Faith and Practice
of
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
of the
Religious Society of Friends
Contents………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
Foreword………………………………………………………………….…………………….. 5
Preface…………………………………………………………………….……………………. 6
I. Experience and Faith………………………………………………………………………… 7
A. The Light Within…………………………………………………………………… 7
B. Meeting for Worship………………………………………………………………... 8
1. Preparing for Worship……………………………………………………….. 9
2. Vocal Ministry………………………………………….………………….. 10
C. Prayer ……………………………………………………………………………… 11
D. Friends, Scripture and Our Living Faith…………………………………………… 12
E. Discernment of the Guidance of the Spirit ………………………………………… 13
II. Faith Reflected in Practice and Daily Life…………………………………………………. 15
A. Community Life …………………………………………………………………… 15
1. Concerns, Leadings and Testimonies………………………………………. 15
2. Discernment, Clearness and Decision- making………………………………16
3. Friends and Education……………………………………………………… 20
4. Friends Witness in the World……………………………………………….. 22
B. Personal Life……………………………………………………………………….. 26
1. Life Passages……………………………………………………………….. 26
2. Personal Relationships …………………………………………………….. 29
III. Faith Reflected in Our Organization……………………………………………………… 32
A. Friends Meetings…………………………………………………………………... 32
1. The Individual and the Friends Meeting…………………………………… 33
2. Nurture of the Meeting Community……………………………………….. 34
3. Guidance of Meeting Affairs—Named Roles……………………………… 34
4. Committees of the Meeting………………………………………………… 36
5. Membership………………………………………………………………… 43
B. Quarterly Meetings………………………………………………………………… 46
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1. Functions and Organization of Quarterly Meetings…………………………47
2. Guidance and Assistance…………………………………………………… 48
C. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting………………………………………………………. 48
1. Sessions of Yearly Meeting………………………………………………… 48
2. Involvement in Yearly Meeting……………………………………………. 50
D. Communication, Intervisitation and Changes in Formal Relationships…………… 50
1. Sharing Information with Other Meetings…………………………………. 50
2. Intervisitation………………………………………………………………. 51
3. Growth and Changes in Meetings………………………………………….. 52
E. Revising Faith and Practice………………………………………………………. 53
IV. Historical Background…………………………………………………………………… 56
A. Beginnings: Circa 1650-1690……………………………………………………. 56
B. Consolidation and Withdrawal: Circa 1690-1800………………………………… 59
C. Schism and Reform: Circa 1800-1900……………………………………………. 60
D. Reconciliation: Circa 1900-1955…………………………………………………. 61
E. Unity Amidst Diversity: 1955-2000………………………………………………. 62
F. 2000-The Present………………………………………………………………….. 64
V. Friends and Some of Their Organizations……………………………………………….. 66
A. Alphabetical Listing of a Variety of Friends Organizations……………………… 67
B. Friends Affinity Organizations…………………………………………………… 70
C. Quaker Periodicals ………………………………………………………………. 70
D. Ecumenism and Interfaith Work…………………………………………………. 71
VI. Extracts from the Writings of Friends: Advices and Quotations……………………….. 72
A. Advices……………………………………………………………………………72
B. Extracts on Experience and Faith………………………………………………... 75
C. Extracts on Faith Reflected in Practice and Daily Life…………………………. 120
D. Extracts on Faith Reflected in Our Organization………………………………. 160
VII. Guidelines and Procedures…………………………………………………………… 192
A. General Queries………………………………………………………………... 192
1-3. Deepening Our Faith…………………………………………………. 192
4-6. Nurturing Our Community…………………………………………… 194
7-9. Grounding for Transformed Lives……………………………………. 195
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10-12. Witnessing in the World………………………………………….. 196
B. Guidelines for a Spiritual Self-assessment for Meetings…………………….. 197
C. Meeting Checklist……………………………………………………………. 198
1. State of the Meeting………………………………………………….. 199
2. The Work of the Meeting…………………………………………….. 199
3. Property and Employees……………………………………………… 199
4. Investments…………………………………………………………… 200
5. Finance and Budget…………………………………………………... 200
6. Records………………………………………………………………. 201
D. Queries and Check List on End-of-Life Matters……………………………. 201
1. Queries for the Individual…………………………………………… 202
2. Queries for the Meeting……………………………………………… 202
3. A Checklist for the Settlement of All Outward Affairs…………….... 202
E. Procedures for Membership…………………………………………………..203
1. Application for Membership………………………………………….204
2. Transfer of Membership to Another Meeting…………………………205
3. Termination of Membership…………………………………………..206
F. Quaker Marriage Procedure…………………………………………………..207
1. Securing Meeting Approval…………………………………………..208
2. Meeting Approval…………………………………………………….210
3. Overseeing the Wedding……………………………………………..210
4. Conducting a Quaker Wedding………………………………………210
5. Following the Wedding………………………………………………210
6. Wedding Not Under the Care of the Meeting
7. Review of Responsibilities Required for the Good Order of a Quaker Wedding
Ceremony……….……………………………………………………….211
8. The Marriage Certificate…………………………………………….213
G. Guidelines for Care Committees…………………………………………….214
1. Guidelines for a Clearness Committee………………………………215
2. Guidelines for a Pastoral Care Assistance Committee……………….216
3. Guidelines for a Spiritual Care Committee…………………………..217
H. Preparing Minutes……………………………………………………………218
VIII. Resources………………………………………………………………………….220
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A. Managing Quaker Business Processes……………………………………..220
B. Nurturing the Spiritual Needs and Gifts of Members and Attenders………220
C. Answering Questions about Quaker Faith, Practice and Witness…………. 221
D. Preservation of Records…………………………………………………….221
Sources of Extracts in Section VI………………………………………………………221
Biographical Notes of Authors………………………………………………………...222
Index…………………………………………………………………………………...235
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Foreword
All who use this Faith and Practice are encouraged to follow the admonition from the Meeting
of Elders held at Balby, England, in 1656:
Dearly beloved Friends, these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by,
but that all with the measure of the light which is pure and holy may be guided, and so in
the light walking and abiding, these may be fulfilled in the Spirit—not from the letter, for
the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
Elders of Balby, 1656
This edition of Faith and Practice of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of
Friends is thus intended to be a guide, and not a rule, for our members, attenders and others who
seek to understand how Friends in our yearly meeting express our faith in our lives, our
communities and our organizations. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting approved this edition of Faith
and Practice in 20_.
Like early Friends, we proclaim that every person has been endowed with the capacity to enter
directly, without mediation, into an empowering relationship with God. Also like those Friends,
we gather in expectant silence with other seekers, open to the movement of the Spirit in
ourselves individually and in our worshipping community. Friends seek to experience the
presence of the living God in individual religious practice and in meetings for worship and for
business. To be in the presence of God inspires awe, provides healing and comfort, and is a
source of guidance for conduct. Out of this experience, we proclaim the intimate connection
between religious faith and social justice and seek to express this understanding in our daily lives
and actions.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting affirms that transformation comes when we, in daily life and in our
meeting communities, trust in the Light that gives life and empowers everyone who comes into
the world.
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Preface
This revised edition of Faith and Practice embodies the labor and insight of a revision group
appointed for this service by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Throughout the editing process, many
individual Friends and monthly meetings have improved the drafts considerably through their
close attention to both individual sections and to the whole text. The revision group is also
grateful for the time and attention that Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in session, on several
occasions, has devoted to this work.
The text reflects a commitment to recognize the diversity that exists within our yearly meeting
and honor this rich variety of experience. Those who become members of Friends meetings
within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting have followed very different paths. We each bring distinct
religious vocabularies, images and metaphors to express our spiritual experience. Readers are
encouraged to engage the book with an open mind and heart and, where necessary, to ‘translate’
the text into the wording that speaks to them. All Friends can recognize that those sitting next to
them on meetinghouse benches may have a different way of expressing their understanding and
experience—and that new insights can occur as we speak with and listen to one another.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is also diverse in the size and composition of its constituent
monthly meetings. The revision group hopes that the suggestions contained herein can be
tailored to meet the needs of all Friends meetings whether they are large or small, and speak both
to those who are quite familiar with the procedures outlined and to those who are new to
Quakerism and are eager to understand the ways of Friends. Throughout the text, the revision
group has attempted to describe current practice and to avoid prescription.
When the Faith and Practice Revision Group was appointed by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in
2009, it was charged to describe the structure and organization of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
and to bring Faith and Practice up to date. This group substantially reorganized the book for
greater clarity and usefulness. It also incorporated commitments made by Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting since the 2002 edition of Faith and Practice was published regarding both the integrity
of the earth and the need to address racism within and beyond Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
During the drafting process, the yearly meeting undertook a long range planning process which
was presented in the publication, “Re-Kindling Our Fire: A 5-Year Plan for Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting, 2015-2020.” The resulting structure of the yearly meeting, approved in 2014, is
referenced in this edition of Faith and Practice but not described in detail. Readers are invited to
visit the yearly meeting website (pym.org) for up-to-date descriptions of the groups and
individuals serving the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting community. The websites of other Friends
organizations are included for complementary information and materials. (See Sections V. and
VIII.) This edition of Faith and Practice is available online as well as in print.
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I. Experience and Faith
The following Advice, paraphrased from epistles of the yearly meeting in the late 17 th century,
expresses the challenge and promise of the spiritual journey of Friends.
Friends are advised to place God, not themselves, in the center of the universe and, in all
aspects of inward life and outward activity, to keep themselves open to the healing power
of the Spirit of Christ.
Advices, I
For many Friends, heeding this advice is a lifelong pursuit marked by faithful searching, creative
and energizing doubt, as well as the possibility of new awareness and transformation. The
centrality of God, the inward experience of the power of the Light, and the integration of inward
life and outward activity together define essential aspects of Quakerism.
Active engagement in the process of placing God at the center begins with a deeply felt
understanding of the Light Within.
A. The Light Within
The essential experience of Friends is that of a direct, unmediated relationship with the Divine.
Friends have used many terms or phrases to refer to the inner certainty of our faith: the Light
Within, the Inner Light, the Christ Within, the Inward Teacher, the Divine Presence, Spirit, the
Great Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, that of God in every person, and the Seed. In his journal, George
Fox referred to “that Inward Light, Spirit, and Grace by which all might know their salvation”
and to “that Divine Spirit which would lead them into all truth.” Today Friends continue to use
these terms and have added others out of a sense of ongoing revelation. For some Friends,
“spiritual energy” best describes their personal experience of that which enlivens and empowers
them in seeking truth for themselves and in community. In contrast with early Friends, not all
Friends today consider themselves to be Christians or even theists. Friends come from very
diverse religious backgrounds and experiences and apply their different perspectives as they
encounter the Light Within. Regardless of the journey that brings individuals to explore the
Quaker way, the invitation to enter into an unmediated, inward relationship with the Divine
continues to be at the heart of Quaker experience.
Through this relationship, each person encounters the Spirit, active in the world, and providing
guidance for everyday living. The reality of this spiritual relationship within each worshipper
brings the Friends meeting together as a community of faith. Friends understand that faithfulness
to Spirit can produce a spiritual energy within their faith community that encourages them to
support each other within that community, and most of all, to live in harmony with the Divine.
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Friends also understand that the experience of God continues to unfold and that the record of
God’s presence in human lives continues to be written.
Friends find that the Light Within:
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Accompanies, comforts and loves us as we seek Divine truth;
Reveals who we are, including what we would prefer not to see about ourselves, and
leads us out of spiritual darkness or dryness;
Illuminates, inspires and transforms us;
Shows us how to live with love, compassion and justice towards others;
Gives us energy and power to change ourselves and the world in small ways and large;
Leads us to the right decisions in our meetings for worship with attention to business;
Provides ongoing revelation of God’s truth.
The Light Within is not the same as the conscience or moral faculty. Conscience is conditioned
by education, personal experience, and the cultural and social environment. Only when the
conscience is illuminated by the Light of Christ can it serve as a dependable guide to a Spirit-led
life.
Recognition that God’s Light is in every person helps us to overcome our apparent separation
and differences from others; it leads to a sympathetic awareness of their needs and a sense of
responsibility towards them. Friends believe that the more widely and clearly the Light is
recognized and followed, the more the human family will come into harmony and peace.
“Therefore,” wrote George Fox, “in the Light wait, where unity is.”
B. Meeting for Worship
Meeting for worship is the primary setting for the fundamental experience of the Divine
Presence. Early Friends took literally the recorded words of Jesus: “For where two or three are
gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). They understood that
the Light Within could be experienced without the help of trained clergy and liturgy by all who
seek it. God spoke to them and through them in the silence. Any— and all— of them were
ministers of the Word of God, spoken and unspoken. They chose a form of worship that nurtures
the direct encounter with the Divine. Such worship centered in stillness has endured for over 350
years.
Each experience of worship is unique, and each worshipper approaches worship in a personal
way. Friends understand that worship is continuous and each person who enters the meeting
room joins in quietly, settling into the silence. In the deepening stillness, worshippers let go of
thoughts and distractions, open their hearts to the Light Within and listen for what truth God
might give them. Sitting together in silence has been called “expectant waiting” by Friends. Even
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in times of spiritual emptiness when unity and fulfillment seem distant, Friends find it necessary
to be present with others in worship. Vital worship depends on a deeply felt longing for God.
Friends find that meeting for worship:
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Draws the community together out of our shared hunger to know the Christ Within and to
care for one another;
Clears a space in our lives for God to enter, speak, heal, teach and lead;
Enfolds us in God’s infinite love and everlasting peace;
Gives us grateful awareness of our profound connectedness to one another and the natural
world;
Opens us to repentance, forgiveness and guidance;
Renews us and prepares us for service;
Sends us forth with inspired vision and commitment.
As Robert Barclay observed:
And as many candles lighted, and put in one place, do greatly augment the light
and make it more to shine forth; so when many are gathered into the same life,
there is more to the glory of God, and his power appears, to the refreshment of
each individual, for that he partakes not only of the light and life raised in
himself, but in all the rest.
There is no guarantee, however, that the movement of the Spirit during worship will proceed
smoothly and without difficulty. Each Friends meeting is encouraged to examine its spiritual
condition periodically in order to reveal any obstructions to which the meeting is prone. (See
Section VII. General Queries and Guidelines for a Spiritual Self-assessment of the Meeting.)
At the close of the meeting for worship, we shake hands in acknowledgment of our commitment
to one another and to the Light Within; and we go forth with renewed trust in the power and
reality of God's grace and love and of God’s presence in the world.
Some meetings complement meeting for worship with a variety of practices before or after
worship. Such activities include singing hymns, reading one of the General Queries,
“afterthoughts,” news from the children’s program, sharing joys and concerns, welcome and
introductions, and announcements.
1. Preparing for Worship
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The worship experience is enriched when individuals come to meeting with hearts and minds
prepared for worship through thoughtful reflection and listening to the Inward Teacher in the
course of daily life. In support of their worship experience, Friends use a variety of personal
spiritual practices such as daily prayer, meditation, Bible study, journaling, and gaining
familiarity with the spiritual journeys of others. Additional practices include: mindfulness
meditation; breathing and/or walking meditation; yoga and other forms of movement and sacred
dance; contemplation of art, music and literature; and immersion in the natural world. These
preparatory experiences, beneficial in their own right, often produce a quieting and a dropping
away of concerns of the ego and prepare Friends for the living stillness that is meeting for
worship.
Such is the evident certainty of that divine strength that is communicated by thus meeting
together, and waiting in silence upon God, that sometimes when one hath come in that
hath been unwatchful and wandering in his mind, or suddenly out of the hurry of outward
business, and so not inwardly gathered with the rest, so soon as he retires himself
inwardly, this power being in a good measure raised in the whole meeting, will suddenly
lay hold upon his spirit, and wonderfully help to raise up the good in him, and beget him
into the sense of the same power, to the melting and warming of his heart; even as the
warmth would take hold upon a man that is cold coming in to a stove, or as a flame will
lay hold upon some little combustible matter being near unto it.
Robert Barclay, 1678
2. Vocal Ministry
Direct communion with God constitutes the essential experience of meeting for worship. Fresh
insights may come to anyone out of the living stillness. Some insights are purely personal,
providing guidance and inspiration to that individual. Other insights seem meant for the meeting
as a whole.
Friends find that vocal ministry:
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Can arise in anyone who is present at meeting for worship;
Manifests itself in the individual as a “call”, described as an uncomfortable quickening or
a profound silence before speaking and a sense of relief or release afterward;
Arises from the heart rather than the head;
Impels the worshipper to rise and share the message received from Spirit;
Does not break the silence but adds to it;
Takes many different forms, including prayer, song, story, testimonial or dance;
Cannot be readily reconstructed afterward by the one who responds to the call;
Is a conduit for God’s love and work in the world;
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Is a call to faithfulness.
Those who are hesitant should feel the meeting community’s loving encouragement to give voice
to the message that arises within them. Friends who are frequent speakers in meeting for worship
serve the meeting best when they, like all others, wait patiently for the prompting of the Inward
Teacher. Friends need time to absorb each message, so it is important to allow space between
messages.
Friends are encouraged to welcome the movement of the Spirit in ministry. A given message
may resonate differently among worshippers or become clear with time. Individual messages
may converge toward a single, vital theme that becomes evident during the meeting; at other
times, apparently unrelated messages are later discovered to have an underlying unity.
Deciding in advance to speak or not to speak; feeling a duty to provide balance between silence
and spoken word; or crafting a message to appeal to guests, children or some other audience
interrupt the movement of the Spirit. We are reminded to trust the Spirit: even if not a single
word is spoken, meetings for worship can be profoundly moving experiences for all present.
C. Prayer
Friends know that prayer is essential both for deepening their worship and for living rightly
ordered lives. Through regular practice, prayer becomes an important means of making God
central to our lives.
There is a way of living in prayer at the same time that one is busy with the outward
affairs of daily living. This practice of continuous prayer in the presence of God involves
developing the habit of carrying on the mental life at two levels. At one level we are
immersed in the world of time, of daily affairs. At the same time but at a deeper level of
our minds, we are in active relation with the Eternal Life.
Thomas Kelly, 1942
Since Friends have no prescribed form of prayer, we are free to discover those practices and
words that meet our individual and communal needs. Prayer can be sung, thought, spoken, or
expressed through the work of our hands or the movements of our bodies. We may use formal
prayers, such as The Lord’s Prayer, or our own heartfelt words. We may simply “be” in the
Presence where words are unnecessary.
Friends find that prayer:
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Opens us to Spirit, so that we may come close to God and God may come close to us;
Is an instrument of God’s truth and love for and through us;
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Enables us to listen deeply for truth, to be healed and become whole;
Helps us to wait for guidance from the Inward Teacher;
Expresses to Spirit our gratitude, desire, love, joy, and thanksgiving;
Pours forth our sorrow, anger, struggle, and confession;
Unites us with those of other faiths;
Leads us to transformation, faithfulness, and service.
Friends are aware that praying by “holding in the Light” can contribute to healing for those who
suffer. Holding a person in the Light is a way of focusing love, without any expectation other
than that the recipient becomes whole in the moment and experiences the Spirit deeply. In this
form of prayer a specific outcome is not the intention, though comfort and a sense of spiritual
well-being may often result.
D. Friends, Scripture and Our Living Faith
George Fox was involved in the religious movement of 17 th century England that found radical
differences between the Christianity of the established church and the Christianity of the first
century as portrayed in the Bible. Fox abandoned the church—but not the scriptures—as he
searched for a direct relationship to God. He ultimately experienced that relationship in silent
waiting, alone and in assemblies with other seekers. He received insights, or “openings” as he
called them, first by God’s “immediate spirit and power,” and only later found them to be
“agreeable to Holy Scriptures.” Fox realized that scriptures must be read in the same spirit that
inspired those who wrote them. The Christ Within speaks in all ages in ways that people can
understand in their situation and time.
The concept of the Inward Light, the testimonies, and other ideas and practices that distinguished
the early Quaker movement and have remained essential to Friends through 350 years are all
rooted in the gospels. As Friends seek to know and live in the Light that is alive in them, they
can benefit from studying and knowing the biblical texts that were important to shaping and
nurturing the early Quaker movement.
Friends may deepen their understanding of the historical Jesus and the universal Christ by
engaging in group study and discussion of the Bible and the works of contemporary Quaker
writers and biblical scholars. Maturing insight and experience often lead us to discover that
passages once thought irrelevant and lifeless acquire power and meaning.
Friends know that their shared knowledge of the Bible deepens both spoken ministry and inward
listening. And Friends continue to find the Bible to be an important touchstone against which to
test their leadings.
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Quaker faith and practice can be compared and combined with a wide variety of other
traditions: such as Buddhism, or ethical humanism. But we will find our deepest and
fullest resonances with the biblical Christian traditions that nurtured early Friends and
with the Jewish traditions that nurtured Jesus.
Douglas Gwyn, 2013
Friends do not consider any scriptures, including the Bible, to be the final Word of God. Robert
Barclay cautioned that the scriptures are only a declaration of the source and not the source itself.
Friends believe in “continuing revelation” arising from ongoing communion with the Living
God. This expands our sensitivity in relationships with one another and likewise our knowledge
of the universe.
E. Discernment of the Guidance of the Spirit
As Friends seek to live faithfully as individuals and as meeting communities, they return often to
seek direct communion with the Divine. They find guidance through reading the Bible and other
sources of wisdom. And they clarify and focus their concerns and test their “leadings” by
responding to “queries”—open-ended questions based on Friends practices and testimonies.
These processes give the meeting and individuals a sense of clearness and confidence that they
are moving forward in harmony with the Divine.
At times an individual Friend may seek a more structured clearness process within the meeting.
These occasions might include application for membership, marriage under the care of the
meeting, decisions on an important life course, and to test a leading. For Friends, a leading is a
persistent thought or idea, believed to be a call from the Spirit that compels one to action. In each
of these situations, the meeting and the individual can draw on well-established practices that
enable Friends to understand the call and to act on the promptings of love and truth in their
hearts.
The meeting community itself uses defined processes to reach clearness in decisions and to guide
the actions of the meeting. “Spirit- led” decision making is central to the life and health of the
meeting.
The desire of Friends as individuals and as meeting communities is to live with greater
awareness of and faithfulness to the Light Within. Friends strive to integrate their inward life and
outward activity. In the sections that follow, we return often to discernment and clearness as
practices that lead us to greater harmony with the Light Within.
Dear Friends, keep all your meetings in the authority, wisdom and power of Truth and
the unity of the blessed Spirit. Let your conduct and conversation be such as become the
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Gospel of Christ. Exercise yourselves to have a conscience void of offense toward God
and toward all people. Be steadfast and faithful in your allegiance and service to your
Lord, and the God of peace be with you.
Elders of Balby, 1656
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II. Faith Reflected in Practice and Daily Life
Bring the whole of your life under the healing and ordering of the Holy Spirit,
remembering that there is no time but this present. Friends are reminded that we are
called, as followers of Christ, to help establish the Kingdom of God on earth.
Advices, IV
It is not easy to live faithfully as Friends in today’s world, to remain true to our heritage and
principles while trying to live fully in that world. But it has always been so. Each generation of
Friends has faced challenges involving the use of time and resources for education, work,
marriage and family life, personal relationships, and civic and social commitments.
Friends understand that our lives are nurtured and enriched as we move into a deeper relationship
with our Friends meeting community. The meeting community can help us meet the challenges
that we inevitably must face as individuals. Active participation in the life of the meeting—in
meetings for worship and business, and in social, educational and other meeting activities—
enables us to belong to a caring and supportive spiritual community.
A. Community Life
From the beginning, Friends have recognized the importance of being in community. As early
Friends struggled to follow God’s will, the Friends community provided spiritual support for
their discernment of that will and material support for their families when they were imprisoned
for their faith. Today, Friends continue to seek to be faithful, and their community continues to
provide discernment and care.
Though Friends meetings vary in the range and nature of their activities, all meetings strive to
offer a sympathetic and welcoming community in which people can share the joys and
challenges of daily life. Friends meetings also offer discreet, confidential and loving support
when needed, such as when a member feels a call to service or faces a life transition. In
particular, the meeting may form a clearness committee to assist the individual in sorting out
what to do. The meeting may also refer the individual to other resources when support beyond
what it can offer might be beneficial.
1. Concerns, Leadings and Testimonies
Throughout our history Friends have understood that we are not meant to conform to the ways of
the world, but to live in obedience to the Light Within and through this witness to transform the
world. An individual or group may feel a direct intimation of God’s will, a tender sense of a need
or difficulty either within the meeting or in the larger community. Initially, such a concern may
not be linked to any specific action, but may simply be a troubled sense that something is awry.
When the concern gains clarity and focus, Friends refer to it as a “leading,” a sense of being
called by God to undertake a particular course of action. The leading may be short-term or it may
involve an ongoing transformation of the person’s life, the community, and even the world.
When a leading to act in a public way arises, the Friend may seek to initiate a process of
discernment and testing within the meeting. This testing process is a form of spiritual discipline
for both the Friend with a leading and for the meeting community. It is intended to result in
clearness for both regarding what is to be done.
For more than 350 years, Friends have adopted practices that reflect deeply held, historically
rooted attitudes towards living in the world. The collective experience of “concerns” and
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“leadings” over time has led to what Friends refer to as “testimonies.” The testimonies are
outward expressions that reflect the inward experience of transformation through divine leading.
Contemporary Friends may identify our testimonies as simplicity, peace, integrity, community,
equality, and stewardship using the acronym SPICES. However, in the past, the testimonies
referenced specific acts of Friends responding to truth as they understood it. For instance, the
testimony against taking oaths grew out of the intention to speak truth always and not only when
one’s hand was on the Bible. Even today we say that our “testimony” is a demonstration in our
outward lives of Spirit’s movement within us.
2. Discernment, Clearness and Decision-making
Friends use discernment processes to gain clarity and support for personal leadings, to test a
corporate leading to act as a community, and to seek unity in meeting matters. For Friends,
discernment is the act of searching for truth, remaining open to the Light beyond the self. Friends
have faith that, for those who question and seek, there is always a way forward.
a. Individual Discernment
Friends practice discernment in their individual lives, prayerfully seeking divine guidance in
daily activities. They may also seek the meeting’s support in finding clearness when considering
a change in life direction or proposing an action to follow a leading. The act of seeking God’s
guidance is assisted by the meeting to assure that what is sensed by one is tested and affirmed by
the worshipping community.
A small group of Friends may serve as a “clearness committee” that meets in worship, listens
deeply to the person seeking clearness, and assists that person in exploring the issues and
discovering a way forward. The clearness process may be initiated informally by the individual
inviting a few trusted Friends to participate. Alternatively, the appointment of a clearness
committee may be entrusted to the meeting, often to its pastoral care committee. (See Section
VII. Guidelines for Care Committees.)
When an individual requests membership in the meeting or marriage under the care of the
meeting, the meeting then must discern whether to approve the request. Specifically, it assumes
the dual responsibilities to learn if there are other commitments or possible difficulties involved
for the individual making the request and to discern whether the meeting can fulfill the request.
Such clearness is specific to the needs of a marriage or membership. (See Section VII. Quaker
Marriage Procedure and Application for Membership.)
b. Corporate Discernment and Decision- making
Just as it is paramount for Friends to have clearness in their personal lives, so it is important for
Friends to have clearness regarding issues or concerns brought to the meeting for consideration.
Friends undertake corporate discernment and decision-making in the same expectant waiting for the guidance of
the Spirit as meeting for worship. With this in mind, some Friends call the occasion for conducting business
“meeting for worship with attention to business.” Others call it simply “meeting for business.” It is also known as
“monthly meeting” because it is usually held once a month. Regardless of the name used for the occasion, the
basis for Friends method of reaching decisions is a spiritual one.
In accordance with our understanding that there is that of God in each of us and that Truth is continually revealed,
all those attending the meeting for business seek to release whatever preferences or opinions they
may have about an issue before it is considered and become open to the leading of the Spirit as
they would in a meeting for worship. The goal of this decision-making process, then, is to discern
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God’s will for the meeting as a whole regarding the issue under consideration.
An important part of the process of corporate discernment takes place in the committees of the meeting, one or
more of which often is charged to season an issue before it is brought to the meeting as a whole for consideration.
Seasoning an issue might include gathering background information, drawing together those affected, or drafting
a proposal. The work of the meeting committee is conducted with much the same process and goal as a meeting
for worship with attention to business.
1) Sense of the Meeting and Unity
“Sense of the meeting” and “unity” are two important concepts of our Spirit-led method of reaching decisions.
Friends use “sense of the meeting” in two ways. The sense of the meeting may mean the decision
reached by the meeting on some issue or concern. Or it may be a statement of how the meeting
processed a matter, framed by the clerk or some other person. In the latter case, the sense of the
meeting may reflect that there is unity on the issue, whether to act or to refrain from acting, or it may reflect that
the meeting is not in unity and that no decision has been reached at this point.
“Unity” for Friends is spiritual oneness and harmony sought by the group. The unity that Friends
seek in meetings for business is thus the sense of being led together by God. Sometimes unity is
reached easily; sometimes it requires a lengthy process over a number of business meetings; and sometimes it is
not yet available to the meeting community.
In recording a decision, one meeting may say they “reached unity” on the matter, while another
may report that they arrived at a “sense of the meeting,” and they may mean the same thing.
While there are subtle differences in the language and approach used among Friends, at the heart
of Friends discernment process is a discipline of deep listening that supports the unfolding of a
sense of Truth among the members of the community as facts and feelings are sorted through.
Being attentive to the Light Within grounds discernment beyond those facts and feelings so that
members grow in unity with Spirit. Our search is for unity, not unanimity. We consider ourselves
to be in unity when we share in the search for Truth, when we listen faithfully for God, when we
submit our wills to the guidance of Spirit, and when our love for one another is constant.
Friends differentiate between sense-of-the-meeting decision-making and consensus. Consensus is
the outcome of a widely used and valuable secular process characterized by a search for general
agreement largely through rational discussion and compromise. A sense of the meeting is the
outcome of a spiritual process characterized by deep listening to each other and trusting in God’s
guidance. While ideally both processes result in a course of action to which all participants can
agree, reaching the sense of the meeting relies consciously on the Spirit. Reasoned argument and
lively debate are secondary to spiritual insight and divine leading.
Seeking the sense of the meeting is democratic in that all Friends present are encouraged to
participate. However, it goes beyond democracy in its expectation that participants set aside their
personal convictions in order to be led by a Guide beyond the self. It can be deeply satisfying for
those participating in Friends decision-making when the needs and aspirations of the meeting
take precedence over individual preferences. When everyone listens with an open heart and
remains teachable, the meeting has the opportunity to come to decisions in harmony with the
Spirit.
2) Preparation for Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
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Thoughtful preparation enables the meeting for business to follow the leadings of the Spirit.
Meetings may find it helpful to consider the following suggestions.
The clerks or other designated persons prepare and distribute the agenda and other essential
information in advance. In creating the agenda, care is taken to assess whether an item is ready
for consideration by the group, what items should receive the most attention, and, if necessary,
what items might be held over to a future session.
Individuals and committees expected to bring matters before the meeting are asked to prepare
and share their material in advance whenever possible.
Also, individuals presenting an issue for consideration meet first with an appropriate meeting
committee or clearness committee to explore and test both the concern and a proposed course of
action. It is helpful for issues to be well seasoned before bringing them to the meeting. Items of
business benefit from research, background information, and review by a committee within the
meeting.
Friends and attenders prepare themselves for the meeting for business by reading the advance
material and preparing their hearts and minds for Spirit-led decision-making. Friends can help
deepen the meeting for business by holding the session itself in worship.
Members arrive promptly and settle into worship. This contributes much to the depth and power
of the meeting.
The clerk arranges the time and place of gathering and other organizational details in order to
encourage as many as possible to attend and to provide ample opportunity for the unhurried
conduct of business.
If a presiding or recording clerk has not already been appointed or is unable to serve, the meeting
agrees how to proceed, often by naming someone to serve for that meeting for business.
The promptings of the Inward Teacher may come with power to anyone present, without respect
to age or experience. Friends know both the value of those whose experience and advice in
similar matters have been helpful in the past and that sensitive and powerful insights can come
through newer and younger participants.
3) Conducting the Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
Although an individual Friend is designated clerk to facilitate the meeting for business, all
members share responsibility for maintaining a Spirit-led meeting, for the wise use of time, and
for a steadfast search for Truth. All are expected to be attentive and to offer insights that arise
from reflective worship. When a matter for discernment comes before the meeting for business,
Friends who feel led to speak to it ask to be recognized by the clerk. The clerk listens for the
sense of the meeting in the insights Friends offer and determines when to propose it to the group.
After the sense of the meeting is proposed, members may offer suggestions for its improvement.
The clerk then tests the sense of the meeting by asking whether the group can unite with it. If so,
the meeting records the sense of the meeting—the decision—in a minute that is read back to and
approved by the meeting. The clerk is responsible for seeing that any follow-up action is carried
out, often by others, and is reported back to the meeting.
When the clerk proposes the sense of the meeting, several outcomes are possible. Members who
18
feel it has been accurately stated say, “I approve.” When members have genuine reservations or
objections to a proposed action or decision and are unable to approve—or unite with—the sense
of the meeting, there are several options for the clerk, the individual and the meeting to consider.
These options are explained in the next part of this section. It is also possible that the sense of the
meeting may or may not include a decision to take action. We may wrestle with an issue or may
realize we need more time or information and determine we are not ready to make a decision at
the time. The sense of the meeting will state that and whether the meeting will come back to the
subject at another time.
Friends come to meeting for business with an openness to the Spirit that inspires careful
speaking and listening, trust, humility, compassion and courage. Worship also enhances respect
for others, as participants seek the Light revealed through others. An openness of spirit enables
Friends to hear and incorporate differing, even contradictory, views.
Friends generally welcome the participation in meeting for business of serious and consistent
attenders (that is, persons who are not formally members but are active in the life of the
meeting). At times, meetings may advise non-members to show sensitive restraint when
addressing particular meeting affairs. In rare circumstances it may be necessary for a decision to
be reached by the members only. In this case, non-members may be asked to hold the meeting in
the Light during that time.
4) When Friends Disagree
Friends often find themselves most challenged when, during meeting for business, members
offer firmly held but incompatible responses to an issue. When a member feels strongly about
that issue and even seeks to prevent the meeting from reaching a decision, it is important that the
meeting test this person’s conviction in a loving spirit, and examine responsibly the
consequences of acting or not acting on the issue.
The search for unity rests with all in the meeting, including those who oppose the proposed
course of action. The following lists include questions, practical steps and choices that may be
helpful to consider when Friends disagree.
(a) Questions that may be helpful for all to consider when disagreement threatens to divide a
meeting:





Have all Friends tried to set aside their personal desires and preferences in order to be led
by the Spirit?
Have Friends considered whether God’s will for them as individuals may differ from
God’s will for the meeting?
Have all Friends taken care to discern, in a loving and prayerful spirit, that of God in the
perspective of those with whom they disagree?
Do those in conflict regularly reaffirm, in voice and attitude, the love they feel for one
another?
If Friends have not yet done the work to listen to and affirm those with whom they
disagree, what will support them to do this?
(b) Practical steps that may be helpful in enabling the meeting to move toward unity:

The clerk, or another member, may ask the meeting to move into silence in order to settle
Friends’ energy and deepen the spiritual search.
19




The clerk may ask Friends to examine each position in the Light in order to discern the
work of the Spirit or to allow another possibility—a third or new way— to emerge.
The meeting may reschedule the matter, encouraging members to continue their search
for right action in solitary prayer and meditation.
When there is much disagreement, uncertainty or discomfort within the community about
an issue, the clerk may suggest holding a threshing session. The special role of a
threshing session is that it provides ample time for questions and discussion and allows
all differences of viewpoints and feelings to be expressed. It is not a time for decisionmaking.
The clerk may ask a small group to withdraw and draft a minute with the hope and
expectation that the resulting minute will lead to unity. The rest of the meeting may
proceed with other business or wait in worship.
After patient searching over a considerable period, the meeting may conclude that the sense of
the meeting is clear and unity in the Spirit has been reached, acknowledging that some Friends
continue to have reservations about the decision.
Alternatively, the clerk may indicate that the sense of the meeting is not clear and that no
decision can be made nor action taken until unity in the Spirit is reached.
(c) Options for when an individual cannot unite with the sense of the meeting:
When a Friend has genuine reservations or objections to a proposed action or decision and feels
unable to approve—or unite with—the sense of the meeting, there are several options for the
clerk, the individual and the meeting to consider.



The clerk ensures that those Friends who disapprove of the sense of the meeting have an
opportunity to state their concerns. In so doing, Friends may feel released from the
burden of their concern, having laid it on the conscience of the meeting, and decide to
withdraw their objections, thereby allowing the meeting to move forward in unity.
Friends may choose to “stand aside,” recognizing that while the emerging decision does
not reflect their personal preferences, the meeting will go forward. A person who stands
aside is expected to share their reason with the group. The person may choose to be
named in the minutes or remain anonymous. When a member of the community chooses
to stand aside, the meeting may be reluctant to proceed or wish to give the matter further
consideration. If the meeting decides to proceed with the decision, the person who stood
aside is expected to support it.
The Friend may continue to hold deep feelings or convictions that prevent them from
being able to stand aside.
The meeting takes this response very seriously and may:



Postpone making a decision to provide opportunity to further understand the individual’s
objections and for all to grow in the wisdom and guidance of the Spirit;
Decide to go no further with the issue under consideration, minuting that unity of spirit
could not be reached or that the meeting was unwilling to proceed without it;
Move forward with the decision, usually having labored over a protracted period with the
individual who continued to oppose the proposed action and was unable to unite with the
community.
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Friends who do not agree with the decision should affirm their spiritual unity with the meeting.
That unity requires those Friends to accept with good grace the consequences of the decision for
the meeting and for them. That spiritual unity also requires the rest of the meeting to keep the
objections in mind as they proceed and to treat tenderly and lovingly those who had disagreed.
These expectations reflect trust in divine guidance and the commitment of all members to reach
unity in the Spirit.
3. Friends and Education
a. Education and Spiritual Formation
Since its beginnings, the Religious Society of Friends has emphasized the importance of
education both for its own members and for society generally. Friends believe that education is
especially beneficial if it instills a concern for others and strengthens a commitment to live
faithfully.
For guidance in word and deed, we look first to the Spirit, recognizing that formal education in
itself may not lead to a deeper spiritual sensitivity. Many who contribute significantly to the life
and ministry of the meeting may not have extensive formal education. We know from experience
that a broad education helps us to identify what is faithful to the Light in our own leadings, to
interpret and communicate those leadings, and to weigh the leadings of others.
Friends regard continual spiritual growth as essential. Such growth is nurtured by receptivity to
the Inward Teacher, by participation in meeting for worship, by studying the Bible, other sacred
texts and other literature, and by the inspiration of exemplary lives. Although Friends emphasize
spiritual formation, we do not neglect the acquisition of intellectual, aesthetic and practical skills
and understanding. Within the family, the Friends meeting, and the various levels of formal
education, Friends are committed to balancing heart, mind and hand in spiritual wholeness.
Friends who are called to careers in education of every kind and at every level, public and
private, see this service as an opportunity to lead themselves and others into spiritual growth.
b. Friends and Public Education
Friends have a responsibility, as do all citizens, to be informed, concerned and active supporters
of public education. As parents, teachers, administrators, school board members, consultants and
taxpayers, Friends can be important advocates for all children in the community. Friends are also
expected to give informed, active support to Quaker children who attend public schools and to
those Friends who devote themselves as teachers and administrators in the public educational
system at any level. Such support is of particular importance to those children and adults who,
through their commitment to Truth and the quality of their relationships, seek to maintain a
Quaker witness in situations where others might not share our testimonies such as opposition to
military recruitment and to the introduction of weapons in educational institutions.
c. Friends Educational Institutions
Friends have founded a substantial number of educational institutions in the Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting region. These include colleges, a study/retreat center, and more than 40 nursery,
elementary and secondary schools. Today, the colleges are independent and the schools have a
variety of governance arrangements. The schools now serve substantially more non-Friends than
Friends and are an important way that people learn about the Religious Society of Friends. The
schools continue to seek to provide a community life and experience guided by Friends
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principles.
A meeting may be asked to assist its members and attenders who seek financial and other
practical support in order to attend a Friends school. It may be asked to help special needs
children attend a Friends school established to serve those with learning differences.
Occasionally, it may be asked to provide guidance for families that choose to instruct their
children at home. A meeting may consider the challenge of forming and sustaining its own
Friends school, especially when the children of its members and attenders do not have access to
an existing Friends school.
Ideally, Friends educational institutions seek to create intentional community and prepare
participants for engagement in the work of the world. A Friends educational institution is more
likely to incorporate spiritual values throughout its programs if it has a solid core of students,
parents and graduates who understand and actively support Quaker principles and practices. The
effectiveness of a Quaker witness in our schools and colleges also depends upon the spiritual
depth and commitment of the members of the governing body, the administrators and the staff.
People who have experienced Friends concerns for simplicity, equality, justice and compassion
in our educational institutions often have a significant, positive influence in their wider
communities. Because these institutions embody our ways of worship, our social testimonies and
our commitment to service, they are an important form of outreach to the wider world. Such
beneficial influences motivate Friends, as individuals and as meetings, in their ongoing support
of Friends educational institutions.
Friends schools and colleges today seek to include students and staff from widely varied
economic and ethnic backgrounds. Bringing together various traditions, experiences and
perspectives in a common search for truth requires time, thought and genuine willingness to
change, and offers the rewards of deeper understanding and a vital and inclusive community.
4. Friends Witness in the World
a. Friends and Peace
Since all human beings are children of God, Friends are called to love and respect all persons and
to overcome evil with good. Friends strive to have our words and lives stand as a positive
witness in a world torn by strife and violence.
The Religious Society of Friends has consistently held that war is contrary to the Spirit of Christ,
as stated in the Declaration to King Charles II made by English Friends in 1660:
Our principle is, and our practices have always been, to seek peace, and ensue it,
and to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the good and
welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all. All bloody principles and
practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings (sic)
with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence (sic) whatsoever, and
this is our testimony to the whole world. That spirit of Christ by which we are
guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and
again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that
the spirit of Christ which leads us into all Truth will never move us to fight and
war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ,
nor for the kingdoms of this world.
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And as for the kingdoms of this world, we cannot covet them, much less can we
fight for them, but we do earnestly desire and wait, that by the word of God’s
power and its effectual operation in the hearts of men the kingdoms of this world
may become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, that he might rule and
reign in men by his spirit and truth, that thereby all people, out of all different
judgments and professions might be brought into love and unity with God and one
with another, and that they might all come to witness the prophet’s words, who
said, ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more’. (Is 2:4; Mic 4:3)
Declaration to King Charles II, 1660
Friends know that this historic testimony has become a living testimony as we work to give
concrete expression to ideals that often are in opposition to prevailing opinion. The peace
testimony is closely linked to the basic Friends commitment to honor that of God in every
person, so as to avoid not only physical violence but also psychological, economic or systemic
forms of coercion. At the same time, we acknowledge that conflict can be an opportunity to
lovingly engage those with whom we disagree and that love can often be expressed to resolve
disagreement in creative, nonviolent ways. When we encounter people whose views profoundly
differ from our own, we can also manifest that love by affirming the sincerity with which they
hold those views, while forthrightly expressing our own convictions.
As we reflect further on the sources of violence and war, we may be led to consider seriously our
employment, our investments, our purchases, our payment of taxes, and our manner of living.
These choices may be a source of harm to others, whether overtly or in the covert forms inherent
to some long-established social practices and institutions.
Friends support those who refuse to cooperate with military conscription as well as those who
perform alternative service as conscientious objectors. While counseling against military service,
we hold in love our members who feel they must undertake it.
