Issue 11-12-2020
Featured story
Thought for the week: Stuart Yates has a word on the wise
Let me speak of an infinite store of wisdom. It is made available for us by the ‘other’ – that transcendent other of many names, which speaks to us through the quietness, and through people who have been attentive to the message from the elsewhere of which we know little. Our...
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Remembering the Kindertransport
Quakers’ pivotal role in rescuing almost 10,000 children from German-controlled Europe was acknowledged this week when the Kindertransport was commemorated.
Friends in Europe know a lot about isolation. Tracey Martin and George Thurley enquire
You have been part of a busy Quaker community. You meet for worship every week and are busy on committees, as a role holder, in the local community. Suddenly, that stops. You have to find new ways to connect, to continue your spiritual journey, to bear witness in the world....
Good grief: Mary Brown contemplates dying, and living
I suspect that now, in the time of Covid, more people than ever are contemplating death. But are we able to live more fully? I live alone, so the importance of people in my life has become ever more obvious: whole people, with bodies we can hug. When those living...
House style: old Quaker buildings are familiar, but what would a new one look like? Jane Dawson.
While we are compelled to live adventurously, no one could have expected quite how adventurous opening a new Meeting house in 2020 would turn out to be. But between the two lockdowns Hammersmith Meeting finally moved into a new building.
Misplaced concerns about vaccination are not new: Malcolm Elliott tastes the medicine
Talk of vaccination against the coronavirus leads one to think of earlier campaigns to immunise against smallpox. The word ‘vaccinate’ comes of course from the French for ‘cow’, and it was used to distinguish Edward Jenner’s method from that popularised by Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador...
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Campaign against military spending heats up
Friends are speaking out strongly against the government’s recent decision to hike military spending by £16.5 billion. In a statement to the House of Commons on 19 November, Boris Johnson committed to the significant new funds for the UK’s armed forces as part of the government’s 2020 Spending Review.
QSA and QHA merge
The Quaker Open Christmas run by Quaker Homeless Action (QHA) will not be taking place in 2020, due to the practicalities of its merger this month with Quaker Social Action (QSA).
Friends debate Quakers’ future
‘Is the future of Quakerism universalist?’ asked the Quaker Universalist Group (QUG) at an online meeting held as part of the Yearly Meeting ‘Fringe’.
Quaker reflections on poetry and faith
A Quaker university chaplain was invited to take part in an online event exploring the relationship of poetry and faith. Barbara Davey, from the chaplaincy team at the University of St Andrews, took part in ‘A Bigger Picture’ on 21 November. Other participants included John Burnside, Mark Oakley, Sharon Black, Michael...
Meeting for Sufferings: Young people’s participation day
December’s Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) gave young people an opportunity to participate. After joining the Meeting for the opening worship and a ‘getting to know you’ session, they met as a group to consider ‘a Quaker response to racism’, which MfS itself discussed in the afternoon.
Meeting for Sufferings: Trustees’ report
The first main item of business was the report from Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees. Caroline Nursey, clerk to trustees, told the meeting that trustees spent quite a bit of time on racism, minuting, ‘Racism exists within the Religious Society of Friends in Britain and we must tackle it. This...
Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting 2021
In the afternoon, MfS considered plans for Yearly Meeing (YM) 2021. YM clerk Clare Scott Booth told MfS that she was pleased with the way Yearly Meeting 2020 had gone, despite the limitations of holding it online, and she told MfS that YM in 2021 will also be held online, from 31 July to 8...
Meeting for Sufferings: Quaker World Relations Committee
Ann Floyd presented the report of Quaker World Relations Committee (QWRC). She said that an online discussion had been held between sixty-six Friends from Africa and Britain that morning, and it is hoped that more of these events can be held. ‘There is great potential for integrating British Friends into...
Meeting for Sufferings: Racism
In October, MfS discussed the issue of racism in small groups, and in December Edwina Peart, the BYM inclusion and diversity co-ordinator, introduced further consideration, saying that while she is ‘heartened’ by the work already being done, real change is needed. ‘I want to ground this in the Quaker testimonies...
Islam: Context and complexity, by Paul Stenhouse
Paul Stenhouse came into prominence because of the work he did on medieval Samaritan texts. That work required research into Middle Arabic, on the grammar of which he became an authority. He was also fluent in contemporary Arabic and Hebrew, so he was in a good position to write about...
The counsel of trees
Live adventurously. When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts in the service of God and the community ? Let your life speak. When decisions have to be made, are you ready to join with others in seeking clearness, asking...
Letters - 11 December 2020
A matter of life and death The letter from Chris Meeks (30 October) speaks to my condition and I would add my support for the views expressed on assisted living – not killing. The letter from Luton and Leighton Area Meeting (20 November) was regarding the webinar on 7 November, to which there...