Issue 10-08-2018
Featured story
Thought for the Week: Beauty and the predator
What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Whatever answer William Blake might have given to this question (he doesn’t actually provide one), posed in the last verse of his poem ‘The Tyger’, the answer many would give today is natural selection. In Meeting for Worship recently...
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Quakers, crime and the United Nations
Did you know that Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) has the highest level consultative status at the United Nations sessions through the FWCC World Office? This means we have the right to send a delegation to UN sessions. Every year since 1992 FWCC has sent a small delegation to the...
What is a friend?
This is something I have given a lot of thought to as a psychotherapist. What makes people happy? What are they looking for? A very dear friend broke up with her husband. It was not a good relationship for her. When she found someone else I was a little disturbed....
Moscow diary
The year 1991 was a momentous one in the Soviet Union. It led up to the resignation of president Mikhail Gorbachev and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of the newly independent Russian state. Marjorie Farquharson was an Edinburgh Quaker who set up Amnesty International’s...
Peace Hub
‘Do you do dry-cleaning?’ Of all the questions we’d anticipated when starting up a Quaker peace and justice centre, this was not on the list, but it came up surprisingly often.
Addiction and recovery are explored at QAAD conference
Friends struggling with addiction do not always feel fully supported by their Local Meetings, it was reported at the Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs (QAAD) conference last month.
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Ireland premiere for ‘eco film’
A Quaker ‘eco-film’ in which Irish Friends talk about their sustainability testimonies premiered last month at Ireland Yearly Meeting. Quakers: The Spiritual Journey of Earthcare, which was created from almost two dozen contributions, was shown at the gathering on 19 July in Limerick. Since then the film has been uploaded to...
Friends Library marks 300th anniversary of William Penn’s death
The Library of the Society of Friends marked the 300th anniversary of William Penn’s death on 30 July by posting a story on its online blog ‘Quaker Strongrooms’ listing some of the ‘curios’ they have regarding his life.
QCA targets greyhound racing industry over cruelty issue
Quaker Concern for Animals (QCA) has announced a new partnership with the organisation Greyhound Compassion in a bid to raise awareness over the issue of cruelty in the greyhound racing industry.
Cyclists arrrive
The Quaker cyclists giving witness to their concern about ‘the dismantling of the welfare state’ arrived at 10 Downing Street on 3 August.
Berkhamsted celebration
Friends from Berkhamsted Meeting were interviewed on local radio about the 200th anniversary of their Meeting house.
Ada Salter Garden
An Ada Salter Garden is to open on 11 August in Raunds, Northamptonshire.
‘Quaker Quicks’: the first book is out now
The first volume in a new series of books about Quakerism has just been published.
Hiroshima Day
Many Quakers across Britain took part in vigils and other events, such as an exhibition put on by Bradford Friends, on 6 August, as part of Hiroshima Day commemorations.
Something to celebrate
On the front wall of our Meeting House in Berkhamsted is the lettering: 1818. Not the date when Friends were first active in the district, but the year when they had a home. This was, we thought, something to celebrate.
The heartbeat of time
William Penn will be remembered quietly in many countries this year, the tercentenary of his death on 30 July 1718. His style and speech give an appearance of another age: time past. Remembering, though, is more than looking back at something lost in time. William Penn continues with us, significantly. It might...
In Quaker Meeting
this morning I practise sitting still in the top of a tree legs abreeze
Letters - 10 August 2018
On the QT We recently spent two fascinating weeks as volunteer stewards at the Quaker Tapestry (QT) in Kendal. We had noted the appeal for volunteers in the Friend and decided to apply. This procedure was very simple, mostly online, and provided all we needed to know. Our first day...