It may be that everyday evil is just an absence of the good, as a Friend recently wrote in the Friend. However, when we are faced with industrialised genocide or the carpet-bombing…
In 2015 British Quakers committed themselves to give priority to working with others to identify and address the root causes of inequalities in our society. With increasing powers…
We know that Jesus identified himself with the suffering and the sinful, the poor and the oppressed. We know that he went out of his way to befriend social outcasts. We know that…
I am lying on my back in the garden, looking up through a froth of plum blossom to the piercing blue sky above. A field mouse perches confidently on a twig beside the bird feeder,…
My Friend prefers First Class on the train, especially after a group of youths in the vestibule began shouting abuse. ‘It’s a Tranny!’ And: ‘It’s a Man!’ They kept…
Robert Barclay’s An Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1676) is a central text in the history of Quakerism, as Mark Frankel highlighted in a recent ‘Thought for the…
Sometimes God seems so close. It is almost as though I could reach out and touch Him. I have had this experience a couple of times in Meeting. Yet, at other times God, or the…
Dreams can be a lot of things. Joyful ‘nonsense’ unrelated to daily reality – like the one about practising new dance steps with an elephant…when I’m really not the…
The annual Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) Spring Conference was an inspiring event. The enthusiasm, interest, energy and inspiration I experienced among Friends over the…
Become a subscriber to enjoy unlimited access to our articles, dating back to 2009! Online subscribers get the Friend to their inbox each week, can comment on articles, and dive into our 1914-18 digital archive too!
Whether you are new to Quakerism or have been going to Meeting for years, you’ll find something here to inspire, inform and challenge you.
News | Views | Reviews
Written by and for Friends on the bench
Subscribe