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Economic justice
Economic justice was one of the major concerns raised at Meeting for Sufferings. Helen Drewery, general secretary of Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), talked about the work presently being done on the issue by staff at Friends House.
Olympic Truce
The Olympics made a surprising appearance on the Meeting for Sufferings agenda, in response to a concern raised by Luton and Leighton Area Meeting. Friends in the area have expressed support for the ‘Olympic Truce’, a proposal that involves the cessation of military hostilities during the games. Supporters of...
Yearly Meeting 2012
Methods of political engagement – including active nonviolence and direct action – and economic justice have been suggested as the focus for the next Yearly Meeting of Friends in Britain, due in May 2012. The suggestions were made at Meeting for Sufferings (MfS), the national committee of British Friends, on Saturday 1 October. The...
World Mental Health Day
As World Mental Health Day approaches, charities are warning that people with mental health problems in the UK will lose out as a result of government cuts and prejudice towards benefit claimants. The day, which is marked around the globe on 10 October, is an initiative of the World Health...
Leeds Quakers going green
Friends in Leeds say that solar panels fitted on the roof of their Meeting house have already saved as much carbon as would be used by driving from Glasgow to Brighton and back again. The sixteen panels have been fitted on the roof of the Woodhouse Lane Meeting...
Government cuts
The government’s cuts agenda has come under attack from British Quakers, who have formally declared their opposition to the scale of the cuts and their impact on the poorest people in society. Friends have resolved to campaign against changes to disability benefits, to call for a greater contribution from...
Strengthening Area Meetings
The role and ‘right holding’ of Area Meetings has been a concern for some time. The afternoon session of Meeting for Sufferings (MfS), on Saturday 1 October, was devoted to this subject. Paul Parker, recording clerk, opened the session with a short and clear presentation. He reminded Friends of the...
Prison population highest ever
There were 87,120 people in detention on 16 September, of whom 95.1 per cent were male. The number is less than 2,000 places short of the ‘usable operational capacity’ of the prison system. The previous week’s figure had already broken records.
Same-sex civil marriage by 2015
There has been a mixed reaction from equality campaigners. Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone said that a consultation on the subject – delayed from this year – will begin in spring 2012. ‘To deny one group of people the same opportunities available to another is not simply discriminatory, she said, ‘It is simply...
Former Ackworth student arrested
The $2bn alleged banking fraud by a trader at UBS, an investment bank, has exposed ethical failure at both the corporate and the individual level, a member of Quakers and Business has stated.