part in the ‘Block Around the Clock’ camp this month to protest against fracking in the Preston New Road Cuadrilla site near Blackpool.
Welcome for divestment decision
Friends have welcomed the news that the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, has voted almost unanimously to divest by 2023 from oil and gas companies not on track to meet the Paris Agreement. Its target is to limit global average temperature rise to well below two degrees...
Celebration party
Winchmore Hill Quakers held a celebration party at their Meeting house to mark the successful end to the main phase of refurbishment work.
‘Waves, Motion and Stillness’ exhibition
Wanstead Friends this month hosted an arts event featuring work by local Quakers. ‘Waves, Motion and Stillness’ was part of Leytonstone Arts Trail and included storytelling, art and activities.
Paintings on ‘The Life of George Fox’
Harpenden Meeting House displayed an exhibition of paintings last month illustrating ‘The Life of George Fox’.
Meeting for Sufferings: Recognition for combatants
The unrecognised sacrifice made by many Quakers during world war one, whether as combatants or conscientious objectors (COs), was the subject of a minute from Mid-Wales Area Meeting heard by Meeting for Sufferings on 7 July at Friends House in London.
Meeting for Sufferings: Concern over government funding cut to Circles
The withdrawal of government funding from Circles of Support and Accountability was the subject of a minute from Central England Area Meeting heard by Meeting for Sufferings on 7 July.
Destinations
The route I need To reach my destination My sister losing touch with life Departing from the North at dawn Alone No-one to say ‘well done’ or ‘take a break’
Letters - 20 July 2018
Vision not words To me, Quakerism is an experiential faith where there is mystery and a path of continual spiritual discovery. Words should serve our experience, not the reverse. Do different shades of Friends really believe that they may be mistaken and others right? When I hear of Friends criticised...