We work as we are able to alleviate the suffering caused by war. While military responses in
some situations may seem to offer relief of suffering, we are convinced that the real answer lies
in the increased capacity to meet human needs and address conflicts before war begins, through
diplomacy and humanitarian missions.
We strive to refrain from participating in all forms of violence and oppression while supporting
efforts to secure international agreements for the reduction and elimination of armaments and to
remove the domination of militarism in our society. We work with others, in our individual lives
and in our institutions, to apply proven techniques for the nonviolent resolution and
transformation of conflict. We support programs that convert facilities built for war to peaceful
uses. We apply our gifts—of spirit, of intellect, of time and energy—to work for an international
order that cares for human needs and the earth’s resources.
Friends are not opposed to all forms of physical force. For instance, it is sometimes necessary
and proper for peace officers to use minimal forms of physical restraint in dealing with persons
who do injury to others or who will not cooperate with just law. Friends do oppose the use of
either physical or psychological violence in maintaining public order.
b. Responsibilities of Citizenship
Friends recognize that the state is a necessary instrument for meeting human needs and for
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maintaining an orderly society with justice under law for all. As part of our witness to bring
about such a society, Friends participate actively in public life. As citizens, Friends bear witness
by demonstrating respect for others while faithfully pursuing our leadings. From our earliest days
Friends have counseled obedience to the state except when the law or ruling involved appears
contrary to divine leading.
In that case, Friends test any proposed action by seeking clearness and support from the meeting.
When Friends decide to disobey the law in accordance with divine leading, it is expected that they
will act openly and make clear to the authorities the spiritual grounds of their action. If the
decision leads to legal penalties, Friends generally suffer willingly. Friends not personally
involved in such actions can strengthen the meeting community by supporting fellow members
with spiritual encouragement and, when necessary, with material aid.
In public office, Friends have an opportunity to bear witness to the power which integrity,
courage, respect for others, and careful attention to different points of view can exert in creating
a just community. If a Friend encounters a conflict between faithfulness to God and an apparent
duty as a public official, a prayerful search for divine guidance may lead either to a suitable
resolution of the conflict or to a decision to resign.
c. Sustainable Stewardship of the Earth and Resources
All that we have in ourselves and our possessions are gifts from God entrusted to us for our
responsible use. Jesus reminds us that we must not lay-up earthly treasures for ourselves, “for
where your treasures are, there will your hearts be also” (Matthew 6:21). We cannot serve both
God and material wealth. (Matthew 6:24). To be good stewards in God’s world calls us to
examine and consider the ways in which our testimonies for peace, equality and simplicity
interact to guide our relationships with all life.
O that we who declare against wars, and acknowledge our trust to be in God only, may
walk in the light, and thereby examine our foundation and motives in holding great
estates! May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments
and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions.
John Woolman, c. 1770
In today’s world of economic interactions that are far more complex than when John Woolman
lived, Friends are challenged to examine their decisions about money and other resources to see
whether they contain not only the seeds of war, but also of self-indulgence, injustice and
ecological disaster. Good stewardship of economic resources consists both in avoiding these
evils and acting to advance peace, simple living, justice and a healthy ecosystem. Good
stewardship also requires attention to the needs of organizations that advance Friends values,
including our own meetings.
1) Right Sharing
A life that testifies to the value of economic equality depends on a commitme nt to share the
world’s resources. Friends in comfortable circumstances are encouraged to find practical
applications of the testimonies of simplicity and equality in their earning and their spending, as
they consider for their own lives the meaning of economic equality and simplicity. As they ask
what level of income is sufficient for their needs, they might also ask what portion of their
income could be shared beyond the immediate family. That decision requires balancing the social
value of self- sufficiency with the social value of providing help for those in need. It also requires
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decisions about which expenditures are essential and which are discretionary, and about the
values that underlie discretionary spending.
2) Walking Gently on the Earth
The well-being of the earth is a fundamental spiritual concern. Many have linked the wonders of
nature with the Divine. How we treat the earth and its creatures is a basic part of our relationship
with God. Our planet as a whole requires our responsible attention.
As Friends have become aware of the interconnectedness of all life on this planet and the
devastation caused by neglect or destruction of any part of it, we have become more willing to
extend our sense of community to encompass all living things. Today, we see that instead of
acting as good stewards of the natural world, humans have been a major threat to the ecosystem.
Friends feel deeply the call to walk gently on the earth. Living in right relationship with the
natural world requires continuing attention to wasteful and extravagant consumption as a major
cause of environmental destruction. The right sharing of the world’s finite resources requires all
nations to reduce their present levels of consumption in order that the needs of people in
underdeveloped nations be met and the earth’s life-sustaining systems restored. The world cannot
tolerate the present rate of consumption.
As Friends pay attention to a Spirit-led, right relationship with the earth and its resources, we
seek to become models and patterns of simple living and concern for our earth. Though some
find it difficult to change their way of life, others make choices that avoid straining the world’s
resources of clean air, water, soil and energy. Simple living inspires us to choose energy options
and practices that reduce our use of energy sources that damage our environment. We are called
to challenge the forces driving us toward environmental destruction with the same passion and
commitment that we challenge the forces of war.
3) Friends and Equality
Friends believe there is that of God in every person, and that all people are equal before God.
Friends pioneered in recognizing the gifts and rights of women. Women were ministers and
leaders of the early meetings. Friends came more slowly to recognize the evil of slavery and of
discrimination, and have often been guilty of sharing the prejudices of the broader society. In
recent years, Friends have taken stands against discrimination based on sexual orientation and
other forms of oppression to which they had earlier been insensitive. An element of that
insensitivity is a failure to recognize the privileged status many American Friends enjoy. As
Friends examine our own attitudes and practices, we increasingly realize that the challenges of
achieving equality in the Religious Society of Friends demand a commitment to overcome all
remaining vestiges of inequality and injustice both in our faith community and in the larger
society.
Friends affirmation of the principle of human equality in the sight of God is important and
necessary, but not sufficient. Friends must seek to identify those structures, institutions,
language, and thought processes that overtly and more subtly support discrimination and
exploitation, and then work to overcome them. Friends often work with victimized and exploited
groups, including support for the nonviolent efforts of the exploited to achieve selfdetermination. Friends realize that exploitation impairs the human quality of the exploiter as well
as of the exploited, and must work with both groups.
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4) Friends and Criminal Justice
Many early Friends were persecuted and even imprisoned for worshipping as Friends. That
experience propelled Friends to work in prisons, ministering to the spiritual and material needs
of inmates, as well as actively seeking ways to reform our system of criminal justice. Believing
that the penal system often reflects structural and systemic injustice in our society, Friends seek
alternatives to incarceration and work to reduce the construction and use of prisons. Friends
believe that redemption and restorative justice, not punishment and retribution, are the essential
elements of a reformed criminal justice system.
Seeking to heal the wounds of harmful actions, Friends are called to many different kinds of
service in the criminal justice system. Friends are active in prison visitation, in the campaign to
abolish capital punishment, and in programs that work with victims, offenders, and law
enforcement officers in order to restore the victim, the offender, and the community. The healing
love and trust in divine leading that such disciplined service requires can greatly assist the
rebuilding of broken lives and communities.
B. Personal Life
Friends recognize that each person is engaged in a personal and spiritual journey that is unique.
Through active involvement in a meeting, individuals can be supported and enriched as they live
and grow in a worshipping community. Openness to sharing experiences, willingness to ask for
assistance, and trust in the integrity of the community together create a mutually supportive and
accountable meeting.
1. Life Passages
a. Marriage
From the beginning, Friends have emphasized the equality of marriage partners. George Fox
admonished that Friends should be married “as though they were not, both husband and wife free
to do God’s work and not possessive of one another.” Later, Lucretia Mott wrote that “in the
marriage union, the independence of the husband and wife will be equal, their dependence
mutual, and their obligations reciprocal.” Friends today continue to share these commitments to
marriage equality, but extend this to include marriage partners without delineating the
individuals by gender.
Formal declaration of commitment in the presence of God and Friends under the care of the
meeting establishes a foundation for a shared life of spiritual wholeness. Such a religious
commitment liberates rather than constricts the couple’s natural impulses toward passion and
spontaneity and becomes a source of joy, not only for the couple but also for the meeting and all
others in the couple’s life. A meeting has a responsibility to nurture a marriage of members
whether or not that marriage began under its care. (See Section VII. Quaker Marriage
Procedure.)
Relationships which were formally entered into under the covering of the Spirit may nevertheless
experience severe challenges. The meeting needs to recognize such situations early and be
prepared to help with tender understanding and sensitivity. Offering the support of a clearness
committee may be helpful. The meeting may also help the couple secure professional counseling,
such as that provided by the Friends Counseling Service, which is associated with the yearly
meeting. The couple and those counseling with them may wish to consider together such
questions as:
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


Have you sought divine guidance for the situation in which you now find yourselves?
Have you been able to acknowledge that of God in each other as you work through this
difficulty?
Do commitments to such testimonies as equality, peace and integrity consistently guide
your relationship?
However, the meeting community may not be able to help a couple deal with their situation. The
relationship may have deteriorated beyond the point of reconciliation. Children may need
substantial help to recognize that the separation of their parents will significantly change the
family situation, but not the love and commitment that each parent has for them.
In the event of separation, the meeting could again offer a clearness committee to help the couple
consider the questions just noted as well as the following:



Have you been able to make careful, loving, and appropriate efforts to help your children
understand what brought about this situation?
How will you continue to relate to your children to show them that you love them?
Have you carefully considered equitable ways of handling property and financial matters?
Divorce or the dissolution of any committed relationship is an intimate matter accompanied by
strong feelings. The meeting’s role is difficult. Without becoming intrusive, it seeks to be caring
and even-handed, keeping in contact with family member and other parties. The meeting
encourages all concerned to continue their lives as Friends even as the relationship dissolves.
(See Section VII. Guidelines for Care Committees.)
b. Family Formation
The decision to create a family either by birth or adoption is momentous. As with a marriage
commitment made in the presence of God, the families and the worshipping community, so it
can be with the decision to have children. The meeting can support the couple or single parent by
offering the services of a clearness committee. It can also provide support through pregnancy or
adoption proceedings, and as the family adjusts to the demands and joys of caring for a child.
Some Friends meetings have embraced the practice of inviting new parents to introduce their
children to the meeting to be formally welcomed into the community. In this way, parents are
supported as they involve their children in the life of the meeting, and develop practices to
support and nurture each child’s life of spiritual faithfulness, joy and service.
c. End of Life, Death and Bereavement
Friends are advised to prepare for death as well as for the possibility of incompetence in their last
days. This simplifies the tasks others will need to undertake and spares others unnecessary pain
and confusion.
Regardless of age, there are decisions for all Friends to consider in preparation for the end of life,
including when:
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Physical and mental capacities diminish but do not preclude active engagement in the
community around them;
Activities and decisions become dependent to a significant degree on others;
Others must act responsibly to manage what Friends leave behind.
Friends are advised to consider their plans to:
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Provide care for dependents;
Dispose of real property, financial assets, and personal and household goods;
Prepare advance medical directives, or their equivalents, and durable powers of attorney;
Record wishes relating to the body after death, whether for burial or cremation or
donation for medical or scientific purposes; and
Identify the locations of any pertinent documents for the benefit of those persons who
will be expected to act on the information in those documents after the death (for
instance, an attorney and children or other members of the family).
(See Section VII. Queries and Checklist on End-of-Life Matters.)
1) Responsibilities of the Meeting
The Friends meeting will regularly remind its members of their responsibilities to make suitable
preparations for death and for the possibility of incompetence as noted above, and will provide
members with helpful sources of information and assistance that can guide them in fulfilling
their responsibilities. It will also ask members to share their wishes relating to the body after
death, their instructions for a memorial meeting for worship, and anything else that could help
the meeting fulfill these responsibilities when they die. Where possible, the meeting may help the
person heal breaches with others, tend to unfinished business, and forgive oneself for failings
during life.
Upon the death of a member, of a person in a member’s family, or of a person with close ties to
the meeting, either the meeting’s pastoral care committee or another designated committee will
arrange for someone to visit the family to extend the meeting’s sympathy, and gently to assist the
family as it adjusts to its loss. The visitor may also discuss plans for a memorial meeting.
It is expected that the meeting will be especially attentive to the needs of family members during
what may be an extended period of mourning. The death of a loved one may leave a survivor
alone and unable to cope with unfamiliar financial obligations and difficult decisions about
property and arrangements for the future. Emotions surrounding the loss are likely to run very
deep for a long time, even when death has come as release from suffering. When sudden death
by illness, accident or suicide strikes younger people, the emotional and financial strain upon the
survivors can be very heavy. In all these cases, not only the pastoral care committee but all
members of a meeting are expected to provide active, sensitive support that extends well beyond
the memorial meeting.
The meeting may be able to help in many practical ways including hospitality for those family
and friends who come from a distance to attend the memorial meeting, child care, meals and
housework. The meeting will need to respond with sensitivity to the family’s wishes. If asked, it
may assist in notifying relatives, friends and the public press of the death and of plans for a
memorial meeting.
The meeting can help plan a memorial meeting under the care of the meeting so that it will be in
accord with the simplicity appropriate to a meeting for worship, or assist the family in arranging
for a private memorial gathering. Members of the meeting are encouraged to support the family
by attending the memorial meeting. Even if the family’s plans do not include a memorial
meeting, the meeting may decide, with the family’s concurrence, to hold one. In addition, the
meeting may wish to prepare a memorial minute as an expression of its appreciation of the life
and service of the deceased member.
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2) Memorial Meetings for Worship
When Friends experience the death of a member, they gather for a memorial meeting for
worship. As the meeting begins, a designated person may describe the nature of the occasion and
invite those present to speak if led to do so. While the worshippers remember the life and service
of the deceased and mourn the passing, they also celebrate God’s gift of life and the beauty of
human character. Members of the family may request that passages of Scripture, poetry, prayer
or music be shared during the meeting. Those present may be drawn to speak of their memories
of the deceased, whether poignant, loving, grateful, instructive or even humorous. A memorial
meeting is a time when the mystery of death is deeply felt, and when the presence of God and
those gathered in worship can bring comfort, hope and consolation.
Meetings may find it helpful to the bereaved family to hold a simple reception following the
memorial meeting. Such an occasion gives an opportunity for those present to express more
personally their grief, love and thanksgiving. It can also serve as a helpful transition to everyday
life.
If ashes are to be deposited or scattered in some cherished spot or if there is to be an interment,
whether done privately or at the time of the memorial meeting, the family may ask that someone
prepare a brief message of farewell. This can be a particularly poignant moment, and the meeting
needs to be sensitive to these emotions.
2. Personal Relationships
a. Family Life and the Home
Home and family can be both a refuge from the pressures and demands of the existing world and
a path to a better world. In a Quaker family, a child may first become aware of the presence of
God in our lives when the family incorporates spiritual practices as a regular and essential part of
its daily routine. Such practices can include shared worship and prayer, reading from the Bible
and other sacred writings, and silent or spoken grace at meals.
As with the Friends meeting itself, a Quaker home seeks to bring all its members into unity of
spirit and practice. Not least, this entails cultivating an appropriate balance between the exercise
of authority and the development of individual autonomy. Parents have an obligation to be
guided by the Inward Teacher in the exercise of their authority, though there is value in the
whole family seeking such guidance. Fair, loving and just expectations and behaviors practiced
among all family members bring a sense of security to the children and a sense of order to the
adults. The best gift parents can offer their children is to exemplify conscientious, consistent,
loving conduct day in and day out.
Open discussion contributes to a loving, patient atmosphere in the home, developing
interpersonal relationships based on mutual respect and care. It is helpful for parents to establish
expectations of behavior for the child, and for both parent and child to continually review and
adjust these expectations. Guidelines are not for children alone; parents too must be committed
to a disciplined, Spirit-led life. If a family has continual problems with rules, a family meeting
for clearness may help resolve difficulties. The meeting community can also help by offering
such things as Friendly parenting discussion and support groups.
Conflict in a family is natural; when lovingly and constructively dealt with, it is an opportunity
for growth and sometimes for an affirmation of individual leadings. Learning to handle
disagreements in a calm and fair manner prepares the way for solving differences in school, the
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neighborhood and the larger society. Anger between family members can signal a problem that
requires attention if it persists. Friends families are not immune to abuse and domestic violence.
The meeting has a responsibility to become aware of such situations and to intervene with loving
support.
Family recreation promotes restoration, solidarity and spiritual well-being. The possibilities
include reading aloud, singing or playing music, gardening, taking a walk, engaging in arts and
crafts as well as games and sports. Both competitive and non-competitive games can teach
lessons of fairness, sportsmanship and self-esteem and develop fellowship within the family.
In the loving home and family, everyone learns about equality and its limitations, simple forms
of stewardship, integrity in its many forms, simplicity in all its complexities, and how difficult
and satisfying it is to be peaceable. Indeed, the family can be the most immediate and basic
context in which individuals learn to live Friends testimonies.
Two of our testimonies, simplicity and stewardship, may be especially important for family life.
A family that strives to practice simplicity is more likely to exercise stewardship in the use of its
social and material resources. This will include decisions about the family’s financial
commitments to its monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings, as well as opportunities for family
witness and service to others. The participation of all family members in discussions and
decisions about possessions and activities helps children develop their capacity to make sound
judgments about the value of time and worth of different activities, as well as their understanding
of Spirit-led decision-making in which ego and personal preferences are less significant than
what is in the best interest of the family as a whole. Parents have an opportunity in such
discussions and decisions to model a process that gives priority to listening, faithfulness and
service.
“Traditional” families characterized by a husband, wife, and children once constituted the great
majority of the Friends meeting community. Today’s membership reflects many varied forms of
families including single parent households, same gender spouses, blended families, and multigenerational households. Whatever their composition, families remain a vital ingredient of our
meeting communities.
b. Sexuality
Friends seek to acknowledge and nurture sexuality as a divine gift that celebrates human love
with joy and intimacy. In defining healthy sexuality, Friends are guided by our testimonies: that
sexual relationships are equal, not exploitative; that sexual behavior be marked by integrity; and
that sex is an act of love, not aggression. Sexuality is at once an integral and an intricate part of
personality. Understanding our own sexuality is an essential aspect of our journey toward
wholeness. Learning to incorporate sexuality into our lives responsibly, joyfully and with
integrity is a lifelong process beginning in childhood.
Friends are wary of a fixed moral code to govern sexual activity. The sacramental quality of the
sexual relationship depends upon Spirit as well as on the motives of the persons concerned. With
guidance from the Inward Teacher, we can examine relationships honestly, with the strength to
reconcile often conflicting demands of body, heart and mind. Precisely because our sexuality is
so powerful, seeking the Divine becomes essential. The self-discipline and obedience to Spirit
thus called for is more personal, and perhaps more difficult, than adherence to an external code.
Friends approve the concept of family planning, including adoption. We are in unity about the
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value of human life, but not about abortion. We are urged to seek the guidance of the Spirit when
dealing with an unintended pregnancy and to support one another in avoiding situations that
contribute to the need for abortion.
A Quaker home establishes an atmosphere where openness and honesty prevail. It is within the
intimate family circle that children establish their identities as persons; an atmosphere which
supports their feelings of confidence encourages this development. Children at a very early age
develop a sense of their own gender identity and are curious about gender and sexual differences.
Within a loving and secure family, even young children are encouraged to ask questions about
gender and sex, as parents acquire the confidence to respond to those questions.
Sex education can begin as early as seems appropriate with the use of terms that children
understand. The level of understanding is not uniform, and wise parents will judge each child’s
capacity to absorb answers to their questions. Simple, direct answers need be no threat to a
child’s innocence, and parents do the child no favors by surrounding the subject with fables and
mystery. Undramatic introduction of the basic physiological facts of human sexuality is the best
preparation for the more sophisticated education needed during the years of puberty and
adolescence. As children mature and come of age sexually, parents can continue to provide sex
education with sympathy and patience, including clear, explicit information regarding sexually
transmitted diseases. They may decide that the assistance of a doctor or educator in this task will
be helpful. Whatever the sexual mores of the time may be, and whatever adolescent peers may
do or say, it is important for parents to help their children look past peer pressure toward what
contributes to loving, responsible relationships and to a secure sense of self-worth.
Sex education is not necessarily a one-way street. Parents may learn from their children about
societal problems of which they have been unaware. Sensitive listening between parents and
children will go a long way in establishing mutual understanding.
c. Addictive Behaviors
Early Friends tried to avoid behaviors that were unproductive or took time away from life in the
Spirit. Friends today know that any addictive behavior separates the person from God and can
harm personal relationships. Addictive behaviors and compulsive attachments, whether
manifested in gambling, in the use of drugs, tobacco, or alcohol, or in the over-consumption of
food, are symptoms of conditions that frequently cannot be controlled by reason or an act of will.
These behaviors are a continuing distraction from a meaningful life and can adversely affect the
person and the whole family. The meeting has a responsibility to be aware of these conditions
among members and attenders. The meeting can provide support in the struggle and encourage
the persons involved to seek professional assistance.
The entire meeting community can learn about the relationship of addictive behavior to larger
issues of social justice. Marketing of addictive substances, violence associated with drugs and
alcohol, and bias in sentencing for illegal possession are worthy of efforts to make
improvements.
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III. Faith Reflected in Our Organization
In all the affairs of the Meeting community, proceed in the peaceable spirit of Pure
Wisdom, with forbearance and warm affection for each other.
Advices, II
The structure of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting resembles that of other yearly meetings of the
Religious Society of Friends throughout the world. The basic group within this structure is the
local Friends meeting, customarily called a “monthly meeting,” which gathers weekly for
worship and monthly to conduct business. A number of monthly meetings are joined in a
quarterly meeting, usually gathering four times a year to conduct business. A still larger number
of monthly meetings constitute a yearly meeting, which meets every year for several days of
worship, business, workshops and fellowship. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting also conducts some
of its business, and provides activities and services, at other times during the year.
There is growing awareness in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting that the term “monthly meeting” is
confusing to many as it suggests a group that convenes once a month. Many Friends have
substituted the term “Friends meeting” except when referring to the conduct of business.
A. Friends Meetings
Friends meetings are spiritual communities of people who gather for worship, business and
friendship. These meetings are the center of Quaker community life and also the foundation of
the structure of the Religious Society of Friends. The Friends meeting holds meetings for
worship weekly or more often and supports the spiritual, social, educational and material needs
of its members. Through active engagement in their meeting, Friends find both a caring and safe
environment and the challenge of spiritual growth. A Friends meeting offers members a place to
test leadings and convictions based on a shared appreciation of individual and corporate spiritual
direction. A commitment to undertake action, often expressed in a “minute of concern,” can
result when Friends labor together to discern God’s way toward witness in the world.
The Friends meeting may own and manage property, engage in significant social action, and
operate schools or other institutions. It has sole authority to enroll or release members and to
oversee marriages. The meeting may undertake any action or assume any function consistent
with the principles and practices of the Religious Society of Friends.
At monthly meetings for business, the meeting attends to its entire range of activities and
committee work. On occasion, and with reasonable notice, the clerk may schedule an extra
“called” meeting for business. Meetings for business provide opportunities for members to share
information and worship together as well as make decisions. Such decisions could involve the
conduct of worship, the care of members, religious education, the management of property and
financial assets, membership applications, or a commitment to undertake social action or public
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witness. While day-to-day functions of the meeting may be delegated to committees or
designated officers, the members of the meeting as a body, acting through the meeting for
business, are responsible for all activities undertaken by the monthly meeting or on its behalf.
The meeting may authorize the clerk or a group of appointed Friends to implement a decision, in
which case they would report back to the meeting for business. When good order requires,
delegated responsibilities or functions may be recalled and exercised directly by the meeting.
1. The Individual and the Friends Meeting
The relationship of the individual and the meeting includes the expectation that everyone will
participate directly in the life of the meeting community. Active involvement typically includes
regular attendance at meetings for worship and for business, service on committees, financial
support, and other contributions to the ongoing work and life of the meeting. Active involvement
ensures that one knows others and is known by them. Active involvement contributes to an
individual’s spiritual growth in community.
The Religious Society of Friends accepts a variety of vocabularies for the expression of faith and
encompasses a broad range of views on both the nature of faith and the ways faith can be carried
into action. Friends meetings, with the guidance of this Faith and Practice and other sources,
have the ongoing responsibility of interpreting Friends ways to prospective and experienced
members. No one should hesitate to ask the meeting for explanation.
A person who feels a spiritual or personal concern—or a call to potentially life-changing social
action or public witness—may seek the assistance of the meeting to test this leading. At times
such testing is done informally through conversations with friends. At other times, the process is
more structured. The person may ask for a “clearness committee,” composed of individuals
chosen by the member and/or by the meeting, to meet with the person. Persons who serve on a
clearness committee have a special responsibility to listen carefully, respond from their
experience and understanding, and encourage individual and corporate faithfulness to spiritual
leadings. (See Section VII. Clearness Committee.)
When the clearness process focuses on a leading to engage in social action or public witness, the
individual Friend benefits by sharing this leading with the whole meeting. The meeting may
decide to support the leading in specific ways, such as supporting the work collectively or
offering guidance. Alternatively, the meeting may embolden the person to follow the leading
independently. The person with the leading is encouraged to accept the decision of the meeting
and to be open to learning from the process of corporate discernment. Through these
experiences, the meeting can support spiritual growth and personal transformation.
When the clearness process focuses on a spiritual or personal concern, the individual works
primarily with the pastoral care or worship and ministry committees. The result of this type of
clearness process is often confidential and may not come before the meeting as a whole.
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Members and regular attenders are expected to serve on committees of the meeting. This service
is essential for someone to be fully integrated into the life of the meeting. Since important work
of the meeting is accomplished through its committees, an individual’s willingness to serve when
asked enables the Friends meeting to achieve its goals. An individual’s acceptance of a
committee appointment entails a commitment to loving diligence in carrying out the committee’s
functions.
2. Nurture of the Meeting Community
All members share the responsibility to care for one another. They support each other’s spiritual
journeys. They participate in the intimate joys and sorrows of life and its transitions including
birth, marriage, and death. Members facing important decisions may receive counseling, as in the
case of those contemplating marriage or those facing decisions about military service. During
times of a member’s personal distress, the meeting responds with appropriate support, and, if
needed, makes referrals to professional care-givers. A meeting also assumes responsibility for
addressing special needs of the young and the elderly, as well as the needs of new and
prospective members and of those at a distance. An important service is helping members
resolve differences with one another.
Every Friends meeting is expected to evaluate regularly how well it nurtures members. If a
meeting’s size or limited resources endanger the meeting’s integrity as a loving community, and
its efforts to improve fail, the meeting may conclude it should merge with a neighboring meeting
or divide into two meetings.
3. Guidance of Meeting Affairs—Named Roles
Each monthly meeting appoints individuals to serve as clerk, recording clerk, treasurer, and
recorder of members. Other delegated functions are normally given to committees rather than
individuals.
Meetings clearly express their expectations and define the scope of authority of those given
responsibility for guidance of meeting affairs. When this happens in a trusting atmosphere, the
meeting’s officers and committees can accomplish their tasks without duplication or frustration.
Likewise, in an atmosphere of trust the meeting can honor the work of those who serve it.
Clerk The clerk sees to the good management of the affairs of the meeting. The clerk prepares
the agenda and conducts meetings for business. The clerk provides background information,
reminds the meeting of previous decisions, asks committees to prepare and present reports and
recommendations, and ensures that the decisions of the meeting are carried out. In addition, the
clerk may be in the best position to identify weaknesses or failings in the committee structure
and function, and work with the meeting’s nominating committee to initiate corrective action.
The preparation of regular self-evaluations is supervised by the clerk and provides an
opportunity for assessment and correction as needed. (See Section VII. Guidelines for a Spiritual
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Self-assessment of the Meeting and the Meeting Checklist.) Some meetings also appoint an
assistant clerk or meeting secretary to assist in the work of the clerk.
The clerk is both servant and leader. The clerk ensures that meetings for business are also
meetings for worship in which spiritual unity is paramount. The clerk encourages those who are
reluctant to speak, and in like manner gently discourages those who tend to speak at undue
length or too often. The clerk, often working with the recording clerk, attempts to discern the
sense of the meeting. When the direction seems clear, the clerk tests it with the meeting. If there
are reservations, the clerk notes them and opens the way for further seeking and refinement.
When the sense of the meeting is elusive, the clerk might suggest deferring the matter to a later
time or referring it to a different forum, such as a threshing session or ad hoc group, for further
consideration and preparation. When there is agreement and the direction is clear, the clerk
directs that the sense of the meeting be so recorded in the minutes. The body of the meeting
approves the written minutes. (See Section II. Corporate Discernment and Decision- making.)
The clerk avoids opinionated participation in the discussion. If the clerk has strong personal
views on a matter before the meeting, the clerk may ask the meeting to appoint someone else to
clerk a portion of the meeting for business. At times, the clerk may prepare a “minute of
exercise,” an expression of a clerk’s insights and concerns at the close of a meeting for business.
Recording Clerk The recording clerk prepares the written minutes of the meeting, which reflect
its inspiration, discussion and decisions. These minutes need to be clear and accurate to avoid
future confusion. The recording clerk may consult the clerk in advance of the meeting regarding
the more significant names, dates and proposals on the agenda. The recording clerk may request
help from the clerk or the meeting in formulating a minute of decision and may request a time of
silence and supportive prayer until the task is complete.
Meetings follow a variety of practices when it comes to approval of the minutes. Some meetings
approve all the minutes at the end of the meeting for business. Some approve sections as the
meeting proceeds. Some approve the minutes at the next meeting for business. And some
approve minutes of decision during the session when the decision is made and review the
complete minutes at a future time. At times, the meeting may approve a minute in principle and
not require the final refined version to come back to the meeting. Once approved, minutes retain
their authority unless amended by a subsequent minute. All minutes are preserved in ways that
will ensure their availability and permanence.
Treasurer The treasurer receives, holds, invests and disburses the meeting’s funds in accordance
with the monthly meeting’s instructions. The treasurer maintains accurate accounts of the
financial transactions of the meeting and reports regularly to the meeting. The treasurer works
closely with the finance committee to prepare and monitor annual budgets and to assist in longer
term financial planning for the meeting. The meeting appoints a committee, made up of those not
involved in the preparation of the records, to review the treasurer’s accounts, submit a written
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report to the meeting, and guide the treasurer in good accounting practices as needed. This
process generally occurs annually.
Recorder The recorder maintains the records of births, adoptions, deaths, marriages, divorces
and changes in membership. The recorder, or another person or committee specially designated,
periodically publishes a directory of members and other persons associated with the meeting.
The recorder provides the yearly meeting with regular updates on membership information and
reports membership statistics annually.
4. Committees of the Meeting
Meetings have found it useful to identify specific needs and assign them to committees.
Committee responsibilities, as described below, include caring for the meeting’s members (and
their spiritual development), its meeting for worship, its property and other resources, and its
religious education, outreach and social action. Meeting committees, or their clerks, may
occasionally meet together to assess the meeting’s programs and activities, recognizing both
what has been done well and what needs to be completed or done better. (See Section VII.
Guidelines for a Spiritual Self-assessment of the Meeting and the Meeting Checklist.)
In addition to fulfilling designated functions, committees also serve the meeting by preparing for
decisions to be made at the monthly meeting for business. They identify the issues, gather useful
information, and make seasoned recommendations. The meeting can then focus on the issues
and, with divine assistance, discern what needs to be done.
Committees form the structure of the meeting and do the meeting’s work. The committees most
commonly established by meetings can be identified according to the work they do. Larger
meetings may further divide these tasks and add more committees, while smaller meetings may
combine tasks and assign them to fewer committees, or to a “committee of the whole.”
Care for the Quality of Worship and Ministry A committee on worship and ministry nurtures
the spiritual life of the meeting and its members attend meeting for worship regularly. The
members of this committee are seasoned in Friends practice of worship and are good listeners,
able “to hear beyond words.” The committee nurtures the spiritual gifts of members and
attenders, with appreciation for the diversity of such gifts and also the diversity of prior religious
traditions and experience often represented in a meeting’s membership. It encourages those who
bring depth to vocal ministry and those who are hesitant to speak.
The committee encourages Friends to allow time for study, meditation, prayer and other
preparations for worship, in order to become open to the leadings of the Spirit. Some meetings
support their members’ participation in spiritual formation programs or the School of the Spirit
to enhance the quality of ministry in the meeting for worship. (See Section V. School of the
Spirit.) The committee can also provide loving guidance to those whose ministry does not appear
to come from deep centeredness in the Spirit.
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The committee recognizes and addresses repeated behavior that disrupts shared worship. The
committee—not an individual—makes the decision to speak for the meeting with a person whose
vocal ministry is not helpful. Such intervention requires sensitivity and an understanding of how
difficult it is to receive an admonition. The committee intervenes for the sake of the well-being
of the meeting as a whole.
The committee may also welcome the contributions of children and young people in meeting for
worship and it may have a special role in recognizing their spiritual contributions. The
murmurings of the very young and the bustle of children can enrich the meeting community.
The committee on worship and ministry:
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Nurtures vocal ministry and the ministry of stillness—the committee gives appropriate
attention to the quality of the vocal ministry and of the ministry of stillness that springs
from centered silence. At times the committee may need to address those who speak
frequently in meeting for worship to help them respond to divine promptings, not human
habits.
Teaches by example—members of the committee teach by example as much as by
precept. They are often chosen for the way in which Friends testimonies are reflected in
their lives so that they may help others grow in faithfulness to the testimonies. They
encourage members and attenders to be ready and obedient should the leading come to
enter into vocal ministry or prayer. They help members and attenders understand that all
who attend a meeting for worship share responsibility for drawing the meeting together in
expectant waiting and prayer.
Attends to the needs of the young—the committee makes a special effort to understand
the needs of the young and to encourage their spiritual development. Those who remain
within the Religious Society of Friends as adults may well be strengthened by the
memory that, as children, they felt well prepared for meeting for worship and were
welcome there.
Addresses inappropriate conduct—the committee intervenes promptly and firmly with
any member or attender whose repeated behavior disrupts meetings for worship or
business. The committee also helps the meeting rise above occasional inappropriate
conduct by a member or attender.
Represents the meeting on interfaith councils—members of the committee may be asked
to represent the meeting on interfaith councils and to encourage active involvement of the
meeting in interfaith activities.
Recognizes those in the meeting who exhibit gifts of the Spirit or engage in public
ministry—some meetings provide nurturing support for those with a particular gift in
vocal ministry or those who serve as a chaplain in hospitals, in hospice programs, or for
persons incarcerated in the criminal justice system. A meeting may choose formally to
recognize individuals with notable gifts of vocal or public ministry (as “ministers”) or
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those with sensitive care for the spiritual life of the meeting community (as “elders”). If
ministers and elders are thus recognized and recorded, the committee on worship and
ministry nurtures this relationship. The meeting’s recognition is an affirmation, based
upon loving trust, that the individual will, in all humility, nurture and exercise the gift of
ministry in order to nourish the meeting as a whole. Those so recorded trust that the
meeting will encourage and sustain them, clarify the springs of their ministry, and
lovingly and faithfully counsel them. Periodically the meeting reviews this recognition
and may withdraw it when the designation no longer serves the individual or the meeting.
Reports to meeting—the committee reports periodically to the meeting for business.
Reports to other meetings—the committee may occasionally be invited to share its work
with similar committees in the quarterly or yearly meeting.
Care of the Meeting Community and Its Members A pastoral care committee attends to the
health and vitality of the meeting community as a whole and of its individual members. This
committee meets regularly and is responsible for knowing the individuals and families in the
meeting and becoming aware of their particular needs and challenges.
Members appointed to such a committee generally represent diverse ages, interests, professions
and styles of communication. The committee often considers sensitive matters, and its members
are expected to embrace confidentiality, discretion and tact as part of their charge.
The pastoral care committee develops a variety of approaches in order to attend to the needs of
all members and attenders. The committee considers those new to the meeting, families with
young children, teens and young adults, older Friends, those facing changes in family structure
or financial security, those who are challenged by substance abuse or mental illness, and those
with chronic or serious illness. When conflicts arise between individuals within the meeting, the
intervention and support of the pastoral care committee can be a valuable service to the meeting
as well as to the persons involved. In some situations, the committee may determine that needed
care can be carried out more effectively by Friends not named to the committee and it may invite
their help. This could include professional help such as that available through the Friends
Counseling Service associated with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Some meetings create pastoral care subcommittees to deal with such special circumstances as
marriage, membership, youth, or loss and bereavement. These subcommittees are accountable to
the pastoral care committee.
The pastoral care committee establishes a process to assist and encourage individuals requesting
membership. The committee meets with applicants to explore their interest, understanding of
Friends ways, and spiritual journey. Transfers of membership are facilitated by the committee,
which also encourages members who live at a distance or have become inactive to re-evaluate
their membership status. The committee maintains a list of members and active attenders
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together with their contact information, and regularly checks this list with that of the meeting
recorder. (See Section VII for Procedures for Membership.)
While the pastoral care committee is responsible for the health and vitality of the meeting
community as a whole, it may establish circles of care. This can enable members and attenders to
provide loving, pastoral care for each other in a more direct and supportive manner than is
possible for the pastoral care committee itself.
Religious Education A religious education committee provides all members and attenders with
opportunities to enhance their understanding of the faith and practices of Friends. Religious
education is a lifelong endeavor. It begins in the family when parents take responsibility for the
religious development of their children. Friends meetings have a responsibility to bring children
under their care into full participation in the life of the meeting.
Meetings are also expected to offer religious education programs for teens and adult members
and attenders, drawing on the many resources available through the yearly meeting, Friends
General Conference, and other Quaker and religious organizations. A thriving First Day School
contributes to the life of the meeting and is a source of outreach to young families seeking to find
a spiritual home or anchor. In addition to regular classes before or after meeting for worship,
religious education programs can include study groups, worship sharing opportunities,
conferences, retreats, and service projects. An accessible, up-to-date meeting library is useful for
the entire religious education program. Religious education requires the participation and support
of meeting members, including those with years of experience among Friends.
Meetings actively welcome opportunities to nurture the spiritual growth of their members and
attenders. Meetings may offer support for such opportunities within the limitations of their
spiritual, personal and financial resources. For instance, a meeting may provide financial
assistance to individuals engaged in continuing education, whether at a weekend conference or
for a term at a Quaker study center.
Outreach Outreach for a meeting involves being visible in the community—through effective
signage, website and social media presence, and other publicity—and inviting all to worship. It
includes sharing the unique message of Friends through informational and educational events the
meeting hosts for the community, through printed and online material, through public witness
and service projects in the community, and through collaboration with other faith groups on
projects of common interest. Effective outreach involves the willingness of individuals to
identify themselves as Friends and use accessible language in spoken and written
communication. Friends can become more comfortable and confident in speaking about the
Quaker way by periodically taking time in their meetings to share stories of their faith journeys,
to study and discuss materials that invite deep reflection, and to seek common language that
describes these experiences and the core beliefs and practices of Friends.
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Welcome Meetings strive to ensure that visitors, attenders and new members feel warmly
welcomed and part of the life of the meeting. All in the community have responsibility to
participate actively in this welcoming function. This includes getting to know those new to the
meeting and involving them in meeting activities. Meetings benefit from a periodic review of
their practices, ideally seen through the eyes of those new to the meeting, to ensure that they are
indeed welcoming. The use of nametags, clear invitations to join in activities, adequate
descriptions of logistics, and a buddy system all can contribute to a hospitable environment.
Witness in the World A social concerns committee can help meeting members address a variety
of issues in their community, state, nation, or world. The name of the committee may reflect
work on issues of peace, social witness, racial justice, or environmental concerns. These
committees:
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Plan and carry out service projects.
Recommend particular actions to individuals and to the meeting itself as a corporate
body.
Encourage members to participate in work for social change through established Quaker
organizations such as the American Friends Service Committee and the Friends
Committee on National Legislation, or to pursue their own leadings to engage in social
actions consistent with Friends testimonies.
Support a member or members in seeking to bring a particular concern to the attention of
the monthly, quarterly or yearly meeting.
Contribute services or financial support to enable a member to pursue a social concern as
a “released Friend.”
Initiate consciousness-raising and skill-building activities that reflect Quaker testimonies
and help to create a culture of anti-bias, peace and justice in new ways.
Care of Real Property A property committee or committee of trustees exercises oversight of the
property owned by the meeting. This committee encourages the meeting to use the power of its
ownership of property to enrich the spiritual life of the meeting, to enhance the integrity of the
natural world, and to contribute to the welfare of the surrounding community. The committee
also ensures that the meeting carries adequate insurance to cover loss, replacement and liability.
An important aspect of owning real property is holding title to the land. Four options are
available for formal ownership of the meeting’s real property. The property committee may
consult legal counsel before assisting the meeting in making a choice. Property may be:
1) Held in the name of an unincorporated meeting.
2) Held in the name of an unincorporated body of trustees appointed by the meeting. The
meeting must take care that the roster of trustees is kept in existence by the timely
replacement of trustees lost through resignation, current disability, or death.
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3) Held in the name of an incorporated meeting.
4) Held in the name of an incorporated body of trustees appointed by the meeting.
Options 3) and 4) require at a minimum the adoption of bylaws and the holding of annual
meetings of the corporation. Those activities should follow Friends procedures to the extent
possible under state law. If there are directors of the corporation, they need to be sensitive to the
desires of the meeting as they carry out their statutory responsibilities. Friends Fiduciary
Corporation no longer holds title for properties of active monthly or quarterly meetings.
Care of Burial Grounds If the meeting has burial grounds and memorial gardens under its care,
a committee of the meeting may be empowered to maintain these in good order and to devote to
their upkeep any income from perpetual care endowments in the charge of the meeting. It may
authorize interments of bodies or ashes or scatterings of ashes, keeping accurate records of the
location of the interred and recording that ashes have been scattered on the premises.
Friends have traditionally expressed their commitments to simplicity and the equality of all
persons by discouraging the use of elaborate grave markers. Graves are ordinarily marked by
plain stones that bear only the name of the deceased and dates of birth and death. When opening
a new section of a burial ground, a meeting may wish to require that stones be flush with the
ground to facilitate maintenance.
Stewardship of Financial Resources A finance committee works with the meeting treasurer to
prepare the meeting’s annual budget, to ensure that financial records are properly kept and
monitored on a regular basis, and to oversee other aspects of the meeting’s finances including its
investments. The committee is responsible for advising the meeting on how to use its economic
resources responsibly and on how to finance its activities.
Economic Resources Meetings are encouraged to review regularly their policies and practices to
ensure the socially responsible investment of endowments and working capital, the ecologically
responsible management of real property, the caring management and equitable compensation of
employees, and the socially responsible use of the power to purchase and consume. Meetings are
advised to seek expert advice, when needed, in the areas of finance and accounting, labor and
employment practices, property and real estate.
Financing Meeting Activities Meetings have broad discretion in the raising, custody and
spending of money. They are encouraged to conduct their affairs so that money for routine
operating budgets is raised from the current generation, without undue reliance on the generosity
of past members. Meetings are also encouraged to take care that fund-raising activities spread the
burden of financial support among members and regular attenders in accordance with their
respective abilities to contribute.
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Broad decisions about the raising, custody and spending of money are policy matters affecting
the entire meeting community. Such broad decisions could include the development of a longterm financial plan that attends not only to the physical needs of the meeting’s property, but also
to the programs of the meeting, financial support for members who are in need, and support of
Friends testimonies. It is expected that the finance committee will season recommendations
regarding the meeting’s budget but that financial decisions will be made at the meeting for
business rather than by a less representative body.
Good order includes the keeping of careful financial records. This includes a system of financial
controls to ensure the integrity of receipts and disbursements and a regular review of meeting
accounts, including those of all committees and programs, by a committee appointed for that
purpose. It is important that this committee report to the meeting for business and that the
substance of its financial review be recorded in the minutes. Meetings may encourage institutions
under their care to employ professional auditors and to ask that the audit report be a part of the
institution’s periodic reporting to the meeting.
