Issue 09-04-2021
Featured story
Thought for the week: Kate McNally’s strange bedfellows
It is by our “imperfections” that we move towards each other, towards wholeness of relationship. It is our oddities, our grittiness, the occasions when we hurt or are hurt, that challenge us to a deeper knowledge of each other. Our sins have been said to be stepping-stones to God.’ (Quaker...
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One step at a time: Bernie Kennedy values slowing down at North West Regional Gathering
On the last weekend in March, over Zoom, we held the North West Regional Gathering of Friends. Sixty-five Friends were present, many of us getting on in years (though still retaining a childlike curiosity), but also a smattering of teenagers who helped us plan and facilitate.
Seeing Iris, part two: Jonathan Wooding has more on a profound Quakerly thinker
If Iris Murdoch had ministered to Friends (as some of her relatives did) I suspect we would have welcomed this: ‘Perhaps (I believe) Christianity can continue without a personal God or a risen Christ, without beliefs in supernatural places and happenings, such as heaven and life after death, but retaining...
Footing the Bill: Juliet Morton on how Q-CAT has been lobbying parliament
Our faith can be so uncomfortable. It can drive us to seek to act in areas we are not familiar with. Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture (Q-CAT) was compelled to act in new ways by the realisation that a Bill passing through Parliament would create grave injustices and...
Myanmar: John McConnell works with street kids in the coup
Seeing the news from Myanmar, and hearing the fear in the voices of friends there, I live with an aching heart. On top of the pandemic, Myanmar society is convulsed by a military coup which, friends say, is much harder to bear. Widespread protests have been met with harsh measures...
Friends consider future of The Pales
Friends from Southern Marches Area Quaker Meeting (SMAQM) came together last month to consider the future of the eighteenth-century Meeting house The Pales.
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Friends highlight census’s arms link
Huddersfield Quakers have alerted Friends to the fact that a leading military company is involved in the UK 2021 Census. The contract for processing census forms has been put in the hands of Leidos, one of the world’s biggest military companies. This follows the last census ten years ago when...
Race report ‘ignores need for structural change’
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has said that it is ‘disappointed’ in the UK government’s race report that was released last week. It said that BYM had called ‘for action to carry out the recommendations of previous reports and tackle structural inequalities’. The Quakers in Britain account tweeted: ‘We’re...
Database for women peace meditators
The Quaker group Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB) has highlighted a new platform aimed at putting women in the forefront of peacemaking.
Scottish Quakers support hustings guide
Quakers in Scotland are publicising a guide to help Friends engage with candidates for the Scottish parliamentary elections in May. The twenty-seven-page guide, put together by the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office, looks at how to run a hustings meeting. There are details on inviting candidates, appointing a chair, and different...
On bored: Matthew Callow finds ‘a potent energy’
When children complain of boredom, we can get irritated. I should know, I was such a child. As the years pass, we become more articulate and dexterous, able to engage in expressive activity and all the occupations and distractions that come with growing up. For me, this included drawing, poetry,...
Epiphanies: Poems of liberation, exile and confinement, by Harvey Gillman
Some readers will know that Harvey Gillman, much-respected author and speaker, has always been a poet.
Letters - 9 April 2021
Three categories I was delighted by the review by Reg Naulty (19 February) of Danny Orbach’s book The Plots Against Hitler. This is a subject with which Quakers should be much better informed. The Quakers were the only organisation that organised anything to save the Jews of Nazi Europe. ...