Issue 12-07-2019

Featured story

Thought for the week: Serving sometimes means leading, says Gill Sewell

11 Jul 2019 | by Gill Sewell

I was once on the veranda at a Quaker centre when a weighty Friend said: ‘Oh, but don’t you do something vocational?’ It may have been meant kindly, but it felt like a put down. I was working in the city and the decade I spent in the commercial...

Read more

Top stories

‘It’s the alchemical process of turning the darkest most abject aspect of your life into mirth.’

FREE 11 Jul 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Pope Lonergan. | Photo: © Matthew Highton.

Pope Lonergan has a background in care work with the elderly, and was the mastermind behind the The Care Home Tour. He and a group of stand-ups performed in care homes, often to people with dementia. The Essex-born boy from Rayleigh also runs Pope’s Addiction Clinic where comedians and...

Read more

‘It is essential to speak out for justice; but how it is done is crucial.’

11 Jul 2019 | by John Lampen

'Argument over who has suffered more will not resolve the problems.' | Photo: Ahmed Abu Hameeda / Unsplash.

I welcome the reports and letters in the Friend which give me an insight into the deprivations of the people of Palestine, particularly when they are based on personal observation. They amplify what I saw on my own visit. Consequently, I support the boycott and divestment campaign, as many justice-loving...

Read more

Manchester Quakers mark 200th anniversary of Peterloo massacre

FREE 11 Jul 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Manchester Friends hosted a poetry event last week to mark the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo massacre, where tens of thousands of people demonstrating for parliamentary reform were charged by calvary.

Read more

Meeting for Sufferings: ‘Beyond Vibrancy’

FREE 11 Jul 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

‘Proceed with caution’ seemed to be the message to Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees in the ‘Support for Meetings – beyond the Vibrancy pilot’ session. The afternoon agenda item explored the recent plans announced for decentralising, for a ‘simpler church’.

Read more

Meeting for Sufferings: Remembering human values

11 Jul 2019 | by Joseph Jones

The July Meeting for Sufferings (MfS)began with a reading from Grigor McClelland’s 1976 contribution to Quaker faith & practice: ‘What is important is that institutions and their administration be constantly tested against human values, and that those who are concerned about these values be prepared to grapple with the...

Read more

All articles

Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting reviewed

11 Jul 2019 | by Joseph Jones

One of Meeting for Sufferings representatives’ tasks is to review Yearly Meetings (YMs). A wider survey of YMs will take place in October, so Friends reported on their experiences of YM 2019. One Friend thanked those who had been brave in discussing their own life stories. It meant that those who...

Read more

Meeting for Sufferings: Gender diversity

11 Jul 2019 | by Joseph Jones

Meeting for Sufferings received two submissions on gender diversity: a minutes from Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM)  and an initial statement from Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC). The issue will be considered more fully in October but representatives from both bodies were on hand to answer any questions.

Read more

Meeting for Sufferings: Young people’s participation

11 Jul 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Quakers were asked to consider whether the definition of an attender for sixteen- to eighteen-year-olds should be changed for the annual Tabular Statement. This discussion was perhaps particularly pertinent given the wider conversation about including younger Friends. Although allocation has been made for four Young Adult Friends to attend Meeting...

Read more

BYM launches Israel/Palestine education pack

11 Jul 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Pupils at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in London reacted with enthusiasm to a new peace education pack that was launched there last month by Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) and the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) in the UK and Ireland.

Read more

Quakers consider Sanctuary to mark Windrush Day

11 Jul 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

London Quakers marked Windrush Day by joining with the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) and members of Britain Yearly Meeting’s (BYM’s) Sanctuary Meetings programme to explore how to grow Friends’ Sanctuary Everywhere work.

Read more

‘The Pity of War’ sculpture represented in Navy museum

11 Jul 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

A Quaker-supported sculpture that grew out of a concern about noncombatant war memorials is being exhibited for the first time in a military location.

Read more

FWCC meets in Toronto

11 Jul 2019 | by Rebecca Hardy

Fifteen Friends from ten different countries came together at Canadian Yearly Meeting’s Camp NeeKauNis in Toronto last month for the annual week-long gathering of the Friends World Committee for Consultation’s (FWCC’s)Central Executive Committee (CEC).

Read more

Eye - 12 July 2019

11 Jul 2019 | by Eye

Glimpsing a garden Wildlife, organic gardening and Friendly music greeted visitors to Bury St Edmunds Meeting House during the town’s recent ‘Hidden Gardens’ day. The annual event, which is held in aid of the local hospice, saw twenty-eight gardens throw open their gates, including the Quaker Meeting house. Local...

Read more

Letters - 12 July 2019

11 Jul 2019 | by The Friend

Land locked Mark Frankel’s letter (28 June) demonstrates why the current debate about anti-Semitism is so intractable. As long as people conflate opposition to the policies of the state of Israel with anti-Semitism then they will see the latter everywhere. To me, neither of the statements he quotes from previous...

Read more