Meetings are also encouraged to use the investment management services of Friends Fiduciary
Corporation for endowment funds. Meetings are expected to review and monitor their investment
principles and performance on a regular basis and to establish their own “social responsibility”
criteria for the investment of endowment funds not managed by Friends Fiduciary Corporation.
Meetings holding endowment funds established by gift or bequest are responsible to ensure that
the corpus and the income are applied to the uses the donor has specified.
Care of Meeting Records A recorder maintains the records of births, adoptions, deaths,
marriages, divorces and changes in membership. The recorder reports annually to the yearly
meeting regarding any changes in membership. The recorder, or another person or committee
specially designated, periodically publishes a directory of members and attenders of the meeting.
The recording clerk or another member of the meeting may be entrusted with the responsibility
of preserving and appropriately archiving the minutes of the meeting for business and of meeting
committees. It is expected that the minutes of meetings for business, when approved, will be
preserved on acid-free paper, appropriately bound, held in safekeeping, and, when no longer
required for current reference, archived in one of the Friends historical libraries at Swarthmore
and Haverford colleges. Records of other meeting bodies and the meeting’s financial records
may be treated similarly. Some meetings now use computers to record and retain their minutes
and other documents. Meetings are encouraged to establish clear, straightforward polices for the
retention of all documents.
Nominations to Involve Meeting Members and Regular Attenders The nominating
committee discerns the gifts of meeting members and regular attenders; recommends individuals
to serve as officers and committee members; and sees to their replacement at appropriate
intervals by other well qualified Friends. Meetings give officers and committee members
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substantial autonomy in their areas of responsibility, so their wise selection is essential to the
meeting’s welfare. To provide for a broad sharing of nominating tasks, meetings can specify
short terms for nominating committee members, and choose an ad hoc naming committee to
nominate people to serve on that committee. The nominating committee:
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Establishes a procedure to identify, recruit, train and rotate meeting clerks. The office of
assistant or recording clerk is often used as a training ground for the meeting clerk.
Creates a list of officer positions and of standing committees with job descriptions and
the number of members needed in each committee.
Where warranted, forms a plan for staggering terms and regularly rotating members to
serve in offices and on committees.
Develops a reporting procedure that allows the meeting to weigh nominations
thoughtfully before final approval.
The meeting may explore various strategies for increasing the participation of members and
regular attenders, including those with diverse backgrounds and experience. Meetings may
determine which committees must be filled with members and which may include regular
attenders. Meetings may identify some of their committees as open to all interested members and
attenders and encourage participation even if not appointed by the nominating committee.
Friends have been reluctant to deviate from the tradition of volunteer service that has marked the
Religious Society of Friends from its beginnings. As they work together for the meeting,
volunteers often find their religious lives mutually strengthened, their sense of community
deepened, and their commitment to the meeting affirmed. These dividends of participation
diminish when they find themselves overcommitted. Some meetings have found themselves
strengthened when they have employed staff to perform a few essential functions, such as child
care, coordination of First Day School programs, secretarial work, and maintenance of buildings
and grounds. But Friends do not ordinarily receive compensation for their service to the meeting
without express authorization by the meeting in advance. Compensated service remains a limited
exception to the presumption of volunteer participation and service.
5. Membership
The monthly meeting is the final authority in all matters concerning membership, and all
membership occurs in the monthly meeting. A person joining a particular Friends meeting
becomes thereby a member of a quarterly meeting, the yearly meeting, and the Religious Society
of Friends.
Membership establishes a mutual commitment between members and their Friends meeting. On
the one hand, membership commits the meeting to provide a spiritual home for its members and
corporate support for their efforts to live in harmony with the faith and practices of Friends.
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Many meetings establish scholarship funds for members to attend workshops, retreats and other
opportunities for spiritual nourishment, as well as scholarships for members’ children to attend
Friends schools. Meetings also support members faced with difficult, potentially life-changing
decisions by forming clearness committees to assist them in their discernment process. Meeting
support may also extend to elements of a member’s life, such as economic insecurity, that could
interfere with full and active participation in the meeting. Most important, the meeting provides
regular opportunities for corporate worship, spiritual growth and other activities that enable the
meeting to be a genuine community of faith for its members.
On the other hand, membership commits members of the meeting to live in spiritual unity with
each other and to engage as fully as possible in the life of the meeting. Specifically, this means
regular participation in meetings for worship and for business, financial support of the work of
the meeting, and service to the meeting as an officer or on one of its committees. Membership
also entails giving time, skills and material support to the meeting and its activities such as
religious education, pastoral care and witness to the broader community. In Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting, responsibility for the full range of monthly, quarterly and yearly meeting activities rests
with the membership.
People from other religious backgrounds or with no religious ties often visit Friends meetings.
Meetings welcome all visitors, giving continuing attention to those who return frequently.
Meetings may provide these regular attenders with spiritual support and guidance as they seek to
learn more about Friends faith and practice. Regular attenders may be encouraged to attend
business meetings and, at the discretion of the meeting, to serve on committees. These
individuals can then witness Friends particular approach to worship and the conduct of meeting
business, as well as the structure, finances and witness of the meeting. Regular attenders are
invited to attend sessions of quarterly and yearly meeting and the annual summer gatherings of
Friends General Conference. Meetings provide regular attenders with a copy of Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting’s current Faith and Practice, and with information about the major spiritual
writings of Friends and the history of Friends, as well as information regarding Friends
organizations. (See Section V. Friends and Some of Their Organizations.)
Those attenders who participate regularly in meeting activities, especially meeting for worship,
and who demonstrate a growing understanding and appreciation of Friends faith and practices
are encouraged to apply for membership. (See Section VII. Procedures for Membership.)
As noted above, membership entails a major commitment to participate in a particular
community of Friends. Friends understand that membership is located in a single monthly
meeting and have developed procedures so that individuals may easily transfer their membership
from one meeting to another, or may become sojourning members during lengthy periods of
visitation. Friends recognize that fulfilling the commitments of membership in two different faith
communities at the same time is usually impractical. Should an applicant for membership in a
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monthly meeting wish to maintain membership in or affiliation with another religious body, the
clearness committee established to review the application for membership will explore with
sensitivity the reasons that underlie this desire.
Children Friends consider children from birth to maturity to be full participants in the life of the
meeting, to be nurtured in their spiritual development and understanding of the faith and practice
of Friends and guided and encouraged into Quaker adulthood. The meeting can help children
prepare for the decisions they must make about friendships, peer pressure, recreation, education,
career, and military or alternative service. As they mature, those who have received this care
from their meeting will become increasingly conscious of the full meaning of membership in the
Religious Society of Friends so as to make their own decisions regarding membership. The
meeting provides an atmosphere of inclusion, care, love and recognition—in short, a spiritual
home—for all young people in the meeting, regardless of their membership status or that of their
parents.
A person of any age may apply for membership in a Friends meeting. Some people are
spiritually ready for membership early in their lives; others are ready only as adults. Meetings are
encouraged to respect parents’ sense of what is best for their children regarding membership.
Parents who are members may, at the time of their child’s birth or adoption or later:
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Request membership for their child;
Request associate membership for their child (see below);
Not request any enrollment for the child.
Parents who are members of different meetings must decide which meeting records the
membership of the child. When only one parent is a member, children may be recorded upon the
request of that parent and with the permission of the other or, under unusual circumstances, upon
the request of only one parent. Where there is only one legal parent, that member may request
membership or associate membership for the child. Meetings are urged to recognize the diversity
of family patterns, with sensitivity to the concerns of all involved.
Parents requesting membership for their child are expected to raise the child as a Friend in the
meeting community. The parents and the meeting can then help the child to grow gradually into
the responsibilities of membership and encourage the child when ready to take on specific
responsibilities—such as service on a meeting committee. The meeting has an obligation to those
recorded as members at a young age to ensure that as they reach adulthood they will thoughtfully
consider their own commitment to membership.
Many meetings offer associate membership for children, with the full responsibilities and
privileges of membership up to their adulthood, that age to be determined by the meeting. (For
yearly meeting statistical purposes associate members will not be recorded after their 21st
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birthday.) Associate members may request full membership when they are ready, and the Friends
meeting’s role is one of active encouragement.
In the past, many Friends meetings automatically recorded as members (called “birthright”
Friends) all newborn children whose parents were members, but this practice is inconsistent with
the goal of a religious society of convinced Friends and has been abandoned.
Transfer of Membership A Friend who moves to a new area or is drawn to worship with
another Friends meeting may request a transfer of membership. The transfer process entails
specific responsibilities for both the sending and the receiving monthly meetings. (See Section
VII. Procedures for Membership.)
Sojourning Members Friends may attend a meeting because they have moved temporarily into
its vicinity, but may not wish to give up membership in their home meeting to which they expect
to return. In such a case, a Friend may ask their home meeting to send a letter to the meeting
attended, asking it to recognize the Friend as a sojourning member. Sojourning Friends may
accept all roles that the host meeting sees fit to assign to them. However, they are not counted in
the statistical reports of the host meeting and their sojourning membership ends when they leave
that area.
Joining Other Religious Bodies If a member wishes to leave the Religious Society of Friends to
join another religious body, they are expected to notify their monthly meeting. The meeting may
give them a letter stating their good standing in the Religious Society of Friends. The meeting
records the resignation in the minutes of the meeting.
Membership Records In Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, it is the practice for monthly meetings to
maintain records of their members, including transfers of membership to and from the meeting,
resignations, and new members. The recorder of each meeting keeps accurate information on the
membership status of each active member and shares it with the quarterly meeting and yearly
meeting as requested.
Inactive Members Some individuals may wish to retain membership in the Religious Society of
Friends even though they have not been active in any Friends meeting for many years. At its
discretion, a meeting may carry inactive persons on its membership rolls. Long-term nominal
membership is generally discouraged, however, except when active meeting participation is not
possible because of poor health, when residence is so far from any meeting (so that transfer of
membership or sojourning membership is not feasible), or for some other compelling reason.
B. Quarterly Meetings
From its earliest days, the Religious Society of Friends has encouraged it members to meet with
other Friends for worship, business, mutual awareness and support, and friendship. Meetings
within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting have likewise felt strengthened by joining together in
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quarterly meetings. These bodies traditionally have met several times a year (or “quarterly”) as
occasions for Friends to support one another through worship and fellowship, and to consider
matters of regional or common concern. A quarterly meeting is composed of all the members of
its constituent monthly meetings.
1. Functions and Organization of Quarterly Meetings
Thoughtfully planned sessions of a quarterly meeting can provide religious fellowship, spiritual
enrichment, and a forum for cooperation and exchange of information and ideas among members
of the constituent monthly meetings. Those gathered may develop plans to deal regionally with
broader issues and special concerns, as well as review and respond to concerns that a meeting
wishes to bring before the yearly meeting. Those named as monthly meeting representatives
should be faithful in reporting the proceedings of such gatherings to their meeting.
Some quarterly meetings may have substantial institutions under their care, may be custodians of
property, may employ paid staff, and may have active programs regarding ministry and worship,
peace and social concerns, and youth.
Quarterly meetings maintain a structure of administrative officers and committees. The officers
generally consist of a clerk, a recording clerk and a treasurer, with duties corresponding to those
of officers in a monthly meeting. There may be committees to assist the clerk, to plan gatherings,
to conduct routine business between sessions, to prepare the annual budget, and to provide
sensitive oversight of programs and staff. Such committees may include:
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A nominating committee to nominate quarterly meeting officers, monitor the process by
which quarterly meeting committee members are selected, and appoint representatives
from the quarterly meeting to the yearly meeting’s nominating committee.
A committee on worship and ministry to support the efforts of monthly meetings to
enrich their worship and thereby enhance the spiritual lives of their members. It may also
respond sensitively when a monthly meeting is in need of special nurture.
A committee appointed annually to examine the quarterly meeting treasurer’s accounts,
submit a written report to the quarterly meeting, and guide the treasurer in sound
accounting practices.
A committee to enable members of different monthly meetings to coordinate more
effectively their public witness or service.
A committee to provide quarterly meeting programs such as retreats, service projects, and
workshops for adults and youth.
A committee or trustees to assume responsibility for property such as meetinghouses or
burial grounds under the care of the quarterly meeting.
A governing board for a school, senior living facility or other institution under the care of
the quarterly meeting. The quarterly meeting appoints to the governing body dependable
members with proven qualifications. The quarterly meeting entrusts operating
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responsibility to employed staff, and limits its liability through various means including
insurance and separate incorporation. It has the obligation to offer encouragement and
spiritual nurture to the governing body and to intervene if the viability of the institution is
in question. It maintains a regular reporting process from the institution to the quarterly
meeting to promote diligence in management, good stewardship and regular attention to
maintaining the Quaker character of the institution in all aspects of its policies and
operation.
2. Guidance and Assistance
The quarterly meeting may offer assistance when a monthly meeting faces difficult problems,
needs encouragement, or seeks guidance in making decisions. The quarterly meeting may
encourage its constituent meetings to submit regular spiritual self-assessments. (See Section VII
for Guidelines for a Spiritual Self-assessment of the Meeting).
When a quarterly meeting is unable to fulfill its functions of oversight or assistance, or to receive
and forward meeting covenants to the yearly meeting, the condition is reported to the yearly
meeting for its advice and assistance.
C. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was founded in 1681 to provide assistance and oversight for
established and prospective monthly meetings. In its early years it was called the “General
Yearly Meeting for Friends of Pennsylvania, East and West Jersey and of the Adjacent
Provinces.” Its geographical boundaries today are more limited but no more precise. They are the
unplanned result of a series of affiliation decisions by meetings that border other yearly
meetings. From 1827, when the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting split, until 1955, when the two
branches reunited, two yearly meetings functioned in the same general geographic area and each
called itself the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Today Philadelphia Yearly Meeting includes meetings and Friends in parts of Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.
1. Sessions of Yearly Meeting
Any fundamental decisions regarding the structure, programs, and witness of the yearly meeting
are made by the yearly meeting in annual or continuing sessions. All members of its constituent
Friends meetings are also members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of
Friends. They are encouraged to attend the annual, continuing and other sessions of yearly
meeting and participate in worship, fellowship, and decision-making with other members of the
yearly meeting. Yearly meeting is enhanced when as many members as possible attend sessions,
since this assures a larger pool of wisdom and insight; such participation is also beneficial for the
members and their Friends meetings.
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Sessions of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting may change in format but always include worship,
business sessions, and fellowship. They offer opportunities to share information and concerns
from individual members, constituent meetings, yearly meeting committees, and other Friends’
organizations. Epistles, or public letters, from other yearly meetings are read and a small group
of those attending sessions prepares an epistle from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting that is
approved before the close of the sessions and then sent “to all Friends everywhere.”
Some materials, including the yearly meeting budget proposal, are provided well in advance of
annual sessions. Discussion of the budget is most valuable when it explores the spiritual and
testimonial implications of budgetary decisions and elicits and weighs ideas that will influence
future budgets. Minutes of concern or proposals to undertake action are generally seasoned in
advance in a variety of ways. The yearly meeting may unite in support of a minute of concern or
in a decision to undertake a specific action, thus endorsing the action on behalf of the entire
yearly meeting. When a decision is made to undertake a specific action, a process is developed to
ensure that the commitment is fulfilled. Friends receive information, insights, and concerns in a
worshipful spirit that often evokes deeply felt responses and new understanding.
The yearly meeting in annual or continuing sessions appoints its officers, the at-large members
of the Nominating Council, the elders, the clerks and members of its two governance councils,
and the general secretary. Under the 2014 “Re-‐kindling Our Fire: A Five-‐Year Plan for
Philadelphia Year Meeting,” the governance councils are the Quaker Life Council and the
Administrative Council. Yearly meeting also approves the annual budget. Current information
regarding the roles, responsibilities, and terms of office for the yearly meeting officers is in the
Governance Handbook, which is available on the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting website
(pym.org).
When need arises, yearly meeting members may ask the clerk of yearly meeting to call special
sessions of the yearly meeting.
Planning for yearly meeting sessions includes:
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developing the agenda for the meetings for business;
scheduling plenary, threshing sessions, and workshops;
making arrangements for the children’s programs; and
making arrangements regarding the site, technology, transportation, and the many details
that contribute to the care and comfort of those in attendance.
Every effort is made to provide financial assistance so that no one feels unable to participate
because of limited means.
2. Involvement in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
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Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is an extended network of Friends. This community exists to hold
and amplify, deepen and nurture the experience of Spirit, and everyone’s talents and involvement
help make that happen. Friends throughout the yearly meeting are invited to share gifts, to bring
truth, capacity, and strength into the life of the community. The yearly meeting increasingly sees
itself as a network of connections to enable those with particular interests, concerns, and gifts to
be linked to others with a similar focus. The website (pym.org) describes many opportunities for
involvement. All Friends are encouraged to learn about and use tools and technologies that
enable everyone to participate regardless of their time, physical limitations and geographic
location. Some connections are made in informal ways, and some require an application process
through the Quaker Life Council. The Nominating Council welcomes recommendations of
Friends to serve the community in more formal structures, such as the Quaker Life Council and
the Administrative Council. Yearly meeting staff help support Friends connections, including
maintaining the yearly meeting website, publishing newsletters, providing communications
infrastructure, assisting groups in planning events, and providing expertise, resources and other
services.
D. Communication, Intervisitation and Changes in Formal Relationships
1. Sharing Information with Other Meetings
The Religious Society of Friends has always mistrusted church hierarchies, believing that the
path to the Divine is inward for each individual and worshipping group. Friends have kept the
power of decision-making in religious matters as close to the primary worship group as possible.
The monthly meeting, accordingly, has a freedom of action and responsibility not given to either
the quarterly or yearly meeting. On the other hand, there are some matters on which a degree of
uniformity among monthly meetings contributes to the good order of the society, and likewise
there are some matters that invite attention and support at the quarterly or yearly meeting level.
By virtue of membership in a monthly meeting, Friends also become members of the quarterly
and yearly meeting. Monthly meetings may designate certain members to attend quarterly or
yearly meeting sessions as representatives, although all members are welcome and encouraged to
attend. Appointed representatives serve as a vital communications link between the yearly and
quarterly meeting and the monthly meeting. However, they do not attend quarterly or yearly
meeting as instructed delegates of their meeting, but join others in worship and decision- making
that respond to the moving of the Spirit in that time and place.
Monthly meetings may adopt and forward minutes of concern, proposals for action, or
expressions of unity on issues they wish to bring before quarterly or yearly meeting for
consideration, but such minutes do not limit the freedom of the body assembled to adopt
alternate courses. It is helpful for the quarterly and yearly meetings to have in place a procedure
for broad prior consideration and seasoning of such concerns or proposals.
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Monthly meetings, quarterly meetings and the yearly meeting share the common task of
encouraging and sustaining members in their obedience to the Truth. This makes members’ lives
both harder, because of the challenge to a higher level of commitment to a religious calling, and
easier, because of the presence of a supportive structure within which that calling can be
answered.
Monthly meetings, quarterly meetings and the yearly meeting prepare and disseminate various
written reports on topics of mutual interest. Annual budgets and other reports are reviewed and
discussed at a meeting for business. These meetings also report informally to members through
newsletters. There is a strong tradition of oral reporting to monthly meetings of the deliberations
and decisions of the quarterly and yearly meeting.
In the past, monthly meetings sent to their quarterly meeting two separate forms of annual report:
an overall state of the meeting and a report of the committee on worship and ministry. Quarterly
meetings in turn submitted annual reports on the same two subjects to yearly meeting, drawing
on the reports of monthly meetings. Some quarterly meetings have restored the practice of asking
their constituent meetings to prepare a state-of-the-meeting report. Such reports can help the
quarterly and yearly meetings identify situations in monthly meetings where assistance from
others might be helpful. (See Section VII. Guidelines for a Spiritual Self-assessment of the
Meeting.)
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting still asks monthly meetings to provide an annual report of
membership statistics, and it asks both monthly and quarterly meetings to submit a list of current
officers.
Such sharing of information among meetings, as well as with the quarterly and yearly meeting,
can be beneficial for all involved and is a practice that might well be revived or enhanced in the
future.
2. Intervisitation
From the beginning Quakers have both experienced and identified themselves as a community
that transcends geographical and cultural boundaries. This encourages the offer of hospitality to
traveling Friends, on the one hand, and the confidence of welcome, on the other. Friendly
intervisitation has, for more than three hundred and fifty years, provided an important opening
for understanding and cooperation in the affairs of Friends and for mutual ministry and spiritual
growth. Friends are encouraged, therefore, as they travel on business or otherwise, to allow time
for visits with meetings or with individual Friends and families in the regions they pass through.
Letters of Introduction Friends intending to travel benefit from obtaining a letter of
introduction from their home meetings. Such letters usually state the fact of membership, give
some account of the individual’s participation and witness in the affairs of our religious society,
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and express such greetings as are deemed appropriate. Letters are signed by the clerk and duly
noted in the minutes of the monthly, quarterly or yearly meeting. Since Friends travel for a wide
variety of purposes, letters of introduction do not suggest specific obligations either on the visitor
or on those visited and may be issued by the clerk without formal consideration by the meeting.
Such letters are often endorsed by those visited and used to send greetings back to the visitor’s
home meeting.
Minutes of Travel for Religious Service As in the past, Friends today can find themselves
under a sense of divine leading to travel in support of an important public witness or to nurture
the religious life of Friends families and meetings. In carrying out such leadings, they find it
useful to take with them a formal minute for religious service from their meeting.
A meeting should issue such a minute only after the concern has been laid before its committee
on worship and ministry, a clearness committee, or such other group as the meeting may suggest
and has been favorably recommended to the monthly meeting for approval. A minute for
religious service, signed by the clerk, states clearly the nature, scope and duration of the
proposed service and affirms the meeting's support of the Friend(s) concerned. The meeting
issuing such a minute should consider whether it is under an obligation to ensure, insofar as
possible, that the proposed service is not hampered by a lack of funds or other support.
A Friend who proposes to travel under religious concern may find, as have Friends in the past,
that it is a source of strength and comfort to be joined by another Friend sympathetic to the
concern and able to share counsel and encouragement.
A minute of travel for religious service, after being adopted by a monthly meeting, is usually
submitted for endorsement by the quarterly and yearly meetings, especially if the Friend expects
to travel beyond the bounds of the yearly meeting.
Friends traveling with such minutes are customarily welcomed by those among whom they visit
and invited to share their concerns with appropriate gatherings. It is also customary for minutes
of travel for religious service to be signed at the conclusion of the gatherings by the person(s)
presiding.
Upon the completion of the service proposed, a minute for religious service should be returned
promptly with a verbal or written report to the meetings that had earlier reviewed the concern
and minuted their support.
3. Growth and Changes in Meetings
Friends have developed a number of procedures to assist Friends meetings as they form, expand
and contract over time.
Establishing a New Worship Group When a group of people have been drawn to Friends
worship and testimonies but find no organized meeting nearby, they may form a Friends worship
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group. This gathering can be as formal or informal and can assume as little or as much structure
as seems helpful and appropriate.
A facilitator or correspondent may maintain contact among the worshipers, arranging and
publishing the time and place for worship sessions, and attending to other needs of the group.
Such leadership is especially useful when a group draws its members from scattered
communities, experiences a lull in its activities, or decides to broaden its activities or
relationships.
Some Friends worship groups fulfill their purposes by remaining in a temporary state, meeting
seasonally or only briefly. Those that have achieved some permanence may decide whether to
remain informal or to change their status. The worship group will need to decide, in consultation
with the local quarterly meeting and with neighboring monthly meetings as appropriate, whether
to apply to the quarterly meeting for status as a preparative meeting under the care of an existing
monthly meeting or as a new monthly meeting. (See Monthly Meetings under “Changes in
Established Meetings.”) If the decision is made to become a monthly meeting, those who are not
already members of the Religious Society of Friends will need to decide whether to apply for
membership in the new meeting, and those who are already members of another meeting will
need to apply for a transfer of membership.
Becoming a Preparative Meeting Status as a preparative meeting can serve as an intermediate
step between a worship group and an established monthly meeting. It enables a worship group to
create new ties with a particular monthly meeting and the quarter until it is ready to assume the
full responsibilities of a monthly meeting.
A preparative meeting is under the care of a monthly meeting, reporting regularly to it, yet
holding its own meetings for worship and having its own officers and meetings for business.
Insofar as it is able, it may have its own committees and financial structure and its own programs
and activities, including the establishment of a First Day School and the holding of memorial
meetings. It may own property and trust funds. A preparative meeting may not admit members or
conduct marriages under its care or in other ways act as an established monthly meeting; nor
does it have a direct relationship with the quarterly and yearly meetings.
When a monthly meeting, with quarterly meeting approval, accepts the request of a worship
group for status as a preparative meeting under its care, it enrolls as members those individuals
in the group who apply and are accepted. Thereby the monthly meeting affirms its role as
nurturer of these additional members and of this new meeting. It may also appoint a committee
of oversight composed of Friends experienced in worship and business after the manner of
Friends. The monthly meeting should promptly inform the yearly meeting of this change in
status and of the names of the members involved.
Given that there may well be experienced Friends and also different but valid customs in the new
preparative meeting, an established meeting has much to learn as well as to offer when called
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upon to assist a worship group. A tender and sensitive spirit must prevail in this process with
consultations grounded in worship.
Forming a Monthly Meeting When members of a worship group or of a preparative meeting
decide to form a monthly meeting, they should first consult with the monthly meeting under
whose care they have been preparing (if a preparative meeting) and the quarterly meeting. If it is
evident that the group is fully aware of the responsibilities of an established monthly meeting, a
formal minute should be prepared and forwarded to the parent meeting. If the monthly meeting
approves this minute, it is forwarded to the quarterly meeting. When the quarterly meeting gives
approval, it may appoint a committee of oversight to assist in matters of membership and
responsibility for finance and property. The quarterly meeting should also inform the yearly
meeting of such a change in status along with the names of the members involved.
A large established monthly meeting, in order to meet its members’ needs more fully, may wish
to divide; or a monthly meeting, feeling itself to be too small to fulfill its various obligations of
property, finance and spiritual nurture, may wish to become a preparative meeting of another
meeting, or to combine with it. The meetings involved should minute their intentions and seek
the approval of the quarterly meeting. If the proposal is approved, the yearly meeting should
receive prompt notice of the change and of the names of the members involved.
Changing Quarterly Meeting Affiliation For reasons such as convenience of attendance, a
monthly meeting may request transfer of affiliation from one quarterly meeting to another. The
parties who are then involved (the two quarters and the monthly meeting itself) should consult
carefully and, if they approve the change, report the matter to the yearly meeting for its approval.
Similar consultation and discernment is essential when two or more monthly meetings wish to
form a new quarterly meeting, when a large quarterly meeting feels it right to divide, or when
smaller quarterly meetings wish to join into one. In such cases, a committee from the yearly
meeting should be party to the discussions and assist as needed. Final approval rests with the
yearly meeting.
Combining Meetings In such a situation, all property both real and fiscal of the bodies involved
becomes the property of the newly established body. Special care may be required if some or all
of the combining meetings have been previously incorporated. Meetings are cautioned to prepare
proper minutes to take care of all legal matters involved in the merger.
Discontinuing Meetings If the members of a meeting believe it desirable either to lay the
meeting down or to unite with another meeting, they should make their request to the quarterly
meeting to which they regularly report. If approval is granted, the quarterly meeting should
appoint a committee to assist in making the necessary arrangements. In the case of the closing of
a monthly meeting, this committee should arrange for the transfer of individual memberships to
another meeting. Notification of such action should be forwarded promptly to the yearly
meeting.
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In laying down a preparative, monthly, or quarterly meeting, all rights and responsibilities of
property vested in it and all responsibility for records shall be transferred to the larger meeting of
which it has been a part.
E. Revising Faith and Practice
Revision of Faith and Practice is initiated only by action of the yearly meeting in session. Any
major revision places heavy demands upon those individuals entrusted with this responsibility,
and careful consideration should be given to their selection, the expected extent and process of
the revision, and the staff and financial support needed.
Proposed revisions will be widely circulated and discussed prior to formal acceptance and
publication by the yearly meeting. To assure full opportunity for consideration by the whole
membership, a proposed revision of Faith and Practice will be presented to yearly meeting for a
preliminary (first) reading and may not be finally accepted until a year later.
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IV. Historical Background
Friends are reminded that our Religious Society took form in times of disturbance,
and that its continuing testimony has been the power of God to lead men and women
out of the confusions of outward violence, inward sickness, and all other forms of selfwill, however upheld by social convention.
Advices, I
The Religious Society of Friends is committed to a life of obedience to God’s Spirit both as
individuals and as meetings. This commitment leads Friends to support much that is creative in
public life, education and business. It also leads Friends to oppose practices and institutions that
result in violence, oppression and exploitation in the world around us. History, however,
demonstrates that Friends have not always been united in perceptions of what obedience to
Spirit requires, and the Society has been beset from time to time by conflict and
misunderstandings. Yet out of such conflicts, painful as they have been, the Religious Society of
Friends has continued to strive for clarity in its commitment and unity in its witness.
A. Beginnings: Circa 1650-1690
The Religious Society of Friends arose in England in the middle of the seventeenth century, a
time of turbulence and change in both religion and politics. In the established Church of
England, great emphasis was placed upon outward ceremony, the authority of the Bible and the
acceptance of a formal creed. Many individuals, however, became dissatisfied with ceremonies
and creeds and broke away from these churches. Singly or in small groups, they turned inward
in search of a religion of personal experience and direct communion with God.
George Fox (1624-1691) was one of these seekers. As a child, he was serious and thoughtful,
often pondering the Scriptures and engaging in solitary reflection. At age nineteen he decided to
leave home in order to seek spiritual direction. For four years he wandered through the English
Midlands and as far south as London. Though he consulted others, none could give rest to his
troubled soul. Finally, Fox wrote,
…when all my hopes in [Christian ministers and professors] and in all men was gone,
so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, Oh! then, I
heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy
condition,” and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy…My desires after the Lord
grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of God and of Christ alone, without the
help of any man, book, or writing.
And so, in 1647, at the age of twenty-three, George Fox began to preach a simple message:
first, that his own dramatic and life-changing experience of a direct, unmediated revelation from
God confirmed the possibility of a religion of personal experience and continuing revelation;
and second, that this same possibility is available to every person. From the very beginning, the
distinctive Quaker beliefs and practices on ministry and worship came from an attempt to
provide a setting to experience firsthand the Inward Light of Christ.
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Fox’s message, combined with his charismatic personality, soon attracted a group of women
and men who joined him in spreading the “good news” that “Christ had come to teach His
people himself.” These first “publishers of Truth” believed the good news to be a revival of
primitive Christianity rather than a new gospel. Gradually, Fox and his associates began to
enlist others in this revival; and in 1652, Fox persuaded many of the Westmorland Seekers, a
numerous and already well-established religious movement, to become Children of Light or
Friends of the Light, as his followers called themselves, or Quakers, as they were called in
scorn by others. Also in 1652, George Fox and Margaret Fell, with the tacit support of her
husband, Judge Thomas Fell, turned Swarthmoor Hall, the Fells’ home, into the headquarters
for the infant Religious Society of Friends. Although the movement began as early as 1647,
these two events—the absorption of the Westmorland Seekers into the Quaker movement and
the establishment of a home base— warrant the choice of 1652 as the birth-time of the
Religious Society of Friends.
While many religious dissenters welcomed Fox’s message of the Inward Light, direct
communion and continuing revelation and became Friends, there were others, committed either
to the established Church of England or to dissenting movements other than the Friends, who
regarded his message as unwelcome, heretical and perhaps treasonable. It was unwelcome, since
Fox and some of his followers often invaded and disrupted the services of the Church of
England. It was heretical, since the idea of continuing revelation displaced the church and even
the Scriptures as the final authority. It was treasonable, since those who embraced Fox’s
message also refused to acknowledge the authority of the state (with its established church) as
taking precedence over the authority of individual conscience, and consequently refused to take
any oath of allegiance to the state or to pay tithes to support the established state church.
Accordingly, the meetings of Quakers were frequently disrupted by angry mobs, their meeting
houses were vandalized and burned, and they were themselves subjected to imprisonment,
fines and cruel treatment by officials of the state. Such persecution continued sporadically until
1689 and the so-called Glorious Revolution, when a Toleration Act was adopted that
temporarily sanctioned freedom of worship for Trinitarian Protestants. (Some restrictions on
rights continued, however, into the 19th century.) Yet, like the early Christian church, the
Quaker movement gained more adherents despite—or because of—the persecution. While a
vital and influential movement at the time, modern Quaker historians estimate that Quakers
constituted less than ten percent of the British population by the end of the seventeenth
century.
This combination of persecution and expansion yielded several important consequences. The
Quakers’ sense of themselves as a distinct people with a divine mission became stronger. Their
refusal to take oaths under any circumstances, to serve in the army, to take off their hats or use
the formal “you” in deference to persons in authority, and to dress like the “world’s people” all
date from this period. Unlike other dissenters, they insisted on holding their meetings publicly
in spite of the threat of persecution, and thus became known for scrupulous honesty. The fact
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that Quaker merchants adopted a fixed price system significantly enhanced this reputation.
Second, though unwilling to formulate any explicit creed or profession of faith as a condition
of membership, early Friends were more than willing to engage in public debate and expound
their basic beliefs. Thus began the publication of numerous books and tracts intended to explain
and justify Quaker principles. Robert Barclay’s Apology for the True Christian Divinity
(published first in Latin in 1676 and then in English in 1678) was so theologically sophisticated
and comprehensive that it became the standard account of Quaker beliefs until the middle of
the 19th century. Both Margaret Fell and George Fox asserted women’s right to preach, publish
tracts, hold separate meetings and travel in the ministry, all controversial ideas at that time.
Third, early Friends realized that their movement required institutional structure to provide
material assistance and spiritual support for those being persecuted and to nurture and
discipline the individual and group life of its adherents. The system of monthly, quarterly and
yearly meetings was initiated at Fox’s urging to unify practice among Quakers. If Friends were
to take a particular position on oaths or on the slave trade, for example, the ultimate policy was
done at the yearly meeting level and thereafter it was the position of all Quakers within the
yearly meeting. This system, involving both hierarchical and collective aspects, has given
stability and continuity to our Religious Society. Separate men’s and women’s meetings for
business were established. While the primary purpose of the women’s meetings was to care for
the poor and interview couples before marriage (along with the men’s meetings), in the process
women developed and exercised administrative and decision-making skills in public forums. In
English common law, and in general practice, women were not granted any voice other than
that of their husband.
Prior to 1660, Friends were not only engaged in sharing their “good news” with others in
England, Scotland and Ireland; they also successfully spread their faith by creating meetings on
the continent of Europe, and in North America and the West Indies.
Friends first came to America as early as 1656, and arrived at two different points along the
Atlantic seaboard at virtually the same time. In Massachusetts, the Quaker missionaries were
imprisoned, tortured and expelled. Four of them were put to death between 1659 and 1661,
including Mary Dyer from Rhode Island, whose statue is near the entrance to Friends Center at
1501 Cherry Street in Philadelphia. In the more tolerant Rhode Island, however, they (along
with Baptists and other dissidents) were not only permitted to proselytize but also to settle and
govern for a time. Elizabeth Harris came to what is now Maryland in 1656-57, resulting in the
formation of a number of active meetings near Annapolis and on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland. George Fox visited this area twice.
Further north, Quakers settled in 1675 near the present city of Burlington, New Jersey. In 1681,
William Penn (1644-1718) arrived in the land west of the Delaware River, which Charles II had
granted to Penn in payment for a sizable debt to the estate of Penn’s father and which the King
named “Pennsylvania” in honor of Admiral Penn. William Penn intended Pennsylvania to be a
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“holy experiment”—an enlightened proprietorship based on New Testament principles and
liberty of conscience where people did the will of God. Though Penn’s political practice was
not always consistent with his theory, the underlying principles of this Friend’s utopian vision
are as pertinent as ever: participatory decision making, religious liberty, justice as fair dealing
with one’s neighbors, opposition to war and the abolition of oaths.
B. Consolidation and Withdrawal: Circa 1690-1800
After the adoption of the Toleration Act by the English Parliament in 1689, conditions for
Quakers changed. Though occasionally persecuted, they were mostly left alone. Perhaps
ironically, their missionary zeal diminished almost as soon as they won toleration. What had
once been an outward-looking, energetic movement now took on the characteristics of a
closed sect.
In Pennsylvania, the Quakers had become a minority of the population by 1720, but they
retained political control of the colony until the beginning of the French and Indian Wars in
1755. At that point, a few Friends gave up their seats in the General Assembly to allow
Pennsylvania to pursue the war without their support.
While most Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Friends opposed the American Revolution, other
responses to the war varied. Some supported the revolution, became members of the Free
Quaker movement, and left the yearly meeting. Others adopted neutrality as their position,
refused to affirm loyalty to the new government, withdrew from politics, and refused to use
paper money issued either by the state or Congress. And some actively supported the British
and, of these, some even moved to Canada.
In late eighteenth century America as in England, Quakers increasingly withdrew from active
public life, as well as from public office, to focus on their religious community and their
distinctive way of life based on spiritual understandings. During this period yearly meetings
established requirements for membership and adopted books of discipline to define more
precisely the expectations for Quaker conduct and to prescribe the means of enforcing these
expectations. For instance, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s 1704 Book of Discipline discouraged
the marriage of Friends to non-Friends; its 1712 discipline recommended disownment of such
Friends; and its 1722 discipline required disownment for this conduct. Before such action was
taken, a committee of the monthly meeting would meet with the “errant” Friend in an attempt
to reclaim the Friend to right behavior. If that effort failed, the member would be disowned by
the meeting, which meant being barred from attending meeting for business or holding office in
the meeting. Such policies increased the exclusivity of the Religious Society of Friends, as did
the Queries and Advices formulated to increase Friends’ mindfulness of their distinctive
expectations for conduct.
This period of consolidation and conformity came to be known as the Quietist Period. Still,
during the 1750s, Friends actively debated war taxes, Indian rights and slavery. Even as Friends
turned their energies from political matters, they advanced their public witness. Friends in 1755
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essentially began the movement for abolition and during the American Revolution required all
Friends to free their slaves. They also expressed concern for the humane treatment of prisoners;
established a number of philanthropies benefitting Native Americans; and opposed the payment
of taxes for war.
A number of reforming ministers traveled widely seeking to improve the discipline of members,
to set up new meetings, to preach against slavery and other social evils and to hold public
meetings. One such minister was John Woolman (1720-1770), from Mount Holly, New Jersey,
who exemplified what a Quaker life could be when obedient to Spirit. He led efforts to
eliminate the enslavement of people, to improve the treatment of Native Americans, to end
economic exploitation and to warn against wealth and its abuses. These efforts reflect his choice
of a way of life “free from the Entanglement and the Desire of outward Greatness.” After
Woolman’s death, his work and his public writings increasingly influenced the social and
economic commitments of the larger society of non-Quakers. Another active Philadelphia area
Quaker, Anthony Benezet, was a leader in the wider anti-slavery movement, in education for
African Americans, and in relief efforts to aid those affected by war.
C. Schism and Reform: Circa 1800-1900
Even before the nineteenth century, American Friends exhibited two divergent tendencies: on
the one hand, emphasizing the primary authority of the Inward Light; and on the other,
emphasizing such Christian tenets as atonement and bodily resurrection and also the authority
of the Bible. Regarding the latter tendency, George Keith (1638-1716), one of the earliest
Quaker leaders in England, formed a separatist movement in Pennsylvania in the 1690s called
the Christian Quakers. This group strongly emphasized the life and teachings of the historical
Jesus and attempted to change the structure of governance within monthly meetings by
requiring an affirmation of faith and establishing deacons and elders to monitor the theological
views of those who spoke in meetings for worship. After being rebuffed by both Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting and London Yearly Meeting, this movement disappeared. Keith’s efforts in the
late 17th century clearly anticipate one of the tendencies in nineteenth century American
Quakerism. Nor were Friends immune to the Great Awakening of the 18 th century or the
evangelical movement in the 19th century.
The other tendency emphasized the Inward Light as the primary basis for religious faith and
practice. Elias Hicks (1748-1830), a Quaker farmer from Long Island, became the focal point
of criticism from more evangelical Quakers. He was a strong abolitionist and challenged
wealthy Friends and the use of any products of slave labor. Hicks emphasized the primacy of
the Inward Guide and deplored creedal statements. He urged Friends to live apart from the
world and opposed public education as well as the construction of the Erie Canal and a system
of railroads. Elias Hicks was not leading a movement but rather represented traditional
Quaker values and commitments and was attempting to recall Friends to their roots. His
opposition to the wealth and power of Friends in such cities as Philadelphia drew support
from many, though some leading Philadelphia Quakers believed that his intent was to
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undermine their power and authority.
Hicks’ traveling ministry led to a schism in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1827. Each group
claimed to represent authentic Quaker faith and practice; they were identified as “Orthodox”
and “Hicksite”. Economic, geographic, kinship and governance differences were involved in
this conflict, in addition to the theological issues.
Orthodox Friends in Philadelphia continued to hold their yearly meetings at the 4 th and Arch
Street meetinghouse (now known as Arch Street Meeting House), while Philadelphia Hicksite
Friends met elsewhere. The 1827 schism was followed by similar splits in Baltimore, New
York, Ohio and Indiana Yearly Meetings; and the situation was soon complicated by other
strong personalities, such as Joseph John Gurney (1788-1847) and John Wilbur (1774-1856),
and by other schisms. The Orthodox/Hicksite schism was further reinforced by London Yearly
Meeting’s attempt to establish itself as a more evangelical Christian denomination and its
rejection of Hicksite yearly meetings in North America.
Despite these differences, American Quakers made notable contributions during the nineteenth
century. Friends were among those who participated in the settling of the western frontier
before and after the Civil War. As holiness revivals began to occur there, many meetings hired
a pastor and introduced an order of worship, including music. Primary and secondary
education, always a major Quaker concern, was promoted by the establishment of a number of
Quaker schools and, overcoming a long distrust of higher education, several colleges. Friends
also worked for the abolition of slavery and war, for the welfare of African-Americans and
Native Americans, for prison reform, for temperance, for the mentally ill, and for the rights of
women. Some Quakers played a prominent role in the formation of the “underground railroad,”
giving aid and shelter to people escaping slavery as they fled to northern states or Canada. And
it is noteworthy that most of the organizers and officers of the first women’s rights convention
at Seneca Falls in 1848 were Quakers or former Quakers. Such activities placed members of the
Religious Society of Friends in conflict with many in the larger society.
Near the end of the nineteenth century, Friends from the two branches met to explore
approaches to education, peace and other issues. Hicksite Friends formed the Friends General
Conference to nurture and unify that branch of American Quakerism.
D. Reconciliation: Circa 1900-1955
Appropriately enough, it was the continuing commitment of both Orthodox and Hicksite
Friends to the peace testimony that paved the way for their gradual reconciliation and
reunification. In 1901 they jointly organized a conference for world peace to which all
American Quakers were invited.
Other developments in the early 1900s contributed to the reconciliation. In 1913, a group of
Philadelphia young adult Friends from each branch began to meet regularly to study the
separation and issued a report the next year stating that it was not a matter of doctrine but of
authority that had caused the separation. The group continued to meet and to develop social
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occasions for young Friends of both branches to get together; this even resulted in a few
cross-branch marriages. Women from both yearly meetings also worked together on issues of
suffrage and peace; Alice Paul, a member of Moorestown Friends Meeting, was a leader in
the campaign to pass and ratify the 19th Amendment.
