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‘Quaker’: what does it mean to the outside world?
I know all sorts of Quakers who know all sorts of things, but I’ve never met a single one who has a clue what the word ‘Quaker’ means to people who aren’t Quakers. I find it curious that we remain so ignorant. I hear stories every week of...
Compassion plaque unveiled at Ramallah Quaker meeting
Ramallah Friends were among the first to endorse Karen Armstrong’s new Charter for Compassion. A Charter plaque was unveiled at their Meeting house on 12 November. The charter is an attempt by religious writer and commentator Armstrong to bring together the highest common principles of the world’s faiths.,...
Norwegian Quakers denied Gaza access
Norwegian Friends last week returned disappointed from an attempt to make contact with the kindergartens and trauma counselling projects for children in Gaza that they fund. Kvekerhjelp (Quaker Service Norway) representatives had originally planned to visit many of the fifteen or so kindergartens they run, and had made the...
Quakers seek government progress on drug use
The ongoing situation following the sacking by the home secretary of professor David Nutt from his position on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, and the subsequent resignations by David Nutt’s colleagues, was discussed last weekend at the trustees’ meeting of Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs ...
Quakers back restorative justice programmes
Restorative Justice (RJ) has worked with young offenders in Northern Ireland and the Prison Reform Trust has statistics to prove it. Its report Making Amends: Restorative Youth Justice in Northern Ireland, launched last week, showed that only forty per cent of young offenders between the ages of ten and seventeen...
Quakers join London Citizens
On 25 November, representatives of West London Area Meeting (AM) will for the first time attend London Citizens Assembly with around 140 other faith and community groups who have combined forces to campaign on social issues.
Welsh ‘troops out’ protest on Remembrance Sunday
First Interfaith Week begins
Next week Friends across the country will be joining in the first ever Interfaith Week. Shanthini Cawson, a Harlow Friend on the Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations, told the Friend: ‘this national Week is being facilitated by the Inter Faith Network UK and the Government Department for Communities...
A faith commitment to sustainable living
Friends were represented last week at the Windsor Celebration of faith groups’ commitments to action for climate change, jointly organised by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Among the faiths represented were Sikhs and Hindus; Christians of many flavours from evangelical to...
Climate battle starts at ground level
In the run-up to the Copenhagen climate change conference, leading soil scientists from across the United Kingdom have emphasised the crucial role that soil plays in preventing climate change by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. In September the British government published a strategy document setting out plans to halt and...