Kindertransport survivors call for routes to sanctuary for child refugees

November 17, 2018

At an 80th anniver­sary of the UK kinder­trans­port pro­gram (which we read about a few days ago), sur­vivors and Friends call for wider sup­port for today’s refugees and asy­lum seekers:

Helen Drew­ery, Head of Wit­ness and Wor­ship for Quak­ers in Britain, wel­com­ing all to Friends House, said, “We are pleased to be host­ing an event which hon­ours all those – includ­ing Quak­ers who put the Kinder­trans­port into effect. Their endeav­ours are being echoed today by near­ly 100 Quak­er meet­ings across Britain which have iden­ti­fied them­selves as Sanc­tu­ary Meet­ings and are sup­port­ing peo­ple who have fled from dan­ger in their home coun­tries. We are glad that these Meet­ings and the peo­ple they are sup­port­ing are rep­re­sent­ed at today’s event. We join them in press­ing for more safe passages.” 

http://​www​.ekkle​sia​.co​.uk/​n​o​d​e​/​2​7​200

Making meetings simpler

May 11, 2018

British Friend Helen Drew­ery writes about what might be a uni­ver­sal desire to make Quak­er orga­ni­za­tion­al life simpler

How can we achieve a flex­i­ble sim­plic­i­ty – liv­ing by the essence of the Quak­er approach but not treat­ing old habits as sacro­sanct? Ear­ly Quak­ers saw sim­plic­i­ty as strip­ping out of their lives the super­flu­ous activ­i­ties and things – John Wool­man called them ‘cum­ber’ – so that they could more ful­ly fol­low the lead­ings of the Spirit.