In the early 20th century, revisions to both the Orthodox and Hicksite books of discipline
included significant changes: disownment for marriage to a non-Friend ended; and, for the
most part, there was no longer an emphasis on plain style of dress or speech. In 1916 a
prominent Orthodox Friend in Philadelphia conveyed a letter of friendship from his own yearly
meeting to the Hicksite Yearly Meeting. In 1917, members of both branches united with
members of Five Years Meeting (now called Friends United Meeting) to organize the American
Friends Service Committee to provide service opportunities for conscientious objectors in the
First World War. AFSC sponsored a number of Civilian Public Service camps during World
War II which enabled COs, including Friends from all yearly meetings, to pursue alternatives to
military service. Quaker scholars on the faculties of Haverford and Swarthmore colleges and
other universities achieved prominence beyond the Quaker domain and influenced the spread of
modernism and activism. Establishment of the Friends Neighborhood Guild in 1879 (though
named the Friends Mission No. 1 until 1899), Pendle Hill in 1930, Friends Council on
Education in 1932, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation in 1943 also helped to
form a bridge between Orthodox and Hicksite Friends. These organizations, particularly the
AFSC, served to unify Friends and to develop a large cadre of Quaker leaders, including
Douglas and Dorothy Steere, Howard and Anna Brinton, Rufus Jones and Henry Cadbury, who
influenced Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Friends for decades to come.
In the 1930s and 1940s a number of committees of the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings
merged, such as a unified Peace Committee and a Religious Life Committee. The latter met
for spiritual nourishment and also to prepare for visiting Friends meetings in both yearly
meetings. At the same time, the disciplines of the two yearly meetings were revised in the
direction of commonalities rather than differences and allowed for the formation of monthly
meetings with membership in both Orthodox and Hicksite Yearly Meetings. An even more
decisive step towards reconciliation was taken in 1946, when the two Philadelphia Yearly
Meetings agreed to establish the Philadelphia General Meeting which would be held in the
autumn and be attended by both Orthodox and Hicksite Friends, though separate sessions
would continue to be held in the spring. Finally, in 1950, a committee was formed with
representatives from both yearly meetings to prepare a common book of discipline. This
committee submitted its work, entitled Faith and Practice, to both yearly meetings and to the
General Meeting in 1954, and in 1955 the book was published. That year, a schism that had
lasted for 128 years was amicably brought to an end, and a single, unified Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting convened—with standing room only—at Arch Street Meeting House.
E. Unity Amidst Diversity: 1955-2000
As with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1955, Friends in Canada and in other parts of the
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United States were reconciled and reunited. Friends throughout North America developed a
growing interest in dialogue and cooperation. The Friends World Committee for Consultation,
founded in 1937 following the Friends World Conference at Swarthmore College, encouraged
this development. On the other hand, there were important differences that continued to divide
Friends, both within and between the various yearly meetings, including how to respond to the
Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.
For instance, in 1965 members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting attended an anti-war vigil at
the Pentagon sponsored by the Interreligious Committee on Vietnam, of which Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting was a member. Then, at the 1967 yearly meeting sessions, the decision was
reached to support the Phoenix project to send medical supplies to North Vietnam despite the
illegality of such action. The clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting resigned soon thereafter,
because as a sitting federal judge he was personally and officially committed to uphold the
law; other Friends likewise wrestled with the question of whether civil disobedience was an
appropriate method of registering opposition to the Vietnam War.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting issued a Quaker call to action in race relations following its 1964
sessions. In that call, Friends acknowledged failure to carry out the implications of the Quaker
testimony of human equality and advocated various steps to promote fair housing and fair
employment. During the summer of 1964, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting sponsored a project in
Mississippi to rebuild churches and construct a local community center. Many Friends,
however, felt that their efforts should be focused on the needs of disadvantaged minorities in
their own geographic area. In 1966, Friends initiated a community project in Chester,
Pennsylvania. Philadelphia area Friends thus were already attempting to respond to the urban
crisis when they were presented with a demand for reparations payments.
In the summer of 1969, the Black Economic Development Conference confronted
various religious groups, including Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, with the Black
Manifesto and the demand that these groups pay reparations, given their complicity in
the institutional arrangements that had disadvantaged African-Americans over the years.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting scheduled three called sessions in order to consider how it
should respond to the Black Manifesto; members of the Black Economic Development
Conference attended the third session. Though the yearly meeting decided to reject the
demand for payment of reparations, it did establish a Minorities Economic Development
Fund to support various community projects in the Philadelphia area, including some
sponsored by the Black Economic Development Conference.
Subsequently, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting wrestled with other manifestations of the ongoing
problems of race relations and war. In the spring of 1978, it attempted to establish a “Friendly
presence” in West Philadelphia to encourage nonviolent resolution of the growing conflict
between MOVE, a local commune, and the city of Philadelphia. And beginning in 1984, the
yearly meeting became the object of government lawsuits resulting from its refusal to levy the
salaries of its employees who did not pay the military portion of federal taxes.
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Members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting have confronted other social concerns. Among these
have been gender roles within Friends meetings and the general society, the rights of lesbian,
gay, bi-sexual and transgender individuals, the divestment of yearly meeting funds in
companies with business interests in South Africa under apartheid, the Sanctuary movement for
refugees in the United States without credentials, and the AIDS crisis.
In addition to public witness regarding social issues, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting gave
considerable attention in the period after reunification to “putting its own house in order.”
Nearly once every generation, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has asked itself variations on the
fundamental questions of how our religious society should be organized so that it serves its
members well and how the finances of the yearly meeting should be handled in order to use
our resources most effectively. The first question was answered with decisions to change the
committee structure of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in the mid-1970s, in the mid-1990s, and
again in the mid-2010s. The second question was answered with the adoption of different
approaches to fund raising and budgeting, including replacing the “quota” (an assessment
from the yearly meeting on monthly meetings based on the number of adult members) with a
voluntary “covenant” contribution determined by the monthly meetings. Over the course of
these decades, the role of yearly meeting staff changed from committee support to general
provision of services largely focused on core administrative functions and support of
meetings.
Since reunification in 1955, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting experienced significant growth in its
associated institutions. The number of Friends schools increased, including schools for children
who learn differently. Several continuing care retirement communities were formed with
symbolically important grants from the yearly meeting, beginning with Foulkeways in 1967,
followed by Medford Leas and Kendal in the early 1970s. The Burlington Meeting House was
renovated and expanded as a conference center in the 1990s for younger Friends and families.
Other recent initiatives undertaken by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting include a Spiritual
Formation Program; Meeting Enrichment Services that enable meetings to deepen and
strengthen the quality of their corporate worship and witness; and, since 1995, residential
annual sessions that are held on a college campus for several days in the summer to provide
opportunities for shared worship, fellowship and business. These efforts have helped to build a
greater sense of community in the yearly meeting and in many of its constituent meetings.
F. 2000–The Present
Notwithstanding efforts to improve the outreach and in reach of Friends meetings, the
membership of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has declined over the years. It had some 30,000
members in 1775, but about half that number by 1925, unevenly divided between the two
yearly meetings. The 1955 reunification brought together 5,537 Orthodox and 11,633 Hicksites
Friends, or about 17,000. By 1994, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting had just 12,100 members.
Since then, the membership has remained relatively stable with some meetings experiencing an
influx of active attenders while other meetings with few and aging members continue to decline.
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Though other denominations also experience declining membership, Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting seems to face challenges that may be peculiar to its faith and practice. The pace of life
that most individuals and families experience appears antithetical to reflective meditation
practices and to regular, continuous participation in the life of a meeting. Increased mobility
and evolving ideas about membership seem to create a decreased emphasis on establishing a
formal and lifelong membership arrangement with a particular meeting. For some, the
restrained and at times overly intellectual nature of many meetings does not provide spiritual
fulfillment. For others, the Quaker culture itself, perhaps unrecognized by those formed within
it, appears unwelcoming and uncongenial.
Even so, our monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings and Friends institutions continue to offer a
vital experience of worship and opportunities for active service to members and attenders. And
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is working deliberately to nurture new leadership, to articulate our
faith and practice, to undo racism within the yearly meeting and the larger society, and to
respond to climate change and environmental degradation. In addition, Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting contributed significantly to the renovation of Friends Center at 15 th and Cherry Streets
in Philadelphia, which was recognized officially as a model green building. It supported the
renovation of the Friends meeting house in Ramallah and the establishment of a peace center
there. And in 2009, it joined other historic peace churches in sponsoring a national ecumenical
conference at the meetinghouse at 4th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia, “Heeding God’s Call: A
Gathering on Peace.” This conference included a witness for handgun violence prevention in
the city of Philadelphia. We continue to recognize these and other challenges and to address
them in ways that support the leadings of our vital and growing community of Friends.
We value the continuity in worship practice that has been our hallmark from the 1680s and
continues to offer a radical simplicity today. We are strengthened by the sense of a gathered
community as we seek and experience the Inward Light. As Friends, we remain committed to a
life of obedience to the Spirit and seek to be faithful witnesses to Truth.
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V. Friends and Some of Their Organizations
Rather than being a cloistered society, Friends have always tried to carry their work and witness
into the world. Such initiatives enable Friends to work with others, including Friends from
different branches of Quakerism, on issues of mutual concern.
Quakerism in the United States includes four major traditions or branches, all tracing their
lineage from earliest Friends in 17th century England. Monthly and yearly meetings and churches
affiliate with one or more of these traditions. These groups intersect and even overlap in their
mission and service work. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is primarily affiliated with Friends
General Conference.
Friends General Conference is an association of regional Quaker organizations in the United
States and Canada. Created in 1900 by seven yearly meetings intending to hold a general
conference periodically, Friends General Conference is now an association of fourteen yearly
meetings and various regional groups and individual meetings. Friends General Conference
continues to sponsor an annual Gathering of Friends and provides services and resources to
meetings and to individual Friends. Those affiliated with Friends General Conference emphasize
the authority of the Inward Light and include people who identify themselves as Christians and
those who do not. The Friends General Conference website lists all of its affiliates. fgcquaker.org
Conservative Yearly Meetings embrace the Christian beliefs and silent worship introduced by
the founders of the Religious Society of Friends. Some members practice plain dress and speech.
There are three main conservative yearly meetings and each has a separate website: Ohio Yearly
Meeting (Conservative) ohioyearlymeeting.org or quaker.us; Iowa Yearly Meeting
(Conservative) iymc.org; and North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative). ncymc.org
Evangelical Friends Churches International includes six yearly meetings/regions in North
America that are drawn together through a shared commitment to Jesus Christ and a common
desire to change the world for Christ. evangelicalfriends.org/north-america
Friends United Meeting, originally established as Five Years Meeting in 1902, includes thirty
yearly meetings in Canada, Cuba, Jamaica, Kenya and the United States. Friends United
Meeting’s focus is on evangelism, leadership training, global partnership and communication so
that the power of the Holy Spirit is known, loved and obeyed as Teacher and Lord. fum.org
Over the years, many organizations have developed out of the impulses of Friends to address
problems in the community and the world. For some of these organizations, yearly meetings,
including Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, continue to name members to the organizations’
governing bodies. Other organizations appoint a broad group of Friends to identify and
recommend members for the governing board. Still others rely on the nominating committee of
the board to recommend new appointments. Since Friends seek to be led by divine guidance in
reaching decisions, the members of the governing body of a Friends organization engage in an
open discernment and decision- making process and do not represent a fixed position of the
yearly meeting or other body that appointed them.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting appoints Friends to the governing boards of a number of these
groups and approves the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting members of the boards of George School
and Westtown School:
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George School, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1893 and serves students in
grades 9-12. The school has incorporated separately from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting after an
extended period when it was ‘under the yearly meeting’s care.’ However, its Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting board members are still approved by the yearly meeting. georgeschool.org
Westtown School, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1799 and serves students in
grades pre-kindergarten-12. The school has incorporated separately from Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting after an extended period when it was ‘under the yearly meeting’s care.’ However, its
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting board members are still approved by the yearly meeting.
westtown.edu
For Friends called to board service in Quaker organizations, there is a very useful resource titled
Principles of Good Practice for Boards and Every Trustee of Quaker Organizations. (See
Section VIII.)
A. Alphabetical Listing of a Variety of Friends Organizations
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) was founded in 1917 to relieve suffering during
and after the First World War and to provide conscientious objectors with alternative service
opportunities. Friends in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting were among the founders of the
organization. AFSC continues to develop and support programs in the United States and around
the world. Among its goals are to increase understanding among national, racial and ethnic
groups, to enable indigenous populations to improve their living conditions, and to relieve
suffering caused by economic and social dislocation as well as by war. afsc.org
Bible Association of Friends in America, established in the 1830s, distributes Bibles and hosts
an annual event in the Philadelphia area. (No website)
Center on Conscience and War continues work begun in 1940 to offer alternative service for
conscientious objectors to war. Currently, it supports conscientious objectors, including members
of the US military who seek discharge as conscientious objectors, and young men required to
register with Selective Service System. Along with AFSC, Quaker House in Fayetteville, North
Carolina and others, the Center on Conscience and War maintains a “GI Rights” hotline to assist
those in the military and provides training for counselors. centeronconscience.org.
Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), established in 2009, is a grassroots, nonviolent direct
action group founded by Quakers to address climate change and the integrity of the earth. EQAT
is governed by an independent board. eqat.org
Friends Association for Higher Education (FAHE), formed in 1977, creates opportunities for
fellowship among all who share Quaker ideals in higher education whether on Quaker or nonQuaker campuses. It enhances appreciation of Friends religious heritage, encourages scholarly
research and supports Friends colleges and universities in their efforts to affirm their Quaker
heritage. FAHE sponsors an annual meeting and a variety of publications. quakerfahe.com
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) was formed in 1943 by members of the
Religious Society of Friends who gathered at Quaker Hill in Richmond, Indiana. FCNL is the
oldest registered lobby representing a faith community in Washington, DC. It seeks a world free
of war and the threat of war, a society with equity and justice for all, a community where every
person’s potential may be fulfilled and an earth restored. Working in collaboration with other
organizations, it coordinates and enhances the efforts of Friends across the country to convey
their concerns to the executive and legislative branches of national government. fcnl.org
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Friends Council on Education (FCE), founded in 1931, helps Friends schools maintain their
Quaker identity and ethos, and their relationship with the Religious Society of Friends. FCE
strengthens the network of support among Friends schools; promotes professional growth for
trustees, administrators and faculty; promotes Friends education through consultations, programs
and publications; and assists in the establishment of new Friends schools. friendscouncil.org
Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC), established in 1898, is a Quaker non-profit organization
providing cost effective, professional, socially responsible investment management services
exclusively to Friends meetings, churches, schools and organizations. The investment philosophy
and shareholder activities reflect the importance of the environment, human rights, just wages,
safe working conditions and good corporate governance. friendsfiduciary.org
Friends Historical Association (FHA) was formed in 1873 to study, preserve and publish
material relating to the history of the Religious Society of Friends. It is international in
membership and interests and is open to all. FHA hosts an annual meeting in the fall and
conducts an historical pilgrimage in the spring to an area associated with the history of
Quakerism. FHA publishes a semi-annual journal, Quaker History, with articles on Quaker
contributions to issues such as social justice, education and literature. The journal also includes
book and article reviews. quakerhistory.org
Friends Peace Teams (FPT), founded in the mid-1990s, works around the world to develop long
term relationships with communities in conflict to create programs for peacebuilding, healing
and reconciliation. Programs build on extensive Quaker experience, combining practical and
spiritual aspects of conflict resolution and reconciliation. friendspeaceteams.org
Friends Services for the Aging (FSA), formed in 1991, is an association of Quaker-affiliated
organizations and programs united by their Quaker values and continuing efforts to serve older
adults on the basis of Friends’ belief in the dignity of all people. fsainfo.org
Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) originated in 1937, at the Second World
Conference of Friends, “to act in a consultative capacity to promote better understanding among
Friends the world over.” Four cooperating offices cover Africa, the Americas, Asia, the West
Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. FWCC's World Office is in London. The Section of the
Americas has staff and an office in Philadelphia. Through visitation and periodic gatherings,
FWCC offers opportunity for religious fellowship among Friends throughout the world. Friends
World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), Section of the Americas, maintains a list of all
active yearly meetings and their affiliations on its website. fwcc.org
National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, begun in 1971, has a single purpose: to encourage
Congress to pass a bill allowing individuals as a matter of conscience to redirect the portion of
their federal taxes that goes to war, so as to fund non-war -related federal budget items. Friends
in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting were instrumental in forming this organization. peacetaxfund.org
New Foundation Fellowship (NFF) exists to preach the Christian message that was proclaimed
by the early Friends: “Christ has come to teach his People himself.” Beginning with important
scholarship by Lewis Benson, the work of these Friends continues, as Friends share from study,
worship and inter-visitation. nffquaker.org
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Pendle Hill (PH) has been a center for spiritual retreat and engagement since 1930. Located
in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, it offers hospitality, study, worship and other interaction. Not
affiliated with any branch of Friends, it brings together the broad spectrum of Friends, as well as
people of other religious affiliations. pendlehill.org
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW), formed in 1987, is a network of members of the Religious
Society of Friends in North America and other like-minded people who are taking Spirit-led
action to address ecological and related social crises. QEW emphasizes Quaker process and
testimonies, continuing revelation and a deepening sense of spiritual connection with the natural
world. quakerearthcare.org
Quaker Green Burials is a resource for cemetery management and a forum for discussion of
our religious views on the disposition of human remains. quakergreenburials.org
Quaker House, in Fayetteville, NC, established in 1969, manifests the Friends peace testimony
and provides counseling and support to members of the armed forces who question their role in
the military. While its work provides the Fort Bragg community a place to address some of the
challenges military families face, its service extends beyond the local area, partnering with other
organizations that provide conscientious objection support to military personnel.
quakerhouse.org
Quaker Information Center (QIC) offers a website gateway to Quaker heritage and modern
Quakerism. It serves both the Quaker community and the general public in its effort to increase
awareness of Friends and Quaker institutions. QIC began in Philadelphia, and relocated to the
Earlham School of Religion in 2010. quakerinfo.org
Quaker Initiative to End Torture (QUIT), formed in 2005, is a collaborative effort to end
torture as a practice, a tradition and a policy of governments. QUIT recognizes this work as the
next great abolition movement in the United States. quit-torture-now.org
Quaker Religious Education Collaborative (QREC) is a grassroots network, begun in 2012, of
Friends holding a sense of stewardship for life-long Quaker faith formation through religious
education. The network brings together Friends from all branches of Quakerism to think anew
about how to sustain religious education among Friends. quakers4re.org
Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) maintains houses in Geneva and New York to provide
meeting places where UN diplomats, staff and nongovernmental partners can work on difficult
issues in quiet diplomacy. Friends and other Friends organizations make use of the New York
Quaker House facilities to learn about and participate in UN activities. quno.org
Quakers Uniting in Publications (QUIP), begun in 1983, is a network that supports Quaker
publications and authors through annual meetings, cooperative marketing, publishing and
assistance to Friends outside the United States. quakerquip.org
Quaker Universalist Fellowship (QUF), formed in 1980, is a gathering of Friends who work to
foster understanding among Quakers and people from the diverse religious cultures which
flourish in our globalized human community. It publishes a blog, pamphlets and other material.
It is governed by a steering committee and is open to all interested people. universalistfriends.org
Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) was formed in 2012 to support young adults as they develop
leadership and other skills for the present and future of Friends through working in established
service and social justice organizations. QVS partners with Friends meetings or churches in
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establishing Houses of Service in different cities in the United States. Fellows live together in
community and have in-service opportunities to learn about Quakerism and social justice issues.
quakervoluntaryservice.org
Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR), established in 1967, is a Quaker micro-credit
organization that supports grassroots income-generating projects led by women in developing
countries. It began as a project of Friends World Committee of Consultation, but became a
separate non-profit organization in 1999. rswr.org
School of the Spirit (SoS), created in 1991, offers a ministry of prayer and learning devoted to
strengthening participants as they listen and respond faithfully to the inward work of Christ. Its
programs are rooted in the Quaker contemplative tradition. Begun as a project of Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting, it now has an independent board of Friends from across the United States.
schoolofthespirit.org
Tract Association of Friends, has published calendars, pamphlets, essays and books on beliefs,
concerns, history and practice, and refutations of unsound doctrines for the past 200 years. The
Tract Association encourages Friends to compose material suitable for publication.
tractassociation.org
B. Friends Affinity Organizations
Fellowship of Friends of African Descent (FoFAD) was founded in 1990 to provide for the
nurture of Friends of African descent, their families and friends. Like a family reunion, its faceto-face gatherings provide fellowship, nurture, support and spiritual renewal. www.fofad.org
Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts (FQA), created in 1993, is a membership organization “to
nurture and showcase the literary, visual, musical and performing arts within the Religious
Society of Friends, for purposes of Quaker expression, ministry, witness and outreach.”
fqa.quaker.org
Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC),
founded in the 1970s, is a North American Quaker faith community within the Religious Society
of Friends. Originally called FLGC, it was founded to provide support and nurture to the lesbian
and gay community. Honoring that of God in all people, members seek to express God's truth,
offering support and nurture within the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual/transgender
communities, in a faith- based context. flgbtqc.quaker.org
C. Quaker Periodicals
The Friend, established in 1843, is published weekly in Britain. The Friend is owned by The
Friend Publications Ltd, a charity that also publishes the Friends Quarterly. The trustees are
appointed from members of Britain Yearly Meeting. thefriend.org
Friends Journal, created in 1955, is a national journal, which succeeded the periodicals of the
two separate branches of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Hicksite and Orthodox—see section IV).
Friends Journal is published by Friends Publishing Corporation. Its goal is to serve the Quaker
community and the wider community of spiritual seekers through the publication of articles,
poetry, letters, art and news that convey the contemporary experience of Friends.
friendsjournal.org
Quaker Life, started in 1960, is published by Friends United Meeting. Its purpose is to inspire
through devotional articles, photos, essays and spiritual journeys of Friends; inform through
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news of Friends around the world, book reviews, classifieds, Passages and a meeting directory;
and teach through regular columns and numerous other articles. fum.org/quaker- life
QuakerQuaker, begun in 2005, is an online community of Quaker bloggers, video producers,
photographers and readers reaching across divisions and out into the world to talk about ministry
and renewal. quakerquaker.org
Quaker Religious Thought, begun in 1959, is a journal of Quaker theology spanning the
differences in theology, with Friends from all theological traditions represented.
qtdg.wordpress.com
Quaker Theology, begun in 1999, is a progressive religious journal and forum for discussion and
study published by QUEST: Quaker Ecumenical Seminars in Theology. quest.quaker.org
Western Friend, begun in 1929, is the official publication of Quakers in Pacific, North Pacific
and Intermountain Yearly Meetings. Its mission is to build practical and spiritual connections
among Western Friends in print, online and face-to-face. westernfriend.org
What canst thou say? (WCTS), formed in 1994, is an independent quarterly publication
cooperatively produced by Friends who have felt the movement of the Spirit and wish to deepen
their understanding of it by interacting with others who also have had experiences of the Divine.
Issues contain stories of mystical experiences and the growth that comes through contemplative
practice. Retreats are offered occasionally. whatcanstthousay.org
D. Ecumenical and Interfaith Work
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is represented in the World Council of Churches through the
Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee of Friends General Conference. In addition,
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is identified as a “member communion” of the National Council of
Churches. Many Friends meetings maintain formal and informal relationships with local
ecumenical and interfaith bodies. These affiliations enable meetings to engage in projects and
programs with various denominations and to be reminded of our historic roots in the Christian
tradition. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting names representatives to state councils of churches in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Friends also seek opportunities for spiritual fellowship with neighbors from the Jewish, Muslim,
Buddhist and other religious traditions. Continuing dialogue with such groups and with the
various Christian denominations is especially important if Friends are to balance our distinctive
witness with a willingness to learn from others.
As Friends seek to live lives that speak in the world, work with others of faith is a powerful
means to bring about understanding and reconciliation.
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VI. Extracts from the Writings of Friends
A. Advices
The principal purpose of a book of discipline is to promote faithfulness among the members and
constituent bodies of the yearly meeting by offering advice on various aspects of the life of the
Religious Society of Friends. In this sense the entire Faith and Practice, including the quotations
from the writings of Friends, is advices. But we also include here a set of advices paraphrased
from statements contained in epistles of the Yearly Meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys,
1694 and 1695.
I.
Friends are reminded that our Religious Society took form in times of disturbance, and that its
continuing testimony has been the power of God to lead men and women out of the confusions
of outward violence, inward sickness, and all other forms of self-will, however upheld by social
convention. As death comes to our willfulness, a new life is formed in us, so that we are liberated
from distractions and frustrations, from fears, angers, and guilts. Thus we are enabled to sense
the Inward Light and to follow its leadings. Friends are advised to place God, not themselves, in
the center of the universe and, in all aspects of inward life and outward activity, to keep
themselves open to the healing power of the Spirit of Christ.
Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts. Seek to live in
affection as true Friends in your Meetings, in your families, in all your dealings with others, and
in your relationship with outward society. The power of God is not used to compel us to Truth;
therefore, let us renounce for ourselves the power of any person over any other and, compelling
no one, seek to lead others to Truth through love. Let us teach by being ourselves teachable.
Keep to the simplicity of Truth. Seek for its manifestations in prayer, in reading matter, in the
arts, and in all experiences of daily life. Shun the use of mind-changing drugs and intoxicants, of
gambling, and of other detrimental practices that interpose themselves against the Inward Light.
It is the experience of Friends that these drugs, intoxicants, and practices lead to a personal
willfulness and inability to listen for the will of God. Avoid in daily work those involvements
and entanglements that separate us from each other and from God. Keep your recreations from
becoming occasions for self-intoxication and avoid those conventional amusements which
debase the emotions by playing upon them. These, too, lead to self-absorption and to
forgetfulness that each person’s humanity is shared by all persons. Live and work in the
plainness and simplicity of a true follower of Christ.
II.
Our Religious Society endures as a community of friends who take thought for outward society
by first taking care of one another. Friends are advised to maintain love and unity, to avoid tale72
bearing and detraction, and to settle differences promptly and in a manner free from resentment
and all forms of inward violence. Live affectionately as friends, entering with sympathy into the
joys and sorrows of one another’s daily lives. Visit one another. Be alert to give help and ready
to receive it. Bear the burdens of one another’s failings; share the buoyancy of one another’s
strengths.
Remember that to everyone is given a share of responsibility for the meeting for worship,
whether through silence or through the spoken word. Be diligent in attendance at meetings and in
inward preparation for them. Be ready to speak under the leadings of the Light. Receive the
ministry of others in a tender spirit and avoid hurtful criticism. In meetings for business, and in
all duties connected with them, seek again the leadings of the Light, keeping from obstinacy and
from harshness of tone or manner; admit the possibility of being in error. In all the affairs of the
Meeting community, proceed in the peaceable spirit of Pure Wisdom, with forbearance and
warm affection for each other.
Use your capabilities and your possessions not as ends in themselves but as God’s gifts entrusted
to you. Share them with others; use them with humility, courtesy and affection. Guard against
contentiousness and love of power; be alert to the personalities and the needs of others. Show
loving consideration for all creatures, and cherish the beauty and wonder of God’s creation.
Attend to Pure Wisdom and be teachable.
III.
Friends are reminded that it is the experience and testimony of our Society that there is one
teacher, namely Christ; and that in that Spirit there are no distinctions between persons, nor any
reason of age, sex, or race that elects some to domination. Live in love and learn from one
another. Combativeness in family life, whereby one strives to assert a supremacy of will over
another, is not compatible with the conviction that there is that of God in everyone. Amid the
growing distempers of social existence, Friends are urged to maintain our witness of Truth,
simplicity, and nonviolence, and to test our personal lives by them.
The union of two in marriage having a religious basis, any who contemplate it should seek divine
guidance, and any who enter into marriage should seek this guidance without ceasing. Within the
family, adults and youth, whether formally in membership or not, should instruct one another by
example in the way of life which our Religious Society has professed, seeking in all things the
Inward Light as the only certain alternative to an unfriendly struggle of wills. Friends are advised
to maintain closeness in their family life and, avoiding distractions and contentions, to make their
homes places of peace.
The Spirit of Christ can lead parents to wise counsel for their children in education, reading,
recreation, and social relationships, while it can also lead children to wise counsel for their
parents in these and other aspects of life. If counsel is unwelcome and if difficulties arise,
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persevere both in prayer and in a sense of humor. Friends are advised in all things to trust in the
Light and to witness to it in daily living.
Accept with serenity the approach of each new stage of life. Welcome the approach of old age,
both for oneself and for others, as an opportunity for wisdom, for detachment from turmoils, and
for greater attachment to the Light. Make provisions for the settlement of all outward affairs
while in health, so that others may not be burdened and so that one may be freed to live more
fully in the Truth that shall stand against all the entanglements, distractions, and confusions of
our times.
IV.
Bring the whole of your life under the healing and ordering of the Holy Spirit, remembering that
there is no time but this present. Friends are reminded that we are called, as followers of Christ,
to help establish the Kingdom of God on earth. In witnessing to the Inward Light, guard against
religious intolerance. Strengthen a sense of kinship with everyone and make service, not selfpromotion, the chief aim of our outward lives as Friends, as employees or as supervisors, and as
citizens.
Let the sense of kinship inspire us to unceasing efforts toward a social order free of violence and
oppression, in which no one’s development is hindered by meager income, insufficient
education, or too little freedom in directing his or her own affairs. Friends are advised not only to
minister to those in need, but also to seek to know the facts of social and economic ills so as to
work for the removal of those ills. Let the Friendly testimony that there is that of God in
everyone lead us to cherish every human being regardless of race or class, and to encourage
efforts to overcome prejudices and antagonisms. Friends are advised to cleanse themselves of all
prejudice.
Be faithful in maintaining our testimony against all war as contrary to the spirit and teaching of
Christ. Every human being is a child of God with a measure of God’s Light. War and other
instruments of violence and oppression ignore this reality and violate our relation with God.
Keep primary our Friends’ concern for the elimination of combat in the outward world as in our
personal lives. Friends are advised to live in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the
occasion of all wars. Friends are further advised to aid in all ways possible the development of
international order and understanding.
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B. Extracts on Experience and Faith
Quakers have traditionally been wary of creedal statements as they limit our understanding of
God. Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting have further avoided prescribed declarations of
faith and statements of essential truths as hindrances to communication with the Divine.
The rejection of creeds does not imply the absence of doctrine or statements of belief. From the
earliest times of our society, individual Friends, as well as groups and Friends meetings, have
proclaimed their beliefs to the world in epistles, minutes, advices and other writings. Among the
doctrines finding wide acceptance by Friends are a universal saving Light and continuing
revelation. The selections that follow explore these and other beliefs held among Friends.
The selections within Part B are loosely arranged by the themes of belief, worship, ministry,
prayer, scripture, Jesus, discernment and guidance. Readers are advised to browse through the
extracts, reading one and then another and yet another. As on a library book shelf where an
adjacent volume is often a delightful discovery that would not be found by using a precise call
number, the quotation that precedes and follows can bring new perspective. Each author has
more to say and their writings can be located by consulting the “Sources of Extracts from the
Writings of Friends.”
1
What is the Quaker faith? It is not a tidy
package of words which you can capture at
any given time and then repeat weekly at a
worship service. It is an experience of
discovery which starts the discoverer on a
journey which is life-long. The discovery in
itself is not uniquely a property of Quakerism.
It is as old as Christianity, and considerably
older if you share the belief that many have
known Christ who have not known His name.
What is unique to the Religious Society of
Friends is its insistence that the discovery
must be made by each man for himself. No
one is allowed to get it second-hand by
accepting a ready-made creed. Furthermore,
the discovery points a path and demands a
journey, and gives you the power to make the
journey.
Elise Boulding
1954
Boulding,
Elise, The
Quaker
Journey,
Address to
Friends
General
Conference,
1954
2
[Our] work is based on the thought that ‘What
you have inherited from your forefathers you
must acquire for yourselves to possess it’.
Young Friends
Committee
1926
Britain Yearly
Meeting.
Quaker faith &
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That is to say that each generation of young
Friends by its experiments must discover for
itself the truths on which the Society is built
if it is to use those truths and to continue and
enlarge the work of the Society. Hence the
occasional separate meetings of younger
Friends and our desire to have means of
expressing corporately our own experience.
practice. Fifth
edition.
London: The
Yearly Meeting
of the Religious
Society of
Friends
(Quakers) in
Britain, 2013
21.04
3
To say that Friends have no creed is not to
say that each Friend has no belief. Far
otherwise. Each one, and each group, has the
responsibility to seek, and seek, and seek
again where the Light is leading; to find what
the life of God means in the life of man; to
wrestle with the great facts and mysteries in
the heart of our Christian experience, and to
know what we believe about them. It is only
when we have formulated our faith for
ourselves that we can communicate it to
others or know its incisive power in our own
day-to-day discipleship.
Hugh L.
Doncaster
1963
Doncaster,
Hugh, The
Quaker
Message: A
Personal
Affirmation,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 181,
1972, p. 9
[Quoted from
God in Every
Man]
4
If you would know God, and worship and
serve God as you should do, you must come
to the means He has ordained and given for
that purpose. Some seek it in books, some in
learned men, but what they look for is in
themselves, yet they overlook it. The voice is
too still, the Seed too small, and the Light
shineth in darkness. … The woman that lost
her silver found it at home after she had
lighted her candle and swept her house. Do
you so too, and you shall find what Pilate
wanted to know, viz., Truth. The Light of
Christ within, who is the Light of the world,
and so a light to you that tells you the truth of
your condition, leads all that take heed unto it
William Penn
1694
Penn, William,
Select Works of
––, New York,
Kraus Reprint
Co., 1971, A
Brief Account
of the Rise and
Progress of the
People Called
Quakers, p. 757
76
out of darkness into God’s marvelous light;
for light grows upon the obedient.
5
There is a spirit which I feel that delights to
do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong, but
delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy
its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all
wrath and contention, and to weary out all
exaltation and cruelty or whatever is of a
nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end of
all temptations. As it bears no evil in itself, so
it conceives none in thoughts to any other. If
it be betrayed, it bears it, for its ground and
spring is the mercies and forgiveness of God.
Its crown is meekness, its life is everlasting
love unfeigned; it takes its kingdom with
entreaty and not with contention, and keeps it
by lowliness of mind. In God alone it can
rejoice, though none else regard it or can own
its life. It’s conceived in sorrow, and brought
forth without any to pity it, nor doth it
murmur at grief and oppression. It never
rejoiceth but through sufferings; for with the
world’s joy it is murdered. I found it alone,
being forsaken. I have fellowship therein with
them who lived in dens and desolate places in
the earth, who through death obtained this
resurrection and eternal holy life.
James Nayler
1660
Nayler, James,
Works, 1716.
P. 696
6
There is a Spirit Which I Feel
Kenneth
Boulding
1945
Boulding,
Kenneth, There
is a Spirit: The
Nayler Sonnets.
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet #
Can I, imprisoned, body-bound, touch
The starry garment of the Oversoul,
Reach from my tiny part to the great Whole,
77
And spread my Little to the Infinite Much,
When Truth forever slips from out my clutch,
And what I take indeed, I do but dole
In cupfuls from a rimless ocean-bowl
That holds a million million million such?
And Yet, some Thing that moves among the
stars,
And holds the cosmos in a web of law,
Moves too in me: a hunger, a quick thaw
Of soul that liquefies the ancient bars,
As I, a member of creation, sing
The burning one-ness binding everything.
337, p. 8
7
Thousands [are] now mistaken as to the
dignity and origin of God’s Spirit in them;
they think it is of man, a part of his nature and
being whereas it is of the very life, power,
and substance of God. Its descent is as truly
from heaven as was that of the Lord Jesus. He
came in that low, mean, and ordinary
appearance as to outward show and
accommodations, teaching us thereby not to
despise the day of small things, nor to
overlook the littleness of the motions of
divine life in our own souls. And when he
compares the kingdom of heaven, which he
expressly says is within, to outward things, he
very instructively inculcates to us that the
beginnings of it are small—“a little leaven …
a grain of mustard seed … least of all
seeds”(Matt. 13:31-32). This is true in the
inward, whatever it may be in the outward,
for the seed of the kingdom is the least of all
the seeds in the field or garden of the heart.
Job Scott
1765
Scott, Job,
Journal, 1797,
pp. 13-15
8
In this humanistic age we suppose that man is
the initiator and God the responder. But the
Living Christ within us is the initiator and we
are the responders. God the Lover, the accuser,
the revealer of light and darkness presses
within us. “Behold I stand at the door and
Thomas
Kelly
1941
Kelly, Thomas,
A Testament
of Devotion,
New York,
Harper, 1941,
78
knock.” And all our apparent initiative is
already a response, a testimonial to His secret
presence and working within us.
p. 4
9
If God ever spoke, He is still speaking. If He
has ever been in mutual and reciprocal
communication with the persons He has
made, He is still a communicating God as
eager as ever to have listening and receptive
souls. If there is something of His image and
superscription in our inmost structure and
being, we ought to expect a continuous
revelation of His will and purpose through
the ages. … He is the Great I Am, not a Great
He Was.
Rufus M. Jones
1948
Jones, Rufus
M., A Call to
What is Vital,
New York,
Macmillan,
1948, p. 65
10
As a black Quaker, I see the Inner Light as
the great liberator and equalizer able to erase
the psychological deficits of racism. The
internalization of this divine principle has the
potential to remove the sense of
powerlessness that so often characterizes the
thinking of the downtrodden. For if the
Divine Light is the Seed of God planted in
the souls of human beings, in that Seed lies
all the characteristics of its source.
Consequently, the Light within is also the
Divine Power within. It is the indestructible
power in us that is able to create from
nothing, able to make ways out of no way,
able to change what appears to be the natural
order of things. It is the power in us that can
never be overcome by the darkness of fear
and hatred or altered by the might or money
of people. It is the power in us in which lies
unfathomable capacity to love and forgive
even the most heinous of crimes.
Ayesha ClarkHalkin Imani
1988
Imani, Ayesha
(Clark-Halkin),
Blacks and
Quakers: Have
We Anything
To Declare,
Friends
Journal, June
1988, pp. 6-7
79
11
But as I had forsaken all the priests, so I left
the separate preachers also, and those called
the most experienced people; for I saw there
was not one among them all that could speak
to my condition. And when all my hopes in
them and in all men were gone, so that I had
nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell
what to do, then, Oh then, I heard a voice
which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus,
that can speak to thy condition,” and when I
heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the
Lord did let me see why there was none upon
the earth that could speak to my condition,
namely, that I might give him all the glory for
all are concluded under sin, and shut up in
unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might
have the pre-eminence, who enlightens, and
gives grace and faith and power. Thus, when
God doth work who shall [prevent] it. And
this I knew experimentally.
George Fox
1647
Fox, George,
Journal,
Nickalls, ed.,
London Yearly
Meeting,
1975,p. 11
12
I think that for Fox, and anyone who
proposes an experiential theology, as Friends
do, the element of experiment is important.
Fox came to his opening only after he had
traveled around seeking out the leading lights
of his day. He found that none of the people
who he met could answer the questions in his
soul. He found the answers in an inner voice.
He heard this voice, he identified it as the
Inner Christ, and he found confirmation in
that his “soul did leap for joy.”
Will Taber
2011
Taber, Will,
“This I know
experimentally
…” on Blog
Growing
Together in the
Light, October
11, 2011
13
Quakerism is neither exclusively Christian, as
some Quaker Christians would have it; nor is
it exclusively Universalist, as some Quaker
Universalists would have it. … Not only is it
possible to be both Christian and Universalist
at the same time; it is the very essence and
peculiar genius of Quakerism to marry the
two in one powerful synthesis through the
Samuel D.
Caldwell
1997
Caldwell,
Samuel D. The
Inward Light:
How
Quakerism
Unites
Universalism
and
80
doctrine of the Inner Light. In the final
analysis, the Quaker doctrine of the Inner
Light is really a radically Universalist
interpretation of the Christian doctrine of the
Holy Spirit. To be Quaker is, therefore, to be
radically Christian.
Christianity
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting,
Religious
Society of
Friends, 1997,
pp.1, 11
14
Our growing, mystical consciousness shall
transform us into evangelical Christians,
bursting to share what we have learned about
living in the Kingdom from Jesus of
Nazareth, through the gospels, and from our
personal discovery of the Christ within—a
Christ who is not limited to Jesus and can
therefore be good news to men and women of
other living religions and to countless
humanists who, in being true to themselves
and their own sense of honesty and
wholeness, will never be able to accept the
Christ myth in its traditional form.
John Yungblut
1974
Yungblut,
John,
Quakerism of
the Future:
Mystical,
Prophetic and
Evangelical,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 194,
1974, p. 24
15
Quakerism in spirit and ideal is neither a form
of Roman Catholicism nor a form of
Protestantism. Protestantism in its original,
essential features called for an authoritative
creed, specific sacraments, and an authentic
form of ordination. Quakerism at its birth was
a fresh attempt to recover the way of life
revealed in the New Testament, to reinterpret and re-live it in this present world.
Its founders intended to revive apostolic
Christianity. They did not intend to create a
new sect. They carefully avoided calling
themselves a “Church.” They were content to
be a “Society of Friends.” George Fox said:
“The Quakers are not a sect but are [a people
living] in the power of God which was before
sects were.”
Rufus M. Jones
1937
Jones, Rufus
M., The
Spiritual
Message of the
Religious
Society of
Friends,
Friends World
Conference,
Commission
Report, 1937,
p. 65
81
16
The artist and the Quaker are on the same
internal journey. Each is seeking a
relationship with the Divine, and each is
seeking a way to express that relationship.
There are just many different ways of
expressing it. For many, the path to the Self
has to be entered by way of the arts, whether
or not we are gifted in that field. That doesn't
seem to matter. As St. Paul says: If we have
not love, we are as sounding brass or a
tinkling cymbal. And for many of us, the
pathway to love is through the arts. … The
process of working with and forming material
things can lead beyond them to the spiritual,
and shape of clay or colors of paint can be a
window into another world.
Janet Mustin
1992
Mustin, Janet,
Beyond Uneasy
Tolerance: the
saga of
Quakers and
the arts in 100
quotations,
Esther
Greenleaf
Mürer, Ed.,
Fellowship of
Quakers in the
Arts, 2000
17
God is never far away. God’s Spirit is always
so close—closer than breath. But unless we
stop and listen, we might not notice. We
practice listening. We listen with our whole
selves—with our bodies, our minds, our
hearts, our imaginations, our souls.
Faith & Play
Working
Group,
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting
2008
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting, From
the story
“Listening for
God,” Quaker
Press of
Friends
General
Conference,
2008
18
Hope, peace, and encouragement is not
enough to depict my religion. When my spirit
is animated by my religion and is aware of
the inviolable Truth prevailing, my heart
dances for joy and gratitude and sings the
praise of God! Every moment is a mystery.
Even this body of mine, what a mystery it is,
whose heart is beating incessantly without my
knowing, and whose lungs breathe
ceaselessly without my knowing! This air is
God’s, the light is God’s, we are his. I am
living with all the universe, and all the
Yukio Irie
1957
Irie, Yukio, My
Religion: by a
Japanese
Friend, The
Friend
(London),
1957, vol. 115,
pp. 163-4
82
universe is living with me, in God.
19
We do distinguish betwixt the certain
knowledge of God and the uncertain, betwixt
the spiritual knowledge and the literal, the
saving heart-knowledge and the soaring airy
head-knowledge. The last, we confess, may
be by divers ways obtained; but the first, by
no other way than the inward immediate
manifestation and revelation of God’s Spirit,
shining in and upon the heart, enlightening
and opening the understanding.
Robert Barclay
1678
Barclay,
Robert, An
Apology for the
True Christian
Divinity:
Proposition 2,
Section 1,
Friends Book
Store,
Philadelphia,
1908, pp. 2728. [Current
edition: edited
by D. Freiday,
Philadelphia,
1967, p. 17]
20
The image educates emotion where reason
never reaches. The significant image held,
recalled, has the power to transform. No one
knows why this is so. One can only know that
it works. A trust of this practice is one of the
most liberating factors for spiritual growth. A
great artist holds to an image until depth of
feeling knows and understands what mind
alone cannot know. How the community
needs its image makers!
