The Quakers, the Unitarians and Liberal Jews will be free to host civil partnership ceremonies on their religious premises from 2012 after an attempt to annul the law in the House of Lords was defeated. Liberal Democrat and Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said: “A number of faiths have made it very clear to me and others that…
The Quakers, Unitarians and Liberal Jews have written an open letter to the leaders of the three main parties in the House of Lords, part of the UK parliament, urging them to reject a challenge, by Detta O’Cathain,  to the regulations bringing into effect civil partnerships being celebrated on religious premises. The House of Lords…
Quakers & Business members Paul Gibson and Nick Pyatt will be talking to the Occupy movement in London this Wednesday 14/12/2011 at the Tent City University by the cathedral of saint Paul, from 5pm to 6pm. Paul and Nick will discuss concerning sustaining and strengthening a non-hierarchical organisation, drawing on their experience of the Quaker…
By Ben Jarman Before this summer, I wouldn’t have thought of Quakerism as raw material for board or card games. Several games of Unable, Unwilling, a satirical card game based on Quaker nominations, while I was at YMG this year changed my ideas. On 29 November, twenty or so Friends gathered to play Unable, Unwilling,…
by Stephen Cox An elder gives ministry, saying that in their opinion, a Quaker cannot be an atheist. A recent enquirer says in notices that they are an atheist and are they welcome? Established attenders suggest not using the words God or prayer in an outreach leaflet, because they will be misunderstood. What is my…
Although the legislation allowing civil partnerships to take place on religious premises is due to come into force on Monday 5/12/2011, the law is not yet entirely safe from being annulled. The change in the law allowing civil partnerships to take place on religious partnerships is part of the Equality Act 2010 but it is…
The progression of allowing civil partnerships in religious premises could be abruptly stopped by Conservative peer Detta O’Cathain after she lodged a prayer to annul in opposition of the legislation. According to peer Elaine Murphy, “this weird wording means a debate raised to protest against a negative statutory instrument (SI). Under the standard negative procedure,…
A London statue of renowned Quaker Alfred Salter from Bermondsey was stolen from its site by the River Thames this month. Southwark council has announced that it is offering a reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the thieves of the statue that has been in place since 1991. Alfred Salter was a…
Quakers have been acting as election observers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this week, where violence and allegations of widespread irregularities have been made about the poll. Observers from the African Union were calling for calm while reports about the problems were gathered. Kinshasa Monthly Meeting, in the capital city of Democratic Republic…
Welcome to the podcast series from Nayler. In this podcast the focus is on Occupy and there’s an hour long talk with Ian from Westminster Quaker Meeting talking about how he got involved in Occupy. It was recorded at Westminster Meeting House in eleventh month 2011. Ian’s talk is followed by a recording of the…