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Bolton Meeting feels heat of blaze
Bolton Meeting House found its car park was a much-needed hub of refuge for the dozens of students who were forced to flee a blaze that ripped through a six-storey accommodation block.
JRF list best policies for low-income votes
The Quaker-founded Joseph Rowntree Foundation has issued a briefing on what policies politicians should be pushing to address ‘the acute concerns’ of low-income voters. Citing figures such as the fourteen million people ‘locked in poverty across the UK, including nearly one in three children’, researcher Helen Barnard calls on politicians...
Campaigners call for fracking charges to be dropped
As hundreds of supporters signed a petition demanding that charges against anti-frackers should be dropped, Quakers highlighted a government document which suggested it could allow fracking to continue despite the highly publicised ban.
Scottish gallery ends BP partnership
There was good news for the many Quakers involved in protests against the petrochemical giant BP’s arts sponsoring this month when National Galleries Scotland announced that it will end its controversial relationship with the oil company in order ‘to address the climate emergency’. Climate campaigners hailed the news as â€...
Military veterans call for minister’s apology
Friends have backed a group of twelve military veterans who wrote a letter to a Conservative minister calling on him to apologise after he encouraged people to ‘ignore’ white poppy wearers.
Oxford college holds Quaker-style Meeting
Twelve people came to a Quaker-style Meeting held at Harris Manchester College last week. Described as an ‘invitation to stillness’, the Oxford college held the event on 6 November and invited attenders to gather at the end of the chapel seated in an arc shape. The college said: ‘Someone may or...
QSA launches funeral poverty report
Quaker Social Action (QSA) launched a new funeral poverty report at Friends House in London this week, looking back on the work of QSA and setting out future plans. The event, ‘Speaking truth to power: tackling the UK’s funeral poverty crisis’, featured a talk from QSA’s director Judith...
Stratford Friends in remembrance vigil for civilians
For a second year running, Quakers in Stratford-upon-Avon held a vigil in remembrance of the civilian victims of war.
Met ‘ban’ of XR action ruled ‘unlawful’
Quakers have welcomed the news that the Metropolitan Police’s controversial ban of Extinction Rebellion (XR) gatherings in London has been ruled unlawful. The decision announced by the high court on 6 November said that the Met had been wrong to define XR’s ‘autumn uprising’ as a single public assembly.
Quakers gather for Remembrance
Days before Quakers gathered for Remembrance Sunday, the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) welcomed a decision by the Royal British Legion to promote remembrance for civilians for the first time.