Dorothea Blom
1963
Blom,
Dorothea,
Beyond Uneasy
Tolerance: the
saga of
Quakers and
the arts in 100
quotations,
Esther
Greenleaf
Mürer, Ed.,
Fellowship of
Quakers in the
Arts, 2000
83
21
We seem to be at a turning point in human
history. We can choose life or watch the
planet become uninhabitable for our species.
Somehow, I believe that we will pass through
this dark night of our planetary soul to a new
period of harmony with the God that is to be
found within each of us, and that S/He will
inspire renewed confidence in people
everywhere, empowering us all to cooperate
to use our skills, our wisdom, our creativity,
our love, our faith—even our doubts and
fears—to make peace with the planet.
Strengthened by this fragile faith, empowered
by the Spirit within, I dare to hope.
Pat Saunders
1987
Saunders, Pat,
Dare We
Hope? Quaker
approaches to
development,
Quaker Peace
and Service
Committee on
Sharing World
Resources,
1987, p. 97
22
As I learned, the Inward Light is
unconditional love, yet at the same time, it is
a searing of the soul. The Light pierces with
total honesty into our behaviors, words and
attitudes. This is not an easy thing to
experience! In the refiner's fire, metal is
purified so that it can be made useful, as a
tool or a sword. The fire of the Light likewise
burns away the dross of life—the foolish or
harmful things we have done—to reform us
closer to the image of God.
Margery Post
Abbott
2010
Abbott,
Margery Post,
To Be Broken
and Tender: A
Quaker
Theology for
Today. Western
Friend/Friends
Bulletin
Corporation,
2010. pp 14-15
23
But all you that be in your own wisdom and
in your own reason, you tell that silent
waiting upon God is famine to you; it is a
strange life to you to come to be silent, you
must come into a new world. Now you must
die in the silence, die from the wisdom, die
from the knowledge, die from the reason, and
die from the understanding.
George Fox
1657
Fox, George,
Works 4:132,
1831, quoted in
Rex Ambler,
Truth of the
Heart (Quaker
Books, 2001),
p. 24
24
From the beginning, it was the witness of
changed and liberated lives that shook the
foundations of the established social,
economic, and religious order of England.
The Religious Society of Friends--the Friends
Noah Baker
Merrill
2012
Friends World
Committee for
Consultation,
Being Salt and
Light; (FWCC
84
Church—is about nothing if it's not about
transformation. Helping each other open to
the Living Christ among us, allowing
ourselves to be searched by the Light at work
within us, humbling ourselves to be taught by
the Inward Teacher, trusting that surrendering
to the Refiner's Fire, we can be given new
hearts. It is and always has been through
these new hearts that we are made channels
for the Motion of Universal Love.
25
Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of
love and truth in your hearts. Trust them as
the leadings of God whose Light shows us
our darkness and brings us to new life.
World Office,
London),
"Reflection on
the theme
during worship
under the care
of the Section
of the
Americas,"
(April 2012, p.
31.)
Britain Yearly
Meeting
2013
Britain Yearly
Meeting.
Quaker faith &
practice. Fifth
edition.
London: The
Yearly Meeting
of the Religious
Society of
Friends
(Quakers) in
Britain, 2013
1.02
26
It took a lot for me to speak of my own
feelings … just a small glimpse of what
obedience to the holy is about. If I had been
seeking what was comfortable, I would have
kept my mouth shut. Once I spoke I realized I
was also speaking for others. … This is
where the cross comes in, the cross that is not
stuck in theology about salvation from our
sins, but rather the living cross. To take up
the living cross is to respond to the Divine
Voice and set aside self-will. Standing in the
cross, we recognize the agony so prevalent in
the world, yet are not mired down in it. These
concepts spell out the paradox of the cross: it
85
Margery Post
Abbott
2010
Abbott,
Margery Post,
To Be Broken
and Tender: A
Quaker
Theology for
Today. Western
Friend/Friends
Bulletin
Corporation,
2010. pp 14-15
is at once about holy obedience and divine
power.
27
I have never outgrown a sort of naive surprise
and delight which I felt when I found out that
there is one single thing that one can have
without limit and not deprive anyone else—
the love of God, His Presence.
Mildred Binns
Young
1961
Young,
Mildred Binns,
The Candle,
The Lantern,
The Daylight,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 116,
1961, p. 23
28
As a teenager I looked for proof of the
existence of God, but soon realised that there
would be none. I chose to adopt as a working
hypothesis a belief in God, and to go on from
there. I have not felt the need to revise that
hypothesis—yet. I believe in a powerful, allknowing God, but a caring and a forgiving
God. I believe he says to us: “All right,
you’ve got life, get on with it, live it! I am
there behind to guide you, to help you live it
but don’t expect me to interfere to make life
smooth for you—you are old enough to stand
on your own two feet.”
S. Jocelyn
Burnell
1976
Burnell, S.
Jocelyn, The
Kingdom in our
Midst,
Introduction to
London Yearly
Meeting
Session, 1976
29
Life is one. There is an invisible spiritual
aspect and a visible material aspect of the
same life. This life includes the whole world
and all there is in it. Each aspect has its
peculiar function: but the spiritual and the
material are inextricably one. Each is to be
known in and through the other. The material
is infused with the spiritual. The spiritual is
intrinsic to the material. In this scientific age
we have tended to think that we could
understand the world through the material
aspect alone, but this one-sided approach to
the real world may well prove disastrous.
Daniel Wilson
1951
Wilson, Daniel,
Promise of
Deliverance,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 60,
1951, pp. 16-17
86
Many are alienated from the attempt to know
the spiritual because to them it seems to be
relegated to a world other than, separate
from, the one in which we appear to live.
Mysticism, the word used to describe the
apprehension of the spiritual, is regarded by
ordinary men and women as occult,
abnormal, and unavailable even if they
wanted it. But mysticism is the key to the
whole. It is the recognition that there is a
point of convergence of the material and
spiritual qualities of man and the world.
30
Is our belief in the Spirit “unscientific”? As a
matter of definition, yes. Science by
definition makes predictions about
phenomena that can be manipulated by
experiment with measurable results. The
Spirit is not predictable, it cannot be
manipulated, and it cannot be measured. It is
a gift of grace. However, we can lay our nonscientific belief in the Spirit beside our
acceptance of science and see compatibility.
Here’s how. … We observe the universe is
governed by the interplay of opposites. We
also observe the universe is falling apart.
Dark energy accelerates the expansion of the
universe, flinging all the stars farther and
farther away from each other. Eventually
entropy will condemn the whole universe to
heat death. It’s all falling apart, it’s all futile.
The apparent law of the universe is
dissolution. If this is so and the law of
balance also holds, shouldn’t there be a law
of unification to balance the law of
dissolution? This, I believe, is what the Spirit
is.
87
Fred Jensen
2012
Jensen, Fred,
“Struggle and
Spirit: Why We
Can Keep Both
Good Science
and the Bible,”
2012 SparkNYYM News
31
Conflict between science and religion comes
when people see things in a partial way,
thinking that part of the picture is the whole
picture. We need to listen to what both
science and religion can tell us in order to
understand the whole. Science can help us
understand many aspects of reality, and in
particular see the fine-tuning in physics that
allows our existence. That understanding can
be very precise, and it can make a huge
impression. Our broader experience can give
us a relation to spiritual issues with many
dimensions. In terms of the beauty of things, I
get that by walking in the mountains every
Saturday and looking at birds, trees,
waterfalls, flowers, clouds, the sea, and all
the rest of it. In terms of religious experience,
it is what many Quakers have found in the
gathered Meeting for Worship.
George Ellis
2004
Ellis, George,
Science in
Faith and
Hope, Quaker
Books
(London) 2004
Thomas Gates
2013
Gates, Thomas,
Reclaiming the
Transcendent
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 422,
p. 32
Consequently, I like to talk about
"intimations of transcendence"—of
perceptions of a kind of existence lying
behind the surface appearance, which gives a
grounding for meaning, morality, and
purpose.
32
Some of us are content to bow before the
divine Mystery in awe and gratitude. Others
may, like me, feel drawn to try to
comprehend something of the nature of this
mystery. But I have come to see that the
value of that effort is simply to bring us back
to mystery, awe and gratitude. In the end, we
cannot really comprehend, much less control
or manipulate, the divine Mystery. God
remains transcendent, infinitely beyond our
limited human categories and understanding.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
88
33
I find that Quakerism and research science fit
together very, very well. In Quakerism you’re
expected to develop your own understanding
of God from your experience in the world.
There isn’t a creed, there isn’t a dogma.
There’s an understanding but nothing as
formal as a dogma or creed and this idea that
you develop your own understanding also
means that you keep redeveloping your
understanding as you get more experience,
and it seems to me that’s very like what goes
on in “the scientific method.” You have a
model, of a star, it’s an understanding, and
you develop that model in the light of
experiments and observations, and so in both
you're expected to evolve your thinking.
Nothing is static, nothing is final, everything
is held provisionally.
S. Jocelyn
Burnell
2010
Burnell, S.
Jocelyn Bell,
Speaking on
the BBC Radio
4 programme
Beautiful
Minds (2010)
34
The silence of worship is not just an absence
of noise, or even an outward stilling of the
physical, it is a journey within, a ‘going
inside’ to a deeply felt but easily reached
place of holy relationship. Together, we meet
each other in the silence, come together, ‘all
focusing on something we share’, ‘picking up
the same questions in the silence’, gathered,
before God. We come expectantly and in
surrender. We come in hope of we know not
what, the hope of faith. We come in the
humility of those seeking, those grateful for
what we are given, those hungry to hear the
call, those eager to work with God to further
God’s loving purposes. We come as those
who know the world is not as loving as it
might be, that humanity hurts itself as well as
the planet, that we need to at least try doing
our bit to help, and that our faith both
requires this of us, and helps us to achieve
what we discern is best.
Ben Pink
Dandelion
2009
Dandelion, Ben
Pink,
Celebrating the
Quaker Way,
Quaker Books,
London, 2009
pp. 11-12
89
35
The first that enters into the place of your
meeting … turn in thy mind to the light, and
wait upon God singly, as if none were present
but the Lord; and here thou art strong. Then
the next that comes in, let them in simplicity
of heart sit down and turn in to the same
light, and wait in the spirit; and so all the rest
coming in, in the fear of the Lord, sit down in
pure stillness and silence of all flesh, and wait
in the light. … Those who are brought to a
pure still waiting upon God in the spirit, are
come nearer to the Lord than words are; for
God is a spirit, and in the spirit is he
worshiped. … In such a meeting there will be
an unwillingness to part asunder, being ready
to say in yourselves, it is good to be here; and
this is the end of all words and writings—to
bring people to the eternal living Word.
Alexander
Parker
1660
Parker,
Alexander,
Letters, etc., of
Early Friends,
A. R. Barclay,
ed., 1841,
London, Darton
& Harvey, Vol.
7, pp. 365-366
36
We earnestly advise all who attend our
meetings to lift their hearts to God
immediately on taking their seats. The
avoidance of distracting conversation
beforehand is a great help to this end, and the
walk to meeting may often prove a true
preparation for divine worship. …
Revision
Committees,
London Yearly
Meeting
1911
Yearly
Meeting,
London,
Revision
Committee,
1911 (also
included in
Christian Faith
and Practice,
1960,
selections 261,
282)
The meeting affects the ministry quite as
truly as the ministry affects the meeting. If
those who come together do so in expectant
faith, and in genuine love and sympathy with
one another, striving to put far from them
thoughts of criticism and fault-finding, and
praying earnestly that the right persons may
be led to speak and the right messages be
given, they will not go away unhelped. It is in
such an atmosphere that the Holy Spirit can
work effectively to bring forth the utterances
that are needed, and to check those that are
not required. On the other hand, the spirit of
indifference or of cold and unfriendly
90
criticism injures the whole life of the
meeting, and we need not wonder if in such
an atmosphere speakers mistake their
guidance.
37
When you come to your meetings … what do
you do? Do you then gather together bodily
only, and kindle a fire, compassing
yourselves about with the sparks of your own
kindling, and so please yourselves, and walk
in the light of your own fire, and in the sparks
which you have kindled …? Or rather, do you
sit down in True Silence, resting from your
own Will and Workings, and waiting upon
the Lord, with your minds fixed in that Light
wherewith Christ has enlightened you, until
the Lord breathes life in you, refresheth you,
and prepares you, and your spirits and souls,
to make you fit for his service, that you may
offer unto him a pure and spiritual sacrifice?
William Penn
1677
Penn, William,
A Tender
Visitation, p.
438
38
On one never-to-be-forgotten Sunday
morning, I found myself one of a small
company of silent worshipers, who were
content to sit down together without words,
that each one might feel after and draw near
to the Divine Presence, unhindered at least, if
not helped, by any human utterance.
Utterance I knew was free, should the words
be given; and before the meeting was over, a
sentence or two were uttered in great
simplicity by an old and apparently untaught
man, rising in his place amongst the rest of
us. I did not pay much attention to the words
he spoke, and I have no recollection of their
import. My whole soul was filled with the
unutterable peace of the undisturbed
opportunity for communion with God, with
the sense that at last I had found a place
where I might, without the faintest suspicion
of insincerity, join with others in simply
Caroline E.
Stephen
1890
Stephen,
Caroline E.,
Quaker
Strongholds,
London, 1890,
pp. 11-13,
[1923 edition,
pp. 3-4]
91
seeking His presence. To sit down in silence
could at least pledge me to nothing; it might
open to me (as it did that morning) the very
gate of heaven.
39
In the practice of group worship on the basis
of silence come special times when the
electric hush and solemnity and depth of
power steals over the worshipers. A blanket
of divine covering comes over the room, and
the worshipers are gathered into a unity and
synthesis of life which is amazing indeed. A
quickening Presence pervades us, breaking
down some part of the special privacy and
isolation of our individual lives and blending
our spirits within a superindividual Life and
Power. An objective, dynamic Presence
enfolds us all, nourishes our souls, speaks
glad, unutterable comfort within us, and
quickens us in depths that had before been
slumbering. The Burning Bush has been
kindled in our midst, and we stand together
on holy ground.
Thomas Kelly
1945
Kelly, Thomas,
“The Gathered
Meeting” in
The Eternal
Promise,
Harper & Row,
1st ed., 1966
40
As our worship consisted not in words so
neither in silences as silence, but in a holy
dependence silence necessarily follows in the
first place until words can be brought forth
which are from God’s spirit.
Robert Barclay
1678
Barclay’s
Apology
41
It is quite clear that Quakers need the fine
arts. Efforts to make up for the slights that the
arts have received from us Quakers are
popping up all around, and for good reason.
For too long Quakers viewed the arts as a
frivolous pursuit, ignoring the need for
artistic self-expression except in journals and
“good works.” But the climate was different
then. In the 18th and 19th centuries religion
was in the very air one breathed, and
spirituality was expressed in lengthy sermons
Janet Mustin
2002
Mustin, Janet,
“Quakers’ and
Everyone’s
Need for the
Arts,” Friends
Journal, May
1, 2002
92
and discourses. Today’s materialistic,
rational, secular times offer a sparse diet of
spirituality for the hungry. The hunger for
religion and the spiritual life finds needed
nourishment in the arts.
42
Worship is a hunger of the human soul for
God. When it really occurs, it is as
compelling as the hunger for food. It is as
spontaneous as the love of boy for girl. If we
feel it, no one needs to tell us we should
worship. No one has to try to make us do it. If
we do not feel it, or have no desire to feel it,
no amount of urging or forcing will do any
good. We simply cannot be forced from the
outside to worship. Only the power within us,
the life within, can move us to it.
N. Jean
Toomer
1947
Toomer, N.
Jean, An
Interpretation
of Friends
Worship,
Friends
General
Conference,
1947, p. 7
43
During a silent meeting for healing at a
gathering attended by about sixty women, I
experienced a profound silence inside me and
in the room. It was as though time stopped
and I was aware of our existence in eternity.
Marcelle
Martin
2006
Martin,
Marcelle,
Holding One
Another in the
Light. Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
382, p. 17
44
When I joined the Religious Society of
Friends over 10 years ago, I remember
silently making a commitment to myself that
I would not become "a brown-skinned white
person." I had sensed early on that on some
level my African American culture might be
put at risk not by any religious tenets of
Quakerism, but rather by certain of its
cultural expectations and assumptions.
Adhering to the practice of unprogrammed
Quakerism too often means adopting cultural
norms and values that constrain and censor a
truly free and sincerely spiritual witness,
thereby directly contradicting the
foundational principle of Quaker worship that
Elmyra
(Amhara)
Powell, Orange
Grove Meeting
(Cal)
2003
Powell, Elmyra
(Amhara),
Friends
Journal,
October 2001,
p 18
93
we are to be fully centered upon and led by
the Spirit. If we were to practice the essence
of true Quaker worship, we could not be so
confined by culture, cut off by mechanical
measures of time, or inhibited by notions of
propriety not rooted deeply in Quaker
spiritual principles. We would strive, instead,
to be free in worship, fully open and response
to a full range of leadings of the Spirit, from
deep silence to joyful singing and even—dare
I say it?—to dance. I think that fearlessly
following this path consistently over the long
term will eventually obviate all issues of
multiculturalism, multiracialism, and
inclusiveness. And I believe our meetings
will experience vibrant renewal and growth in
the process.
45
I have never lost the enjoyment of sitting in
silence at the beginning of meeting, knowing
that everything can happen, knowing the joy
of utmost surprise; feeling that nothing is
preordained, nothing is set, all is open. The
light can come from all sides. The joy of
experiencing the Light in a completely
different way than one has thought it would
come is one of the greatest gifts that Friends’
meeting for worship has brought me.
Ursula
Franklin
1979
Franklin,
Ursula,
Perspective on
Friends
Testimonies in
Today’s World,
Gardner
Lecture, 1979,
pp. 3-4
46
A Window and A Door: A Prayer
LaVerne Maria
(LVM) Shelton
2014
Shelton, La
Verne Maria
(LVM), “A
Window and a
Door: A
Prayer,”
Friends
Journal,
October 2014
Beloved,
grant that my soul,
the workplace of Spirit within,
have the grace of possessing
both a window and a door.
Windows let in light and air from outside
and bring hope and wisdom,
when it is needed within.
And when the lights of my soul
shine through clear, window glass,
94
the radiance can be perceived,
and can sometimes bring insight
to perplexities that enthrall others.
Yet a window makes but part of
the connection required for wholeness.
for Spirit moves out
through the door of my soul,
with the grounding of Love
and a feathery flight,
and brings joy when it alights
upon its kindred—
For, is any not its kin?
And when the stranger knocks at the door,
spirit can fling it wide open,
inviting the stranger to sup
and become friend,
giving succor, new learning, and renewal
to both me and thee.
Beloved, may my soul—and my
community—
have the grace
of both a window and a door.
47
As I silence myself I become more sensitive
to the sounds around me, and I do not block
them out. The songs of the birds, the rustle of
the wind, children in the playground, the roar
of an airplane overhead are all taken into my
worship. I regulate my breathing as taught me
by my Zen friends, and through this exercise
I feel the flow of life within me from my toes
right through my whole body. I think of
myself like the tree planted by the “rivers of
water” in Psalm 1, sucking up God’s gift of
life and being restored. Sometimes I come to
meeting for worship tired and weary, and I
hear the words of Jesus, “Come unto me, all
that labour and are weary, and I will give you
rest.” And having laid down my burden, I feel
refreshed both physically and spiritually. This
95
Tayeko
Yamanouchi
1980
Yamanouchi,
Tayeko, Ways
of Worship,
Friends World
News No. 113,
p. 13 (also
reprinted by
Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting
as pamphlet,
1979-80)
leads me on to whole-hearted adoration and
thanksgiving for all God’s blessings. My own
name, Tayeko, means “child of many
blessings” and God has surely poured them
upon me. My heart overflows with a desire to
give Him something in return. I have nothing
to give but my own being, and I offer Him
my thoughts, words, and actions of each day,
and whisper, “Please take me as I am.”
48
To love and be loved is a universal human
urge. Is it any wonder, then, that we are
moved to seek God’s love? … It is to this
divine love that we are called. This is the high
promise of man’s life. We are called away
from indifference, from meanness, malice,
prejudice, and hate. We are called above the
earthly loves that come and go and are
unsure. We are called into the deep enduring
love of God and man and all creation.
Worship is a door into that love. Once we
have entered it, our every act is a prayer, our
whole life a continuous worship.
N. Jean
Toomer
1947
Toomer, N.
Jean, An
Interpretation
of Friends
Worship,
Friends
General
Conference,
1947, p. 10
49
There are times of dryness in our individual
lives, when meeting may seem difficult or
even worthless. At such times one may be
tempted not to go to meeting; but it may be
better to go, prepared to offer as our
contribution to the worship simply a sense of
need. In such a meeting one may not at the
time realise what one has gained, but one will
nevertheless come away helped.
Ministry and
Extension
Committee,
Berks and
Oxon
Quarterly
Meeting,
London Yearly
Meeting
1948
Britain Yearly
Meeting.
Quaker faith &
practice. Fifth
edition.
London: The
Yearly Meeting
of the Religious
Society of
Friends
(Quakers) in
Britain, 2013
2.44
96
50
If worship does not change us, it has not been
worship. To stand before the Holy One of
eternity is to change. Resentments cannot be
held with the same tenacity when we enter
His gracious light. As Jesus said, we will
need to leave our gift at the altar and go set
the matter straight (Matthew 5:23). In
worship an increased power steals its way
into the heart sanctuary, an increased
compassion grows in the soul. To worship is
to change.
Richard Foster
1978
Foster,
Richard,
Celebration of
Discipline, San
Francisco,
Harper, 1978,
p. 148
51
On First-days I frequented meetings and the
greater part of my time I slept, but took no
account of preaching nor received any other
benefit, than being there kept me out of bad
company which indeed is a very great service
to youth…but one First-day, being at
meeting, a young woman named Anne
Wilson was there and preached; she was very
zealous and fixing my eye upon her, she with
a great zeal pointed her finger at me uttering
these words with much power: “A traditional
Quaker, thou comest to meeting as thou went
from it, and goes from it as thou came to it
but art no better for thy coming; what wilt
thou do in the end?” This was so pat to my
then condition that like Saul I was smitten to
the ground as it might be said, but turning my
thoughts inwards, in secret I cried, “Lord,
what shall I do to help it?” And a voice as it
were spoke in my heart, saying “Look unto
me, and I will help thee.”
Samuel
Bownas
1696
Bownas,
Samuel, Life
and Travels,
reprint, Wm
Taber, ed.,
Pendle
Hill/Tract
Association,
1989, p. 4
52
[Dig] deep, …carefully cast forth the loose
matter and get down to the rock, the sure
foundation, and there hearken to the divine
voice which gives a clear and certain sound.
John Woolman
c.
1770
Woolman,
John, the
Journal and
Major Essays,
Phillips P.
Moulton, ed.,
New York,
97
Oxford Univ.
Press, 1971, p.
184
53
Yet, in The Spirit, my copper-colored body is
never captured by the snare of the roots of
bitterness. I like to think that I possess an
energy congruent with the actions of Grace
Douglass, a nineteenth-century Quaker
attender who sits in a marginalized space to
accommodate the bigotry of some Quakers
because her skin is not white. Douglass,
refusing the reductive prescriptions of the
actions of others, exemplifies what her
continual attendance to Quaker meeting,
despite marginalization, articulates: in
worship, divinity resides within us all.
tonya thames
taylor
2015
taylor, tonya
thames, “As
We Lift Each
Other: A
Reflection on a
PYM
Continuing
Session”
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting, 2015
54
When I read that I was supposed to make ‘a
place for inward retirement and waiting upon
God’ in my daily life, as the Queries in those
days expressed it, I thought: “Oh, those stuffy
old Friends, they don’t understand! Do they
think I’m going to be able to sit for an hour,
or half an hour, or a quarter of an hour, or for
any time at all, in my very busy life, just to
have some kind of feeling of ‘inward
retirement’?” I felt irritated and
misunderstood, and I tried to put the whole
thing out of my mind. At last I began to
realise … that I needed some kind of inner
peace, or inward retirement, or whatever
name it might be called by. … I began to
realise that prayer was not a formality or an
obligation; it was a place which was there all
the time and always available.
Elfrida Vipont
Foulds
1983
Foulds, Elfrida
Vipont, The
Candle of the
Lord, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
248, 1983, p.
13
55
The success of meetings for worship depends
to some extent on preparation during
Howard H.
1955
Brinton,
Howard H.,
98
intervening times, and especially the period
immediately preceding the meeting. This is
not a conscious and deliberate preparation for
a specific time and place, but a general
preparation of life and character. … One
important type of preparation for group
worship is individual devotion. A daily
period of prayer, worship, and meditation
furnishes food for the nourishment of
spiritual life. So also does regular reading of
devotional literature.
Brinton
56
The practice of corporate waiting worship
requires individual preparation on the part of
each worshiper. The Friend who has not
prepared for corporate worship brings
correspondingly less silence with him/her,
and the worship is correspondingly less
robust. The prepared worshiper, on the other
hand, comes to meeting for worship having
already shared his/her ‘routine’ issues with
God in times of personal prayer and worship
rather than saving them up for First Day
morning, so that the corporate worship is not
a cacophony of personal problems, but a quiet
group expectancy, a waiting for the Presence
of God to become manifest.
Lloyd Lee
Wilson
1993
Wilson, Lloyd
Lee, Essays on
the Quaker
Vision of
Gospel Order,
Pendle Hill
Publications,
Wallingford,
PA, p. 36
57
It is almost axiomatic that once we become
serious about the spiritual journey, about
seeking God, we discover, sooner or later,
that the once-a-week worship hour on Sunday
is not enough to feed us, and so we discover
the importance of the Door Before. … It is no
accident that daily “retirement” (a time of
reading the Bible and inspirational writings,
personal prayer, reflection and worship) has
been frequently recommended throughout
Quaker history. … A person who has already
experienced times of spiritual nourishment
during the week will require less time to let
William Taber
1992
Taber, William,
Four Doors to
Meeting for
Worship,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 306,
pp.4-5
99
Guide to
Quaker
Practice,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 20
go of the rhythms and preoccupations of
normal life and can therefore enter more
quickly and easily into full attention to the
living Presence.
58
There can be complete unity of worship
without a single word being said. I have
known a few such meetings and shall never
forget them. It was their silence, not their
words, that was memorable. And even one
short sentence, spoken nervously at the
spirit’s prompting, is better than a wellphrased five-minute talk prepared
beforehand.
Clive Sansom
1962
Sansom, Clive,
Heart and
Mind Prepared,
The Friend
(London), 7
September
1962, published
as pamphlet by
Friends Home
Service
Committee,
1967 (1995
reprint), p. 3
59
Brevity, earnestness, sincerity—and
frequently a lack of polish—characterize the
best Quaker speaking. … [Words] should not
break the silence, but continue it. … In a truly
gathered meeting, restraint in one’s utterances
is often more releasing than are multiplied
words. Words that hint at the wonder of God,
but that do not attempt to exhaust it, have an
open-ended character. In the silences of our
hearts the Holy Presence completes the
unfinished words far more satisfyingly.
Thomas Kelly
1945
Kelly, Thomas,
“The Gathered
Meeting”. in
The Eternal
Promise,
Harper & Row,
1st ed., 1966
100
60
Feeling the spring of Divine love opened, and
a concern to speak, I said a few words in a
meeting, in which I found peace. Being thus
humbled and disciplined under the cross, my
understanding became more strengthened to
distinguish the pure spirit which inwardly
moves upon the heart, and which taught me
to wait in silence sometimes many weeks
together, until I felt that rise which prepares
the creature to stand like a trumpet, through
which the Lord speaks to his flock. … All the
faithful are not called to the public ministry;
but whoever are, are called to minister of that
which they have tasted and handled
spiritually. The outward modes of worship
are various; but whenever any are true
ministers of Jesus Christ, it is from the
operation of his Spirit upon their hearts.
John Woolman
1741
Woolman,
John, the
Journal and
Major Essays,
Phillips P.
Moulton, ed.,
New York,
Oxford Univ.
Press, 1971, p.
31
61
In a truly covered meeting an individual who
speaks takes no credit to himself for the part
he played in the unfolding of the worship. …
For the feeling of being a pliant instrument of
the Divine Will characterizes true speaking
“in the Life.” Under such a covering an
individual emerges into vocal utterance,
frequently without fear and trembling, and
subsides without self-consciousness into
silence when his part is played. For One who
is greater than all individuals has become the
meeting place of the group, and He becomes
the leader and director of worship. With
wonder one hears the next speaker, if there be
more, take up another aspect of the theme of
the meeting. No jealousy, no regrets that he
didn’t think of saying that, but only gratitude
that the angel has come and troubled the
waters and that many are finding healing
through the one Life. A gathered meeting is
no place for the enhancement of private
reputations, but for self-effacing pliancy and
Thomas Kelly
1945
Kelly, Thomas,
“The Gathered
Meeting”. in
The Eternal
Promise,
Harper & Row,
1st ed., 1966
101
obedience to the whispers of the Leader.
62
I call the work that ministers embody the
work of prophets. In doing this, I
acknowledge that in Friends’ tradition,
ministry is essentially a prophetic act. When
we rise to offer vocal ministry in meeting for
worship, we are seeking to give voice to the
inbreaking of the Divine among us. As the
Living Christ speaks in our hearts, the words
we speak are an articulation in this moment
of eternal Truth and Love. Like the messages
of prophets in the Hebrew tradition, we’re not
ever given the final word. Drawing on an
experience of the immediate transforming
Presence, we are allowing that Life and
Power to speak through us into the present
moment, in which Friends gather expectantly
to wait on the Word. This is the growing edge
of continuing revelation. As we reach for the
river of eternity, it rises to meet us and carries
us along. This is the purpose of ministry - to
be channels for Love’s continuing birth in the
world.
Noah Baker
Merrill
2013
Merrill, Noah
Baker,
“Prophets,
Midwives and
Thieves:
Reclaiming the
Ministry of the
Whole”,
Michener
Lecture, 1-202013
63
Vocal prayer, poured out from a humble
heart, frequently shifts a meeting from a
heady level of discussion to the deeps of
worship. Such prayers serve as an unintended
rebuke to our shallowness and drive us
deeper into worship, and commitment. They
open the gates of devotion, adoration,
Thomas Kelly
1945
Kelly, Thomas,
“The Gathered
Meeting”. in
The Eternal
Promise,
Harper & Row,
102
submission, confession. They help to unite
the group at the level at which real unity is
sought. … Such prayers not only “create” that
unity; they also give voice to it, and the
worshipers are united in a silent amen of
gratitude.
1st ed., 1966
64
… learning to move in the exercise of the
meeting so that one is part of it, yet taken
beyond it and brought to see some new light
as a result of it is most important in creative
ministry. The cluster of messages, with a fair
interval of silence between each of them to let
its insight sink in; the cluster that goes on
down, with each message deepening and
intensifying and helping to light up a further
facet of the communication, can be most
effective. But for this to happen, those
sharing in it cannot be in a discussional frame
of mind, or in a debating stance, or yield to
the ruthlessly critical frame of mind, or all is
lost and the meeting is pulled into a forum. It
can only be done if there is a willingness to
be led by each of the ones ministering into a
deeper level of what they were not only
saying but what they were meaning to say,
and perhaps even beyond into what
something beneath us all was meaning to
have said through what we were saying and
were meaning to say. When a cluster ministry
moves in this way, we know that we are
moving in the life, that we are breaking the
cerebral barrier and being released.
Douglas Steere
1972
Steere,
Douglas, On
Speaking Out
of the Silence,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 182,
1972
65
How can we be sure that we are not speaking
too often, or too long, or from our own ideas,
now that we are no longer accountable in the
way that recorded ministers once were? The
most sure way is to make certain that we are
speaking out of that special state of
consciousness of the Door Within, that
William Taber
1992
Taber, William,
Four Doors to
Meeting for
Worship,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 306,
103
multiple meshing when we feel ourselves
united both with fellow worshippers and with
the Divine. As we become experienced with
that state of consciousness it gradually
becomes easier to discern between the many
subtle pressures to speak and an authentic
Divine urging to be a channel for a message.
The traditional signs which accompany an
authentic leading to speak are rapid
breathing, rapid beating of the heart and
sometimes a trembling (we are not called
Quakers for nothing!), but these physical
manifestations are actually a response to the
inward motion of the Spirit, which at first
may seem very subtle and difficult to discern.
In time an experienced Friend will come to
recognize and rely more and more on the
sure, clear knowing characteristic of the
inward motion. At that point the traditional
physical reactions characteristic of a leading
to speak are less accurate signs than is a
skilled, practiced awareness of the inward
motion and of the inward peace which
follows such speaking.
66
The place of prayer is a precious habitation.
… I saw this habitation to be safe, to be
inwardly quiet, when there was great stirrings
and commotions in the world.
104
1992
John Woolman
1770
Penington,
Mary Proude
Springett,
Experiences in
the Life of ––,
Norman
Penney, ed.,
Philadelphia,
Biddle Press,
1911, [1992
reprint, Friends
Historical Soc.,
London], pp.
20-21
67
The habit of turning instinctively to God at
any moment of life is of immeasurable
benefit to the mind and spirit. The entreaty of
the moment may be for one’s own strength,
forgiveness, courage, or power to endure. It
may be a petition for the wellbeing of
another. It may be an involuntary expression
of gratitude for joy or peace in one’s own or
another’s life. Whatever the need, longing, or
aspiration, this instinctive prayer may take
the form of silent communion, of petition in
words, or something akin to intimate
conversation.
Agnes L.
Tierney
c.
1930
Tierney, Agnes
L., Effective
Prayer,
reprinted by
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting, 1972,
p. 3
68
When belief seems impossible, it is the poets
who help us to be aware of those experiences
of healing and forgiveness, which seem to
come from outside ourselves—or from places
so deep within us that we are not usually
conscious of them. It is these encounters,
which lie at the center of our religious
experience, whether it is then shaped by a
formal creed or not.
John Lampen
1993
Lampen, John ,
from Beyond
Uneasy
Tolerance,
1993
69
There is a way of living in prayer at the same
time that one is busy with the outward affairs
of daily living. This practice of continuous
prayer in the presence of God involves
developing the habit of carrying on the
mental life at two levels. At one level we are
immersed in this world of time, of daily
affairs. At the same time but at a deeper level
of our minds, we are in active relation with
the Eternal Life.
Thomas Kelly
1942
Kelly, Thomas,
Reality of the
Spiritual
World, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
21, 1942, p. 33
105
70
How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and
Power, and live the life of prayer without
ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in
turning of all our being, day and night, in
prayer and inward worship and surrender,
toward Him who calls in the deeps of our
souls. … Behind the scenes, keep up the life
of simple prayer and inward worship. Keep it
up throughout the day. Let inward prayer be
your last act before you fall asleep and the
first act when you awake.
Thomas Kelly
1942
Kelly, Thomas,
Reality of the
Spiritual
World, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
21, 1942, p. 9,
11-12
71
Let none allow the rush of engagements or
the hurry of business to crowd their
opportunities for private retirement and
waiting upon God. The more our
engagements multiply, the greater is the call
to watch unto prayer. He who is a stranger to
prayer enters upon them in his own strength,
and finds, to his unspeakable loss, that a life
without prayer is a life practically without
God.
London Yearly
Meeting
1877
Yearly
Meeting,
London, 1888
Yearly Meeting
Proceedings, p.
60 (also
included in
Christian Faith
and Practice,
1960, selection
310)
72
Do not let us be discouraged because we find
the path of silent prayer difficult or because
we do not experience that joy of conscious
communion which is given to some. The
sunlight shines through the cloud; even when
the cloud is so thick that we cannot see the
sun at all, its rays carry on their healing work,
and it does us good to go out into the open,
even on a grey day. The experience of many
of the greatest saints points to the traversing
of a dark night of the soul before the light of
full communion dawns, and to times of
dryness of spirit coming at intervals to test
the faith and perseverance of the seeker.
T. Edmund
Harvey
1929
Harvey, T.
Edmund, The
Spiritual
Message of the
Religious
Society of
Friends,
Friends World
Conference,
Commission
Report, p. 18
106
73
Not everyone prays in the same way, or needs
to. Nonetheless, I have become convinced
that our participation in the divine love of
others is somehow necessary. In a world in
which we are given free will to accept or
reject God’s gifts, the divine wholeness for
which we are intended is not forced upon us.
We must choose to welcome and surrender to
it, relinquishing our fears and lesser desires.
We all have resistance to divine love and
often find it easier to open up to love from
other people. We can become mediators of
the love of God for one another, gradually
helping ourselves and those we love and pray
for to become more directly open to the
divine healing love that makes us whole.
Marcelle
Martin
2006
Martin,
Marcelle,
Holding One
Another in the
Light. Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
382, 2006, p. 9
74
While working on a blanket for a friend who
was expecting her first child, I realized
something else was happening. I was knitting
prayers. The blanket, intended for physical
warmth, took on symbolic proportions. "May
this child always feel held in the warmth of
his family’s love, and the loving embrace of
God. May this child never lack for physical
nourishment. May the Holy Spirit watch over
and bless my friend while she is in labor, and
while she strives to do the right thing for her
offspring." These prayers, and many more,
flowed from my heart through my fingers as I
continued to knit. The prayers came
unbidden, from my center, from a place of
my deep gratitude.
Lisa Rand
2002
Rand, Lisa,
“Knitting in
Gratitude,”
Friends
Journal,
December 1,
2002
75
There is something about praying that is well
beyond the saying of words. There is an
intention behind the words of prayer, an
attitude of expectancy, a way of being that is
integral to prayer. It goes beyond words into
the unspeakable language of the heart.
Without this deep voice from beyond the
Sheila Keane
1998
Keane, Sheila,
Prayer:
Beginning
Again, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
339, 1998, p. 5
107
words of prayer, our attempts to pray can be
shallow and inauthentic.
The authentic desire for a real relationship
with a real God is often our entry point to
prayer, and our desires are shaped by our
prayers. Our values and desires thus shaped
by prayer show themselves in actions of
humility, love and compassion, and these
actions are in themselves a reiteration of the
prayers which spark them.
Prayer also arrives as a gift, unannounced,
demanding an answer of awe-inspired
reverence. It happens when the sun sets, a
birth is witnessed, or when a sudden insight
turns our mind toward a new direction.
Perhaps … it is God who seeks us, rather than
the other way around.
76
The highest purpose of prayer is to lift the
soul into close companionship with God.
Such prayer is not an attitude of the body; is
not a formula of words. It is an impulse of the
soul that often cannot express itself in words.
In the midst of our busiest occupations, when
hands and mind and heart are bent upon
accomplishing the purpose of the hour, there
may come a flash of divine illumination,
flooding our souls with light, showing us how
God is the center of all things, the life of all
that lives. In that moment’s deep revealing
comes to us the secret of faith that need not
question; of hope that foresees its own
fulfilling; of strength that wearies not in the
walk with God; of love whose beneficent
impulses go out to all the needy, and sweeten
all life’s relationships; of peace that bears the
soul upward to the regions of perpetual calm.
108
Elizabeth
Powell Bond
1895
Bond,
Elizabeth
Powell, Works
by the Way,
Philadelphia,
Friends Book
Association,
1895, pp. 147149
77
The first gleam of light, “the first cold light of
morning” which gave promise of day with its
noontide glories, dawned on me one day at
meeting, when I had been meditating on my
state in great depression. I seemed to hear the
words articulated in my spirit, “Live up to the
light thou hast, and more will be granted
thee.” Then I believed that God speaks … by
His spirit. I strove to lead a more Christian
life, in unison with what I knew to be right,
and looked for brighter days, not forgetting
the blessings that are granted to prayer.
Caroline Fox
1841
Fox, Caroline,
Memories of
old Friends, H.
N. Pym, ed.,
1882, vol. 1,
3rd ed., p. xxii:
78
Over the years, praying for others and
holding them in the Light has become a
frequent practice for me. I’ve explored many
ways of doing it. Sometimes I address a
mental request to God for health or wellbeing of another, usually acknowledging that
I don’t fully understand the situation and that
I’m really asking for the best for that person,
whatever that may be. Often, however, my
prayer doesn’t include mental words or any
specific requests. Sometimes I visualize that
person filled and surrounded with light or
imagine them being held by God or
experiencing radiant health, peace, or joy. On
other occasions, I visualize the light within
them—divine love and wisdom—shining
brightly. Often my prayer feels simply like
love, without images: I focus on the other
person in a tender, grateful way, from the
place of my own deepest connection to Spirit.
… Prayer on behalf of others is mysterious,
but fundamentally it seems to be an
opportunity to participate in divine love.
Marcelle
Martin
2006
Martin,
Marcelle,
Holding One
Another in the
Light. Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
382, 2006, p. 56
79
At one point in my life I became acutely
aware of the internal effects of a significant
resentment toward another person, generated
by a deeply hurtful experience. … One of my
Connie
McPeak Green
2008
Green, Connie
McPeak, and
Marty Paxson
Grundy,
109
spiritual mentors advised me to pray for that
person whose actions had caused me to feel
this deep anger and resentment. She said that
I did not even have to mean it but should ask
that this person be given everything I would
hope to have myself for a happy, full life. … I
did as instructed. Within two short weeks I
found myself softening. … Eventually I was
able to feel true compassion for him. It was,
for me, a miraculous transformation. This
prayer became an indispensable tool in my
life and the basis for reconciliation as a
spiritual practice.
Matthew 18:
Wisdom for
Living in
Community,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 399,
2008, p. 5
80
Prayer is one of the important ways we help
the divine seed within ourselves, others, our
culture, and the world to flourish and
overcome the forces that oppress it. Some
Friends have a growing awareness of being
called to pray both for individuals and for the
meeting community as a whole, often while
also being called upon to help others grow in
understanding of the ways of the Spirit. Early
Friends sometimes referred to people with
such gifts as “nursing” mothers or fathers.
Later they were given the less evocative term,
“elder.” Today it is becoming more common
to call such Friends “spiritual nurturers.” By
whatever name, people who exercise such
gifts on the behalf of our meetings and
Quaker community are much needed for the
health of our spiritual fellowship.
Marcelle
Martin
2006
Martin,
Marcelle,
Holding One
Another in the
Light. Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
382, 2006, p.
20
81
Now the Lord God opened to me by his
invisible power that every man was
enlightened by the divine light of Christ, and
I saw it shine through all; and they that
believed in it came out of condemnation to
the light of life, and became the children of it;
but they that hated it, and did not believe in it,
were condemned by it, though they made a
George Fox
1648
Fox, George,
Journal,
Nickalls, ed.,
London Yearly
Meeting, 1975,
p. 33
110
profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure
openings of the Light without the help of any
man; neither did I then know where to find it
in the Scriptures; though afterwards,
searching the Scriptures, I found it. For I saw
in that Light and Spirit which was before
Scripture was given forth … that all must
come to that Spirit, if they would know God,
or Christ, or the Scriptures aright.
82
And the end [goal] of words is to bring men
to the knowledge of things, beyond what
words can utter. So learn of the Lord to make
a right use of the Scriptures, which is by
esteeming them in their place, and prizing
that above them, which is above them. The
eternal life, the Spirit, the power, the fountain
of living waters, the everlasting pure well is
above the words concerning it. This, the
believer is to witness in himself, and to draw
water with joy out of it.
Isaac
Penington
1670
Penington,
Isaac, Works
III. 458, quoted
in Keiser and
Moore
"Knowing the
Mystery of Life
Within:
Selected
Writings of
Isaac Penington
in their
Historical and
Theological
Context", 2005
83
The Cross as dogma is painless speculation;
the Cross as lived suffering is anguish and
glory. Yet God, out of the pattern of His own
heart, has planted the Cross along the road of
holy obedience. And He enacts in the hearts
of those He loves the miracle of willingness
to welcome suffering and to know it for what
it is—the final seal of His gracious love.
