As the 110th anniversary of  Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre was marked this week with a special batch of Tottenham cake, Quakers from around the world have praised its role in inspiring generations of Friends to explore their faith. Woodbrooke was founded in 1903 in the former home of George Cadbury and is based in Selly Oak,…
Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre has announced that the 2014 Swarthmore Lecture will be given by Quaker author and academic Ben Pink Dandelion. Ben’s lecture will explore the theme of transformation, ending with a call for Quakers to return to a transforming and transformational faith. “I use the term ‘transforming’ to refer to how early Quakers…
Quakers in Britain announced yesterday that they will remove their investments from companies engaged in extracting fossil fuels, less than a week after representatives of Quakers in Britain (at their ‘Meeting for Sufferings’) announced that such investment is incompatible with Quakers’ commitment to become a low-carbon community. The decision to disinvest was taken on 8/10/2013…
TWIGA YOUTH DIALOGUE By Getry Agizah, Coordinator, Friends Church Peace Teams Introduction: On world peace day, Getty Agizah writes shares an example of how Quaker expertise in grassroots peacework is being utilized within local communities. When I did Civic Education with the County Councilors of Transzoia County, Kenya, they asked what other programs FCPT does.…
A Quaker cake is set for TV fame today as it appears in the BBC television programme, The Great British Bake Off. Tottenham Cake was invented by a Quaker baker, Henry Chalkley. A regular sponge cake, the Quaker Tottenham Cake’s stand-out feature is its lurid pink icing. The icing traditionally features mulberries from the burial…
A positive Quaker initiative at the United Nations that was started almost 15 years ago came into sharp focus this week as a media storm descended on Raquel Rolnik, the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing. Encouraging governments to issue ongoing ‘Standing Invitations’ to the UN has been a long-standing project of the Quaker UN Office…
Quakers in Britain are urging governments to reject violence and find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria by adopting nonviolent tools for conflict resolution. Helen Drewery, general secretary of Quaker Peace & Social Witness, said today that “Quakers see war as wrong because we value every human being so highly that killing them…
“Last year, three children drowned while trying to get to school from Ambohidava, can you imagine that?†Theresa Haine, a Welsh Quaker who is dedicated to helping people in Madagascar to improve their lives, is explaining why her charity has just been helping to build a new secondary school in Ambohidava, Madagascar. For the past…
A young man who was murdered in a knife attack in east London was a youth peace ambassador involved with St Ethelburga’s, a peace and reconciliation centre in London, according to the Guardian newspaper. Ajmol Alom, aged 16, was killed in east London on Monday evening. Detective chief inspector Andy Chalmers said Ajmol did not…
Putting aside all the media coverage Quakers have received over same-sex marriage, the recent revelation about the nation’s favourite churches and every article that can’t help mentioning which banks were formed by Quakers, Quakers continue to pull in media coverage nationally and locally and often in passing. For example, there was a long feature in…