Issue 17-05-2019
Featured story
Thought for the week: Alison Leonard has empirical evidence
In the early 1980s, I heard a talk by an Australian Quaker historian that overturned my assumptions about how Quakers have behaved through our history. The speaker showed that, when Australia was a colony, it was not uncommon for British Quakers to behave as other British people did: they used...
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‘Quakers are at an advantage when it comes to appreciating this notoriously willful writer.’
Are these the wandering thoughts of an individual in a silent Meeting?: ‘God: noise in the street: very peripatetic. Space: what you damn well have to see. Through spaces smaller than red globules of man’s blood they creepycrawl after Blake’s buttocks into eternity of which this vegetable world...
‘We have a common understanding of our spiritual life.’
The stimulation and variety of challenges presented at Ireland Yearly Meeting is balanced by the pleasure of meeting Friends old and new. We return to our own Meetings feeling blessed by the experience and wanting to share and encourage others to attend next year in Belfast.
The Sybils Speak in Quaker Meeting
The last bird sang its black remembrance of earth at the bottom of our garden. One black bird perched on the edge of time a spindle twig quickened by May, its golden beak
A curtain call: Janet Scott reads from the gospel of Mark
In his account of the crucifixion of Jesus, Mark does an extraordinary thing. Between the verse which says that Jesus died and the verse reporting the reaction of the centurion, he takes us away from Golgotha over to the Temple Mount, to tell us about the destruction of a curtain....
Historic England recognises ‘unsung’ beauty of Meeting houses
Eleven Quaker Meeting houses have been granted listed status by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England.
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Friends protest at Westminster Abbey
Quakers took part in the protests at Westminster Abbey this month against its thanksgiving service for fifty years of constant patrols by nuclear submarines.
Bath Quakers convene climate hustings
Over 100 people gathered at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution for a local-election hustings last month convened by Bath Quakers on the theme of climate and environment. Speakers from Bath Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, plus independents, set out their positions and took questions from what Friends...
Norwich Quakers discuss spirituality and economics
Norwich Quakers are hosting a public debate this week asking the question: ‘What’s spiritual about economics?’
Friends host play to mark Quaker conchie’s 100th birthday
Lincolnshire Friends are celebrating the centenary birthday of one of the oldest surviving Quaker conscientious objectors (COs) by hosting a play about the pacifist training farm where he worked.
Forty-three per cent of Quakers ‘don’t believe in God’, says magazine
Around forty-three per cent of British Quakers do not profess a belief in God, according to an article last month in The Economist magazine.
Environmental Ethics: A very short introduction by Robin Attfield
This very readable book is a survey of the wide range of questions that faces anyone who thinks seriously about our environment and the future of the planet.
The House of Islam: A global history by Ed Husain
It is hard to imagine a better book than this about the current state of Islam, and what could be done to better its prospects. Its author was in born in London to Muslim immigrants from India. As a teenager, he became a part of international Muslim radicalism, which he...
Eye - 17 May 2019
Colourful creations The covers of the Friend inspired some colourful creations at the recent Southern Marches and Mid Wales Quaker Camp, held over the Easter weekend at Rookhow Meeting House in Cumbria. Friends, whose ages spanned seven decades, carefully folded the origami boxes in the Bank Holiday sunshine.
Letters - 17 May 2019
A testing proposition Dave Dight’s letter (3 May) goes a long way to fulfil the need to accept both science and religion. Could I suggest a matching strategy that could move us all a little further in the same direction? The basic suggestion is to reconcile the ‘two modes of...