Thomas R.
Kelly
1941
Kelly, Thomas,
A Testament of
Devotion, New
York, Harper,
1941, p. 71
84
Wait on the Lord, that thou mayst, from him,
feel the right limit to thy mind, in reading the
Scriptures. For the mind of man is busy and
active, willing to be running beyond its
bounds, guessing at the meaning of God’s
Spirit and imagining of itself unless the Lord
Isaac
Penington
c.
1670
Penington,
Isaac, Vol. 2, p.
544: Penington,
Isaac, A month
with ––,
Beatrice Saxon
111
limit it. … Therefore, read in fear and wait
understandingly to distinguish between God’s
opening to these words concerning the
kingdom and the things of the kingdom, and
thy own apprehensions about them that the
one may be always cast by, and the other
always embraced by thee. And always wait
God’s season; do not presume to understand a
thing, before he give thee the understanding
of it: and know also, that he alone is able to
preserve the true sense and knowledge in thee
that thou mayst live dependently upon him
for thy knowledge, and never “lean to thy
own understanding.”
Snell, compiler,
London,
Friends Home
Service, 1966,
Day 16
It is one thing to understand words,
testimonies, and descriptions and it is another
matter to understand, know, enjoy, possess,
and live in that which the words relate to,
describe, and bear witness of.
85
And so he [George Fox] went on, and said,
"That Christ was the Light of the world, and
lighteth every man that cometh into the
world; and that by this light they might be
gathered to God.”
I stood up in my pew, and wondered at his
doctrine, for I had never heard such before.
And then he went on, and opened the
scriptures, and said, “The scriptures are the
prophets’ words, and Christ’s and the
apostles’ words, and what, as they spoke,
they enjoyed and possessed, and had it from
the Lord”: and said, “Then what had any to
do with the scriptures, but as they came to the
Spirit that gave them forth? You will say,
‘Christ saith this, and the apostles say this;’
but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of
the Light, and hast thou walked in the Light,
and what thou speakest, is it inwardly from
112
Margaret Fell
1694
Fell, Margaret,
quoted in “The
testimony of
Margaret Fox
concerning her
late husband,”
from The
Journal of
George Fox,
1694
God?”
This opened me so, that it cut me to the heart;
and then I saw clearly we were all wrong. So
I sat down in my pew again, and cried
bitterly: and I cried in my spirit to the Lord,
“We are all thieves; we are all thieves; we
have taken the scriptures in words, and know
nothing of them in ourselves.”
86
Perhaps you, like me, have had trouble with
the ancient laws handed down by Moses. I
accepted the Ten-Commandment-core with a
Sunday School deference which could never
quite make the laws of Moses as real or as
important as the laws of science. For me, this
began to change when I began to read the
Bible in what I sometimes call the Quaker
way—that is, reading with both the analytical
mind and the intuitive mind leaving plenty of
space for the Holy Spirit. On the one hand
Biblical scholarship and all the light science
can provide; on the other hand, savoring and
resting in the meaning, pausing from time to
time to stare off into space. …
As I reread the Old Testament laws in this
more meditative way, two recognitions
helped open my understanding. First, I
realized, as did George Fox, that most of the
laws of Moses were designed for a specific
culture of long ago. … Then I began to face
the cultural trappings or rubbish with which I
had surrounded the concept of law; I realized
that I had connected “law” with fallible
legislators, judges, policemen, and childhood
memories of adults who ruled my life. Even
so there is a living core of the Law of Moses
which remains as vital as it ever was. Moses
like all true prophets was a seer, for like
Newton and Einstein he saw or felt the law as
113
William Taber
1984
Taber, William,
The Prophetic
Stream, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
256, 1984, pp.
8-9
a vital force, not merely as a string of words.
I have little doubt that he actually heard the
words of the Commandments on Sinai. I also
believe that he could not have done what he
did if he had not also seen how these laws
were an indispensable part of the fabric of the
new age fellowship he was to build.
87
Each of us who makes a home in the faith
tradition of Friends must sooner or later come
to terms with Jesus of Nazareth. Where we
place ourselves in the broad tradition of
Quakerism and how we nurture and are
nurtured by that tradition are shaped in
large part by who we discern Jesus to be.
Jesus knew the paramount importance of the
question when he asked his disciples, ‘Who
do you say I am?’ and it is of paramount
importance in the present moment, when
Jesus is still asking, ‘Who do you say I am?’
There is no single, fits-everyone, right answer
to this question. There is no single Christian
answer, no single Friends answer.
Christianity has always been a big tent; it has
room for innumerable variations on its theme,
many understandings of Jesus. Over years of
study I have gained a great appreciation of
just how big that tent is and how manifold
and beautiful are the varieties of faith that
gather under its shelter. That is also true of
114
Lloyd Lee
Wilson
2001
Wilson, Lloyd
Lee, Who Do
You Say I
Am?, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
409. 2001, Pp.
3-4
the Religious Society of Friends: it has been
spiritually diverse from its beginnings, and
continues to be diverse today.
88
What kind of approach to the Bible leads to
… discovery? An intelligent analytical and
critical approach has its rightful place. We
then stand over the Bible as subjects
investigating an object. An inversion of this
subject-object relationship is, however,
possible. We then approach the Bible not
mainly to criticize, but to listen; not merely to
question, but to be challenged, and to open
our lives penitentially both to its judgments
and to its liberating gospel.
George
Boobyer
1988
Boobyer,
George,
Friends and the
Bible, 1988, pp.
3-4 [Quaker
Faith and
Practice,
Britain Yearly
Meeting, 1995,
segment 27.30]
George Ellis
2004
Ellis, George,
Pathways to God are many and varied.
Friends, however, along with a great
company of other seekers, have been able to
testify that this receptive personal response to
the biblical message, and especially to the
call of Jesus, leads to joyous self-fulfilling
life, and to a redemptive awareness of the
love and glory of God.
89
There are many areas where we do not have
any answers. We always need to remember
that there are limits to what we can know
about both science and religion. But both are
important to being a fully rounded human
being. We need to incorporate both of them.
Even if you are not a scientist, it is worth
trying to find out about science because it
tells us so much. But this does not mean
having to deny religion or indeed humanity.
115
Science in
Faith and
Hope, Quaker
Books
(London) 2004
90
How much the Bible has to teach when taken
as a whole, that cannot be done by snippets!
There is its range over more than a thousand
years giving us the perspective of religion in
time, growing, and changing, and leading
from grace to grace. There is its clear
evidence of the variety of religious
experience, not the kind of strait-jacket that
nearly every church, even Friends, have
sometimes been tempted to substitute for the
diversity in the Bible. To select from it but a
single strand is to miss something of its
richness. Even the uncongenial and the alien
to us is happily abundant in the Bible. The
needs of men today are partly to be measured
by their difficulty in understanding that with
which they differ. At this point the Bible has
no little service to render. It requires patient
insight into the unfamiliar and provides a
discipline for the imagination … a crying
need of our time.
Further the Bible is a training school in
discrimination among alternatives. One of the
most sobering facts is that it is not on the
whole a peaceful book—I mean a book of
peace of mind. The Bible is the deposit of a
long series of controversies between rival
views of religion. The sobering thing is that
in nearly every case the people shown by the
Bible to be wrong had every reason to think
they were in the right, and like us they did so.
Complacent orthodoxy is the recurrent villain
in the story from first to last, and the hero is
the challenger, like Job, the prophets, Jesus,
and Paul.
116
Henry J.
Cadbury
1953
Cadbury,
Henry, A
Quaker
Approach to
the Bible, Ward
Lecture, 1953,
pp. 14-15
91
My own vital relation to the Bible actually
began during my early association with
Quakerism. One elderly and wise Friend
habitually used sections from Psalms in his
messages. Some of these fragments began
singing through me, and I started using them
in my daily meditations. Their value for me
then as now is that they address the Divine
directly rather than talk about Him. At their
best, they gather the depth and breadth of
Person into an interplay of I and Thou.
During one of my early Meetings, a woman,
describing Jacob wrestling with an angel,
equated this to her own struggle, and pleaded
with this angel not to let her go until it
blessed her. She lent imagery to a nebulous,
inarticulate process going on within me, and
her image became permanent equipment of
my religious life.
Dorothea Blom
1967
Blom,
Dorothea, “A
living present
in the Bible”,
chapter 10 in
Seek, Find,
Share, Study
Volume
Number Two,
4th World
Conference of
Friends, 1967,
p. 34
92
It is not enough to hear of Christ, or read of
Christ; but this is the thing—to feel him my
root, my life, my foundation and my soul
ingrafted into him, by him who hath power to
ingraft. To feel repentance given me by him,
faith given me by him, the Father revealed
and made known to me by him, by the pure
shinings of his light in my heart; God, who
caused the light to shine out of darkness,
causing it to shine there so that in and
through him, I come to know, not the Son
himself only, but the Father also.
Isaac
Penington
1670
Penington,
Isaac, To
Thomas
Walmsley, vol.
2, p. 517
93
Consider now the prayer-life of Jesus. It
comes out most clearly in the record of St.
Luke, who leaves us with the impression that
prayer was the most vital element in our
Lord’s life. He rises a great while before day
that he may have some hours alone with His
Father. He continues all night in prayer to
God. Incident after incident is introduced by
William
Littleboy
117
c.193
7
Littleboy,
William, The
meaning and
practice of
prayer,
London,
Friends Home
Service
the statement that Jesus was praying. Are we
so much nearer God that we can afford to
dispense with that which to Him was of such
vital moment? But apart from this, it seems to
me that this prayer-habit of Jesus throws light
upon the purpose of prayer. … We pray, not
to change God’s will, but to bring our wills
into correspondence with His.
Committee,
1937, pp. 7-9
94
Nowadays, a literal and physical heaven,
located somewhere “out there,” has become
difficult for the modern mind to accept
uncritically, but the religious critique of this
other-worldly emphasis is hardly new, and in
fact is rooted in the Gospels. … There is a
story from Meister Eckhart, which for me has
always encapsulated that critique, and serves
as a warning against an overemphasis on the
afterlife. It seems that in his time, there was a
woman who used to walk through the streets
of medieval Strasbourg, carrying a burning
torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the
other. When asked what she was doing, she
replied that with the torch she would burn
down the gates of heaven, and with the water
she would put out the fires of hell, so that
men and women might learn to love the Lord
for his own sake, and not out of fear of
punishment or hope for reward.
Thomas Gates
2007
Gates, Thomas,
“You Must
Live a Dying
Life:
Reflections on
Human
Mortality and
the Spiritual
Life”,. Weed
Lecture
(BHFH-07)
95
Has Quakerism anything to tell the world
about simplicity in religion? It has. This is the
main secret of its remarkable success in its
early days. It was as simple as the Galilean’s
Gospel. It made no compromise with the
interminable mass of scholastic theology. It
cut loose from it all. One sentence from
George Fox announces its whole program—
“Let nothing come between your souls and
God but Jesus Christ.”
Rufus M. Jones
1906
Jones, Rufus
M., Quakerism
and the Simple
Life, London,
Headley, 1906,
pp. 16-17
118
96
We need to guard against under-valuing the
material expressions of spiritual things. It is
easy to make a form of our very rejection of
forms. And in particular we need to ask
ourselves whether we are endeavoring to
make all the daily happenings and doings of
life which we call “secular” minister to the
spiritual. It is a bold and colossal claim that
we put forward—that the whole of life is
sacramental, that there are innumerable
“means of grace” by which God is revealed
and communicated—through nature and
through human fellowship and through a
thousand things that may become the
“outward and visible sign” of an “inward and
spiritual grace.”
A. Barrett
Brown
1932
Brown, A.
Barrett,
Wayside
Sacraments,
London,
Friends’ Book
Centre, 1932,
pp.9-10
97
The word “sacrament” has been defined as
meaning “the outward and visible sign of an
inward and spiritual grace,” and according to
the Quaker belief, that “outward and visible
sign” is a life lived in absolute obedience to
God, a revelation of His indwelling Spirit in
the heart. This, of course, is an integral part
of the Christian faith, the eternal truth behind
all symbols and observances. But every
section of the Christian Church has some
special witness to uphold, and for over three
hundred years the Society of Friends has
testified to this sacramental conception of the
whole of life.
Elfrida Vipont
Foulds
1962
Foulds, Elfrida
Vipont, A Faith
to Live By,
Friends
General
Conference,
1962, p. 1
119
98
We no longer need to dominate or take pride
of place in respect to any other creature. We
can abandon the urge to rule at the office, at
church, or at home. We can treat everything
God has made with gentleness and
generosity, rather than with grasping greed.
In joyful dependence, we can grow to be as
fully human as possible, as thoroughly in the
image of God as we are intended to be. In
reflecting the creativity and love of God, we
can delight to sing and invent, to work and to
love. We can write poetry and tell stories,
show mercy to one another and make one
another laugh. Having given up the burden of
usurping the Creator’s throne, we are now
free to become who we are and to let our
creaturely lives themselves, yielded gladly to
God’s will, shout praise to their Maker.
Howard R.
Macy
1988
Macy, Howard
R., Rhythms of
the Inner Life,
Fleming Revell
& Co, NY,
1988, pp. 153154
C. Extracts on Faith Reflected in Practice and Daily Life
As spiritual seekers we value our awareness and experience of the Inward Light and of the
myriad ways in which we learn to trust that Light throughout our lives. Trust in the Light enables
us to express in our practice and daily lives the understanding that grows from this inward
experience. The selections that follow tell of our experience as part of a worshipping community
of Friends and how we and our service in the world are nurtured by the meeting. Many Friends
have written about the relationship of the individual and the monthly meeting in discernment of
concerns and leadings and these selections capture the interplay between inward contemplation
and outward action. Friends have written eloquently about the ways in which their lives have
been kindled and ignited by the divine spirit. Friends have also written of the struggle to find the
way and the despair that comes at times. These selections also record the important role that the
meeting plays throughout our lives and as we near the end of life.
99
What brings us fulfillment when we find that
Thomas
attaining wealth and status, by themselves, will not? Jeavons
How do we make sense of the lives we are living?
What values can give a satisfying shape and purpose
to our lives? Where can we find insights on these
questions? With whom can we share this search?
120
c. 2002 PYM News
The Religious Society of Friends began with persons
(“seekers”) looking for answers to remarkably
similar questions. The times were very different, but
the spiritual dynamics were much the same. When
one of those seekers, George Fox, encountered the
Divine directly, he began articulating a new vision of
the Christian faith. He shared that vision with other
seekers, and a new religious movement—
Quakerism—was born.
That movement and its members were characterized
by three vital features. First: an understanding rooted
in experience, that it was both possible and necessary
to have an immediate, direct relationship with the
Divine, with God, that would give one’s life
meaning, purpose, and wholeness. Second: a fervent
desire to live out, to fully embody these spiritual
insights—“the Truth”—they had discovered in that
relationship. And third: a recognition that they
needed one another, and so a commitment to form
and sustain the spiritual communities necessary to
live such a life of faith and integrity.
100 There is an unfortunate tendency among some
Daniel Snyder 2008
Quakers to separate prayer and action rather than to
integrate them. … [We can] re-imagine prayer as a
kind of inward activism and political work as a kind
of outward prayer. Of course, this is a reversal of our
usual assumption, that prayer is always an inward
activity and peace work is always outward. … In
considering phrases like “inward activism” and
“outward prayer,” we were challenged to bring the
best of activism into our inward lives and the best of
prayer into our outward action.
Snyder, Daniel,
Quaker Witness
as Sacrament,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 397,
2008, pp. 22,
23-24
101 By ethical mysticism I mean that type of mysticism Howard H.
which first withdraws from the world revealed by the Brinton
senses to the inward Divine Source of Light, Truth,
and Power, and then returns to the world with
strength renewed, insight cleared, and desire
quickened to bind all life together in the bonds of
Brinton,
Howard H.,
Ethical
Mysticism in
the Society of
Friends, Pendle
121
1967
love. These bonds are discovered by this process of
withdrawal and return because the one inward Divine
Source is itself the creative unity which seeks to bind
all life together. But there is no necessary
chronological order in the world of spirit. It may be
that the desire to penetrate to the creative unity in the
depths of the soul was first aroused by finding it in
the outward affairs of daily life.
102 Let us recognize that while spiritual life in its
Daniel A.
externals often presents us with a bewildering
Seeger
diversity, the saints of each spiritual tradition are
practically indistinguishable from each other in their
lives, their way of being. Though their theological
concepts may be different, their feelings and conduct
are amazingly similar. They dwell in love, and God
dwells in them because God is love. Increasingly in
this modern age, the capacity to apprehend the One
in the many constitutes the special responsibility of
those who would dwell in love. May this capacity to
apprehend the One in the many, and the love it
expresses, be the special gift of the friends of Jesus to
people of faith everywhere!
Hill Pamphlet
156, 1967, p. 5
1994
Seeger, Daniel
A., I have
called you
Friends: A
reflection of
understandings
of Jesus among
Friends,
address to
Hanover
Meeting (NH),
Nov. 18, 1994
103 We see that the teachings of [the] divine spirit have Lucretia Mott 1858
been the same in all ages. It has led to truth, to
goodness, to justice, to love. Love was as much held
up among [the] old [Testament] writers, [the] old
religious teachers, and as clearly set forth, as in the
later days. Their testimony fell upon ears that heard
not, upon eyes that saw not, because they had closed
their eyes, shut their ears, and hardened their hearts.
They had substituted something else for this divine
light; this word, which … Moses declared to his
people was “nigh unto them, in the mouth, and in the
heart.” … Believe not, then, that all these great
principles were only known in the day of the advent
of the Messiah to the Jews—those beautiful effects of
doing right.
Mott, Lucretia,
––: Her
Complete
Speeches and
Sermons, ed. by
Dana Green,
New York, E.
Mellen Press,
1980, pp. 236237
122
104 And as many candles lighted, and put in one place,
do greatly augment the light and make it more to
shine forth so when many are gathered together into
the same life, there is more of the glory of God, and
his power appears, to the refreshment of each
individual, for that he partakes not only of the light
and life raised in himself, but in all the rest.
Robert Barclay 1678
Barclay,
Robert, An
Apology for the
True Christian
Divinity, Prop.
11 Sect. 17, p.
364-365 [1967
edition, p. 280]
105 The resurrection, however literally or otherwise we S. Jocelyn
interpret it, demonstrates the power of God to bring Burnell
life out of brokenness; not just to take the hurt out of
brokenness but to add something to the world. It
helps us to sense the usefulness, the possible
meaning in our suffering, and to turn it into a gift.
The resurrection affirms me with my pain and my
anger at what has happened. It does not take away
my pain; it still hurts. But I sense that I am being
transfigured; I am being enabled to begin again to
love confidently and to remake the spirit of my
world.
1989
Burnell, S.
Jocelyn, Broken
for Life,
Swarthmore
Lecture, 1989,
pp. 51-52
106 Something is happening around me: the dark is less Elizabeth
dark, the silence is less deep. Even the air is
Yates
changing. It is damper, sweeter. Morning is at hand.
Light will soon come flowing over the edge of the
world, bringing with it the day. What a gift! Whether
wrapped in streamers of color or folded in tissues of
mist, it will be mine to use in ways that I can foresee
and in those that are unexpected. The day will make
its own revelation, bring its own challenge; my part
will be to respond with joy and gladness.
1976
Yates,
Elizabeth, A
Book of Hours,
Noroton,
Connecticut,
Vineyard
Books, 1976,
pp. 60-61
107 When we laid our tools down at the appointed hour Mary
… , it was then I realized I had been in that place of Waddington
“no time,” often referred to as “God’s time.” Had it
really been five hours? It was as though I had stepped
into a current that carried me and sustained my work.
Its flow guided my movements. And throughout all
this I was … powered by the palpable synergy of this
centered group of artists. It was a day to be
2015
Waddington,
Mary,
photographer,
2015, from
“Types and
Shadows,” the
journal of the
Fellowship of
123
remembered.
Quakers in the
Arts
108 I expect to pass through this world but once; any
Attributed to
good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness
Stephen
that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it
Grellet
now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass
this way again.
c. 1800 Grellet,
Stephen,
Attributed,
Oxford
Dictionary of
Quotations, 3rd
edition, 1979,
p. 236
109 Our gracious Creator cares and provides for all his
John Woolman 1763
creatures. His tender mercies are over all his works;
and, so far as his love influences our minds, so far we
become interested in his workmanship and feel a
desire to take hold of every opportunity to lessen the
distresses of the afflicted and increase the happiness
of the creation. Here we have a prospect of one
common interest from which our own is inseparable,
that to turn all the treasures we possess into the
channel of universal love becomes the business of
our lives.
Woolman,
John, the
Journal and
Major Essays,
Phillips P.
Moulton, ed.,
New York,
Oxford Univ.
Press, 1971, A
Plea for the
Poor, p. 241
110 A good end cannot sanctify evil means nor must we William Penn 1693
ever do evil, that good may come of it. … It is as
great presumption to send our passions upon God’s
errands as it is to palliate them with God’s name….
We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or
gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt
no man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what
Love will do: for if men did once see we love them,
we should soon find they would not harm us. Force
may subdue, but Love gains: and he that forgives
first, wins the laurel.
Penn, William,
Maxims 537,
540, 543-546:
p. 123-125
111 All sorts of things “work” for us … as St. Paul
Rufus M.
declared. Not only does love “work,” and faith and Jones
grace, but tribulation “works,” and affliction, and the
seemingly hostile forces which block and buffet and
hamper us. Everything that drives us deeper, that
draws us closer to the great resources of life, that
Jones, Rufus
M., Spiritual
Energies in
Daily Life,
Philadelphia
Yearly
124
1961
puts vigor into our frame and character into our
souls, is in the last resort a blessing to us, even
though it seems on superficial examination to be the
work of an “enemy;” and we shall be wise if we learn
to love the “enemies” that give us the chance to
overcome and to attain our true destiny. Perhaps the
dualism of the universe is not quite as sharp as the
old Persians thought. Perhaps too the love of God
reaches further under than we sometimes suppose.
Perhaps in fact all things “work together for good,”
and even the enemy forces are helping to achieve the
ultimate good that shall be revealed “when God hath
made the pile complete.”
112 The authentic life of the spirit must know a re-birth, a Rachel R.
kindling from the Source, a release from the demands Cadbury
of the self into the knowledge of the truth which sets
men free. “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall
make you free.” This touch of grace upon the spirit,
this sense of God’s presence, this re-birth into new
life may come when we least expect it, may come in
most unorthodox ways and under conditions we have
not foreseen. But if it is deeply desired, ardently
sought and steadfastly prayed for it will come, and
we shall have been reborn into God’s love, and have
made a great and decisive step toward life with Him.
For most of us this is not a cataclysmic experience—
nor is it desirable that it should be; but whether it
results from a decision, a commitment consciously
made, a gradual growth or a mystical experience we
shall know that our religion has “come alive.”
Meeting, 1962
reprint. [Essay
first appeared in
The Friend
(London), July
1919, p. 1]
1955
Cadbury,
Rachel, The
Choice Before
Us, Religious
Education
Committee,
Friends General
Conference,
1955, p. 7
113 What was perhaps most characteristic of early
Thomas Gates 2015
Friends was that they thought of their testimony not
in terms of words or propositions, but in terms of
what they did, the way they lived their lives. …
Testimony for them was to ‘do truth.’ What we now
call ‘the testimonies’ were early Friends’ actions in
the world, bearing witness to the truth they had
experienced. Their testimony was an outward and
visible manifestation of an inward transformation.
Gates, Thomas,
You are my
Witnesses:
Witness and
Testimony in
the Biblical and
Quaker
Traditions,
Pendle Hill
125
This truth affected all aspects of their lives.
Pamphlet 435,
2015, p. 13
114 How many of us are open to, and expectant of,
Ben Pink
spiritual encounter? How many of us are open to the Dandelion
possibility of transformation? Are we prepared to
take the risk of being transformed as Margaret Fell
was, or are we frightened of spiritual experience? If
we are not open for spiritual transformation, what are
we doing in attaching ourselves to a meeting? We
have lost a sense of collective purpose when the
spiritual is optional. If we have lost the experiential
basis of our life together, we have lost our rootstock.
2014
Dandelion, Ben
Pink (2014),
Open for
Transformation
: Being Quaker.
The 2014
Swarthmore
Lecture.
London.
Quaker Books,
p. 45
115 As Friends we believe that love is the unifying force Philadelphia
in human relations. Let us understand what brotherly Yearly
love is and what it is not. Love is not self-seeking; it Meeting
is self-giving. Love does not try to make up a
deficiency in that of God in another from an
overabundance of divinity in ourselves; it opens us to
the divine Light in him and rejoices in it. Love does
not mean agreeing on all questions of belief, values,
or rules of conduct; it means accepting with humility
and forbearance such differences as cannot be
resolved by open and patient give-and-take. Love
does not recreate our brother in our image; it
recreates us both in relation to each other, united like
limbs of one body yet each distinctly himself.
1969
Yearly
Meeting,
Philadelphia,
Minute 26,
Statement on
Race, 1969
116 True godliness don’t turn men out of the world, but
enables them better to live in it and excites their
endeavors to mend it; not hide their candle under a
bushel, but set it upon a table in a candlestick.
William Penn 1668
117 There is a principle which is pure, placed in the
John Woolman 1774
human mind, which in different places and ages hath
had different names. It is, however, pure and
proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined
to no forms of religion nor excluded from any where
126
Penn, William,
No Cross: No
Crown, p. 29
Woolman,
John, Works,
Considerations
on Keeping
Negroes, 1774,
the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever
this takes root and grows, of what nation so ever,
they become brethren in the best sense of the
expression. Using ourselves to take ways which
appear most easy to us, when inconsistent with that
purity which is without beginning, we thereby set up
a government of our own and deny obedience to him
whose service is true liberty.
118 …As Quakers we are often preoccupied with global
issues and as young people we are only too often
preoccupied with the pressures of work. [At Junior
Yearly Meeting] we had the space to stop, to listen
and to think about ourselves. …
p. 325
Epistle of
Junior Yearly
Meeting
1991
Through our discussions we recognised our anxieties
and fears. We realised that we are individuals and
that we are alone but, as part of a loving community,
to be alone does not necessarily mean to be lonely.
We discovered that it is acceptable to have confused
feelings, to be different, to do things our own way.
We should not feel guilty when we are wrong, and
appreciate that there must be room for mistakes.
There are people who want us to be exactly as we
are.
119 Quakers from the whole world await a message of
hope. But how shall they hear? The presence and
work of the Spirit is much more important than our
words and forms of worship. That within us should
also be transformed outward.
Some of us place special emphasis on the historical
Jesus Christ as our personal Savior; others on the
Light within everyone, which is interpreted by some
of us as the Holy Spirit, and by some as the Christ
principle; while others emphasize the universal spirit
of God. We see these as three aspects of the one God
and rejoice in our unity.
As we love one another, we find unity and become
peacemakers. The barriers that separate us are
127
Britain Yearly
Meeting.
Quaker faith &
practice. Fifth
edition.
London: The
Yearly Meeting
of the Religious
Society of
Friends
(Quakers) in
Britain, 2013
21.06
Mable Lugalya 1991
Lugalya,
Mable, Faith in
Action: Fifth
World
Conference of
Friends, Friends
World
Committee for
Consultation,
1992, p. 26
broken, as Jesus broke the barrier between the
Samaritans and the Jews through the conversation
between him and the Samaritan woman. We should
support each other in the diversity of our witness. We
are one world trying to live our lives as Christ did.
120 We will not all be called to witness in the same way, Christina
but we should not assume that we have the luxury of Repoley
waiting to act until we have it completely figured out.
We must make a first step towards believing in the
radical imagination of newness that boldly critiques
the current paradigm. We can’t be too worried about
being polite; if we engage in fundamental paradigm
shifts we will inevitably hurt each other’s feelings. It
will be hard work. But it will also be deeply
healing—the kind of work that can break through the
numbness.
2006
Repoley,
Christina, The
Prophetic
Journey, in
Friends
Journal,
October 2006
121 In prayer, the seeds of concern have a way of
Douglas V.
appearing. Often enough, a concern begins in a
Steere
feeling of being personally liable, personally
responsible, for someone or some event. With it there
may come an intimation that one should do some
little thing: speak to some person, make an inquiry
into a certain situation, write a letter, send some
money, send a book. Or it may be a stop in our minds
about some pending decision, or a clear directive that
now is not the time to rest, or an urge to stay home
when we had been meaning to be away; it may be
that no more than this will be given us. But this seed
is given us to follow, and if we do not follow it, we
cannot expect to see what may grow from it. Seeds,
not fruit, are given in prayer, but they are given for
planting.
1962
Steere,
Douglas,
Dimensions of
Prayer, 1962,
p. 97
122 I have sometimes been asked what were my reasons Kathleen
for deciding on that refusal to register for war duties Lonsdale
that sent me to Holloway Jail twenty-two years ago. I
can only answer that my reason told me that I was a
fool, that I was risking my job and my career, that an
1964
Lonsdale,
Kathleen, I
believe…,
Eddington
Memorial
128
isolated example could do no good, that it was a
futile gesture since even if I did register my three
small children would exempt me. But reason was
fighting a losing battle. I had wrestled in prayer and I
knew beyond all doubt that I must refuse to register,
that those who believed that war was the wrong way
to fight evil must stand out against it however much
they stood alone, and that I and mine must take the
consequences. The “and mine” made it more
difficult, but I question whether children ever really
suffer loss in the long run through having parents
who are willing to stand by principles; many a
soldier had to leave his family and thought it his duty
to do so. When you have to make a vital decision
about behaviour, you cannot sit on the fence. To
decide to do nothing is still a decision, and it means
that you remain on the station platform or the airstrip
when the train or plane has left.
123 Those of us known as “activists” have sometimes
Margaret
been hurt by the written or spoken implication that
Glover
we must be spending too little time on our spiritual
contemplative lives. I do know many atheists who
are active in improving the lot of humankind; but, for
those of us who are Friends, our attendance at
meeting for worship and our silent prayerful times
are what make our outer activity viable and
effective—if it is effective.
I have similarly seen quieter Friends hurt by the
implication that they do not care enough, because
they are not seen to be “politically active.” Some
worry unnecessarily that they may be doing things of
a “less important” nature, as if to be seen doing
things by the eyes of the world is the same thing as to
be seen doing things by the eyes of God. … I suggest
that we refrain from judging each other, or belittling
what each is doing; and that we should not feel
belittled. We cannot know the prayers that others
make or do not make in their own times of silent
aloneness. We cannot know the letters others may be
129
Lecture,
Cambridge
University
Press, 1964, pp.
54-55
1989
Glover,
Margaret,
Letter from ––,
The Friend
(London),
1989, vol. 147,
p. 830
writing to governments. … We were made
differently, in order to perform different tasks. Let us
rejoice in our differences.
124 Ever since I first came among Friends, I was
John Punshon
attracted to the testimonies as an ideal. I wanted to
belong to a church which made the rejection of
warfare a collective commitment and not just a
personal option. I admired a simplicity, a devotion to
equality, and a respect for others which reflected
what I already knew of Christ. In a deceitful world I
warmed to those who did not swear oaths and strove
to tell the truth in all circumstances. But this was a
beginning in the spiritual life. The seed that was
sown in my mind and my politics struck root in my
soul and my faith
1987
Punshon, John,
Encounter with
silence,
Richmond, IN,
Friends United
Press, 1987, p.
44-45
2005
Smith, Steven,
Living in
Virtue,
Declaring
Against War:
The Spiritual
Roots of the
Peace
Testimony.
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 378,
The choice of the word “testimony” is instructive.
The testimonies are ways of behaving but are not
ethical rules. They are matters of practice but imply
doctrines. They refer to human society but are about
God. Though often talked about, they lack an
authoritative formulation. …
A “testimony” is a declaration of truth or fact. … It is
not an ejaculation, a way of letting off steam, or
baring one’s soul. It has a purpose, and that is to get
other people to change, to turn to God. Such an
enterprise, be it in words or by conduct and example,
is in essence prophetic and evangelical.
125 What is the distinction between testimonies and
Steven Smith
principles? To give personal testimony in a court of
law it to report one’s own experience. Speculation
and sweeping generalization are out of order; one
must only state that which one directly knows.
Friends’ testimonies reflect a similar
understanding—they are not abstract generalizations,
but the records of lives lived. … Friends’ testimonies
are not judgments of the mind but voices of the heart.
… The Peace Testimony exemplifies not principle
pacifism but testimony pacifism. It is not a
130
philosophical generalization to be affirmed by
intellectual judgment … but, rather, a confession of
spiritual surrender and the fruit of that surrender.
126 I was struck by how well … [Quaker] testimonies
agree with scientific practice. …
pp. 22-25
Joe Levinger
2012
Scientific practice … embraces our Quaker testimony
of Integrity. A scientist must tell the truth as well as
he/she can. Scientists may make mistakes, but
scientists are not allowed to lie about their
observations or their calculations.
Levinger, Joe
2012
Spark: NYYM
Newsletter
Scientific practice agrees well with our Quaker
testimony of Community. We discuss our
experimental and theoretical work with other
scientists in our community. This discussion plays a
vital role in our search for scientific truth.
Scientific practice also agrees with our Quaker
testimony on Equality in the way that all scientists
enjoy equal status in our common search for truth.
One of many examples: an unknown young Indian
physicist, Bose, wrote to the famous Einstein, who
studied and agreed with Bose’s work. Together they
developed Bose-Einstein statistics.
127 …our testimonies are not a pre-packaged set of
Ben Pink
values. Our spiritual experience, our openness to
Dandelion
being led and to living a guided life, leads us to a life
we have little choice over. Testimony is the
outflowing life we cannot help but lead.
131
2014
Dandelion, Ben
Pink (2014),
Open for
Transformation
: Being Quaker.
The 2014
Swarthmore
Lecture.
London.
Quaker Books
P. 19
128 Leading and being led: the words are simple enough. Paul Lacey
But for Quakers they have their most profound
resonance as defining religious experience. Friends
speak variously of being drawn to an action, feeling
under the weight of a concern, being called or led to
act in specific ways. We speak of being open to the
leadings of the Light, of being taught by the Spirit or
the Inward Christ. Extraordinary claims lie
embedded in those phrases. They say that it is not
only possible but essential to our nature for human
beings to hear and obey the voice of God; that we
can be directed, daily, in what we do, the jobs we
hold, the very words we say and that our obedience
may draw us to become leaders in all spheres of
human life—in the professions, arts, and sciences,
but also in discovering the ethical, political, social,
and economic consequences of following the will of
God.
1985
Lacey, Paul,
Leading and
being Led,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 264,
1985, p. 3
129 “Concern” is a word which has tended to become
Roger Wilson
debased by excessively common usage among
Friends, so that too often it is used to cover merely a
strong desire. The true “concern” [emerges as] a gift
from God, a leading of his spirit which may not be
denied. Its sanction is not that on investigation it
proves to be the intelligent thing to do—though it
usually is; it is that the individual … knows, as a
matter of inward experience, that there is something
that the Lord would have done, however obscure the
way, however uncertain the means to human
observation. Often proposals for action are made
which have every appearance of good sense, but as
the meeting waits before God it becomes clear that
the proposition falls short of “concern.”
1949
Wilson, Roger,
Authority,
Leadership and
Concern,
Swarthmore
Lecture,
London,
George Allen &
Unwin, 1949, p.
12
132
130 When Howard Brinton wrote Friends for 300
Ben Pink
Years (1952), which became the standard
Dandelion
introductory text to Quakerism in the USA, he
offered a list of testimonies, which over time was
altered by Friends so that by the 1990s we might be
given the list of simplicity, peace, integrity,
community, and equality, producing the acronym
SPICE. ... This listing has a number of effects. One is
that we see testimony as consisting only of these
principles rather than the whole of our God-led lives.
… Secondly, because they are presented as
principles, it is easy to imagine that they exist
independently of our spiritual experience and the
knowledge that there is that of God in everyone,
which traditionally has given rise to the way we live
in the world. Thirdly, divided up this way into
discrete items, they have for some Friends become
individually optional. Some Friends may struggle
with the peace testimony but be clear on equality;
others struggle with simplicity but are strong on
peace. … We have recast testimony in terms of
individual choice, and our corporate action as ‘good
work’ rather than God-led.
2014
Dandelion, Ben
Pink, Open for
Transformation:
Being Quaker;
Swarthmore
Lecture, 2014
P.54-55
131 A concern is God-initiated, often surprising, always Thomas Kelly 1941
holy, for the life of God is breaking through into the
world. Its execution is in peace and power and
astounding faith and joy, for in unhurried serenity the
Eternal is at work in the midst of time, triumphantly
bringing all things unto Himself.
Kelly, Thomas,
A Testament of
Devotion, New
York, Harper,
1941, p. 111
132 A Quaker social concern seems characteristically to Dorothy H.
arise in a sensitive individual or very small group. … Hutchinson
The concern arises as a revelation to an individual
that there is a painful discrepancy between existing
social conditions and what God wills for society and
that this discrepancy is not being adequately dealt
with. The next step is the determination of the
individual to do something about it—not because he
is particularly well fitted to tackle the problem, but
Hutchinson,
Dorothy H, The
Spiritual Basis
of Quaker
Social
Concerns,
Friends General
Conference,
1961, p. 2
133
1961
simply because no one else seems to be doing it.
133 My challenge is to keep the wholeness during the
Eileen
hectic daily routines that ensue when we wake up
Flanagan
again. I have to practice the simplicity testimony
every morning because I am always tempted to check
email and fold laundry in between putting on my
socks. I have to practice the peace testimony, too,
because by 7:40 I feel like yelling at my son, who is
often playing with his Legos instead of getting
dressed. I have to practice the equality testimony by
constantly negotiating with my husband the work
load of raising a family, from packing lunches and
folding laundry to remembering to call the
orthodontist. Most important, I have to continually
practice listening for God’s guidance, integrating the
discernment tools I used before becoming a parent—
silence, solitude, and prayer—with the many ways I
feel God touched me through the gift of family.
2008
Flanagan,
Eileen, God
Raising Us:
Parenting as a
Spiritual
Practice. Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
396 2008
134 In all our fervor—in all my fervor—to be doing, have Stephen G.
I paid too little attention to the power that lies in
Cary
being? Do we remember that it is the spirit of our
service, the aura that surrounds it, the gentleness and
the patience that marks it, the love made visible that
compels it, that is the truly distinctive quality that
lifts Quaker service above lobbying, above pressure,
above coercion, that inspires the doubtful, and
reaches the heart of the adversary?
1979
Cary, Stephen
G., The Quaker
Proposition,
Friends
Journal, Nov.
1979, p. 4
135 If we are faithful followers of Jesus, we may expect
at times to differ from the practice of others. Having
in mind that truth in all ages has been advanced by
the courageous example of spiritual leaders, Friends
are earnestly advised to be faithful to those leadings
of the Divine Spirit which they feel fully assured
after mature meditation and consideration they have
interpreted truly.
134
Philadelphia
1927
Yearly
Meeting (Race
Street)
Yearly
Meeting,
Philadelphia,
Race St., Book
of Discipline,
1894, 1927
[1950 printing,
some changes],
p. 29
136 It may surprise some of us to hear that the first
Frances Irene
generation of Friends did not have a testimony for
Taber
simplicity. They came upon a faith which cut to the
root of the way they saw life, radically reorienting it.
They saw that all they did must flow directly from
what they experienced as true, and that if it did not,
both the knowing and the doing became false. In
order to keep the knowledge clear and the doing true,
they stripped away anything which seemed to get in
the way. They called those things superfluities, and it
is this radical process of stripping for clear-seeing
which we now term simplicity.
1985
Taber, Frances
Irene, Friends
Face the World,
Leonard
Kenworthy,
editor, Quaker
Publications,
1987, p. 59
137 From time to time … adherence to factual truth can
give rise to profound dilemmas for Quaker Peace &
Service workers if they are in possession of
information which could be used to endanger
people’s lives or give rise to the abuse of
fundamental human rights. … Some of us are clear
that in certain difficult circumstances we may still
uphold our testimony to truthfulness while at the
same time declining to disclose confidences which
we have properly accepted. Such withholding of the
whole truth is not an option to be undertaken lightly
as a convenient way out of a dilemma. We all accept
that ultimately it is up to an individual’s own
conscience, held in the Light, to decide how to
respond.
Quaker Peace 1992
and Service,
London Yearly
Meeting
Quaker Peace
and Service,
Integrity and
Truthfulness in
Quaker Work,
background
document for
Quaker Peace
and Service
workers,
unpublished,
1992 [Quaker
Faith and
Practice, Britain
Yearly
Meeting, 1995,
20.45]
138 But the Loving Presence does not burden us equally
with all things, but considerately puts upon each of
us just a few central tasks, as emphatic
responsibilities. For each of us these special
undertakings are our share in the joyous burden of
love.
Thomas Kelly 1992
Kelly, Thomas,
A Testament of
Devotion. New
York, Harper
Collins, 1992,
P. 83
Thus the state of having a concern has a foreground
135
and a background. In the foreground is the special
task, uniquely illuminated, toward which we feel a
special yearning and care. This is the concern as we
usually talk about it or present it to the Monthly
Meeting. But in the background is a second level, or
layer, of universal concern for all the multitude of
good things that need doing. Toward them all we feel
kindly, but we are dismissed from active service in
most of them. And we have an easy mind in the
presence of desperately real needs which are not our
direct responsibility. We cannot die on every cross,
nor are we expected to.
139 Now, Friends, deal plainly with yourselves, and let Margaret Fell 1656
the eternal light search you … for this will deal
plainly with you; it will rip you up, and lay you
open…naked and bare before the Lord God from
whom you cannot hide yourselves. … Therefore give
over the deceiving of your souls.
Fell, Margaret.
An Epistle to
Convinced
Friends in
1656.
Philadelphia:
Book
Association of
Friends, 1885,
p.92 (at Digital
Quaker
Collection of
Earlham
College,
www.esr.earlha
m.edu/dqc/inde
x.html)
140 [You are] not to spend time with needless,
Edward
unnecessary, and fruitless discourses, but to proceed Burrough
in the wisdom of God: not in the way of the world, as
a worldly assembly of men, by hot contests, by
seeking to outspeak and overreach one another in
discourse, as if it were controversy between party
and party of men, or two sides violently striving for
dominion … not deciding affairs by the greater vote
… but in the wisdom, love, and fellowship of God, in
gravity, patience, meekness, in unity and concord,
Burrough,
Edward,
Testimony in
Letters, etc., of
Early Friends,
A. R. Barclay,
ed., 1841, vol.
VII, p. 305
136
1662
submitting one to another in lowliness of heart, and
in the holy Spirit of truth and righteousness, all
things [are] to be carried on by hearing and
determining every matter coming before you in love,
coolness, gentleness, and dear unity—I say, as one
only party, all for the Truth of Christ and for the
carrying on the work of the Lord, and assisting one
another in whatsoever ability God hath given; and to
determine of things by a general mutual concord, in
assenting together as one man in the spirit of truth
and equity, and by the authority thereof.
141 I think I have wasted a great deal of my life waiting Deborah
to be called to some great mission which would
Haines
change the world. I have looked for important social
movements. I have wanted to make a big and
important contribution to the causes I believe in. I
think I have been too ready to reject the genuine
leadings I have been given as being matters of little
consequence. It has taken me a long time to learn that
obedience means doing what we are called to do
even if it seems pointless or unimportant or even
silly. The great social movements of our time may
well be part of our calling. The ideals of peace and
justice and equality which are part of our religious
tradition are often the focus of debate. But we cannot
simply immerse ourselves in these activities. We
need to develop our own unique social witness, in
obedience to God. We need to listen to the gentle
whispers which will tell us how we can bring our
lives into greater harmony with heaven.
