Issue 29-05-2020
Featured story
‘Nature is not “sending us a message”, nor punishing us.’
The global reach of the Covid-19 pandemic, unlike anything in my eighty-one years, is asking me to re-examine everything – to discern what is important and what is not. Where do I turn for guidance? Quaker faith & practice is a good place to start: ‘Our planet is seriously ill and...
Top stories
‘Affirmations can be for everyone. There’s such power in simplicity.’
In a rundown park in Bristol, in one of the city’s poorest areas, some strange things have been spotted. They might be peeking out from unkempt ground. They could be in a flowerpot, or stuck to a flaking football post, or fluttering in blades of grass. Not litter, something...
‘The volume of work is as heavy as Christmas, but without the months of preparation and planning.’
It’s a cloudless day in May and I am driving a truck full of post up the A34. A handmade rainbow sign on a footbridge reads: ‘Thank you keyworkers! Drive safe.’ When the pandemic hit, the government cancelled all driving tests, so my job as a freelance HGV instructor...
‘I found myself overflowing with gratitude.’
Earlier this month I participated in the Experiment with Light Network’s weekly Zoom Meeting. It was well attended and much appreciated during this strange, isolating and often anxious time. This practice of Quaker guided meditation was originally drawn up by Rex Ambler, based on his study of early Friends’...
Are We Done Fighting? Building understanding in a world of hate and division
In a world that was supposed to become more unified by technology and communications, the opposite seems to be happening. Divisions are deepening between nations and even within nations. The conflicts are often class-based, racially-based, generationally-based or even gender-based. We need a guidebook and Matthew Legge has written one.
Grasping Shadows: The dark side of literature, painting, photography and film
I treasure this book. It has become a way for me to go deeper into art, metaphor and religious thinking. Much of it relates to my Quaker life.
All articles
The Wood (lockdown memories of an autumn walk)
‘Here I am’ I said to myself, ‘The one place I can be free.’ The trees greeted me like I was a queen going into her palace.
Spotlight on BAE and Covid-19
Local Quakers have spoken out about speculation that the arms manufacturer BAE Systems in Cumbria may have contributed towards the town of Barrow-in-Furness having had one of the UK’s highest Covid-19 rates. Around 1,500 people continued to work for BAE Systems after lockdown, prompting 500 people to sign a petition asking...
UK banks invest ‘billions’ in nukes
A survey of UK pension funds and banks released this week reveals that billions of pounds are invested in companies that are producing nuclear weapons. According to the report Banks, Pensions and Nuclear Weapons: Investing in Change, there is patchy awareness among some finance executives of their organisation’s record...
Taunton XR Quakers ‘build back better’
Three Quaker Extinction Rebellion (XR) campaigners from Taunton Meeting are pitching their energies into a ‘Build Back Better’ campaign which launched via an online meeting last week.
Hannah Brock Womack on radio
Quaker Hannah Brock Womack, whose appointment as a Churches Together in England (CTE) president was blocked because she is in a same-sex marriage, spoke on the BBC radio programme Beyond Belief last week.
Quaker school pupil raises £1k for NHS
A Year 7 student from the Quaker Leighton Park School has raised over £1,000 for the NHS, cycling the distance from Reading to Milan on his stationary bike.
Friends House closed until at least 31 July
Britain Yearly Meeting has said that Quaker headquarters Friends House and Swarthmoor Hall will not be open until after 31 July.
Eye - 29 May 2020
Tickling the funny bone There was an old Quaker from Frome Who said: ‘I will lie in my tomb Before I will Skype – And Facetime is tripe – But I’ll make an exception for Zoom.’ By Stevie Krayer
Letters - 29 May 2020
Parallels from the past I find myself very much in accord with Anne Macarthur’s ‘unease’ (17 April) around the issue of assisted dying. With a heavy heart, however, I also find myself seeing parallels from the past, remembering the abortion debates of the early 1960s, which paved the way for...