Basingstoke Quakers

23/06/2026

23/06/2026

Rhiannon Grant discusses what our response to refugees says about us and highlights the importance of well-chosen language and truth.

23/06/2026

States shifting migration processes offshore, typically to prevent arrivals or remove people to third states, is known as externalization. The serious human rights risks from the increasing use of externalization are detailed in the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Gehad Madi, presented to the UN Human Rights Council this morning. View the Special Rapporteur's report here: https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/62/35.

QUNO expressed concern that the report documents violations even of rights which can never be legally limited, including non-refoulement, torture, enforced disappearance, and slavery, and said that some externalization is in effect commodifying human beings, using them as bargaining chips by funding third states to receive and detain them. People should never be traded for money. Read more about QUNO's presentation here: https://hrcmeetings.ohchr.org/HRCSessions/HRCDocuments/96/NGO/96_18842775_2f0e44df-581f-4261-8f0c-9426c69b9fc4.docx

QUNO reiterated the call, recommended in the Special Rapporteur's report and joined by almost 250 civil society organizations, for an independent, international monitoring mechanism to investigate and report on human rights violations and abuses from migration governance at international borders and in transit. Find out more about the call from civil society organizations here: https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/hrc-should-urgently-respond-to-the-global-pattern-of-deaths-torture-and-other-grave-human-rights-violations-at-international-borders/

There is much debate currently about insufficient funding for human rights, yet trillions of dollars in defence spending suggest that, rather than a crisis of liquidity, we face a crisis of prioritization and a lethal disregard for migrants’ lives and human rights.

23/06/2026

Quakers often have a wary relationship with the concept of theology, even though our faith is grounded in a belief…

23/06/2026

Friends’ meetings have indeed been to me the greatest of outward helps to a fuller and fuller entrance into the spirit from which they have sprung; the place of the most soul-subduing, faith-restoring, strengthening, and peaceful communion, in feeding upon the bread of life, that I have ever known.

Caroline E Stephen, 1890
Quaker Faith and Practice 2.02

23/06/2026

Quakers in Britain has joined a new coalition of churches and faith charities calling on the UK government to act over the occupation of Palestine.

03/06/2026

Sharing the Quaker message today does not mean sharing it [only] in English. It means carrying it in French, from Burundi Yearly Meeting to Madagascar. Or standing in Kenya, telling of your faith as a Bolivian Friend in Aymara to be translated into Spanish and then into English and then whispered into Luragoli for the old Friend in the back row! Those who carry the Quaker message today are not only those who worry about whether sanctions against South Africa are right or wrong. Quakers today are the victims of violence and racism in Soweto. Quakers today are not simply watching pictures of famine on their televisions; they are farming the inhospitable altiplano in Bolivia; they are facing drought in Turkana.

Val Ferguson, 1987
Quaker Faith and Practice 28.12

03/06/2026

Simple melodies and words sung over and over can be extraordinarily powerful, especially when each chant emerges from and returns to deep silence. Become part of a sacred river of sound and silence, trusting the current to take you where you need to go.
For more information visit https://ow.ly/gm5f50YYRNH

03/06/2026

On Friday 12 June at 15:30, we’re holding an information session offering a glimpse into our Silence and Spirituality module, delivered in partnership with The Queen’s Foundation.

This is a great opportunity to explore the role of silence in spiritual practice and experience our approach to Quaker Studies in a welcoming and reflective space.

The module begins in September and is delivered fully online as part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Theology and Transformative Practice.

Book your place on the information session here: queens.jotform.com/261164014139853
Find out more about the modules on our website: www.woodbrooke.org.uk/research/taught-degrees/