1978
Haines,
Deborah, Living
in Harmony
with Heaven on
Earth, Friends
Search for
Wholeness,
John Bond, ed.,
1978, p. 139
142 The field of my religious training presupposed a clear Clarence E.
definite call to a particular kind of service. I must
Pickett
confess that this has never happened to me. … I have
never aspired to a particular job or asked for one; nor
have I been “stricken on the road to Damascus” as
was Paul and had my way clearly dictated to me from
the heavens. The entire course has been a maturing of
family and personal decisions. In perspective I
should say in all humility that my life has been
1966
Pickett,
Clarence E., ––:
A Memoir,
Walter Kahoe,
ed., 1966, p. 52
137
characterized by an inadequate, persistent effort to
try to find a workable harmony between religious
profession and daily practice.
143 We wish we could say that our response to God’s
Thomas and
calling was immediate and unequivocal, but in fact
Elizabeth
there followed several months of indecision, as we
Gates
struggled with our leading [to travel to and live in
Lugula]. We initiated, in a tentative way, the
application process through Friends United Meeting,
and were encouraged by them to schedule a trip to
Indiana for an interview. Finally, five months after
Yearly Meeting, we reached clarity, together as a
couple: if FUM offered us the position (and we were
the only serious candidates), we were prepared to
accept. …
That very evening, as we basked in the warm glow of
our newly found clearness, we received a phone call
… there was no opening, and no need for an
interview.
The word “disappointment” does not adequately
describe how we felt. Our process of discernment
had been slow and gradual but, we felt, genuine. We
were left feeling empty, as though we were somehow
“in transition”—but transition to what? We had now
given up our expectations for the future not once, but
twice. Our lives were outwardly the same as before,
but we were empty, waiting for a further leading, and
not entirely sure when or if it would come.
It took several difficult months, but eventually,
reluctantly, we were able to give up the idea that
Lugulu was in our future. Then one day, about a year
later, a letter came in the mail. … The mission board
was asking, almost apologetically, if we would still
consider going to Lugulu. Suddenly, we could see the
bumpy and circuitous road that we had been traveling
for those eighteen months in a larger perspective.
138
1995
Gates, Thomas
and Elizabeth,
Stories from
Kenya, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
319, 1995, pp.
6-7
God had been asking, “Whom shall I send? Who will
go for me?” Now, and only now, were we prepared
to answer unequivocally with the prophet Isaiah,
“Here we are, Lord. Send us.”
144 To be a Quaker is not simply to subscribe to
Paul Lacey
doctrines but to be convinced that one has known an
ultimate reality which authenticates doctrines. It is to
know oneself capable of being taught now by the
living Spirit of Truth, capable of receiving vital
direction in what one is to do. It is not only to be a
follower of the teachings of Jesus but to have met the
Inward Christ.
1985
145 Authority comes from God, and it is recognized by Marty Paxson 2002
Friends. Both parts are essential: that an individual
Grundy
speak or act or just be under faithful obedience to
Divine Will, and that the faith community recognize
and acknowledge that the message or action or be-ing
is divinely inspired. …
Lacey, Paul,
Leading and
Being Led.
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 264
1985
Grundy, Marty
Paxson, Friends
Journal,
September
2002. Pp 12-13
Each of us has the possibility of being anointed and
called to speak with authority on occasion. So each
of us must be ready to listen and to discern with great
care and humility not only our own internal nudges,
but the words of each other person present.
146 When Friends take care of our meeting's business, we
are holding the whole meeting in the Light. We enter
into worship and we listen. We listen for God, we
listen in our own hearts, and we listen to one another
to know what to do. … Friends go out into the world
to continue God's work. They take with them hearts
that know love, peace, and unity.
Faith and Play 2008
Working
Group;
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting
Yearly
Meeting,
Philadelphia,
Faith and Play
Working
Group, 2008
147 At monthly meeting there was a strong sense of unity Rosemary M. 1967
on the matter—except for one person. (How easy to Elliott
have ignored this one dissenting voice.) But in view
of it, it was agreed to hold a second monthly meeting
to reconsider the matter. Because the venue was
different (our meetings are not normally “monthly”)
a different group of Friends was present, although
Elliott,
Rosemary M.,
Friends in a
living
community,
Chapter 29 in
Seek, Find,
139
three of the first meeting were there. The sense of
unity was equally strong in the other direction—
except for two Friends. It was therefore decided to
hold a third “monthly” meeting. By this time feelings
were running high and we were each convinced of
the rightness of our own viewpoints. Then suddenly
Christ’s presence moved in, and in my own case I
remembered his words to his disciples, “By this shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, that ye have
love one for another.” And quite suddenly it seemed
more important to love than to be right.
148 A common misconception about Quaker business
Esther Murer
process is that a decision can never go forward if one
person decides to “stand in the way.” Inactive
members, new attenders and non-Friends trying to
imitate Quaker process often interpret our principle
of unity to mean that each individual has veto power
over any decision of the community. Nothing could
be further from the truth.
“Standing in the way” is not a right which inheres in
paper membership or attendance at meeting for
business. It is rather a privilege granted by the
community because it believes that the dissent is
grounded in spiritual integrity and not in ego or a
power trip. We acknowledge that the Friend may
have light which the rest of us don’t yet see; we wait
in love for the Friend to see our light. We are willing
to remain teachable in the trust that the dissenting
Friend is also teachable. …
Difficulty arises when some show themselves not to
be teachable, as for instance when they attach
themselves to an external “party line” which
precludes submission to the Spirit. The Meeting may
rightly decline to trust such persons. Trust is
something which must be earned. Perhaps that is a
central meaning of the term “weighty Friend”: one
whom the community trusts to “attend to pure
wisdom and be teachable.”
140
Share, Study
Volume
Number Two,
Fourth World
Conference of
Friends, 1967,
Friends World
Committee for
Consultation,
1967, p. 97
1989
Murer, Esther,
On ‘Standing in
the way’, in
Notes from the
Extreme
Middle,
Newsletter,
Central
Philadelphia
Monthly
Meeting, Aug.
1986
149 As a structure to facilitate discernment of the will of Patricia Loring 1992
God, the clearness committee partakes of many of
the features of a meeting for worship for the conduct
of business. Where meetings for business have been
assimilated to more secular models, with emphasis
on getting through agendas within time constraints,
on decision-making rather than discernment,
consensus rather than unity, it is helpful to
incorporate in the model some aspects of worship
sharing.
Loring,
Patricia,
Spiritual
Discernment,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 305,
1992, p. 29
The crucial element is the establishment of a context
of prayerful attentiveness, not just for the beginning
and end of the time together but for the entire
meeting. Liberal amounts of silence between
utterances permits them to be heard with all their
resonances and taken below the surface mind. The
space between can remove the temptation to revert to
discussion or conversation. It can help reinforce
disciplined speaking and listening. It can allow what
does come forth to arise spontaneously from the
Center.
150 When we seek the sense of the meeting we allow
Barry Morley
ourselves to be directed to the solution that awaits us.
It is a process of surrender to our highest natures, and
a recognition that, even though each of us is
possessed of light, there is only one Light. At the end
of the process we reside in that Light. We have
allowed ourselves to be led to a transcendent place of
unmistakable harmony, peace, and tender love.
1993
Morley, Barry,
Beyond
Consensus:
Salvaging
Sense of the
Meeting.
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 307.
1993, p. 12
151 The belief that divinity exists in each human soul
Earl G.
dominates the Quaker movement and it is the
Harrison, Jr.
bedrock of Quaker education. Despite the inevitable
compromises and flaws found in every Friends
school, Quaker education still seeks to draw out,
nurture, and protect the dignity of human personality.
1981
Harrison, Jr.,
Earl G.,
Horizon.
3/4/1981,
Sidwell Friends
School,
Washington,
DC, 1981
141
152 From a student perspective, Meeting for Worship is a Irene
time for self-reflection and relational reflection.
McHenry
Unique to Quaker pedagogy is the cultivation of an
ongoing habit of personal reflection and shared
community reflections. Because Friends have neither
doctrines nor dogma, they place most emphasis on
the manner in which people lead their lives and treat
one another. This aspect, as well as the sense of
genuine inquiry, allows young people from all
religious traditions (or none) to feel comfortable
together during the silence of a Friends school
Meeting for Worship.
2009
Henry, Irene,
Meeting for
Worship:
Developing
Reflective
Practice in
Friends
Schools, in
Tuning In:
Mindfulness in
Teaching and
Learning, Irene
McHenry and
Richard Brady,
Eds., Friends
Council on
Education,
Philadelphia,
2009
153 To the present distracted and broken nation: We are Edward
not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor Burrough
are we for this party nor against the other … but we
are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true
freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation, and
that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance,
peace, and unity with God and with one another, that
these things may abound.
1659
Burrough,
Edward, The
Memorable
Works, London,
E. Hookes,
1672, p. 604
Friends Peace 1940
Committee,
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting (Race
Street)
Yearly
Meeting,
Philadelphia,
Report, Friends
Peace
Committee,
1940
154 The foundations of Quaker pacifism are religious.
We fully recognize the value of the intuitive
recognition of the evil of coercive violence in the
individual and national life. The sense of the contrast
between the way of war and the way of love shown
us in the life of Jesus Christ has compelling force. It
is also enlightening to think of pacifism as a
corollary of the fundamental Quaker postulate of the
Divine Spark in every human being. This
fundamental Quaker postulate lays on us the
obligation to consider and cherish every human
being. It follows, for those who accept the postulate,
142
that they cannot do to human beings the things that
war involves. It may follow that they become aware
that other sorts of human relations are also evil, such
as slavery, economic injustice, inferior status for
women, and the results of the traffic in narcotics. …
Quaker pacifism is an obligation, not a promise. We
are not guaranteed that it will be safe. We are sure
that it is right. We desire to make our individual
decisions in harmony with it, and to help our fellows
to do so.
155 Whether the experience of Divine companionship
Elfrida Vipont 1981
comes soon or late, whether it is a sudden realisation Foulds
of the Indwelling Spirit, the Divine Presence, the
Eternal Light Within, the Seed of God in the heart, it
becomes increasingly the mainspring of our life on
earth and our hope for the life to come. We recognize
this as an element of the Divine in every human
heart, however denied and stifled and concealed; it is
something to which we can appeal from the
innermost depths of our being; an inward experience
of God in which we ourselves must live.
From that inward relationship, the testimonies which
generations of Friends have been challenged to
maintain take on a deeper meaning. One of the most
revealing passages in George Fox’s Journal is that in
which he records his answer to the officials who
offered him his liberty, if he would accept a
commission and “take up arms for the
Commonwealth against the King.” He did not say
that he believed war to be wrong, or that in his
opinion brute force never settled anything; he went
straight to the heart of the matter and said that he
“lived in the virtue of that life and power that took
away the occasion of all wars.” To uphold such a
testimony involved a dedicated life. The Quaker
peace testimony is more than a repudiation of war,
and more than a denial of the use of force; it is a way
of life to which we must be faithful in small things as
143
Foulds, Elfrida
Vipont, The
heart of the
Quaker Faith,
Quaker Life,
June 1981, p.
13
well as in great, in our human relationships, our
business and social activities, and in the life and
witness of our meetings.
156 If a concerned Quaker (or any man or woman
Frederick B.
committed to an absolute religious ethic) decides to Tolles
enter practical politics in order to translate his
principles into actuality, he may achieve a relative
success: he may be able to raise the level of political
life in his time, as John Bright did, or maintain a
comparatively happy and just and peaceful society,
as the Quaker legislators of Pennsylvania did. But he
can apparently do it only at a price—the price of
compromise, of partial betrayal of his ideals. If, on
the other hand, he decides to preserve his ideals
intact, to maintain his religious testimonies unsullied
and pure, he may be able to do that, but again at a
price—the price of isolation, of withdrawal from the
mainstream of life in his time, of renouncing the
opportunity directly and immediately to influence
history.
1956
Tolles,
Frederick,
Quakerism and
Politics, Ward
lecture, 1956, p.
20
1937
Jones, Rufus
M., Swords into
Ploughshares,
An Account of
the American
Friends Service
Committee
1917-1937,
New York,
Let me call the two positions the relativist and the
absolutist. And let me suggest that perhaps each one
needs the other. The relativist needs the absolutist to
keep alive and clear the vision of the City of God
while he struggles in some measure to realize it in the
City of Earth. And conversely, the absolutist needs
the relativist, lest the vision remain the possession of
a few only, untranslated into any degree of reality for
the world as a whole.
157 No one dreamed in the sharp crisis of 1917, when the Rufus M.
first steps of faith were taken, that we should feed
Jones
more than a million German children, drive dray
loads of cod-liver oil into Russia, plough the fields of
the peasants and fight typhus in Poland, rebuild the
houses and replant the wastes in Serbia, administer a
longtime service of love in Austria, become foster
parents to tens of thousands of children in the coal
fields in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and
144
Ohio, inaugurate plans for the rehabilitation (sic) of
the stranded soft coal miners, carry relief to the
children on both sides of the warring forces in Spain
and create new types of peace activity which have
brought this supreme issue of these times vitally
home to the minds and consciences of people in all
parts of America.
Macmillan,
1937, pp. viiviii
We verily went out in those days of low visibility not
knowing whither we were going; but, like the early
patriarch, we were conscious of a divine leading, and
we were aware, even if only dimly, that we were
“fellow- laborers with God” in the rugged furrows of
the somewhat brambly fields of the world.
158 If we must speak of our Testimony of peace to the
Michael
rest of the world, to speak of an absolute denial of
Dawson
war, let us do it in a voice of love, with a sacred
sense of the personal sacrifices such a testimony may
well demand, not in defiance of our political
adversaries with whom we may find ourselves
perpetually annoyed. Let us speak not without first
recognizing the fears and the courage of those
countrymen whom we ask to cease engaging in what
they perceive as a defense of life and freedom, so
they may join us in paying the price for peace
required of those who will not live by the sword but
who must be prepared to die by it.
2002
Dawson,
Michael,
Friends
Journal. March
2002. P 5
159 Quaker peace witness is the magnet which drew
John Lampen
many into the Religious Society of Friends. But a
magnet can also repel, and some people find that it is
an obstacle, which prevents them identifying
themselves as Quakers.
2012
Lampen, John,
Love Growing
in Us. The
Kindlers series.
P.3
When I listen to their difficulties, I find that these are
usually practical or intellectual. But our witness
against the use of violence is born not in the head but
in the heart and spirit, as the Advices and Queries tell
us. True Quaker peace work does not arise from a
fear of war and violence but from compassion and a
sense of what is right. These feelings, of course, are
145
not confined to Quakers.
160 Perhaps it is this integrity, the concept of the
Josephine
wholeness of creation, that will jolt humanity onto a Vallentine
course of sustainability, which people may see as
threatening at first. Of course change is often
uncomfortable, but change is a must. We need to
nurture ourselves and each other, but ultimately we
need to nurture the earth—our mother.
161 Sustainability becomes not just one more matter
we’re concerned about, not simply a new
‘testimony,’ but the framework in which Friends
today must contemplate, even rethink, every aspect
of our faith and practice. … If peace was the
dominant theme of Quaker testimony in the 20th
century … work for a sustainable human society on
earth will focus much of our imagination and
energies in this century.
1991
Douglas Gwyn 2014
162 As Friends, we seem to have a heightened aversion
Niyonu Spann 2007
to, or fear of, the shadow side—those parts that we’d
rather not see. We like to focus on the light as if there
is no shadow, and I understand. This is not an
unnatural desire. There is a belief operating there that
says that if those things in the shadow were allowed
to be seen, talked about, and acknowledged that we
would surely die. I like to say that we want to be the
underground railroad Quakers, but not acknowledge
that we were also the Quakers who required African
Americans to sit on separate benches during meeting
for worship. So we have this fear that we would die if
the whole truth were brought to light. There is some
truth here. If we truly acknowledge those parts that
we deny—that may be our shame, our sorrow, our
146
Vallentine,
Josephine, Faith
in Action: Fifth
World
Conference of
Friends, Friends
World
Committee for
Consultation,
1992, p. 215
Gwyn,
Douglas, A
Sustainable
Life: Quaker
Faith and
Practice in the
Renewal of
Creation. pp.
xii, 129
Spann, Niyonu,
Letting Go of
Illusion,
Engaging
Truth: Healing,
Michener
Lecture,
Southeastern
Yearly
Meeting, 2007
greatest fears—there will be death. And primarily I
focus on the death of the illusion!
163 The important thing about worldly possessions, in
London Yearly 1958
fact, is whether or not we are tied to them. Some, by Meeting
an undue love of the things of this world, have so
dulled their hearing that a divine call to a different
way of life would pass unheard. Others are unduly
self-conscious about things which are of no eternal
significance, and because they worry too much about
them, fail to give of their best. The essence of
worldliness is to judge of things by an outward and
temporary, and not an inward and eternal standard, to
care more about appearances than about reality, to let
the senses prevail over the reason and the affections.
Yearly
Meeting,
London,
Industry and
the Social
Order
Conference,
Preparatory
Document 5,
1958 (also
included in
Christian Faith
and Practice,
1960, selection
533)
164 But at the first convincement, when Friends could
George Fox
not put off their hats to people nor say ‘you’ to a
[single person], but ‘thee’ and ‘thou;’ and could not
bow nor use the world’s salutations, nor fashions, nor
customs many Friends, being tradesmen of several
sorts lost their custom at the first; for the people
would not trade with them nor trust them, and for a
time Friends that were tradesmen could hardly get
enough money to buy bread. But afterwards people
came to see Friends’ honesty and truthfulness and
‘yea’ and ‘nay’ at a word in their dealing, and their
lives and conversations did preach and reach to the
witness of God in all people, and they knew and saw
that, for conscience sake towards God, they would
not cozen and cheat them, and at last that they might
send any child and be as well used as [if they had
come] themselves, at any of their shops.
1653
Fox, George,
Journal,
Nickalls, ed.,
London Yearly
Meeting, 1975,
p. 169
165 Friends recognize that much of the
Philadelphia
misunderstanding, fear, and hatred in the world stems Yearly
from the common tendency to see national, religious, Meeting
and racial groups as blocks, forgetting the varied and
1969
Yearly
Meeting,
Philadelphia,
Minute 26,
147
precious individuals who compose them. Differences
between individuals, and between groups, are to be
prized as part of the variety of divine creation. Every
person should be free to cultivate his individual
characteristics and his sense of belonging to a racial
or cultural group as long as by so doing he does no
violence to any one in the human family. Only when
differences are the basis for feelings of superiority do
they become barriers of hate and fear.
Statement on
Race, 1969
166 The duty of the Society of Friends is to be the voice Eva I. Pinthus
of the oppressed but [also] to be conscious that we
ourselves are part of that oppression. Uncomfortable
we stand with one foot in the kingdom of this world
and with the other in the Eternal Kingdom. Seldom
can we keep the inward and outward working of love
in balance, let alone the consciousness of living both
in time and in eternity, in timelessness. Let us not be
beguiled into thinking that political action is all that
is asked of us, nor that our personal relationship with
God excuses us from actively confronting the evil in
this world. The political and social struggles must be
waged, but a person is more and needs more than
politics, else we are in danger of gaining the whole
world but losing our souls.
167 We are much concerned about the whole content of
human relationship, about the meaning of “Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” in the full range
and depth of its implications. Loving does not merely
mean doing good works; it goes further than feeding
the hungry and clothing the naked. It means warmth
and intimacy, open-heartedness and overwhelming
generosity of hand and spirit. It means a desire to
know and a courageous willingness to be known.
Loving implies commitment to the other person,
involvement in that person’s life, whatever it may
cost in suffering, whether that suffering comes
through being repudiated or through identification
and sharing.
148
1987
Pinthus, Eva I.,
Faith and
Politics, Hand
in Hand?, The
Friend
(London),
1987, vol. 145,
p. 483
Quaker Home 1961
Service,
London Yearly
Meeting
Quaker Home
Service.
London Yearly
Meeting, 1961
The life of society desperately needs this warmth of
giving and receiving. Everywhere we see sociability
without commitment or intimacy, and especially in
our towns, intense isolation and loneliness. We see
human energy that should be creative and loving
deflected into activities that are coldly powerseeking; we see love inhibited, frustrated, or denied,
turning into its opposite—into ruthlessness and
aggression.
All Friends
Conference,
London,
Devonshire
House
1920
All Friends’
Conference,
Devonshire
House, London,
1920
169 Whichever sphere of activity we are involved in, we Jane Stokes
have to be responsive to the Spirit’s leadings and try
to put into practice our deepest beliefs, for our faith
is a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week faith, which is not
excluded from our workplace, wherever that may be.
Everything in the end can be distilled to
relationships—our relationships with each other and
the earth. Our work must benefit our relationships
rather than damage them, and we must ensure that
neither the earth nor other people are exploited.
Caring, not exploitation, is the key.
1992
Stokes, Jane,
unpublished,
1992
168 The roots of war can be taken away from all our
lives, as they were long ago in Francis of Assisi and
John Woolman. Day by day let us seek out and
remove every seed of hatred and greed, of resentment
and of grudging, in our own selves and in the social
structure about us. Christ’s way of freedom replaces
slavish obedience by fellowship. Instead of an
external compulsion He gives an inward authority.
Instead of self-seeking, we must put sacrifice; instead
of domination, co-operation. Fear and suspicion must
give place to trust and the spirit of understanding.
Thus shall we more and more become friends to all
… and our lives will be filled with the joy which true
friendship never fails to bring. Surely this is the way
in which Christ calls us to overcome the barriers of
race and class and thus to make of all humanity a
society of friends.
149
170 Where people love money and their hearts are
ensnared with imaginary greatness, the disease
frequently spreads from one to another, and children
indulged in those wants which proceed from the this
spirit, have often wants of the same kind in a much
larger degree when they grow up to be men and
women, and their parents are often entangled in
contriving means to supply them with estates to live
answerable to those expensive customs, which very
early in life have taken hold of their minds.
John
Woolman
1772
Woolman,
John, Journal
and Essays of –
–,
Considerations
on the true
harmony of
mankind, A.M.
Gummere, ed.,
New York,
McMillan
Co.,1922, p.
470
171 We feel that we should at this time declare once
London Yearly 1956
again our unwavering opposition to capital
Meeting
punishment. The sanctity of human life is one of the
fundamentals of a Christian society and can in no
circumstances be set aside. Our concern, therefore, is
for all victims of violence, not only the murderer but
also those who suffer by his act.
Yearly
Meeting,
London,
Statement on
the Death
Penalty, Minute
39, 1956 Yearly
Meeting
Proceedings, p.
241 (also
included in
Christian Faith
and Practice,
1960, selection
577)
In contriving to raise estates on these motives, how
often are the minds of parents bewildered, perplexed,
and drawn into ways and means to get money, which
increase the difficulties of poor people who maintain
their families by the labor of their hands?
A man may intend to lay up wealth for his children,
but may not intend to oppress; yet in this fixed
intention to increase his estate, the working of his
designs may cause the bread of the needy to fail and
at the same time their hardships remain unnoticed by
him.
The sanctioning by the State of the taking of human
life has a debasing effect on the community, and
tends to produce the very brutality which it seeks to
prevent. We realise that many are sincerely afraid of
the consequences if the death penalty is abolished,
but we are convinced that their fears are unjustified.
150
172 Justice is more often used to justify violence than to Newton
oppose or reject it. It is certainly a part of Quaker
Garver
conscience to be alert of instances of injustice and to
correct them, where it is possible to do so without
force or violence. Nonetheless, the concept of justice
is treacherous for Friends. George Fox and the early
Quakers taught us to rely on experience, and we have
no experience of justice—only of injustices. The
problem with injustices is that they lead to misery
and oppression, and I find it more use to focus on the
misery and oppression, as Jesus does in Matthew 25,
and to try to relieve those conditions without
mentioning justice.
2011
Garver,
Newton, “Letter
to a Friend
Reading
Reinhold
Niebuhr,”
Friends
Journal.
February 2011,
P.5
173 Specific acts of prayer are only means to an end. The Douglas Steere 1990
end is a more continual state of prayerfulness or
openness that goes on through the day and through
the night. … Back of all that I do, there may come a
sense of something undergirding it and something
that, when there are intervals in my outer work, flows
up to the surface again. …
Steere,
Douglas, Prayer
in the
Contemporary
World. 1990,
Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 291.
p. 9
This prayerfulness can only be compared to the sense
of glow that one has when in love. Obviously work
has to be done which requires full attention, but when
this is broken off, the wonder and security and surge
of gladness return, and never really leave as the
background of all that one is about. This is what is
meant by those who talk of praying continually. It
means an openness to people, a willingness really to
listen, really to enter into what they are trying to say,
an openness to the new and fresh and original in all
that is about me, and, deepest of all, it means an
openness to the inward whispering. …
174 We are called to obedient love even though we may
not be feeling very loving. Often it is through the
performance of loving acts that loving feelings can
be built up in us. We may start with small, perhaps
very tiny steps. It is only as we begin to allow
Christ’s love to act in and through us that it can
151
Sandra Cronk
c. 1983 Cronk, Sandra,
Peace Be With
You, Tract
Association, c.
1983, p. 16
become a part of us.
175 For some time I took no notice of any religion, but
Mary Proude
minded recreation, as it is called; and went after it
Springett
into many excesses and vanities—as foolish mirth,
Penington
carding, dancing, and singing. I frequented music
assemblies, and made vain visits where there were
jovial feastings. But in the midst of all this my heart
was often sad and pained beyond expression. I was
not hurried into those follies by being captivated by
them, but from not having found in religion what I
had sought and longed after. I would often say within
myself, what are they all to me? I could easily leave
all this; for it hath not my heart, it is not my delight,
it hath not power over me. I had rather serve the
Lord, if I could indeed feel and know that which
would be acceptable to Him.
c. 1650 Penington,
Mary Proude
Springett,
Experiences in
the Life of ––,
Norman
Penney, ed.,
Philadelphia,
Biddle Press,
1911, [1992
reprint, Friends
Historical Soc.,
London] pp.
30-32
O Lord, suffer me no more to fall in with any false
way, but show me the Truth.
176 A Quaker family, whatever its configuration, is
rooted in the wider community of Friends. Grounded
in love, it seeks to nurture every member through full
acceptance, respect for each other’s choices, and
common experiences characterized by caring,
compassion, open and supportive communication,
understanding, and a sense of humor. Friends seek to
strengthen and learn from the children’s sense of
wholeness. We believe that through the family we
learn that the source of human love is God’s love for
us.
Southern
Appalachian
Yearly
Meeting and
Association
2012
Yearly
Meeting,
Southern
Appalachian
and
Association, A
Guide to Our
Faith and
Practice, 3rd ed.
2012, p. 51
177 Take the decision to have children joyfully, even
Elizabeth
though it is a hard one to take consciously, for many Seale Carnall
adaptations will be necessary for both partners.
Consider carefully what each parent’s responsibilities
will be and how you will share the various tasks of
childcare and domestic life. Freedom to step aside
from the career path for a while may be valued by
1981
Carnall,
Elizabeth Seale,
Britain Yearly
Meeting.
Quaker faith &
practice. Fifth
edition.
152
either partner, or the traditional roles may be
cherished, or both parents may agree to share work in
the home and outside it equally.
London: The
Yearly Meeting
of the Religious
Society of
Friends
(Quakers) in
Britain, 2013
22.51
178 God’s love is ministered to most people through the Gordon
love of our fellow human beings. Sometimes that
Macphail
love is expressed physically or sexually. For me and
my lover, John, God’s love is given through our
homosexual relationship. In common with other
people who do not have children to raise, we are free
from those demands to nurture other vital things.
This includes our meeting and the wider Society of
Friends.
c.1985 Macphail,
Gordon, The
Pastoral Care
of Gay Friends,
The Friend
(London),
1988, vol. 146,
p. 1371
We both draw on our love a great deal to give us the
strength and courage to do the things to which God
calls us. … Our spiritual journey is a shared one.
Sometimes the pitcher needs to be taken back to the
fountain. In order to grow, I need my church to bless
and uphold not just me as an individual, but also our
relationship.
179 We are faced at every hand with enticements to risk
money in anticipation of disproportionate gain
through gambling. Some governments employ
gambling as a means of raising revenue, even
presenting it as a civic virtue. The Religious Society
of Friends continues to bear testimony against
betting, gambling, lotteries, speculation, or any other
endeavor to receive material gain without equivalent
exchange, believing that we owe an honest return for
what we receive.
153
Faith and
Practice,
Baltimore
Yearly
Meeting
1988
Yearly
Meeting,
Baltimore,
Faith and
Practice of – of
the Religious
Society of
Friends, 1988,
p. 18:
180 Deep within us all there is an amazing inner
Thomas Kelly 1941
sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a
speaking Voice, to which we may continually return.
Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn
lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding
destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these
persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body
and soul, utterly and completely to the Light Within,
is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a
creative Life that presses to birth within us.
Kelly, Thomas,
Testament of
Devotion, New
York, Harper,
1941, p. 3
181 Sometimes people understand “God’s will” or
Nancy Bieber 2010
“God’s plan” as something imposed on us by God,
something we must discover and decipher. I
understand it differently. I feel that God’s path for
our lives is constantly being developed. It rises
within us and is something we develop in partnership
with God as we learn to see and understand more
clearly. With this seeing and understanding, we find
the courage to step into the future.
Bieber, Nancy,
Decision
making &
Spiritual
Discernment:
The Sacred Art
of Finding Your
Way,
Woodstock,
Vermont,
Skylight Paths
Publishing,
2010 p.5
182 Peace of mind is infinitely desirable, but it is
Rachel R.
achieved only through discipline and deep desire.
Cadbury
Peace of mind is not inertia, it is not closing oneself
from contact with reality which is often desperately
grim; there is nothing negative about it. It is a
process and a growth. It is achieved, I believe, by
exposure, through prayer and meditation, to the
serenity and peace, the greatness and the majesty, the
loving-kindness and gentleness of God.
1955
Cadbury,
Rachel, The
Choice Before
Us, The
Religious
Education
Committee.
Friends General
Conference,195
5, p. 57
183 Now is where we live, now is where the past must be Carol Murphy
overcome, now is where we meet others, now is
where we must find the presence of God.
c.1993 Murphy, Carol,
unpublished, c.
1993
154
184 The practice of journal keeping is … a way of
Jo Farrow
becoming aware of the patterns of our inner life, of
growing in self-knowledge and discovering our own
gifts and possibilities. … Keeping a journal is just
one way … of beginning to re-create your life. At its
most basic it is a decision that your life has value and
meaning and deserves the effort of recollection and
reflection. It is also a decision that what you are
living and learning is worth recording. That decision
has its roots in a very deep layer of gospel truth.
1986
Farrow, Jo, On
Keeping a
Journal, Gifts
and discoveries,
Unit 1,
background
paper 2, 1986,
pp. 1-2
[Reference
cited in Quaker
Faith and
Practice, Britain
Yearly
Meeting, 1995,
p. 618]:
185 To most of us are given some common little jobs
Ranjit
every day of our lives. To a very few comes the call Chetsingh
to do something extraordinary, some great task. The
world abounds in men and women who find
happiness and opportunities for self-expression in
being faithful in the humble stations of life which are
theirs at a given time. If we are loyal to the truth as
we see it, and respond with our might in the
“common” situations in day-to-day living as we face
them, the glow of the grace of God deepens and
nurtures our faculties for insight and for recognition
of the true worth of things and of men.
1975
Chetsingh,
Ranjit, The
ground on
which you stand
is holy ground,
Friends World
News, Spring
1975, p. 2
186 Oh God, our Father, spirit of the universe, I am old in Elizabeth Gray 1978
years and in the sight of others, but I do not feel old Vining
within myself. I have hopes and purposes, things I
wish to do before I die. A surging of life within me
cries, “Not yet! Not yet!” more strongly than it did
ten years ago, perhaps because the nearer approach
of death arouses the defensive strength of the instinct
to cling to life.
Vining,
Elizabeth Gray,
Being seventy:
the Measure of
a Year, New
York, Viking
Press, 1978, pp.
131-132
Help me to loosen, fiber by fiber, the instinctive
strings that bind me to the life I know. Infuse me
with Thy spirit so that it is Thee I turn to, not the old
155
ropes of habit and thought. Make me poised and free,
ready when the intimation comes to go forward
eagerly and joyfully, into the new phase of life that
we call death.
Help me to bring my work each day to an orderly
state so that it will not be a burden to those who must
fold it up and put it away when I am gone. Keep me
ever aware and ever prepared for the summons.
If pain comes before the end help me not to fear it or
struggle against it but to welcome it as a hastening of
the process by which the strings that bind me to life
are untied. Give me joy in awaiting the great change
that comes after this life of many changes; let my self
be merged in Thy Self as a candle’s wavering light is
caught up into the sun.
187 My sunrise meditation means more to me now than Rachel Davis
ever. At dawn it is easier to feel the universe is one DuBois
organic whole, held together by that Radiating Power
of Love which flows through everything—including
thee and me. …
By using the power of mature, redemptive love we
can show each individual that we need his or her
uniqueness to make us whole. We will then see that
we have something to give others and that others
have something to give us.
188 For me the certain realisation of God came at the
Jennifer
time of the breakdown of my marriage. The
Morris
unthinkable had happened and I seemed to be at my
lowest state physically and mentally. There seemed
to be no present and no future but only a nightmare
of dark uncertainty. One distinct message reached
me: to “go under” was out of the question, I could
only start again, learn from my mistakes and take this
second chance at life that I had been given. I found a
strength within I did not know I had and I believe
now that it came from the prayers and loving support
156
c. 1978 DuBois, Rachel
Davis, quoted
by Leonard
Kenworthy in
Nine
Contemporary
Quaker Women
Speak, Kennett
Square, Pa.,
Quaker
Publications,
1989, p. 27
1980
Morris,
Jennifer,
Quakers in the
eighties: What
it’s like to be a
Friend, Anne
Hosking and
Alison
Sharman, eds.,
London,
Quaker Home
of so many people round me.
Service, 1980,
p. 15
This rebirth was for me a peak experience, the
memory of which is a constant reassurance in times
of emptiness and doubt. Facing the future, even with
a sure faith, is not easy. I am cautious at every step
forward, taking time and believing I shall be told
where to go and what to do. Waiting patiently and
creatively is at times unbearably difficult, but I know
it must be so.
189 As I grow older, I seem to need more time for inner Dorothy Steere 1995
stillness. … This can happen in the midst of daily
chores or when walking in a crowd or riding in a
train. It means being still, open, reflective, holding
within myself the crucible of joy and pain of all the
world, and lifting it up to God. Praise comes into it,
and thankfulness for all the love I have known and
shared, the realization of how much of the time I am
carried, supported, upheld by others and the love of
God. [During this process] comes the deep sense of
the unity of all being, the intermeshing of the animate
and inanimate, the secular and the sacred, the
tangible and the intangible. … It means just waiting,
or just lifting the heart.
Steere,
Dorothy,
unpublished,
1995
190 Prayer for the Aged: Consider thy old friends, O
Elizabeth Gray 1982
God, whose years are increasing. Provide for them
Vining
homes of dignity and freedom. Give them, in case of
need, understanding helpers and the willingness to
accept help. Deepen their joy in the beauty of thy
world and their love for their neighbors, grant them
courage in the face of pain or weakness, and always a
sure knowledge of thy presence.
Vining,
Elizabeth Gray,
A Quest There
Is, Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 246,
1982, p.23
191 It happened in the night. I was at a very low point. I
was sleeping out of doors on the porch close to the
hill. A light breeze rustled through the overhanging
branches of a great walnut tree. I was very tired. I
looked up at the stars edging over the hill in my
mood of great despondency. I said to God, “It’s no
use. I’ve tried all I can. I can’t do anything more.”
Duvenek,
Josephine, Life
on Two Levels:
An
Autobiography,
Los Altos, CA,
W. Kaufmann,
157
Josephine
Duvenek
1978
All of a sudden I seemed to be swept bodily out of
my bed, carried above the trees and held poised in
mid-air, surrounded by light—a light so bright that I
could hardly look at it. Even when I closed my eyes I
could feel it. A fragrance as of innumerable orange
blossoms inundated my senses. And there was an
echo of far-off music. All was ecstasy. I have no idea
whether it lasted a minute or several hours. But for
the rest of the night I lay in a state of peace and
indescribable joy. How impossible it is to explain
such a phenomenon in everyday language, but
whatever it was changed my life. It was not a passing
illusion. I never was the same again. For days I was
terribly happy. The whole world seemed to be
illumined, the flower colors were brighter, bird songs
gayer, and people were kind, friendly and loving.
This exaggerated brilliance faded somewhat with
time and the intense sense of communion fluctuated.
Later on there were, of course, low moments amidst
the high peaks, and there were failures, dry seasons,
and the recurring need for patience and perseverance.
But I never lost the clarification of mind and spirit
that was revealed to me on that night.
1978, p. 166
192 I have been learning … that when we accept our
Elizabeth
finiteness realistically and without bitterness, each
Watson
day is a gift to be cherished and savored. Each day
becomes a miracle. I am learning to offer to God my
days and my nights, my joy, my work, my pain, and
my grief. I am striving to keep my house in order,
and my relationships intact. I am learning to use the
time I have more wisely. … And I am learning to
forget at times my puritan conscience which prods
me to work without ceasing, and instead, to take time
for joy.
193 People so often talk of someone “getting over” a
death. How could you ever fully get over a deep
loss? Life has been changed profoundly and
irrevocably. You don’t get over sorrow; you work
158
1979
Watson,
Elizabeth,
Guests of my
life, Burnsville,
NC, Celo Press,
1979, p. 137
Diana Lampen 1979
Lampen, Diana,
Facing Death,
London,
Quaker Home
Service, 1979,
your way right to the centre of it.
p. 27
194 [Grieving] is a discipline that is good for us and good Pamela Haines 2012
for the world. As we grieve, we become more able to
forgive—both ourselves and others—we can more
easily let go of the hurts of the past and put our
attention to the possibilities that are before us. As we
grieve we loosen up a hard, tight place to the point
that it can dissolve and be gone. If our hurts remain a
hard, tight mass, they get in our way. They call out
for attention. We stumble over them and have to
maneuver our way around them. With attention on
the need to grieve and the experience of how this
process can free our hearts and minds from
attachment to the past, new doors open up and more
becomes possible.
Haines, Pamela,
Waging Peace:
Discipline and
Practice, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet
420, 2012, p. 9
195 The secret of finding joy after sorrow, or through
Elizabeth Gray 1952
sorrow, lies, I think, in the way we meet sorrow
Vining
itself. We cannot fight against it and overcome it,
though often we try and may seem at first successful.
We try to be stoical, to suppress our memories … to
kill [the pain] with strenuous activity so that we may
be too tired to think. But that is just the time when it
returns to us in overwhelming power. Or we try to
escape from it. … But when the trip is over, the book
closed … the research accomplished, there is our
sorrow waiting for us, disguised, perhaps, but
determined. …
Vining,
Elizabeth Gray,
Beauty from
Ashes, Strength
from Sorrow,
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting, c.
1979
What we must do, …with God’s help, is to accept
sorrow as a friend, if possible. If not, as a companion
with whom we will live for an indeterminate period,
for whom we have to make room as one makes room
for a guest in one’s house, a companion of whom we
shall always be aware, from whom we can learn and
whose strength will become our strength. Together
we can create beauty from ashes and find ourselves
in the process.
159
D. Extracts on Faith Reflected in Our Organization
The distinctive structure of the Religious Society of Friends developed by George Fox and the
early adherents to Quakerism continues today. Its durability is likely because of its simplicity
and adaptability. The selections that follow record the experiences of Friends as they seek to be
more faithful and attentive to nudges of the Divine perceived in their lives and with the support
of others in meetings for worship and business. Our aim is to become part of a gathered
community, connected to one another and the whole of creation, accountable to one another and
to God.
196
Instead of asking “How are you?”
Quakers traditionally asked one
another about their spiritual lives when
they met. They wanted to know about
each other’s spiritual condition and
relationship with the Divine. This
practice is relevant today! It helps us
attend to our own journey and to keep
our lives in alignment with Spirit.
Additionally, by inquiring into our
friends’ experiences we learn more
about them and we help them stay
attuned to the Divine. Try it out. Ask
someone to tell you their story. Listen.
Share your spiritual journey with a
friend!
Christie
DuncanTessmer, et
al.
- How does Truth fare with thee?
- How does Light shine in your life
today?
- What is important in your life these
days?
- What gives you joy?
160
2015
Duncan-Tessmer,
Christie, et al.,
Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting handouts.
197
At a called session of Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting in January 2015,
Friends affirmed to:
•
Commit to increase our
consciousness as Friends about the
intersection of privilege and race in our
culture and spiritual community. We
know our knowledge is often limited
by our own experiences and that we
have much to learn from each other
and from outside resources.
•
Commit to move forward with our
entire community. The yearly meeting
is the community of all our individual
Friends and monthly meetings and this
work needs to be done with the
involvement of all of us.
•
Commit to integrate this work
into what we do in an ongoing way at
the yearly meeting level. We want this
work to become part of the fabric of
what we do whenever we get together
as yearly meeting members and
attenders.
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting
2015
Yearly Meeting,
Philadelphia,
Minutes, January 10,
2015
198
Friends find their essential unity in
their profound and exhilarating belief
in the pervasive presence of God and in
the continuing responsibility of each
person and worshiping group to seek
the leading of the Spirit in all things.
Obedience to the leading of that Spirit
rather than to any written statement of
belief or conduct is the obligation of
their faith.
New England
Yearly
Meeting
1985
Yearly Meeting, New
England, Faith and
Practice of New
England Yearly
Meeting of Friends,
1985, p. 205
199
For, when I came into the silent
assemblies of God's people I felt a
secret power among them which
touched my heart; and as I gave way
unto it I found the evil weakening in
me and the good raised up; and so I
became thus knit and united unto them,
Robert
Barclay
1678
Barclay, Robert, An
Apology for the True
Christian Divinity:
Proposition 11
Section 7, p.340
161
hungering more and more after the
increase of this power and life,
whereby I might feel myself perfectly
redeemed.
200
True worship may be experienced at
any time in any place—alone on the
hills or in the busy daily life—we may
find God, in whom we live and move
and have our being. But this individual
experience is not sufficient, and in a
meeting held in the Spirit there is a
giving and receiving between its
members, one helping another with or
without words. So there may come a
wider vision and a deeper experience.
London
Yearly
Meeting
1925
and
1994
Yearly Meeting,
London, Revision
Committee, 1925 and
modified in 1994
(also included in
Quaker Faith and
Practice, 1995,
section 2.11)
201
How does a Quaker Meeting work? Its
foundation is the conviction that God is
not a distant remote being but a living
presence to be discovered in the deep
centre of every human being. … The
Quaker experience is that, in the
silence, as we are open to one another
in love, we help each other by sharing
our strengths and weaknesses. The
Quaker conviction is that as we go
deeper into ourselves we shall
eventually reach a still, quiet centre. At
this point two things happen
simultaneously. Each of us is aware of
our unique value as an individual
human being, and each of us is aware
of our utter interdependence on one
another.
George
Gorman
1982
Gorman, George,
Quaker Spirituality
from Quakerism: a
way of life.
Norwegian Quaker
Press, 1982, pp. 8788
162
202
As Catholic worship is centered in the
altar and Protestant worship in the
sermon, worship for the Society of
Friends attempts to realize as its center
the divine Presence revealed within. In
a Catholic church the altar is placed so
as to become the focus of adoration; in
a typical Protestant church the pulpit
localizes attention; while in a Friends
Meeting House there is no visible point
of concentration, worship being here
directed neither toward the actions nor
the words of others, but toward the
inward experience of the gathered
group.
Howard H.
Brinton
1952
Brinton, Howard H.,
Friends for 300
Years, Pendle Hill,
1964, p. 59
203
Each of these Quarterly Meetings were
large and sat near eight hours. Here I
had occasion to consider that it is a
weighty thing to speak much in large
meetings for business. First, except our
minds are rightly prepared and we
clearly understand the case we speak
to, instead of forwarding, we hinder
business and make more labour for
those on whom the burden of the work
is laid.
