Issue 09-10-2009
Featured Story
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Quaker Week 2009 events
With Quaker Week 2009 well underway, here is a sample round-up of events from Meetings across the UK that started off the week on Saturday and Sunday 3 and 4 October
Top Stories
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Sheila Hancock inspires Friends during Quaker Week
Sheila Hancock does not mince her words. This much was clear from the moment she opened her mouth and told the capacity audience in the new Quaker Centre that she had a wet bottom from getting caught in the October rain. And this was not just an ice-breaker, although it… -
Same-sex marriage: the work begins
The long journey to bring Yearly Meeting’s historic decision on same-sex marriage to fruition has begun. Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) representatives heard on Saturday that one registering officer is working with a couple for a same-sex marriage planned for May next year, and that an amendment is being sought in… -
Quaker Centre opens
Quaker Week saw the official opening of the Quaker Centre at Friends House, London.
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Tragedy hits Philippines Friends
Earlier this year, Nancy Irving, general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), and I visited the Philippines Evangelical Friends Church to help celebrate their thirty-first anniversary. The main church is in a poor area of Manila, close to the river, so it is easy to imagine how the…
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Hospice workers for the world or midwives for a new one?
Nearly 350 people – the majority of them Quakers – spent a gloriously sunny Saturday in the Large Meeting house at Friends House on 26 September, pondering some really tough issues. Deep pessimism and profound hope about the future of the world sat side by side in the four talks…
All Articles
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A Christian response to climate change
When a self-declared non-believer suggests that we may need faith and belief in God in our efforts to combat global warming, it makes me grateful that we’re being spared another tirade from Richard Dawkins, the high priest of the ‘new atheists’. Robert May (an honorary fellow of the British Science… -
Sanctuary for Strangers
‘Becoming a City of Sanctuary: a practical guide with inspiring examples’ by Craig Barnett and Inderjit Bhogal. Plug and Tap. ISBN: 978 0 9562120 0 9. £9.50. Available from City of Sanctuary: www.cityofsanctuary.org/book. In their innovative handbook, Craig Barnett and Inderjit Bhogal have produced a thorough description of how groups… -
Reconciliation wins
From a Clear Blue Sky by Timothy Knatchbull. Hutchinson. ISBN: 978 0 09193 146 9. £20. This book tells of a remarkable journey that Timothy Knatchbull felt he had to take to say goodbye to his twin brother, Nicholas, who was killed by the IRA bomb that blew up the… -
Letters – 9 October 2009
I am a Quaker I believe in God, the Light Within, through which we respond to beauty and sublimity in nature or art or to suffering and need among creatures; the power and presence that has evolved with us and is an essential constituent of our human nature. I believe… -
The long arms of the law
It’s happening very gradually, but arms companies in the UK are learning that they can no longer expect to have it all their own way. Last week the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that BAE Systems would be charged with multi-million pound bribery. All who have campaigned to expose BAE… -
Remembering the grief and desire for peace
I encourage Robin Waterston (25 September) to lay a wreath. Remembrance Day is what it says it is. After the official ceremony the individuals come with their small crosses with names written on them. ‘That’s for my husband who was killed in the Falklands war’, ‘That’s for my brother who… -
London Quaker Meetings funding gap
Friends, we are living beyond our means. Meeting houses across London are currently maintained through a system that pools funds, with a view to sharing the burden as fairly as we can. London Meeting houses have their upkeep, including running costs (such as heating, lighting, cleaning), wardens and maintenance paid… -
Resolution takes over Friends Provident
Controversial proposals by Resolution Life (RSL) to take over Friends Provident (FP) were accepted by the latter’s shareholders on Monday. Fifty-nine per cent of votes were cast, ninety-nine per cent being in favour. -
News briefs
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Budget 2010
A warning that centrally managed work will need to dip into current reserves next year came from the clerk of Finance and Property Central Committee. Ron Barden spelled out the situation – recent years have seen a declining proportion of expenditure met from donations, from fifty to twenty per cent.…
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