''The Friend'' is a weekly

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

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. 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, George 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 popul ...

. 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. 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 *1849-1852 Joseph Barrett *1852-1857 Edward Newman, "under the guidance of Charles Gilpin, the proprietor". *1858-1859 Alfred William Bennett *1859-1871 John Frank *1872-1875 Joshua Rowntree *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) a ...

*1878-1891 Joseph Stickney Sewell *1892-1912 Henry Stanley Newman, 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 *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

References

External links

''The Friend'' online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friend Religious magazines published in the United Kingdom Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom Christian magazines Magazines published in London Magazines established in 1842 Quaker organizations Quakerism in the United Kingdom Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom