Latest News
Award for Coventry Quaker
A Coventry Quaker has been given an award for her services to the community. Anne Burkett, the Quaker representative in the Coventry Inter Faith Network, recently received an invitation, together with other members of Coventry Meeting, to attend the one hundredth anniversary celebration of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association.
Pilgrimage gains Rowntree grant
The Pilgrimage for Peace and Economic Justice has been given a grant from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The pilgrimage, which is modelled on the Olympic torch relay through Britain in 2012, is organised by Hexham Quakers and sets off from Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, on 19 May.
Speaking our truth
Some ninety Friends, from seventeen Local Meetings across central southern England, gathered on 27 April, in Bournemouth, to hear Geoffrey Durham speak.
Christian Aid Week highlights hunger
This year Christian Aid Week will be urging the British public to ‘bite back at hunger’. Christian Aid Week runs between 12-18 May and will highlight the problem of hunger in the world today. It will ask why, in a world where there is enough food for everyone, one...
Inauguration
Several hundred people travelled to Staffordshire from all over Britain, on Saturday 20 April, for the inauguration of the Quaker Service Memorial at the National Memorial Aboretum. A number of members of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) and Friends Relief Service (FRS) were in attendance, together with family members and friends,...
Meeting for Sufferings: Behind the words
The conflict in Israel/Palestine and the effect of government welfare cuts, the two key subjects on the agenda, produced strong, thoughtful, contributions at Meeting for Sufferings held at Friends House on Saturday 13 April. In April 2011, Meeting for Sufferings made a decision to support the boycott of goods from...
Meeting for Sufferings: Government cuts
The subject of government cuts and welfare reform produced a very lively afternoon session, with many contributors drawing on individual experience. A Friend reflected on his experience of working in a Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in London. He talked of the experiences of those people who were now, increasingly,...
Meeting for Sufferings: Book of Discipline
Every generation there is a revision of the Book of Discipline, Quaker faith & practice. The subject, when raised at Meeting for Sufferings, prompted a lot of questions. Was it time, Friends were asked, for a new revision? It was explained that the purpose of the Book of...
Meeting for Sufferings: Reputational risk
Jennifer Barraclough, clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting trustees, reported on their latest meeting. She talked about some of the subjects raised, such as giving, and said that ‘reputational risk’ is an issue that ‘began to emerge some time ago’.
Quakers welcome historic UN vote
Quakers have welcomed the historic vote last week at the UN General Assembly to adopt a treaty to control the trade in conventional arms. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was passed on Tuesday 2 April by a huge majority. Member-states voted by 154 votes to three, with twenty-three abstentions, to control...