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.
When I was five my grandfather came to stay. That first night he screamed in his sleep. My mother explained that he had been a soldier, and that the things he saw gave him nightmares. Until then I thought only children had nightmares. He was a lieutenant in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He had lied about his age so that he could serve on the front line.
The map makers have had to find a new shade of green to show the nearly ten million trees that have been planted in the National Forest over the last thirty years. Funded by public money, and increasing public access by around eighty per cent, this Forest is changing the map of the Midlands forever.
Stuff happens and then a way opens. Or not. Or maybe it opens but we don’t see it. When Covid arrived, we found Zoom: a blessing, but difficult. A better-than-nothing for some, a whole new way for others. Either way, a way opened.
What role can art play in our turbulent world? In the face of genocide, what conceivable good can painting pictures of flowers do?
In the 1970s, Quaker Workcamps would coordinate activities around the country, finding volunteers from home and abroad, including Eastern Europe, for two weeks of a challenging but rewarding time. The following September we would take over a large Meeting house for a reunion for everyone involved. Over the years friendships grew.
During 2025, the national charity Friends of Friendless Churches is completing the transfer of the ownership of Coanwood Meeting House from the Historic Chapels Trust. The Meeting house, in the North Pennines, was built in 1760 on land given by the Wigham family. It is one of the best preserved examples of a Meeting house in the north of England. The building and burial ground are English Heritage Grade II* listed.
Become a subscriber to enjoy unlimited access to our articles, dating back to 2009! Online subscribers get the Friend to their inbox each week, can comment on articles, and dive into our 1914-18 digital archive too!
Whether you are new to Quakerism or have been going to Meeting for years, you’ll find something here to inspire, inform and challenge you.
News | Views | Reviews
Written by and for Friends on the bench
Subscribe