Amazing talk

Thank you Helen. Found this helpful in 2024.

Is it consistent to call for transparency in respect of financial contributions but not in electoral registration?

This is nice but I feel it is odd not to mention the site. Seems a bit blinkered maybe? 🐎 The material world is part of the stuff of life as much as concepts, theory, knowledge etc. eg. Climate chaos is material events .....And love is also material as well as emotional and relational etc. I don't think WB should be embarrassed if it did it's best.

New Quaker here. Excited to learn all I can. 🕊️

"promo sm" ❣️

Thank you. There is a lot to think about.

Thanks for this easy to engage with way of reporting on 2023. Perhaps in future you could provide a version with audio for those who can't follow the visuals. 😊

Thanks much for this. It's such a relief to hear Quaker history told within the context of clear, accurate grasp of Quaker faith.

Fascinating

Thank you for these videos and your courses.

Another fascinating aspect of the early Quakers was that so many of the leadership were so young, many only in their 20s. If we can get the young 'SBNR' demographic of today to become perhaps an online modern equivalent to the 'valiant sixty', then Quakerism will be in good hands for the future.

Fabulous!

Friend from Canada: useful; thanks for posting.

Link in Woodbrooke newsletter works.

*promo sm* 😄

Link is broken. Getting an error message.

Link gave me a "403 Forbidden" error. Searched "British Quaker Survey 2023" and found the survey

This is a superb lecture with some deeply insightful observations and experiences. The only thing I would say is that the Advice that Esther 'excoriates', No.29, was of course written at an earlier time and by authors who were writing in their time. The line in question is: 'Although old age may bring increasing disability and loneliness, it can also bring serenity, detachment and wisdom.' It seems clear to me that the use of the word 'disability' is not intended to mean folk who are disabled - as we understand that word to mean now. On the one hand, this shows how large the 'blind spot' was back then! On the other hand, we need perhaps to read 'in tongues' to discern the real meaning of the Advice and the intended audience. The Advice was written to guide the elderly. In that sense, Esther is too young for it to apply to her in any case. If the word 'disability' is changed to a modern word that carries the meaning the authors intended, then the Advice still makes sense. Only one word needs to be changed. The word I would suggest in place of 'disability' is 'infirmity'. So the line should perhaps best be read as: Although old age may bring increasing infirmity and loneliness, it can also bring serenity, detachment and wisdom.' I personally find this Advice one the most inspirational in the whole of A&Q. This still does not solve the question of how A&Q handles the question of disabled, or differently-abled, people. It needs to. I very much hope that those involved in re-writing A&Q will approach Esther to ask her to write a suitable paragraph of Advice for us on that matter. As well as replace the word 'disability' in No.29 with 'infirmity', so that the paragraph can continue to be a source of realism, counsel and comfort to those of us who are old or who - like me - need to think seriously about the consequences of it.

Thank you, Esther, for all that you do. I also challenge shops, businesses etc on accessibility and constantly point out that I don't need 'help' because I'm not an infant, it's only my feet which don't work. Such simple things can be done and sometimes the will is there, which still takes time and more letters to different CEOs, but then change comes about. It's an uphill struggle and I could just leave but I think of all those in wheelchairs, or using other aids, who stay home because going out defeats them, so I call for the manager.

…and this message/lecture is still relevant in 2023…maybe more than ever!

And what about the billion+ Asians who are not Brown, ie racialised Chinese? And what about other people of colour who also do not self identify as “White, Brown or Black”? For example Canadian First Nations or Inuit. We are all excluded from this talk. Disappointed 😢. Time to check the temperature of the water again?

This is so fascinating because I do not attend meetings in person for a number of reasons, though I went to Quaker school and I do consider myself a Quaker and try to live that way. I always feel I can't be a 'real' Quaker because of this though, and it holds me back. I'd love to be able to get involved more in thinking about how we can make being a Quaker more flexible and accessible.

How many Quakers are vegetarian or vegan?

Thanks for this most interesting video with its presentations

From a fellow CofE priest (retired) and Quaker attender--Thanks for such a well presented & clear presentation

Is Quakerism about free worship or the identity-based politics of grievance?

i have a book published by a local historian, Peter Lucas, who has I think produced a very scholarly account of early Quakers. It's called The Rise of the Quakers - Revaluing the Place of Preston Patrick in the Early Movement. I think I gave one to Woodbrooke library.

Thank you for these films, as a newish attender they have been really illuminating

Where has that Light that was evident in early Friends, gone?

Wow, Hellen this am amazing lecture opening new perspectives in the Quaker corridors between races

This was excellent, brilliant and courageous Helen. Am proud of your lecture

Brilliant lecture. Thank you so much, Helen! ❤

This was great

Thank you for sharing, Ben. I shared this with my Quaker History class at Friends Theological College, Kaimosi.

An informative and educational series of films. Well done Ben.

A very good account of the nascent movement, a movement whose vibrancy was due largely to their -re-discovery of what the 'kingdom' of God meant to them individually, collectively and for the nations, indeed (as they said) 'all people on the Earth' ,. This 'kingdom' was within. It was the Inward Light. In the 1690s, William Penn would identify it as 'consciousness'.

It sounds more like a lecture on Protestantism rather than Quakerism. Too much dogma.

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