The Friend

Access all areas: Erica Thomas finds Truth and Integrity in our minds and bodies

‘I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.’ Psalm 139

‘What’s wrong with you?’, ‘It must be so awful for you, being in a wheelchair’, ‘You don’t behave like a disabled person’, ‘I’d understand if you killed yourself’, ‘I’m going to pray for your healing and salvation’.

The insecurity trap: Judith Large on the work that led to a new publication

In these pressured times of rapid information and misinformation flow, individuals are frequently confused and disempowered. This is the result of negative news and images, which portray a world in turmoil: enduring war, the risks of pandemics, cyber breakdowns, and nuclear proliferation. Many experience at first hand the outcome of ‘global security issues’ in costly energy and food, homelessness, poverty and inequality, or grief or loss due to violence or discrimination and attack. How do we keep a sense of direction in order (as suggested in Advices & queries) to remember our responsibilities as citizens for the conduct of local, national, and international affairs? I have been working with Paul Rogers, who has himself worked for decades to build a solid foundation for understanding and action, to address three overarching issues that must be faced – issues that interconnect and add up to a unique challenge for us all.

Burnt offering: Tony D’Souza responds to recent rioting across the UK

You, who are reading this, will probably be as disgusted as I am by the scenes of wanton violence unleashed upon our streets by the recent anti-immigrant riots. They hung like a heavy cloud on our shoulders, just like the palls of smoke that hung over the riot-torn streets of Southport, Rochdale, Middlesbrough and a host of other towns. The riots came as a great shock. But, with the benefit of hindsight, we should have seen it coming. 

Tone death: Huw Morris on grief and remembrance

There is a mug in my cupboard that has an image staring back at me. It is a picture of me with three friends, taken in 1980. Two of them subsequently died. One, a few months later after sniffing from an aerosol can. The other, a few years later after a night of drink and drugs. In retrospect my teenage years were very risky. Quite a lot of my friends died. Even the person that took the photo died in a motorcycle accident.

Poem: It takes the light

The martyrs bother me the most,

death and consequences defused in glory.

Then come the mighty claps of thunder,

religious ragtime and the call to prayer.

Smoldering bonfires of Lebanon

darker than the dark, they keep the hound dogs 

barking, awakening the night 

with tiny bouncing terriers jabbing at banshees 

speed-chatting the angels.

Government drops appeal against Trudi Warner

Quakers celebrated this month when the government dropped a contempt case against Trudi Warner.

The campaigner was arrested after she stood outside an inner London crown court last year holding a sign saying: ‘Jurors have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience.’ The witness took place outside a trial against Insulate Britain activists, in which they had been banned from mentioning the climate crisis.