Latest News
Scottish Friends welcome smacking ban
Quakers in Scotland are celebrating the news that Scotland has become the first country in the UK to make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their children. Eighty-four MSPs voted in favour of banning outright the physical punishment of children in Scotland, after the Members’ Bill was lodged...
Kenyan Quaker speaks at Friends House
A Quaker from Kenya spoke at Friends House last week about the different traditions of Quakerism. John Muhanji, director of the Africa Ministries Office of Friends United Meeting (FUM), talked on 10 October about the continuing influence of colonialism, and, according to Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), ‘brought a lesson in creating...
Friend calls for stronger Quaker Brexit stance
An Edinburgh Quaker brought together thirty Friends to take part in a march to remain in the EU after what he described as ‘a lack of response’ from Quakers.
Friends in vigil for Tory conference
Central Manchester Quakers organised three vigils during the Conservative Party Conference to remind politicians of the urgency of the climate crisis.
Quaker XR arrestee speaks in the Guardian
An eighty-one-year-old Friend from Huddersfield who was arrested in Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) ‘October Rebellion’ was quoted in an article in the Guardian newspaper. Sarah Lasenby who was arrested on Victoria Embankment on 7 October, said in the article: ‘The whole thing is so urgent that it is imperative the government...
Interfaith climate prayer in Dublin
Friends were among around 100 people who gathered for an interfaith climate prayer meeting in Dublin last month to show solidarity with youth climate strikers. Organised by a new interfaith group ‘FaithS for Climate Action’, representatives from faith communities in Ireland spoke at the Famine Memorial on Custom House Quay about...
Meeting for Sufferings: Assisted dying and end-of-life issues
Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) has been looking at end-of-life issues throughout the last decade. In 2010 North Scotland Area Meeting (AM) minuted its opposition to the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill but MfS did not express its own view. By 2014, MfS forwarded the issue to Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC),...
Meeting for Sufferings: Safeguarding
In 2014 the then home secretary Theresa May announced an Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The Inquiry has asked the Religious Society of Friends, along with other faith bodies, to contribute to an investigation into child protection. Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) received a paper explaining more about the Inquiry,...
Meeting for Sufferings: Quaker Stewardship Committee
Quaker Stewardship Committee (QSC), which helps and guides Meetings in the stewardship of their finance and property, has no formal relationship with Meeting for Sufferings. But its clerk welcomed the opportunity to communicate with the body in a year in which: Meetings were being encouraged to simplify their ways of...
Meeting for Sufferings: ‘Speaking out and advocacy’
In the last session of the weekend Friends heard from Anne van Staveren, BYM’s media relations officer, and Grace Da Costa, the public affairs and advocacy manager, about how the Yearly Meeting speaks out on matters of concern to the Society.