Latest News
Conference overshadowed by death
Bonnie Tinker, who was aged sixty-one, died when her bike collided with a truck near the Virginia Tech university campus. She was founder of Love Makes A Family, Inc, a group of families headed by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people.
FGC takes up green challenge
At the Friends General Conference Annual Gathering, speaker Shane Caliborne agreed to participate only on condition that Friends attempt to offset the carbon emissions produced by his travel to and from the event in Blacksburg, Virginia. By the end of the week, participants had made enough pledges to compensate...
Friends General Conference news
Adult Young Friends (AYF) at the Friends General Conference Annual Gathering in Blacksburg, Virginia, which brought together 1,200 Quakers from across North America earlier this month, spent much of the week focusing on issues of identity, in a move parallel to that of Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) in Britain.
Jordans rebuild recognised in awards
This prize is given by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) for the best examples of repair to the fabric of churches and chapels in England and Wales. The work must be based on the principles of conservative repair advocated by the SPAB.
Disquiet over Friends House renewables supplier
The controversial firm has been the subject of sustained campaigning over its plans to build a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, with many Friends involved in protests against the development. The Friend understands that a number of staff working at Friends House are upset by the move...
Marriage and gender
Here’s my view: the key difference between marriage today and in Biblical times is that we can now demonstrate that ‘female’ and ‘male’ are not fixed binary categories.
Debate opened, not dogma pronounced
If Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG) was discussing climate change, nuclear weapons or the ecumenical movement, the pages of the Friend would be full of articles, setting out people’s hopes, fears and leadings. It would be seen as part of coming to YMG with heart and mind prepared. Do any...
Waging nonviolence website launched
Waging nonviolence highlights news stories and people’s personal reports of marches, sit-ins, strikes and other ways of responding to perceived injustice without resorting to violence. In little over a month of operation, it has received reports of actions in seventy-six countries, including conflict zones like the Democratic Republic of...
UK prisons must be guided by ‘penal moderation’
In its final report, published at the end of a two-year investigation in the UK and abroad, the Commission on English Prisons Today recommended that prison policy be guided by a new underlying principle of ‘penal moderation’. This would place ‘the humanity of victims and prisoners at centre stage’ and...
Beyond defence: towards conflict prevention
Although the report, by influential think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), stops short of calling for the UK to abandon its Trident nuclear weapons, it calls on the government to consider – in the context of a full ‘strategic review of security’ – whether the UK needs to maintain...