Recent Articles

Ed Mayo to deliver 2013 Salter Lecture

Ed Mayo to deliver 2013 Salter Lecture

By Jez Smith The Quaker Socialist Society has announced that Ed Mayo, the general secretary of Co-operatives UK, will deliver the annual Salter Lecture at Friends House just before Britain Yearly Meeting on Friday 24/05/2013 at 4pm. Ed Mayo will deliver a lecture titled “Raise the Sails as the Wind is Changing – how radical [...]

Australian Quakers seek climate change action

Australian Quakers seek climate change action

Australian Quakers are calling on the leaders of all their political parties to take the impact of climate change into the upcoming Australian federal election as a key plank of their party’s platform for action. Australian Quakers used their yearly meeting this month to affirm that lasting peace can no longer be contemplated in isolation [...]

Why? How? Rhiannon Grant

Why? How? Rhiannon Grant

by Rhiannon Grant I am a Quaker both by accident and by design. I didn’t set out to be born into a Quaker family (although perhaps my parents had it in mind!), but nevertheless I was, as it happened, a cradle Quaker. Later in life, I made a few half-hearted attempts to leave the Quaker [...]

2013 Swarthmore Lecturer revealed

2013 Swarthmore Lecturer revealed

by Jez Smith Gerald Hewitson, a Quaker based in Wales, is set to deliver the 2013 Swarthmore Lecture, A Journey to the Heart of the Quaker Experience. The lecture will be given during Britain Yearly Meeting at Friends House on 25/05/2013. Although the lecture will be delivered then, the Swarthmore Lecture is in the care [...]

US Quakers act to alert Obama to climate fears

US Quakers act to alert Obama to climate fears

Quakers were among protestors who faced arrest after blocking a street by the White House yesterday, the home of the US president Barack Obama. The Earth Quaker Action Team were at the protest to send a message to Barack Obama not to support the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and to request him to address [...]

A century of peacemaking

A century of peacemaking

by Philip Austin Set up after a peace conference of Quakers in the North in 01/1913, the Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB) has undertaken a variety of work with and for Northern Friends, supported by funding and representatives from throughout the North of Britain. When, a couple of years ago, NFPB members began to think [...]

C is for Convincement

C is for Convincement

by Gil Skidmore What really appeals to me about the process of becoming a Quaker – convincement – is that it is usually a gradual process rather than the once-for-all ‘lightbulb moment’ of conversion. Descriptions of the way in which early Friends came to Quakerism identify several stages. First of all the individual is ‘reached’ [...]

Quaker commitment to sustainable food bears fruit

Quaker commitment to sustainable food bears fruit

Quaker commitment to sustainable food has been recognised this month as Britain Yearly Meeting’s Friends House restaurant won the title of best London restaurant in the annual Sustainable Restaurant Association awards. The restaurant already holds a three-star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association. It serves a daily (Monday to Saturday) menu and salad bar based [...]

Don’t blame the Quaker meeting!

Don’t blame the Quaker meeting!

by Jez Smith An American has failed in his attempt to sue his Quaker meeting after he decided that the meeting was involved in the break up of his marriage. Warren Pegram, of Snow Camp in North Carolina, had issued proceedings in November 2012 to remedy the difficult financial situation he claimed to face after [...]

Gun nuts identify Quakers among enemies

Gun nuts identify Quakers among enemies

The American lobbying arm of the Quakers, the Friends Committee for National Legislation has been revealed as one of 500 organisations and people on the pro-weapons National Rifle Association’s so-called “enemy list“. According to the FCNL website “Friends seek peaceful and nonviolent solutions to personal and societal problems at all levels. The seeds of war [...]