 24 July 2009 |
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The future of Quakers in Britain: essay competitionWhat can you say about the present and future of Quakers in Britain? A prize competition to be launched at Yearly Meeting Gathering will invite Quakers and non-Quakers alike to provide new ideas for the Religious Society of Friends in the country.The competition, run by the Friend’s sister publication The Friends Quarterly, will be open to all and will offer prizes of £1,000 and £500 for the two best entries. It follows on from a similar competition run 150 years ago, when Young Friend John Stephenson Rowntree’s winning entry won a prize offered by an anonymous group of Quaker businessmen. His ideas led on to the reinvigoration of the Society and culminated in the Manchester Conference of 1895, when Friends jettisoned many of their old limitations and took their practical mission out into society. ‘There is a sense among Quakers in Britain that this is the moment to take forward our faith and to renew our work in society’, said The Friends Quarterly editor Tony Stoller. ‘The competition is designed to produce a thoughtful stimulus to imaginative theology and effective action.’ Entries to The Friends Quarterly competition can be in the form of traditional essays or use CDs, websites, videos or other new media platforms. The judges hope, in the spirit of the original competition, to encourage entries from younger people; for this reason, at least one of the prizes will be awarded to someone aged thirty-five or under. The winning entries will be published in The Friends Quarterly and will form the basis of a seminar at Woodbrooke next summer. Entry forms are available in this week’s issue, the summer issue of The Friends Quarterly or by writing to FQ Prize Essay Competition, The Friend, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ. Access the pdf version of the leaflet here. Subscribe to the Friend online To access more articles and get the Friend first every week subscribe for just £45 a year. To subscribe visit http://www.thefriend.org/subscribe.asp. Oliver Robertson |
