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.
My wife Maria and I met in 1969, invited for a venture with an international group of forty people to India. Led by Rajmohan Gandhi (grandson of Mohandas Gandhi) the initiative aimed to foster the spirit of a strong, clean and united India. Whatever may have been the value for India at the time, it was a transformative experience for Maria and me, and we have been good friends with Rajmohan ever since.
I am distrustful of institutions, but the two I love most are our Religious Society of Friends and the Greenbelt Festival. Arranging Quaker worship there helps bring these two together. This year, both are treading a fine line around the genocide in Gaza, wary of criminal offences under the Terrorism Act.
Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst. But the water that I shall give them will become in them a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life… God is Spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:14, 24).
To all Friends everywhere, and to a world that God yearns to heal, we send our love.
Friends in other parts of the UK may not be aware of Wales’ cultural phenomenon, the Eisteddfod. This is, literally, a sitting together. Eisteddfodau are held throughout the year in villages, towns, and regions, culminating each year in the week-long National Eisteddfod. This year it was in Wrecsam; next year it will be held in Llantwd. In addition to the singing, poetry and literature competitions, there is dance, drama, an art pavilion, and all sorts of activities and interests are represented on the Maes (literally field), from universities and government bodies to charities, campaigns, emergency services, and Welsh learners from all parts of the world.
‘On the First Fleet of 1788 [taking British convicts to Australia], at least 15 convicts were of African descent. By 1840 the number had risen to almost 500.’
This startling statement begins the publisher’s description of this book.
It doesn’t help to rage and rail,
You can’t beat it, you will only fail
Anger won’t help or make it right,
Do go gentle into that warm light
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Written by and for Friends on the bench
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