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.
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During Yearly Meeting (YM) we heard part of the epistle from Lake Erie, which spoke to how we entangle our lives with others and create communities. It felt like a warm bath, reassuring and comfortable.
As soon as I meet Stuart Masters, we’re off. I come laden with questions, but the moment we start chatting, it’s hard not to get swept up in his rich ideas and historical knowledge. Stuart’s a lively talker, easy to gab with, and our conversations meander seamlessly into all kinds of areas. The first thing I tell him is how much I enjoyed his Swarthmore Lecture, organised by Woodbrooke, and how much I learnt about early Friends. I had this rather simplistic idea that they were all rooted in the Pentecostal way, I tell him, so was interested to hear that George Fox created the system of Meetings which is partly why the movement survived. Rather embarrassingly (as a committed feminist), I forgot to credit Margaret Fell – which Stuart is quick to correct.
During the time of Siddhartha Gotama, known as the buddha, there was a young woman called Kisa Gotami. She married young and gave birth to a son, to whom she was deeply devoted. But one day, while the boy was still a toddler, he died suddenly in his sleep.
On Saturday 19 September at noon, in the centre of London, we will begin our Silent Walking Vigil For Peace. The ‘we’ is Quakers from across the UK – though from faith groups to people who carry no religious labels, everyone is welcome. The only criteria is that we uphold peace as a silent vigil.
One by one, I pull out the threads
holding her eighty years together, release
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Written by and for Friends on the bench
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