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the Friend INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843

CONTENTS – VOL 168 NO 2 3 Kaimosi hospital recovery continues 4 Kenyan Friend urges support for gay

Quakers in East Africa 5 Ashburton Quakers get first new Meeting house of twenty-first century 6 New Horizons: a shared vision for mental health Chris Holman 7 Comment

Joe Mugford and Tom Jackson 8-9 Letters 10-11 Spinoza and the early Friends

Helen Gould 12 Earth at the Royal Academy

Rowena Loverance 13 … And the greatest of these is hope?

Sibyl Ruth 14-15 Countryside blues

Helen Gould 16 Q-eye on the Christmas media 17 Friends & Meetings

Cover image: Need help? Depression is set to become one of the world’s biggest health problems. See pages 6 and 14-15. The relief people feel when they realise that it is not just them,that there is someone they can talk to, shows that doors can be opened and that connections can be made. The ripple effect takes in not just their families but others around them who may be suffering in silence. Photo: RABI. Images on this page: Top: Cake for Alice’s birthday. Photo: Phillip Morris. See page 4. Below: Antti Laitinen, ‘It’s My Island I’. Image courtesy of Nettie Horn. Photo: Antti Laitinen. ©GSK Contemporary 2009 – Earth. See page 12.

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Editorial

Editor: Judy Kirby

Articles, images correspondence should be emailed to editorial@thefriend.org or sent to the address below.

the Friend 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ Tel: 020 7663 1010 Fax: 020 7663 1182 www.thefriend.org Editor: Judy Kirby editorial@thefriend.org • Production editor: Jez Smith jez@thefriend.org • Sub-editor: Trish Carn trishc@thefriend.org • News: reporter Symon Hill news@thefriend.org • Arts editor: Rowena Loverance arts@thefriend.org • Environment editor: Laurie Michaelis green@thefriend.org • Subscriptions officer: Penny Dunn subs@thefriend.org Tel: 020 7663 1178 • Advertisement manager: George Penaluna, Ad department, 54a Main Street, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL Tel: 01535 630230 ads@thefriend.org • Clerk of the trustees: A David Olver • ISSN: 0016-1268 The Friend Publications Limited is a registered charity, number 211649 • Printed by Headley Bros Ltd, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH

the Friend, 8 January 2010