Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
magazine published in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, UK. It is the only Quaker weekly in the world, and has been published continuously since 1843. It began as a monthly and in January 1892 became a weekly.''Street of Ink'' by H Simonis (1917) p.310 /ref> It is one of the oldest continuously published publications in the world still in operation. Others (e.g. ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
'') which began publication before ''The Friend'' have had lengthy interruptions in publication and/or have closed down.
Independence
''The Friend'' is completely independent from
Britain Yearly Meeting
The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain, also known as the Britain Yearly Meeting (and, until 1995, the London Yearly Meeting), is a Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England, Sc ...
, although since 2004 it has occupied space in
Friends House
Friends House is a multi-use building at 173 Euston Road in Euston, central London, that houses the central offices of British Quakers. The building is also the principal venue for North West London Meeting and the Britain Yearly Meeting
The ...
. It is owned by The Friend Publications Ltd., a trust which also publishes ''Friends Quarterly''. The Trustees of ''The Friend'' are appointed from members of Britain Yearly Meeting.
The Trustees appoint the Editor who, along with the other members of staff, is entirely responsible for the day-to-day management of the magazine, and its content. Among the initial trustees were
Josiah Forster
Josiah Forster (1782 – 27 June 1870) was an English teacher and philanthropist. He was an early member of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839George Stacey, John Hodgkin.''The Friend'' Vol. 71 (1931) p.1183
Editorial policy
As an independent publication, ''The Friend'' is free to report critically on trends within Quakerism in Britain and around the world, and on the governance of Britain Yearly Meeting. It also reports on the activities of Friends and Friends' groups and it is a forum for theological debate. There is a great deal of opinion in the magazine, and the letters page provides a forum for readers to express their views.
One of the ways ''The Friend'' exercises its responsibility to give readers an independent viewpoint is by covering
Meeting for Sufferings
Meeting for Sufferings is an executive committee of Britain Yearly Meeting, the body which acts on behalf of members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Great Britain and the Crown Dependencies. It has about 200 members who meet five ...
, the standing consultative body of Britain Yearly Meeting, which meets five times a year. Meeting for Sufferings often deals with controversial issues, on which ''The Friend'' reports and comments.
''The Friend'' Online
In recent years, ''The Friend'' has begun offering all its content online to subscribers. It is intended to make the issues for the period 1914 to 1918 available as a digital archive.
The printing of ''The Friend''
For many years, ''The Friend'' was printed by an old Quaker firm, Headley Brothers, of
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Great Stour at the southern or scarp edge of the North Downs, about southeast of central London and northwest of Folkestone by road. In the 2011 census, it had a popula ...
. Headley Brothers went into administration in 2017. From 23 June 2017 ''The Friend'' appears in full colour, printed by Warners Midland plc.
''The Friend'' appears every Friday. It has .
In its entire history, ''The Friend'' has failed to appear twice, due to paper rationing during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Between 1892 and some time after 1931, the magazine was printed by The Orphans Press, Leominster
List of Editors
The main source for this list is an annotated typescript held at Friends House Library, Euston, UK
*1843-1849
Charles Tylor
Charles Tylor (2 November 1816 – 14 March 1902) was an English Quakers, Quaker author. He was the founding editor of Quaker weekly publication, ''The Friend (Quaker), The Friend''.Society of Friends (1902). ''Extracts from the minutes and procee ...
*1849-1852 Joseph Barrett
*1852-1857 Edward Newman, "under the guidance of Charles Gilpin, the proprietor".
*1858-1859
Alfred William Bennett
Alfred William Bennett (24 June 1833 – 23 January 1902) was a British botanist and publisher. He was best known for his work on the flora of the Swiss Alps, cryptogams, and the Polygalaceae or Milkwort plant family, as well as his years in t ...
*1859-1871 John Frank
*1872-1875
Joshua Rowntree
Joshua Rowntree (6 April 1844 – 10 February 1915) was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Scarborough in 1886 and served, as a Gladstonian Liberal, until 1892, when he was succeeded by the Conservative, Sir George Reresby Sitwell, whom ...
*1875-1878
John Stephenson Rowntree
John Stephenson Rowntree (2 May 1834 – 13 April 1907) was a Director of Rowntree's, the York confectionery company and a reformer of the Quaker movement in the United Kingdom.
He was the eldest son of Joseph Rowntree (1801 – 1859) an ...
*1878-1891 Joseph Stickney Sewell
*1892-1912
Henry Stanley Newman
Henry Stanley Newman (25 April 1837 – 23 October 1912) was a grocer, Quaker philanthropist, and author. He founded Leominster Orphan Homes, was active in the Religious Society of Friends, and edited '' The Friend'' publication for 20 years.
E ...
, assisted by E. B. Reynolds
*1912-1931 Edward Bassett Reynolds.
*1932-1949 Hubert William Peet
*1950-1965 Bernard Hall Canter
*1966-1973 Clifford Haig
*1974-1990 David Firth
*1990-1993 Sally Juniper
*1993-1997 Deborah Padfield
*1997-2004
Harry Albright
Harry James Albright was the director of communications for the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) from 2008 to 2013, and editor of '' The Friend'' magazine from 1997 to 2004. He is also the co-owner of a training and communications c ...
*September 2004 - April 2010 Judy Kirby
*April 2010 - November 2018 Ian Kirk-Smith
*January 2019 onward - Joseph Jones ''The Friend'', 23-11-2018, p.5
See also
*
The Family Friend (magazine)
''The Family Friend'' was a magazine published in book form in England for much of the 19th century. It was a compendium of articles considered entertaining and useful, and was aimed mainly at the housewife of the day.
Content
Included were art ...