Issue 27-11-2020

Featured story

Thought for the week: Frank Regan handles the truth

FREE 26 Nov 2020 | by Frank Regan

My friend Bob Lovett’s Thought for the Week (30 October) set me to thinking thoughts of lesser calibre. Bob raises a concern we should all have: how do we know the truth, and can we rely on our cultural resources to be reliable? The panorama becomes blurred when we remember...

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Top stories

Artist Friend holds skybound exhibition

26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

‘Silver Linings’ | Photo: by Judith Bromley.

The Quaker artist Judith Bromley held an exhibition last month inspired by her lockdown sky-gazing.

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All of a peace: Cyril Pearce on Friends’ work with other organisations to resist the first world war

26 Nov 2020 | by Cyril Pearce

Left to right: Walter Ayles, John P. Fletcher, Will Chamberlain, Barry Brown, Clifford Allen, Fenner Brockway. | Photo: The NCF Executive Committee en route to prison 17 July 1916.

Readers will likely be familiar with the broad issues of British Quakers’ response to the outbreak of war in 1914. Even the more recent work on their divisions, and Thomas Kennedy’s identification of ‘War Quakers’, has been absorbed into the narrative. What is less clearly understood is the extent to...

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For heaven’s sake: Rebecca Hardy attends Salter Seminar on the radicalism of early Friends

26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

‘Why was that first generation so threatening to the rigid orders of the day?’

The radicalism of early Quakers has ‘tattooed the skin of Quakerism’ said Stuart Masters in this year’s Salter Seminar, delivered online on 16 November. ‘And it bubbles up from time to time.’

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Body building: Fred Ashmore sees London Quakers meet by Zoom

26 Nov 2020 | by Fred Ashmore

'London Quakers feel confident that the Meeting was valuable in bringing us together.' | Photo: by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash.

London Quakers ventured into the world of Zoom Meeting in October with a conference on ‘Build Back London Better’. Fifty-two Friends, plus visitors with an interest in the ‘99%’ workshop came together for two hours of talk, information and break-out workshops.

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A History of the Bible: The book and its faiths, by John Barton

26 Nov 2020 | by Michael Wright

‘Why did Trinitarian language become so central to the rule’s structure, when the New Testament hardly knows it?' | Photo: Book cover of A History of the Bible: The book and its faiths, by John Barton

Two religions, Judaism and Christianity, draw their basic convictions from the Bible, yet each draws very different key ideas from the material they cherish.

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All articles

Quakers in climate year of action

FREE 26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) joined more than seventy organisations in the COP26 Coalition to launch ‘a year of climate mobilisation from the ground up’.

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Rise of white poppies in schools

FREE 26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

The sharp rise in white poppy orders for schools can be attributed to a more ‘honest reflection about history’, peace campaigners have said.

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Bristol Friends launch climate booklet

26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

Bristol Area Meeting has published a new booklet to help Friends respond to the climate emergency. The Sustainability Advices and Queries booklet is intended to supplement Quaker Advices & queries. Barney Smith, from Bristol Area Meeting, told the Friend: ‘It is a one-off publication produced by a Climate Crisis Working...

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Vaccine must be for world’s poorest too

26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

Christian Aid has called for access to ‘any successful vaccine’ to be shared with the world’s poorest people and not become a ‘global postcode lottery’.

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Warwick Friend writes on Quakerism in press

26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

A Friend from Warwick Meeting wrote an article in a local newspaper about Quakerism. John Sheldon wrote on 25 September about ‘following the practices of being a Quaker everyday’ in the Leamington Courier. The article begins: ‘It is odd writing a piece called “I Believe” when my Quaker faith is not...

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Online YM for 2021

26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) is deciding whether to create an online festival for Yearly Meeting (YM) next year, due to uncertainty around public health restrictions for 2021. ‘Next year there would be a parallel programme for children and young people as well as the opportunity for Quakers to come together as...

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Letters - 27 November 2020

26 Nov 2020 | by Rebecca Hardy

An invitation to help The massive and devastating Port of Beirut explosion on 4 August, 2020 resulted in widespread damage and destruction of many homes and businesses in Beirut. Subsequently, many companies closed shop, and family breadwinners were laid off during already challenging social and economic circumstances brought on by the Covid-19...

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