Issue 10-05-2019

Featured story

Thought for the week: Gill Sewell breathes a word

FREE 9 May 2019 | by Gill Sewell

I recently finished bingewatching the first two series of The OA on Netflix. I had tried to make sense of the title, determining that ‘o-ei’ might be a modern rendition of ‘Yahweh,’ which I am told is an archaic third person singular imperfect tense of the verb ‘to be’, but...

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‘We might need to rethink subconscious Quaker values.’

9 May 2019 | by Priscilla Alderson

'Moving towards the pro-eco end of the spectrum involves at least four levels: thinking, deciding, acting and being.' | Photo: Macrovector / Freepik.

There is a wide spectrum of carbon use, from people with huge footprints at one end, to the millions of extremely poor people with tiny subsistence at the other. Willingly or not, we all stand somewhere along that spectrum. Many of us criticise those with larger footprints than our own...

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‘This reassuring Presence is no imagined comfort source but a living reality.’

9 May 2019 | by Peter D Leeming

'No heart can bear an over-fullness of love; fullness of love must overflow to others, near and far.' | Photo: The Friend.

When one of our daughters was very young, she carried with her a tiny, battered, old teddy bear wherever she went. For most of the time she appeared to quite forget its presence but if by some chance it went astray, she would immediately cease what she was doing and...

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‘I want to get stuck right in there, with local people and small charities.’

9 May 2019 | by Freya Blyth

Children in Quezon City. | Photo: Freya Blyth.

It took months of planning, dreaming and praying to bring me here. That is what I remind myself of as I stand in the middle of a narrow street in the centre of an illegal settlement community in the capital city of Manila, in the Philippines. It’s hard. People...

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Earth Day 22/04/19

9 May 2019 | by Christopher Sleeman

'Once we would have celebrated such a day...' | Photo: NASA.

Once we would have celebrated such a day. Now a poem would likelier be elegy than eclogue, Or, in music, requiem replace the anthem’s part. Nor can we with any confidence pray Earth rest in peace or light perpetual, While humanity remains to rend its heart.

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Friends at eightieth anniversary of Kindertransport

9 May 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

The Kindertransport statue in Prague. | Photo: Marisa Johnson.

Quakers attended a gathering last month to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Kindertransport rescue effort. The ‘Invisible Heroes’ event held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic on 30 April acknowledged Quakers for their contribution.

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QCA hails move from livestock farming

FREE 9 May 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

The Quaker Concern for Animals (QCA) group has praised the ‘small but growing number’ of farmers who are turning their back on livestock farming to embrace plant horticulture. 

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Bideford Meeting fire

FREE 9 May 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Friends from Bideford Meeting in Devon have asked Quakers to hold them in the light after a fire broke out at its Meeting house.

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Huddersfield Friends start climate vigil

9 May 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Huddersfield Friends have started a monthly ‘climate disruption’ vigil after what they describe as a ‘surge of interest’ from non-Quakers following the Extinction Rebellion protests.

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Young Friends gather in Liverpool

9 May 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) came together last week for a weekend of spirituality, Business Meetings and shared worship. The gathering at Liverpool Meeting House from 3 to 6 May included workshops on ‘veganism as Quaker witness’ and ‘activism and chronic illness’. Friends Sasha Lawson-Frost and Chloe Scaling led the former, while...

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Bath Friends support Hebron network

9 May 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Bath Quakers have agreed to support the Hebron International Resources Network (HIRN) with the intention of helping girls attend school.

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London Quakers decide to provide childcare

9 May 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

London Quakers have taken the policy decision to provide childcare at all their daytime conferences and meetings. Fred Ashmore told the Friend: ‘It’s in the interests of diversity. Anyone who is in the bracket of having children to look after and is willing to sacrifice a Saturday to come...

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Letters - 10 May 2019

9 May 2019 | by The Friend

A taxing affair I have been downloading documents from the Quakers in Britain website, and find that they are hosted by Amazon Web Services. Should Friends be supporting Amazon, a notorious tax avoider? Richard Pickvance Sexual experiences I rather expected a response to Anthony Buckley’s letter (19 April), and from...

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