Issue 16-08-2019
Featured story
‘I hadn’t considered whether Jesus might have been an arms dealer before…’
The world’s largest arms fair, Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), returns to east London this September. As usual, peace activists will attend outside to bear witness. My first arms fair protest was in 2003, not long after the invasion of Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction turned...
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‘Leominster became a centre for nonconformists and especially for Quakers in Herefordshire.’
Thomas Parrish seems to have been the first Quaker to enter the area, in 1655. He spoke at a meeting of nonconformist independents held at the house of John Jones at Trippleton, near Leintwardine by the River Teme. In The Beginnings of Quakerism, the historian William Braithwaite suggests that Thomas Parrish...
‘My friend summed it up: “Cape Town is a museum of apartheid.”’
In the early part of this year, I left the political and seasonal darkness of the UK and headed for the African summer. My destination was Cape Town, one of the wealthiest and most beautiful cities in South Africa, where I was to add my efforts to the struggle to...
‘The whole process was utterly fascinating.’
Many of us are beavering away in our corners doing our best to further the cause of world peace. We may be marching in protest, signing petitions, stuffing envelopes, delivering leaflets, taking in refugees, helping homeless people, running food banks or doing voluntary work of other kinds. We try to...
‘The impact is heightened by the curator’s imaginative use of the historic setting.’
The principles of stewardship and reverence guide Seeking Routes, an art exhibition currently showing at Swarthmoor Hall. The theme is sustainability, the fragility of the natural world, and the artistic and spiritual response to it.
Eye - 16 August 2019
Well-dressed outreach The Bamford Quaker Community took part in their first ‘well dressing’ this year, creating the colourful piece pictured above. Well dressing is a tradition practised in some parts of rural England, which sees wells decorated with designs created, typically, from flower petals.
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Quaker-founded NGO to close in Nicaragua
A US Quaker-founded NGO has closed after almost fifty years of working in Nicaragua due to the country’s desperate problems under president Daniel Ortega.
Friends urge prime minister to seek peace
Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB) has put its name to a letter urging the prime minister to seek peace in a time ‘when communities are being fragmented by financial hardship and political uncertainty’.
Quakers call for ‘mass build’ of eco buildings
Friends in Yorkshire have supported a call made by a Quaker sustainability expert for councils to commit to more ecological building schemes.
Green tourism award for Friends House
Friends House Hospitality Limited is celebrating the news that it has received a Green Tourism Gold accreditation and been shortlisted for the London Venue Awards 2019.
Earthcare discussion online
The Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) hosted a webinar last month for Quakers to learn more about a video in which Friends share their personal stories on environmental justice, earthcare and stewardship.
Nuclear ‘not clean’
Quakers have been sharing a new study by a leading German think tank which slams the notion that nuclear power is ‘clean energy’ and claims that it is ‘never profitable’. The research published by the German Institute for Economic Research, known as DIW Berlin, argues that this energy has never...
Letters - 16 August 2019
At its heart What is the problem many Quakers have with Quaker schools? At Sibford School where I am on the school committee (its governing body), we are not funded by Quaker money but by parents’ fees. We are not run by the Society of Friends either, though we have...