Former broadcaster and current editor of The Friend Ian Kirk-Smith shared insights from his career in the media on Friday night at a public lecture at The King’s Hospital School in Dublin, as Quakers gathered for Ireland Yearly Meeting. Ian Kirk-Smith drew on his diverse experiences across anthropological fieldwork, writing, radio production and film directing…
Quaker support for young Zimbabweans is set to continue, it has been announced, despite the forthcoming closure of the The Hlekweni Friends Rural Service Centre in Zimbabwe later this year. Friends of Hlekweni, the British charity that supports the activities around Hlekweni near Bulawayo in southern Zimbabwean, has made the announcement that their support for…
Gloucester Quakers win award Quakers in Gloucester have been given a double boost recently as they have celebrated the reopening of their meeting house and the city’s Gay and Lesbian Community has named them as their “person of the yearâ€. Gloucester Quakers’ 19th century meeting house was gutted by fire in 09/2012 after an arson…
A programme assistant, Chris Diskin, from the Quaker Council for European Affairs is set to tour Quaker meetings in Britain to help Quakers to explore the negative impact of Free Trade Agreements on economic justice. Chris Diskin’s work in Europe focuses in particular on the European Union-US TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) and the…
A group of Quakers held a meeting for worship in the atrium of the British Museum today as part of a protest against the museum’s connections with multinational oil company BP and to highlight concerns about climate change. As well as bearing placards calling on the museum to end its relationship with BP, some of…
Quakers in Britain have adopted a statement on “government cuts: welfare benefitsâ€, which is to be used as a “starting point for meetings as a basis for action and speaking out†as well as for reflection, according to the decision-making body Meeting of Sufferings, which met on the first Saturday of the month in 04/2014.…
Two unique studying opportunities have been announced following a link up between Britain’s top Quaker study centre and a leading English university. Woodbrooke’s Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies has set up an innovative and interdisciplinary collaboration with Lancaster University, is offering the first online postgraduate courses in Quakerism: a Postgraduate Certificate in Quaker Studies; and…
Quakers are making their annual nominations for the Nobel peace prize. Quakers can make a nomination to the Oslo Committee that awards the prize because they were awarded the prize themselves in 1947. The formal nomination is made by the American Friends Service Committee and British Friends are encouraged to join in the process by…
“Someone can’t forgive with a broken heart. We need first to heal our wounds…Then start the work of peace and reconciliation.†So says Cécile Nyiramana, a peacebuilder from Rwanda at the British Quakers’ engaging exhibition This Light that Pushes Me. Cécile brought together the wives of victims of the Rwandan genocide to meet with the…
Stonewall supporters have awarded the Quaker Lesbian & Gay Fellowship (QLGF) the title of community group of the year for their long-standing commitment to equality. At the Stonewall awards ceremony the group was presented with a cheque for £5,000. Paul Campion, a long-standing campaigner who received the award on behalf of QLGF, said “this generous…