Latest News
Gordon Barclay Vietnam Fund laid down
The Gordon Barclay Vietnam Fund (GBVF) has been laid down. Ratcliffe and Barking Monthly Meeting established the fund in 1968 when the Vietnam war was at its height and it became an independent registered charity in 1971 with Quaker trustees. The trustees met earlier this summer at the nursing home...
The Themba Trust UK
Trustees of the Themba Trust UK met recently and made the decision to dissolve the UK charity. Themba in South Africa will be ten years old in February next year and has had long standing support from British and South African Friends.
When is enough enough?
‘Love is the hardest lesson in Christianity; but, for that reason, it should be most our care to learn it. We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us then...
Riots: the challenge
The morning of 10 August brought phone calls from anxious friends in India asking ‘How are you?’ Are you all right?’ One caller is a Tibetan woman in Dharamsala. Once she had established that my family and I were not in danger she told me about the current suffering of monks...
A powerful force for progress
Veteran activist Tony Benn has described Quakers as ‘a powerful force for progress’. He urged Friends to take a stand against those who hold power in the world. He made the comments while giving the Salter Lecture to hundreds of Friends at Yearly Meeting Gathering last week. The lecture...
Interfaith at YMG
Friends have received a challenge to live out their testimonies from an unexpected source – a panel consisting entirely of non-Quakers. Around 120 Quakers squeezed into a small room for an event at Yearly Meeting Gathering looking at other faiths’ approach to sustainability. As the room became packed, other Friends were...
Changes to Meeting for Sufferings
The decision to change the composition and size of Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) was one of the more significant ones made at Yearly Meeting Gathering. The session, on Tuesday afternoon, included the Review of Meeting for Sufferings and Britain Yearly Meeting Trustees, which revealed the deliberations of a group...
Economic justice
British Quakers have committed themselves to a statement describing the world’s economic system as unjust. The description appeared in a minute of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) last week. ‘The global economic system is posited on continued economic growth and, in its pursuit of growth, it is often violent,...
Peace 350
Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) have rededicated themselves to active nonviolence with a new declaration based on comments from Meetings across Britain. While the word ‘pacifism’ does not appear, the statement declares: ‘We are convinced that no end can justify the means of killing another human being’. It...
Quaker marriage procedure
British Friends have affirmed their commitment to same-sex marriage with the approval of a revised chapter in Quaker faith & practice. But uncertainty over changes to the law means that it is likely to be rewritten again next year. The new chapter sixteen, entitled ‘Quaker marriage’, allows couples of...