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.
Where is hope?
Over twenty years ago I asked this question for myself during a period of devastating events in our family. The question had two facets; looking for hope I delved into my trusty guides, Quaker faith & practice, and the scriptures. I was disappointed to find neither ‘hope’ nor ‘love’ was indexed in Quaker faith & practice, as another letter writer to the Friend has recently pointed out.
Ministry is one of the central concepts of Quakerism. This is reflected in Quaker faith & practice (Qf&p), where the term arises in many paragraphs, sometimes featuring as the main concern. What does it mean? And how did it get to a place of such prominence in the Quaker lexicon?
There is much discussion of the use of Quaker buildings, or even whether Quakers should have designated buildings at all. In Plymouth, the Local Meeting has a dedicated building for worship, and its rooms are rented out to local organisations and communities in the city. Through this the Meeting is connected to, and gets to support, a range of community projects, from Child and Family Support Services to Amnesty International. This is such an important role that Quaker buildings can make, not only as places of worship, but as sites of refugee support and Quaker-aligned community work that the Meeting itself would not be able to do.
Many US-born Friends are struggling with feelings of grief, loss, anger and isolation. ICE, a federal law-enforcement agency with questionable training and oversight, is sweeping up people who look or sound ‘foreign’. Digital surveillance is being used to build a database of those who protest. Many US-born Friends fear travelling to the US with their families who have accents and ‘foreign’ names and might be targeted. This is the tip of the iceberg regarding corruption.
There is a particular kind of courage in going somewhere no one has proven can be reached – not the courage of the battlefield, but the quieter, more resolute courage of the boatman who keeps his hand on the wheel while the current pushes back. Israel Gregg, born in Virginia in 1775, spent much of his life demonstrating exactly that.
My dear Gaia,
Because of your arrival, I am now a proud great-uncle for the eighth time.
‘Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?’
Bob Dylan
Every Friday, on the pavement,
they get out a box of pebbles
find another combination to spell PEACE.
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