Leicester Area Quaker News ... recent and future events
Policy statements within the governance of Area Meeting.
It is now a legal requirement that Area Meeting must have written policies to describe how we manage our affairs and a 'Safeguarding Procedure' to describe how we ensure that our children are safe from abuse while taking part in Quaker activities. The law says so and Trustees have produced drafts. Local Business Meetings are being asked to check the drafts and make any comments before Area Meeting itself is asked to adopt them by formal minutes. Please read these drafts on our 'area matters' page.
Life Lines
30 November 2011 was publication day for 'Life Lines', the book which Ruth David has constructed from the World War II letters of her parents (in Nazi-dominated Germany and France) to their children -- four of whom were by that time in Britain and the Americas, while two others were soon to be separated from them in France. After 1942 the children never saw their parents again, and the letters, both at the time of first reading, and in later years, remained their only link. We can now read the letters today, feel the love of parents for their children yet growing desperation about their own situation, and get a privileged insight into those awful times. Quakers had been active in the Kindertransport which brought Ruth to England, so it was appropriate that the book should be launched in a Quaker Meeting House. Leicester Friends joined the three surviving members of the original family to mark the occasion, together with many other friends from England France and Germany. Daughter Margaret, and Ruth herself, spoke of the influence of the letters in each of their lives. Publisher Barbara Butler spoke of her delight that they are printed under the auspices of Christians Aware.
The book is available from Christians Aware, 2 Saxby St Leicester LE2 0ND
£10.00 + £2 p and p. (ISBN 978 1 873372 39 5)
The cover design entitled 'flight circles' was painted by Anne Gregson
A Quaker at Sea
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20 November 2011 was the day of the long-awaited publication of Oscar Wallis's tales of his time in the merchant navy. Members of Leicester meeting joined the Wallis family and many family friends in celebrating the event, and hearing tributes from members of the team who had helped bring it about. The family contributions to making it an illustrated volume were particularly admired, and many memorable quotations were rehearsed, some of them in a specially composed song, which was sung by son Peter Wallis.
The books is available from Christians Aware, 2 Saxby St Leicester LE2 0ND
£7.50 + £2 p and p. (ISBN 978 1 873372 38 8)
Economic Justice? Quakers discuss the issues ...
At national level there have recently been two important meetings on the theme of economic justice and a sustainable global society. The first was a one day conference at Friends' House on 24 September, and the second was a follow-up weekend of discussions at Woodbrooke on 4th-6th November. Leicester Quakers were involved in both.
Clive Sutton has written a further set of musings and questions about Economics and Faith.
This picture entitled 'In front of St Paul's cathedral' - was posted by one of the recent protesters at http://limegreenlight.com/blogarchive/london
Quakers commit to becoming a low carbon sustainable community
In early August, the corporate gathering of Quakers (Friends) in Britain made a commitment to become a low carbon sustainable community. For more information and links on what that might mean for individual Friends and meetings.......(opens in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) window)Memorial Meetings, July 2011
For Cara Rablen - Saturday 23 July at 3.30 p.m.
For Rachel Carmichael - Thursday 28 July at 2.30 p.m.
For Barbara Clark - Saturday 30 July at 12.30 p.m.