The Friend (Quaker magazine)

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The Friend is a weekly Quaker magazine published in London, 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.<ref name="Streets">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is one of the oldest continuously published publications in the world still in operation. Others (e.g. Punch) which began publication before The Friend have had lengthy interruptions in publication and/or have closed down.

IndependenceEdit

The Friend is completely independent from Britain Yearly Meeting, although since 2004 it has occupied space in Friends House.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="The Friend Vol 1931">The Friend Vol. 71 (1931) p.1183 <p.1180 – 1183, “The Friend – retirement of the Editor”. portrait, “Contributed without permission of the Editor”</ref>

Editorial policyEdit

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, 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 OnlineEdit

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.<ref>Appeal notice inserted in The Friend 9-05-2014</ref>

The printing of The FriendEdit

For many years, The Friend was printed by an old Quaker firm, Headley Brothers, of Ashford, Kent. Headley Brothers went into administration in 2017. From 23 June 2017 The Friend appears in full colour, printed by Warners Midland plc.<ref>The Friend vol 175, No.25, page 3 "Thought for the Week: Change and Continuity" by Ian Kirk-Smith</ref>

In its entire history, The Friend has failed to appear twice, due to paper rationing during the Second World War.<ref>"Printing The Friend" by Stephen H Pitt and Edward H Milligan in The Friend, 5 November 1993 pp. 1425 - 1427.</ref>

Between 1892 and some time after 1931, the magazine was printed by The Orphans Press, Leominster.<ref name="The Friend Vol 1931"/>

List of EditorsEdit

The main source for this list is an annotated typescript held at The Library of the Society of Friends, London.

1843-1849 Charles Tylor<ref>Charles Tylor 1816-1902</ref>
1849-1852 Joseph Barrett<ref>The death of a Friend with the name "Joseph Barrett" is recorded in the Annual monitor(1862), aged 42, on 29/5/1861. The memorial runs from p.17 to p.25, with great piety, but does not mention The Friend.</ref>
1852-1857 Edward Newman, "under the guidance of Charles Gilpin, the proprietor".
1858-1859 Alfred William Bennett<ref>A.W. Bennett bought the bookselling business and the periodical from Charles Gilpin in 1858 and employed an Editor from 1859.</ref>
1859-1871 John Frank<ref>Information on John Frank in Thornbury, Glos.</ref>
1872-1875 Joshua Rowntree
1875-1878 John Stephenson Rowntree
1878-1891 Joseph Stickney Sewell<ref>Joseph Stickney Sewell 1819-1900</ref>
1892-1912 Henry Stanley Newman,<ref>H.S. Newman (1837-1912) was father of George Newman (doctor).</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> assisted by E. B. Reynolds

1912-1931 Edward Bassett Reynolds.<ref>Edward Bassett Reynolds 1864-1934</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Streets"/>

1932-1949 Hubert William Peet<ref>Hubert William Peet 1886-1951. A pamphlet biography is Hubert W. Peet by Winifred M. White (1952)</ref>
1950-1965 Bernard Hall Canter<ref>Bernard Canter (1906-1969) published a collection of his Friend editorials: A testament of love (1965).</ref>
1966-1973 Clifford Haig
1974-1990 David Firth
1990-1993 Sally Juniper
1993-1997 Deborah Padfield<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

1997-2004 Harry Albright
September 2004 - April 2010 Judy Kirby
April 2010 - November 2018 Ian Kirk-Smith<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Ian Kirk-Smith wrote a farewell editorial in the 2018-11-02 edition of The Friend</ref>

January 2019 onward - Joseph Jones<ref>The Friend, 23-11-2018, p.5</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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