Latest News
Canadian Friends address penal abolition
The Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) has launched an educational resource aimed at dispelling some of the myths surrounding penal abolition. The document From Harm to Healing: Transforming the Justice System, also offers alternatives to a criminal justice system that Canadian Friends believe ‘harms criminals, institutional staff, families and communities’.
‘Something good’ at the Peace Hub
The Peace Hub, the Quaker Peace and Justice Centre, is hosting an art workshop to celebrate Birmingham Cathedral’s tercentenary. The workshop is part of Something Good, a multi-faith arts programme that is being led by writer Mandy Ross. She will work with participants on the theme ‘Exploring Light and...
Proposal to commemorate Quaker botanist
A York woman is hoping to create a heritage centre dedicated to Quaker botanist and philanthropist James Backhouse. Jane Cullen wants to transform a disused park-keeper’s lodge in West Bank Park in York into a café and heritage centre. She is currently fundraising to cover the cost of a...
Worcester Friends reach out
A post-Meeting conversation has inspired Worcester Friends to help tackle the lack of feminine hygiene products in developing countries. Sharon Multani-Colebrook, founder of local charity FEMpads, attended Meeting recently. She told Friends about her charity, which makes reusable sanitary towels for women who cannot afford them. In the case of...
New message for passers-by
The Euston Road façade of Friends House boasts two new banners. The identical banners say: ‘Quakers – led by faith to build a better world’. The message is a distillation of the Quaker Week posters: ‘Beginning with stillness, my faith becomes action’.
Friends consider gender issues
Manchester Friends took part in a session on gender on 16 August as part of Quaker Manchester Pride 2015. The session was entitled ‘Quiet lives filled with light’ and was led by Jennie Barnsley of Hardshaw and Mann Area Meeting. She drew on the research she did for her recent PhD, which...
Islamic leaders issue declaration on climate change
Islamic leaders from twenty countries have launched a bold Climate Change Declaration to engage the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. The sixty participants taking part in the Inter-national Islamic Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul on 17-18 August adopted the Declaration.
New face at QCEA
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has appointed a transition manager. Paul Musiol joins the Brussels-based team on 1 September. QCEA is ‘determined to increase the impact it has on the policies decided in Brussels’ and has hired Paul to review its work.
Quaker summer seminar in California
The Quaker Institute for the Future (QIF) held a research seminar at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, earlier this month that looked at how Friends can live in right relationship to each other and the environment.
Friends mark Hiroshima anniversary in Coventry Cathedral
Coventry Quakers marked the seventieth anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a service for all faiths or none in the Chapel of Unity, Coventry Cathedral, on 6 August.