Issue 01-03-2024

The Friend

The Friend is a weekly magazine in which Friends speak to each other and to the wider world, offering their insight, ideas, news, nurture and inspiration.

Nurturing Quaker community, each issue offers a space for Friends to share their concerns, and to support each other in faith and witness.

The Friend: enriching, inspiring and connecting the Quaker community since 1843.


Issue 01-03-2024

Thought for the week

In the fast lane: Tony D’Souza’s Thought for the week

by Tony D’Souza

We are in the season called Lent. Traditionally, this is when Christians fast for forty days, in preparation for Easter. This year, I am rediscovering my roots in that tradition. I am not going to cover myself with sackcloth and ashes, but I have decided to go without certain luxuries (my waistband and the bathroom scales have been crying out for this, too).

Features

Different class: Ian Tod on a house group discussion

by Ian Tod

Our house group met recently to discuss ‘White privilege and social inclusion among Quakers’. We were happy to welcome Michael Wallace of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, who is a person of colour. In preparation we watched a talk that covered the history of Quakers in the US and the Caribbean (www.youtube.com/watch?v=wppumMN9RSg).

Features

In the line of duty: Robin Brookes campaigns for conscientious taxation

by Robin Brookes

I first came across the organisation ‘Conscience: Taxes for Peace Not War’ in the early 1980s. This was around the time that cruise missiles were being stationed in Britain, and Ronald Reagan touted his theory of limited nuclear war. The organisation’s simple message struck home: we all pay for war through our taxes, and we have no choice about it; we are forced to participate in war and preparation for war. If you’re someone who would conscientiously object to military service, you surely have to consider whether paying for someone else to kill is also against your conscience. I am now a member of Conscience’s executive committee.

Features

Open verdict: Neil Morgan on the doors of perception

by Neil Morgan

What is religion all about? The secular view says it is like living in an enclosure with thick walls and fake doors. People push and pull on the dummy doors, but they do not open. They cannot find a way to look out. Other people say that when they pull hard on these doors for a long time, they glimpse a chink of light. But nobody can agree on what is seen. ‘I saw a dragon,’ says one. ‘I saw a beautiful woman with a veil,’ says another. ‘I saw a high mountain’, offers a third. The theory goes that, when you keep pushing and pulling, you get exhausted and desperate, and then you get an illusion of a chink. But it’s not real. There is nothing there. This is the way for all pushers and pullers, they finally agree.

Features

A welcome change: Michael Bartlet on the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network

by Michael Bartlet

Refugees are the human face of international injustice. For two decades, the Quaker concern for this issue has been expressed through Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN). QARN does not run its own projects, but we network with many NGOs that are working on issues of migration and refugees. Many of our members are involved in activism, while others are more meditative, each according to their capacity. We offer support to Britain Yearly Meeting, and persist in reminding our Society of its minuted recognition that asylum is a concern.

News

Quaker chaplain banned from prisons for five years

by Rebecca Hardy A Quaker prison chaplain was banned last month from working at any prison for five years.
News

Quakers form Wandsworth Prison support group

by Rebecca Hardy A group of Quakers from South West London has formed a group to support Wandsworth Prison.…
News

Scots Friends witness against pipeline

by Rebecca Hardy Edinburgh Friends are supporting a Global Week of Action to prevent the proposed East…
News

Leicester Friends spotlight Elizabeth Heyrick

by Rebecca Hardy Leicester Friends learnt about the historic local archivist Elizabeth Heyrick last month.…
Q-eye

Eye - 01 March 2024

by Elinor Smallman On this day The ‘Science Notes’ column in the Friend of 1895 piqued Eye’s curiosity…
Features

What the skeleton said

by Rosemary Mathew When alive I was male. My hips have Told you this. A warrior, a soldier. You need only see…
Letters

Letters - 01 March 2024

by The Friend George Fox and Mansfield We at Mansfield Meeting have been following keenly the events…

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