Issue 23-04-2021
Featured story
Thought for the week: Neil Morgan’s breathing space
Breath is life. We need to take something in, on which we depend for life. Covid has underlined this, of course.
Top stories
Quaker co-founder of XR in court
A Quaker co-founder of Extinction Rebellion (XR) is one of seven people dubbed ‘the Shell Seven’ who appeared in court for action against Shell’s London headquarters this week.
Empirical evidence: Joanna Dales has a lesson from history
At a time of soul-searching about British, including Quaker, involvement in the slave trade, it is timely to consider historical questions about Quaker attitudes to the imperial project itself. How free are we now from supposing that Europeans have the right, even the duty, to impose on others our creeds,...
Renewable resources? Jamie Wrench has a niggle
It started aeons ago, before lockdown. Two people ministered in Meeting and I felt this niggle, somewhere at the back of my neck. It landed up at the base of my spine. This journey took about three weeks, and it still resurfaces periodically, disturbingly.
Capital adventure: Fred Ashmore attends a meeting on the future of London Friends
Two weeks ago Friends met online to talk about Pan London Governance (PLG). In January, PLG Steering Group proposals had been sent to all the Area Meetings (AMs) of London, which were asked to examine them carefully and discern a response. This 10 April meeting was an opportunity to talk it...
Writing wrongs: An essay from 1934 by Nora Blake.
War! The very word makes me shiver. Although the great war ended before I was born, I know enough about it to realise that all countries concerned are still suffering from its results. We are all paying the penalty. No country can spend four years in destruction, blowing millions of...
All articles
‘Journey to COP26’
Quakers shared their favourite walks this month as part of the ‘Journey to COP26’ initiative on 10 and 11 April, which inspired people to make short journeys to sacred places. COP26 is the twenty-sixth UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, which will take place in Glasgow.
Yorkshire Quakers put £25,000 to youth work
Quakers in Yorkshire (QiY) trustees are re-directing £25,000 of funds to continue the Yorkshire youth work project. The trustees are following a ‘strong desire expressed by Friends’ to reallocate remaining funds for the Adult School Union, which closed in 2015. The money was given to QiY to support Friends to attend Woodbrooke...
Rowntree Society explores slavery links
A research project set up by The Rowntree Society into global supply chains has revealed histories of slavery, forced labour, colonialism and racial injustice.
Historical records of Philadelphia Friends digitised
Records from Philadelphia Quakers’ Monthly and Quarterly Meetings have been digitised as part of a project to preserve the records of early congregations in the state.
British Friends of QCEA was relaunched recently. Melanie and Andrew Jameson were there.
We may have left the European Union but we are still part of Europe. What goes on there still matters. Thank goodness we have a mouthpiece to raise concerns across the continent, and to inform Quakers of important issues.
How You Can Save the Planet, by Hendrikus van Hensbergen
When young I read The Man who Planted Trees by Jean Giono, a visionary work from 1953. This was a decade before Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, widely seen as having launched the environmental movement. I remember the exhilaration of reading about this man who quietly and single-handedly reforested his land,...
‘I learned: Trespass’
I learned there was not always this crack guttering through the meadowlands of days, through our restless minds and bodies. I learned the welfare state once meant the right to forage hazelnuts in leaf litter, chanterelle and roots…
Letters - 23 April 2021
Safe routes to the UK I was interested to read Peter Kurer’s letter (9 April) about Quakers’ organisation to save the Jews of Nazi Germany. I have often wondered how exactly we organised the Kindertransport, and now how we organised a financial guarantee to get someone a visa, and...