John
Woolman
1758
Woolman, John, The
Journal and Major
Essays, Phillips P.
Moulton, ed., New
York, Oxford Univ.
Press, 1971, p. 95
If selfish views or a partial spirit have
any room in our minds, we are unfit for
the Lord’s work. If we have a clear
prospect of the business and proper
weight on our minds to speak, it
behooves us to avoid useless apologies
and repetitions. Where people are
gathered from far, and adjourning a
meeting of business is attended with
great difficulty, it behooves all to be
cautious how they detain a meeting,
especially when they have sat six or
seven hours and [have] a great distance
163
to ride home.
In three hundred minutes are five
hours, and he that improperly detains
three hundred people one minute,
besides other evils that attend it, does
an injury like that of imprisoning one
man five hours without cause.
204
Our monthly and quarterly meetings
were set up for reproving and looking
into superfluous or disorderly walking,
and such to be admonished and
instructed in the truth, and not private
persons to take upon them to make
orders, and say this must be done and
the other must not be done … [Or say]
we must look at no colours, nor make
anything that is changeable colours as
the hills are, nor sell them, nor wear
them: but we must all be in one dress
and one colour.
Margaret Fell
This is a silly poor gospel! It is more fit
for us to be covered with God’s eternal
Spirit, and clothed with his eternal
Light, which leads us and guides us
into righteousness, and to live
righteously and justly and holily in this
present evil world. This is the clothing
that God puts upon us, and likes, and
will bless.
164
1700
Fell, Margaret,
Epistle against
uniform Quaker
Costume, quoted by
Jessamyn West in
Quaker Reader,
Pendle Hill, 1992,
pp. 226-227
205
One persistent misunderstanding of
some Friends and attenders is that
Friends reject outward forms. This is
not true. Friends’ unique practices flow
from a conviction concerning what is
the right outward form. The right form
for church government, worship, and
ministry answers the same question:
how should we act, what should be our
response, if Jesus Christ is present in
our midst, desiring to speak? To
Friends, the answer is that we should
sit in reverence, waiting for him to
speak. Thus, Friends gather in
reverence, waiting to be spoken to,
spoken through, and led.
Terry
Wallace,
Susan Smith,
John Smith,
Arthur Berk,
eds.
2014
Wallace, Terry,
Susan Smith, John
Smith, Arthur Berk,
eds., Traditional
Quaker Christianity,
Ohio YM, 2014
206
As a Liberal Friend, I know that trying
to name the Divine or become specific
about the nature of ‘God’ is
theologically inappropriate, that our
words stumble to match the depth of all
we experience. Thus, at one level, we
don’t want to use any term. At another
level, however, we need to talk quite a
lot about what we are connecting with,
and we have lost a common tongue, a
primal language, to do this in when we
start to locally reinterpret our book of
discipline in a multiplicity of ways on
the basis of the ‘need’ for inclusivity,
or ignore it altogether.
Ben Pink
Dandelion
2014
Dandelion, Ben Pink
(2014), Open for
Transformation:
Being Quaker. The
2014 Swarthmore
Lecture. London.
Quaker Books
P. 66
165
207
208
Our book of discipline … in spite of its
reliance on outward language, conveys
as best as we can our core insights and
our current sense of our spiritual
experience in the best words we have
been able to find, discerned by the
gathered meeting to be of use to us, to
provide us with comfort and with the
discomfort of spiritual challenge. …
Like a bus timetable, parts of it may go
out of date as soon as it is published,
but it is not to be discarded
unthinkingly, for it still encapsulates
what we hold dear. Knowing our book
well and using it wisely is an important
part of maintaining the reality of a
Religious Society of Friends. It is our
book, and through its sculpture and
adoption, we find a primal tongue for
our time.
Ben Pink
Dandelion
The life of a religious society consists
in something more than the body of
principles it professes and the outer
garments of organisation which it
wears. These things have their own
importance: they embody the society to
the world, and protect it from the
chance and change of circumstance;
but the springs of life lie deeper, and
often escape recognition. They are to
be found in the vital union of the
members of the society with God and
with one another, a union which allows
the free flowing through the society of
the spiritual life which is its strength.
William
Charles
Braithwaite
2014
Dandelion, Ben Pink
(2014), Open for
Transformation:
Being Quaker. The
2014 Swarthmore
Lecture. London.
Quaker Books
P.79
166
1905
Braithwaite, William
Charles, Memoir and
Papers, ed. by two of
his sisters, Anna B.
Thomas and
Elizabeth B. Emmott,
New York:
Longmans, Green,
1931, p. 118
209
In order to critique legitimately and to
resist, while being unrelentingly
hopeful in God’s promise, it is
necessary to know “what time it is.”
We must be able to read the signs of
the times in order to know how God is
calling us to respond in this moment.
The first step, which cannot be
bypassed, is public expression of grief
for the pain and darkness in the world.
This mourning is necessary to
overcome the numbness that we all live
in, so that we have the energy and
vision to name something new, to
create and envision a way of life that is
unimaginable in our present situation.
Christina
Repoley
2006
Repoley, Christina,
The Prophetic
Journey, in Friends
Journal, October
2006
210
Can our Friends meetings be free of
privilege and be a living sanctuary
where all of God’s self is free to
minister to us in all of her offices as
teacher, priest, and prophet? Can our
Friends meetings be those thin places
in which our relationships, regardless
of race or class, are a sacrament of
grace and wholeness? Can our Friends
meetings be the body and hands of the
Holy Spirit in the world today?
Paul Ricketts
2014
Ricketts, Paul,
“Extending the
Table,” Friends
Journal, October
2014
211
Observance of special days and times
and use of special places for worship
serve a helpful purpose in calling
attention at regular intervals to our
need for spiritual communion. They
cannot, however, take the place of
daily and hourly looking to God for
guidance. Nor can any custom of
fasting or abstaining from bodily
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting
(Race Street)
1894
Yearly Meeting,
Philadelphia, Race
St., Book of
Discipline, 1894, p.
29
167
comforts take the place of constant
refraining from everything which has a
tendency to unfit mind and body for
being the temple of the Divine Spirit.
The foundation for all our personal life
and social relations should be the
sufficient and irreplaceable
consciousness of God.
212
Meeting for worship can be more than
John
just an occasion on which one’s private Punshon
religious needs are satisfied. Silent
devotion should lead to an awareness
that the meeting is less and less a place
we choose ourselves, and more and
more a place to which, out of love, God
has called us. To understand this is to
sense the meaning of those lovely
phrases about the community of faith
being the body of Christ.
1987
Punshon, John,
Encounter with
Silence, Richmond,
IN, Friends United
Press, 1987, pp. 9495
213
I went back to my meeting with my
reservations, and I was eldered: they
encouraged me to say what I knew to
be the truth, my truth. I was
empowered to speak my truth, to push
and be led by the Light to fight for
change.
2014
James, Gabbreell,
“There is Hope,”
Friends Journal,
October 2014
Gabbreell
James
My meeting empowered me to be a
servant leader. They put me in a
position to speak my truth to the
Quaker power structure, and I did.
Now it is years later, and I … am still
supported by my meeting and
empowered by the members’ trust and
faith in me.
168
214
To allow [the] inward work to take
place is to allow the universal Light of
the eternal Christ to reveal our
sundered and separate individualism,
our own areas of darkness and sin, and
then to cooperate with this Light as it
seeks to transform, guide, gift, and
empower us. … This inward work
takes time and may cause us to make
painful changes in our life as we
become more and more sensitive and
obedient to the inward guide. …
William
Taber
It is this inward work of Christ, and not
our verbal statements about Christ, that
can produce that amazing unity in a
gathered meeting for worship, a
gathered meeting for business, or a
gathered opportunity between two
people. And finally, it is this inward
work of Christ that leads inevitably to
the important outwardness of
Quakerism; to a life able to behave in
all those ways which Jesus taught and
in which he led the way, to a living
equality of men and women, to a
radiant and supple pacifism that comes
not merely from books or movements
or anger but that wells up from deep
169
1984
Taber, William,
Toward a Broader
Quaker Message,
Friends Journal, Feb
1, 1984, p. 6
inner springs.
215
It has been my experience that if I
come to meeting in a state of strong
emotion and follow an easy impulse to
talk about it, I—and the meeting?—are
left with a sense of emptiness. But if I
trust that there’s a reason why I’m
here, now, in this state, but that it’s
God’s reason, not mine, and my part is
to wait in holy expectancy—strange
things happen. Messages which speak
to my condition are given by people
who couldn’t possibly know of it. The
meeting ministers to my need and uses
my state to minister to others—quite
without my willing it. I believe that
there’s an explanation for this
phenomenon. Strong emotion can
make us what the early Friends called
tender: vulnerable to the workings of
the Spirit. I suspect that the presence of
one such person in our midst can cause
the meeting to gather.
Esther Murer
170
1988
Murer, Esther, Notes
from the Extreme
Middle, Newsletter,
Central Philadelphia
Monthly Meeting,
Quench not the
Spirit, Jan. 1988
216
I have been tried with the applause of
the world, and none know how great a
trial that has been, and the deep
humiliations of it; and yet I fully
believe it is not nearly so dangerous as
being made much of in religious
society. There is a snare even in
religious unity, if we are not on the
watch. I have sometimes felt that it was
not so dangerous to be made much of
in the world, as by those whom we
think highly of in our own Society: the
more I have been made much of by the
world, the more I have been inwardly
humbled. I could often adopt the words
of Sir Francis Bacon—“When I have
ascended before men, I have descended
in humiliation before God.”
Elizabeth
Gurney Fry
1844
Fry, Elizabeth
Gurney, Memoir of
the life of ––, ed. by
two daughters, 1847,
vol. 2, p. 509, [Also
quoted by Jessamyn
West in The Quaker
Reader, Pendle Hill,
1992, p. 310]
217
We know ourselves as individuals but
only because we live in community.
Love, trust, fellowship, selflessness are
all mediated to us through our
interdependence. Just as we could not
live physically without each other, we
cannot live spiritually in isolation. We
are individually free but also
communally bound. We cannot act
without affecting others and others
cannot act without affecting us. We
know ourselves as we are reflected in
the faces, action and attitudes of each
other.
Janet Scott
1980
Scott, Janet, What
Canst Thou Say?,
Swarthmore Lecture,
London, Quaker
Home Service, 1980,
pp. 41-42
171
218
Looking at the historical expressions of
gospel order raises provocative
questions for the community of faith,
particularly in regard to the nature of
corporate commitment and the role of
structure in faithful living. If, indeed, a
living relationship with Christ is the
basis of gospel order, what does it
mean today to be a committed people
in covenantal relationship with Christ?
What does it mean to practice the
mutual accountability that keeps this
relationship alive? Do our lives with
each other in our meetings and homes
reflect fidelity, love, and trust? Can we
reclaim the socio-economic and
political dimension of gospel order?
Can we participate corporately in
God’s new order in a way that will
allow our love to speak to a world
dying from environmental destruction,
violence, hatred, and entrenched
systems of economic exploitation and
injustice?
Sandra Cronk
1991
Cronk, Sandra,
Gospel Order,
Pendle Hill Pamphlet
297, 1991, p. 44
Nancy
Alexander
1987
Alexander, Nancy,
Practicing
Compassion for the
If the historical experience of Friends
is applicable today, then corporate life
needs pattern and structure to support
faithful living. In turn, structures need
care to prevent them from withering or
becoming oppressive. Communities of
commitment need to see what forms
the patterns of faithfulness and the
ministry of caring oversight will take
today.
219
Are we too fearful of those with ideas
different from our own? In one
Meeting, the issue of whether or not to
172
offer sanctuary to a refugee is a sword
that divides people. Or our
relationships may be severed due to
differences in the way we interpret the
Spirit guiding us or how we refer to
God, whether in masculine or inclusive
imagery. Quaker men and women who
see military service as an integral and
necessary part of American life are
often branded as “strangers” in their
Quaker community. Whether we define
the Society of Friends in an inclusive
or exclusive way will, in large
measure, determine whether we grow,
spiritually as well as numerically.
Stranger in the
World, Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 271, 1987,
p. 9
220
Living out the immanent and
transcendent aspects of spirituality as a
Friend has never been a private matter.
Quaker structures depend on the shared
inward experiences of members as the
basis for worship, the ordering of
business, and social and humanitarian
action. The Quaker way takes on faith
the seemingly irrational proposition
that the inspirations of individuals can
lead a community to unity and spiritual
power, not to chaos and
dismemberment.
Ursula Jane
O’Shea
221
At its best, a Quaker Meeting is not
just a collection of individual seekers,
but a community of faith, a covenant
community, knit together by our
common seeking of God. We are like
spokes on a wheel: as we draw closer
to our center in God, we also draw
closer to each other. … And as
Douglas Steere has reminded us, “To
Thomas
Gates
173
1993
O’Shea, Ursula Jane,
Living the way,
Quaker Spirituality
and Community, The
twenty-eighth James
Backhouse lecture,
1993, Australia
Yearly Meeting, pp.
12-13
Gates, Thomas,
Members One of
Another: The
Dynamics of
Membership in
Quaker Meeting.
Pendle Hill Pamphlet
371. pp 27-28
come near to God is to change.”
Differences and disappointments are
inevitable, but in a faith community
these are seen not as obstacles, but as
opportunities for transformation. God
calls us into community because it is
only in community that we can learn
God’s transforming lessons of love,
service, compassion, and forgiveness.
222
We should not merely hope that
Friends will accidentally stumble
across the powerful tools of our own
tradition, but rather intentionally
nurture our communities to engage
with one another in deeper ways, name
gifts, hold each other accountable, and
educate ourselves about the vital
practices within our tradition. …
Christina
Repoley
2006
Repoley, Christina,
The Prophetic
Journey, in Friends
Journal, October
2006
Jondhi
Harrell
2015
Harrell, Jondhi,
Friends Journal.
November 2015
The two most important characteristics
of prophetic ministry are critique and
hope. Prophetic ministry works to
dismantle and resist the dominant
consciousness, to energize hope, to
envision newness, and affirm God’s
promise of fulfillment.
223
Talk less; do more.
174
224
One of our dearly held modern
shibboleths is that we are all equal. The
truth is that God does indeed love each
of us equally, and invites each of us,
equally, into the kingdom, into
salvation, into right relationship, into
wholeness. But too often there is a
negative side to this cliché that all
Friends are equal. This is the attitude
that adds, if anyone stands out or thinks
he or she has a gift or calling, we’ll
pull that person down. If such a person
is arrogant or on a power-trip, then it is
right to admonish and try to help the
Friend see his or her gift and role in the
larger context of Gospel Order. But
what if a Friend is paying close
attention to God’s voice, and living
with increasing integrity and love and
for that reason others feel
uncomfortable? How do we regard
someone who is exercising gifts given
by God for the edification and
upbuilding of the faith community?
Too often deep vocal ministry, a
prophetic voice, or moral leadership
are resented.
Martha
Paxson
Grundy
1999
Grundy, Martha
Paxson, Tall Poppies:
Supporting Gifts of
Ministry and
Eldering in the
Monthly Meeting,
Pendle Hill Pamphlet
347, 1999, p. 18
225
But if you feel a gift emerging in you,
if you hunger for the Bread of Life, if
you want more than anything to be
healed and made whole, then you may
be drawn to the lives and writing of
Friends, living and dead, who have
walked this path before you. They will
tell you, in a variety of words and
metaphors, that there is one, even
Christ Jesus who can speak to your
condition. Having heard that voice, one
Martha
Paxson
Grundy
1999
Grundy, Martha
Paxson, Tall Poppies:
Supporting Gifts of
Ministry and
Eldering in the
Monthly Meeting,
Pendle Hill Pamphlet
347, 1999, p. 29
175
needs to heed it. In the ongoing,
unfolding work of “conversion of
manners,” one needs companions along
the way. We need a faith community.
We need a Religious Society of Friends
with whom to worship, and in whose
proximity we learn the hard lessons of
how to live in Gospel Order – with
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
forgiveness, humility, gentleness, and
self-control. Our meetings have a great
responsibility to be gatherings of
people who are listening to the Inward
Teacher, helping each other listen, and
learning how to listen together.
226
I was incredibly moved by the way
some talked lovingly about
membership, not as a stamp on your
name tag but as a beautiful symbol of
mutual accountability, commitment,
and community.
Emily Higgs
I began to feel a rising and powerful
need to be a recognized part of a
meeting, to be spiritually grounded
somewhere, and to be held accountable
by a faith community. While my
concerns still remained about the way
membership is seen as the single most
important way Friends identify one
another, my understanding of what
membership means began to broaden
and to let a little Light in.
176
2012
Higgs, Emily,
Belonging: Quakers,
Membership, and the
Need to be Known,
Friends Journal,
April 2012
227
A Friends meeting is intended to be so
much more than a loose association of
individuals on separate and private
spiritual journeys. Friends are called to
be a faith community, seeking to know
each other “in that which is Eternal” as
we journey together. Ideally we
acknowledge that our primary
relationship is to God and to that of
God in each other. We let go of the
idea that we have only private lives and
hold ourselves accountable to the
authority of the Spirit in the life of the
meeting. We grow in a sense of
responsibility for each other and
become part of a gathered community.
Margery
Mears
Larrabee
2007
Larrabee, Margery
Mears, Spirit-led
Eldering: Integral to
Our Faith and
Practice, Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 392, 2007,
p. 11
228
Our monthly meetings … can be places
where we change ourselves, despite …
larger unjust structures. If a meeting
wants to work on racism, it can make
sure it is welcoming of all and sensitive
to racial bias in the way its various
committees do their business, from
Care and Counsel to Adult Education.
If the meeting cares about climate
change, its Finance Committee can
divest from fossil fuels, while the
Grounds Committee installs a rain
garden, in addition to solar panels. …
Eileen
Flanagan
2016
Flanagan, Eileen,
“Why Have a Peace
and Social Concerns
Committee?,”
Friends Journal,
January 1, 2016
If we make attention to the movement
of the Spirit fundamental to our work
for peace and social concerns, we may
breathe new life into old structures or
create new ones altogether.
177
229
...(O)ne piece of my feeling welcomed
at meeting is explicitly about being a
lesbian, but it's not about there being
enough other lesbians in attendance to
create a 'critical mass' for safety. It's
about the heterosexuals and whatever
work they did in the years before I
arrived (with the help of lesbians, no
doubt) so that I could come into an
accepting place.
Su Penn
1998
Penn, Su, Friends
Journal. June 1998
230
Quaker theology and the Biblical
precedents supporting it show that both
man and woman are to share in the
oversight of the creation, as well as
other roles in the Church. Neither man
nor woman is to dominate the creation
or each other, but all are to live under
God’s guidance. The power to be used
by both man and woman is God’s
power, and not human power.
Virginia
Schurman
1990
Schurman, Virginia,
A Quaker Theology
of the Stewardship of
the Creation, paper
delivered at Quaker
Theological
Discussion Group,
George Fox College,
Newberg, OR., June
1990
231
A concern for the fellow-worshipers of
our meetings which leads us to find the
necessary time to know them, to visit
them, to have them in our homes, and
to make their needs our concern is a
tested preparation for ministry of the
highest importance. A person who
throughout the week thinks of the
approaching meeting for worship and
holds up inwardly some of the needs of
those who attend, is being prepared for
that kind of participation in the meeting
for worship that may open the way for
helpful ministry. Ministry is often
deepened by our natural exposure to
those in greatest need, whether it be
physical need, as in a constant visiting
Douglas
Steere
1955
Steere, Douglas,
Where words come
from, Swarthmore
Lecture, London,
George Allen &
Unwin, 1955, p.5859
178
of the poor, of those in prison, of those
whom group prejudice segregates or to
the poor in spirit, those who face
mental turmoil and inner problems.
Few who feel this kind of responsible
love for the meeting do not in the
course of the week find some
experience, some insight, something
they have read that has helped them,
some crushing burden they know some
member or some group is bearing
which they have held up to the Light,
without these things appearing as seeds
out of which ministry could grow.
232
The Society of Friends can make its
greatest contribution to community by
continuing to be a religious society—I
mean by centering on the practice of a
corporate worship which opens itself to
continuing revelation. Again,
community is simply too difficult to be
sustained by our social impulses. It can
be sustained only as we return time and
again to the religious experience of the
unity of all life. To put it in the
language of Friends, community
happens as that of God in you responds
to that of God in me. And the
affirmation that there is that of God in
every person must mean more than
“I’m okay, you’re okay.” The silence
of the Quaker meeting for worship can
be an experience of unity. I am an
orthodox, garden variety Christian; I
find the image of God first in Jesus the
Christ. But it is my joy in the silent
meeting to seek with those who find
different ways to express the
Parker J.
Palmer
179
1977
Palmer, Parker J., A
Place Called
Community, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet 212,
1977, p. 27
inexpressible truths of religious
experience. Words can divide us, but
the silence can bring us together.
Whatever kinds of community the
world needs, it surely needs the kind
that embraces human diversity.
233
We find many renowned women
recorded in the Old Testament, who
had received a talent of wisdom and
spiritual understanding from the Lord.
As good stewards thereof they
improved and employed the same to
the praise and glory of God … as male
and female are made one in Christ
Jesus, so women receive an office in
account of their stewardship to their
Lord, as well as the men. Therefore
they ought to be faithful to God and
valiant for his Truth upon the earth,
that so they may receive the reward of
righteousness.
Elizabeth
Bathurst
1683
Bathurst, Elizabeth,
The Sayings of
Women…in several
places of the
Scriptures, 1683,
pp.13, 23
234
The Quaker way of trying to invite and
be open to divine guidance is to begin
with a time of silence. This is not the
“moment of silence” which is a mere
nod in passing to the Divine. Nor is it a
time for organizing one’s thoughts.
This is a time for what has been called
recollection: for an intentional return to
the Center to give over one’s own firm
views, to place the outcome in the
hands of God, to ask for a mind and
heart as truly sensitive to and accepting
of nuanced intimations of God’s will as
of overwhelming evidences of it. It is
possible that someone designated or
undesignated may offer vocal prayer
Patricia
Loring
1992
Loring, Patricia,
Spiritual
Discernment, Pendle
Hill Pamphlet 305,
1992, p. 24
180
for the joint undertaking. Spoken or
not, it is understood that each person
present will be holding the undertaking
in the Light in his own way.
235
236
We recognise a variety of ministries. In
our worship these include those who
speak under the guidance of the Spirit
and those who receive and uphold the
work of the Spirit in silence and prayer.
We also recognise as ministry service
on our many committees, hospitality
and childcare, the care of finance and
premises, and many other tasks. We
value those whose ministry is not in an
appointed task but is in teaching,
counselling, listening, prayer, enabling
the service of others, or other service in
the meeting or the world. The purpose
of all our ministry is to lead us and
other people into closer communion
with God and to enable us to carry out
those tasks which the Spirit lays upon
us.
London
Yearly
Meeting
It is our earnest desire that ministers
and elders may be as nursing fathers
and mothers to those that are young in
the ministry, and with all care and
diligence advise, admonish, and if they
see occasion, reprove them in a tender
and Christian spirit, according to the
rules of our Discipline and counsel of
Friends in that respect; also exhort
them frequently to read the Holy
Scriptures, and reverently seek the
mind of the Spirit of Truth to open the
mysteries thereof, that, abiding in
simple and patient submission to the
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting
1986
Britain Yearly
Meeting. Quaker
faith & practice.
Fifth edition.
London: The Yearly
Meeting of the
Religious Society of
Friends (Quakers) in
Britain, 2013
10.05
181
1723
Yearly Meeting,
Philadelphia, Minute,
1723 [Appeared in
Race St. (Hicksite)
Disciplines through
1888, in the Arch St.
(Orthodox)
Disciplines through
1912]
will of God, and keeping down to the
openings of Divine love in themselves,
they may witness a gradual growth in
their gifts, and be preserved from
extending their declarations further
than they find the life and power of
Truth to bear them up.
237
In Friends’ meetings also, from the fact
that everyone is free to speak, one
hears harmonies and correspondences
between very various utterances such
as are scarcely to be met elsewhere. It
is sometimes as part-singing compared
with unison. The free admission of the
ministry of women, of course, greatly
enriches this harmony. I have often
wondered whether some of the
motherly counsels I have listened to in
our meeting would not reach some
hearts that might be closed to the
masculine preacher.
Caroline E.
Stephen
1890
Stephen, Caroline E.,
Quaker Strongholds,
London, 1890, pp.
55, 56, [1923 edition,
London, Society of
Friends Bookshop, p.
46]
238
One characteristic institution among
Friends of the “quietist” period was the
traveling ministry. … The call to this
ministry came often in a childhood
sense of the presence of God when
alone and out-of-doors. It was
reinforced by powerful examples of
local and traveling ministers and tested
by the trials of learning to respond to
the Spirit’s moving to speak in
meeting. After sufficient testing, the
minister would become more sensitive
to the spiritual condition of others. He
or she would not only speak at various
meetings, often at wearisome distances
Carol
Murphy
1983
Murphy, Carol,
Nurturing
Contemplation,
Pendle Hill Pamphlet
251, 1983, pp. 25, 26
182
from home, but would hold “religious
opportunities” with families or
individuals, giving them spiritual
counsel. Though much of this ministry
was among Friends and designed to
maintain the spiritual health of the
Society, it was not uncommon to call
special meetings for Blacks, Indians, or
apprentices, as well as to visit jails or
mines. The Quaker leaven in the world
owes much to these “active
contemplatives” of the past, whose
central message was that the living
presence of the Spirit is here and now.
239
God gives gifts to each one of us,
young and old, and God gives gifts to
our meeting community, too. Now a
gift is not exactly the same as a skill or
a talent. A skill can be used in different
ways, but a gift is something God gives
us to help us live a whole life, make a
whole family, or be a whole meeting
community. Our gifts are special parts
of who we are. People young and old
bring gifts to our meeting community.
If we pay attention and care for one
another, we can discover them. We can
help each other understand how to use
those gifts wisely.
Faith and
Play
Working
Group.
Philadelphia
Yearly
Meeting
2008
Yearly Meeting,
Philadelphia, From
the story "Gifts",
2008
240
We regard elders as individuals with
“power” who might “tell us off’, rather
than as those offering service in line
with their gifts, responsible for the
nurture of our worshipping life. …
Much upset and hurt and energy could
be saved by … our all remembering
Ben Pink
Dandelion
2014
Dandelion, Ben Pink
(2014), Open for
Transformation:
Being Quaker. The
2014 Swarthmore
Lecture. London.
183
that “to elder” is a positive verb, and
that eldering is done on behalf of the
community for the community. It is not
about the individual.
Quaker Books
P. 51
241
For me, Spirit-led eldering, support,
and affirmation are essential and
integral to our Quaker way of faith and
practice; otherwise our life as a Quaker
community falters because we are not
tending to a critical aspect in our
individual lives and in our lives
together. In the recent past, Friends
have tended to be fearful of loving
other persons in this profound way, of
caring enough to be present for them,
listening to them, and trusting the work
of the Spirit.
Margery
Mears
Larrabee
2007
Larrabee, Margery
Mears, Spirit-led
Eldering: Integral to
Our Faith and
Practice, Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 392, 2007,
p. 5
242
We can actually rejoice in … diversity;
we do not always need a formula
which will iron out differences. That
seems to me to be Quakerism in
practice. When I talk about the content
of the Quaker treasure chest, I often
refer to that wonderful epistle sent out
to Friends everywhere written by
Young Friends from all parts of the
Quaker family in Greensboro in 1985.
Here, after many tears and
misunderstandings and strong
disagreements, a group of Young
Friends sat down together and,
respecting each other, wrote out what
for them was the essence of the Quaker
good news. They came up with the four
sources of authority: The Light or
voice in the heart, the discernment of
Harvey
Gillman
1993
Gillman, Harvey,
Spiritual Hospitality,
address for Adult
Religious Education
Conference,
Swarthmore
Meeting, Nov. 20,
1993, unpublished
184
the worshiping group, Christ speaking
in the heart, and the words of the Bible.
These four elements are in tension in
the world family of Friends. We do not
all agree on them, but the Quaker
treasure chest offers these diverse
heirlooms. Some parts of the family are
happier with some of the jewels than
others. But the greatest disservice we
can do is to keep the chest shut. By
sharing the jewels with our guests, our
guests may actually begin to feel as if
the home belongs to them as well. And
who knows, our guests may even
become the next generation of hosts
and show off the jewels in a new light.
243
Obviously, then, all the activities of a
meeting—the prayer of worship, the
vocal prayer of a gathered meeting, the
prayer which sustains and nourishes its
cells or prayer groups, family prayer,
the ministry of love which expresses
itself in counseling, the impact of a
meeting on the outside community—all
of these should be grounded in the
prayer life of the individual. If prayer
has not been a reality through the week
for at least a core of its members,
participants in the Sunday meeting
cannot reach high levels of worship.
Vocal prayer flows when the cup is
already full before we come to
meeting. Activity which is meaningful
results from insights gained in prayer.
Counseling which is helpful comes
from the bringing of divine perspective
to human confusion. Prayer, then, is a
necessity in our lives. It must be at the
Helen Hole
185
1962
Hole, Helen, Prayer,
The Cornerstone,
Pendle Hill Pamphlet
123, 1962, p. 16
center of them.
244
It makes me sad when I hear
Elise
discussions about not introducing
Boulding
children to “God” until they’re old
enough to understand. I grew into the
Lord’s Prayer, and am still growing
into it. All religious language, all
devotional books, and particularly the
Bible, provide growing room for young
minds and spirits. Because they have
sometimes been used as straitjackets by
adults who did not understand, does
not mean that they are straitjackets.
1975
Boulding, Elise,
Born Remembering,
Pendle Hill Pamphlet
200, 1975, p. 7
245
Care of the children of the meeting
should be the responsibility of every
Friend. Let us share with our children a
sense of adventure, of wonder, and of
trust and let them know that, in facing
the mysteries of life, they are
surrounded by love. Both parents and
meetings need to guard against letting
other commitments deprive children of
the time and attention they need.
Friends are advised to seek for children
the full development of God’s gifts,
which is true education.
1985
Yearly Meeting, New
England, Faith and
Practice of New
England Yearly
Meeting of Friends,
1985, p. 208
Revised Faith
and Practice,
New England
Yearly
Meeting
186
246
Our life is love, and peace, and
tenderness and bearing one with
another, and forgiving one another, and
not laying accusations one against
another but praying one for another,
and helping one another up with a
tender hand.
Isaac
Penington
1667
Penington, Isaac, To
Friends in
Amersham, from
Aylesbury Gaol, vol.
1, p. 532: Penington,
Isaac, A month with
––, Beatrice Saxon
Snell, compiler,
London, Friends
Home Service, 1966,
Day 30
247
The catch is, we can’t love God
without loving our neighbor: whoever
is next to us at this moment in time.
We have to love, really love, with that
same love we feel pouring into and
loving us.
Carol Reilley
Urner
1994
Urner, Carol Reilley,
The Kingdom and the
Way, Pendle Hill
Pamphlet 317, 1994,
p. 15
Some are easy to love. With some we
feel at home. We run to them in joy.
But we learn as we go that love is for
each other one we encounter: those
who are easy to love and those who are
difficult. The love we feel loving us is
as much for those who wound and
betray us, and for those we perceive as
“enemies,” as it is for ourselves. This
love is for the lost and the broken; the
cantankerous, ugly, and lonely; yes,
and even the brutal, the murderous, and
cruel. If we are to love God we must
love them as well, not for their
cruelties, but for the hidden Seed that
would live and grow in them. We, who
are loved with a love that will not let us
go, are to let that same love flow
through us into the world.
187
248
Christ valued children. He told us,
“Such is the kingdom of heaven”
(Mark 20:14). Through the years
writers have interpreted “such” to
mean children’s innocence, their
naiveté, their dependency, their
acceptance. I believe it is their
questioning: their wondering how and
why and where do I fit in; their seeking
to know that this thing slides and this
does not; their searching to figure out
how to build a castle with a best friend;
their attempting to identify all the
consequences of using drugs; their
broadening their horizons of what is
possible. … Viewing people as seekers
is an integral component of Quakerism.
Our children are fellow participants in
that search.
Harriet Heath
1994
Heath, Harriet,
Answering that of
God in Our Children.
Pendle Hill Pamphlet
315, 1994
249
We cannot set up a religion for our
children, nor can we impose a religious
authority on them. Each child must be
free to seek his own spiritual reality.
As parents we can, nevertheless, do
those things which deepen children’s
awareness of God and of the human
love surrounding them.
Emily B. H.
Phillips
1968
Phillips, Emily B.H.,
Thoughts from a
Quaker Home.
Religious Education
Committee of
Friends General
Conference, 1968
188
250
Does anything unite this diverse group
beyond our common love and
humanity? Does anything make us
distinctively Quaker? I say yes. Each
of us has different emphases and
special insights, but wherever Friends
are affirming each other’s authentic
experience of God, rather than
demanding creedal statements, we are
being God’s faithful Quakers.
Wherever we are seeking God’s will
rather than human wisdom, especially
when conflict might arise, we are being
faithful Quakers. Wherever we are
affirming the total equality of men and
women, we are being God’s faithful
Quakers. Wherever there is no division
between our words and our actions, we
are being faithful. Whenever we affirm
that no one—priest, pastor, clerk,
elder—stands between us and the
glorious and mystical experience of
God in our lives, we are faithful
Friends. Whether we sing or whether
we wait in silence, as long as we are
listening with the whole of our being
and seeking the baptism and
communion of living water, we will be
one in the Spirit.
Val Ferguson
189
1991
Ferguson, Val, Faith
in Action: Fifth
World Conference of
Friends, Friends
World Committee for
Consultation, 1992,
p. 183
251
Quakers are mystics and, as such, we
don’t associate Friends with the hardedged world of science. But
fundamentally, Quaker process and the
scientific process seek similar goals:
what is true about the world? S.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, one of the
discoverers of pulsars and a Quaker,
said, “In both Quakerism and science
you must be completely ready to revise
what you hold to be the truth; you
always hold things provisionally, and
you are always open to revising them.”
Adam SegalIsaacson
2012
Segal-Isaacson,
Adam, Spark,
NYYM News, 2012
252
Quakers should be testing everything
against their understanding of the
Spirit. By bringing the scientific, and
Quakerly, process to bear, we can
reach an understanding, and, we hope,
a truth. Our mystical bent toward the
Spirit need not be at odds with a
scientific approach to the world. “This
I know experimentally” can encompass
both.
Adam SegalIsaacson
2012
Segal-Isaacson,
Adam, Spark,
NYYM News, 2012
253
The spirituality that is real to us finds
its inner strength in the mystical
experience of connectedness with each
other and with the whole of creation.
This is the deep, still, and vibrant
centre that transcends time. From that
dynamic place it is possible to turn
outwards and work in one’s own
available and chosen action spaces to
help make manifest the harmony that is
already known.
Jillian
Wychel and
David James
1991
Wychel, Jillian and
David James, Loving
the Distances
Between, The
Twenty-Seventh
James Backhouse
Lecture, Australia
Yearly Meeting,
1991, p. 43
190
VII. Guidelines and Procedures
Use your capabilities and your possessions not as ends in themselves but as God’s gifts
entrusted to you. Share them with others; use them with humility, courtesy and affection.
Advices, II
This section includes various guidelines and procedures that meetings and individual Friends
may find helpful in supporting members and attenders, deepening spiritual life and attending to
business. Some of the procedures and queries were located in sections of the previous edition of
Faith and Practice devoted to marriage and membership while the general queries were in a
separate section. Other procedures and queries are provided here for the first time, such as the
queries on end-of-life matters, guidelines for meeting spiritual self-assessments and guidelines
for clearness committees.
A. General Queries
Friends have assessed the state of our religious society through the use of queries since the time
of George Fox. Meetings use queries as a guide for self-examination, as a framework for
periodically examining, clarifying and prayerfully considering the direction of our individual
lives and the life of the meeting community.
Meetings apply the general queries in a variety of ways. Some meetings prepare written
answers—for example, as background for developing a state-of-the-meeting report; some use
them as an aid to inward reflection; some make them part of the meeting for worship or meeting
for business—either by reading one of the sets of queries or by reading selections from that set.
There may be times when a meeting will reword a query or contemplate a new one to meet its
particular situation. Whatever the approach, faithful attention to the queries—open to the
Spirit—can enrich the life of the meeting and individual Friends.
Since the last edition of Faith and Practice was published in 2002, our yearly meeting developed
a deeper commitment to respond to the challenge of climate change. As one expression of this
commitment, the yearly meeting determined that concern for the environment should be
addressed throughout the queries.
The following general queries are arranged in sets by topic. Each set includes queries for the
meeting and for the individual, the latter printed in italics. There are twelve sets of queries in
order to enable meetings, if they so wish, to consider one set each month for a year.
1. Deepening Our Faith: Meeting for Worship
a. Are our meetings for worship held in stilled, expectant waiting upon God?
b. As we worship in the living silence, are we drawn together by the power of God in
our midst? Do we experience a deep reverence for the integrity of creation?
c. How does our worship nurture all worshipers, creating a deeper sense of community?
191
d. How does our meeting encourage vocal ministry that spiritually nurtures the
worshiping community?
e. Do I faithfully attend meeting with heart and mind prepared for worship, clear of any
predetermination to speak or not to speak, expecting that worship will be a source of
strength and guidance?
f. Does worship deepen my relationship with God, increase my faithfulness and refresh
and renew my daily life, both inwardly and in my relationships with other persons
and with all of creation?
g. Does worship enhance my capacity for attentive, non-judgmental listening to others?
h. How does participation in meeting for worship contribute to my life-long spiritual
journey?
2. Deepening Our Faith: Meeting for Business
a. Is our meeting for business held in worship in which we seek divine guidance?
b. How do we sustain prayerful consideration of all aspects of an issue and address
difficult problems with a search for truth that is unhurried by the pressures of time?
c. Do we recognize that we speak through our inaction as well as our action?
d. Do I regularly attend meeting for business? If unable to attend, how do I fulfill the
responsibility to understand and embrace the decisions made?
e. How do I affirm and support God’s presence in the process of discernment and
reaching a decision?
f. Do I remain open to personal transformation as the community arrives at the sense of
the meeting?
3. Deepening Our Faith: Spiritual Nurture
a. How does the meeting encourage the use of spiritual practices that deepen our faith,
enhance the excitement of shared religious discovery and increase the possibility of
spiritual transformation?
b. What is the nature of our shared experience of the Divine and how do we nurture our
collective spiritual growth and transformation?
c. In what ways do we support each other in our spiritual journeys, in our search for
God’s will and in our efforts to increase understanding of humanity’s relationship to
life on earth?
d. How do we recognize, develop and nurture the spiritual gifts of all in our meeting?
e. How do I incorporate into my personal and family life those daily practices that focus
on continued spiritual growth, including worship, reflection and engagement with
writings that nurture the soul?
192
f.
How does my spiritual life integrate an understanding of a well-ordered relationship
with the earth and deepen my reverence for the interconnectedness of all life?
4. Nurturing Our Community: Care for the Meeting
a. Do we help each other to live with integrity and contribute that integrity to the life of
our meeting?
b. How does our meeting learn of members’ needs and offer its assistance?
c. How does our meeting nurture members in all stages of life?
d. How does our meeting welcome those new to Friends and integrate them into our
community?
e. When a member’s conduct or manner of living gives cause for concern, how does the
meeting respond?
f. Am I ready both to offer and to accept meeting assistance when needed?
g. Do I treat adults and children alike with respect and without condescension?
h. What opportunities have I taken to know, work and worship with Friends in the
larger spiritual communities we share?
5. Nurturing Our Community: Religious Education in the Home and Meeting
a. How does our meeting prepare its members, attenders and children for worship, for
the conduct of its business and for a way of life consistent with the principles of the
Religious Society of Friends?
b. What opportunities do we provide for all in the meeting to learn about Friends’
history, practices and testimonies, the Judeo-Christian tradition, the life and teachings
of Jesus, and other religious traditions?
c. How does our meeting’s religious education program provide experiential learning
that enhances the sense of belonging to our worshipping community?
d. How do I help create a home where all members of the family receive affection and
understanding and where visitors are welcome?
e. How does my manner of living enrich body, mind and spirit; enable all to learn what
it means to live a life of Spirit-led commitment; and demonstrate a high regard for
family, community and the integrity of creation?
f. How do I engage with my family and others who are dear to me regarding such
sensitive topics as death, faith, money, sex and drugs?
6. Nurturing Our Community: Stewardship of Resources
193
a. How does our meeting accommodate ecological, economic and social justice in its
uses of property and money?
b. Does our meeting engage its members in supporting the meeting’s work, its ministry
and the upkeep of its property?
c. Does our meeting encourage its members to support with their time, energy and
finances the quarterly and yearly meetings and other Quaker organizations?
d. To what extent does our meeting rely on current members and attenders for financial
support and to what extent on other sources?
e. How do I demonstrate in my own decision making a concern for ecological, economic
and social justice?
f. How do I simplify my needs, making choices that balance self-sufficiency and fair
sharing of resources?
g. Do I balance my work-life and other activities with the time and energy needed for
my spiritual growth and service?
h. Do I contribute to the work of Friends in my meeting, in the quarterly and yearly
meetings and in the wider world of Friends?
7. Grounding for Transformed Lives: Peace and Alternatives to Violence
a. How do we help each other face conflicts with patience, forbearance and openness to
healing?
b. To what extent does our meeting ignore differences in order to avoid possible
conflicts?
c. What are we doing as a Friends meeting within our communities:
1) To recognize and correct the causes of violence?
2) To understand the impact of the global military- industrial complex on all aspects
of life?
3) To increase the understanding and use of alternatives to violence?
4) To work toward overcoming separations and restoring wholeness?
5) To support the constructive use of authority?
6) To promote the sustainability of the earth?
d. Do I “live in the virtue [power] of that Life and Spirit that took [takes] away the
occasion of all wars”?
e. How do I maintain Friends’ testimony that participation in war and its preparation is
inconsistent with the teaching of Jesus?
f. Do I treat personal conflict as an opportunity for growth?
g. How do I face my differences with others and reaffirm in action and attitude my love
for those with whom I am in conflict?
194
8. Grounding for Transformed Lives: Integrity and Simplicity
a. What is the interplay between simplicity and integrity in the life of our meeting?
b. How does our meeting embody simplicity and integrity in its structures and practices?
c. How has our meeting considered humanity’s impact on the earth’s ecological
integrity and the ways in which violence and injustice exacerbate this impact?
d. How do I strive to achieve harmony between my inner and outer commitments in my
spiritual journey, my work, my family and my other responsibilities?
e. Am I temperate in all things?
f. Am I open to counsel regarding addictive behavior?
g. Am I involved only with those organizations and activities whose purposes and
methods complement my integrity?
h. Am I careful to speak truth as I know it and am I open to truth spoken to me?
i. Am I mindful that judicial oaths imply a double standard of truth?
9. Grounding for Transformed Lives: Equality and Justice
a. How does our meeting benefit from established patterns of prejudice, exploitation and
economic convenience? What are we doing to change this?
b. How and how often does our meeting engage in a self-examination of its attitudes and
actions regarding race, ability, gender, sexual orientation or class?
c. What steps are we taking as a meeting to inform ourselves about social injustice and
ecological violence embedded in our political and economic systems?
d. What steps are we taking as a meeting to assure that our meeting and the committees
and institutions under our care are respectful of the earth and its people?
e. Do I regularly examine myself for attitudes and behavior that indicate any hidden
prejudice regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or class?
f. How do my lifestyle choices affect—positively or negatively—the causes of justice
and peace in our nation, the community of nations and the whole of creation?
g. How do I demonstrate in my way of living, and in what I teach my children, that love
of God entails acknowledging “that of God in every person”?
10. Witnessing in the World: Ministry of Outreach
a. How does our meeting communicate Friends’ presence and principles to the wider
community?
b. How does our meeting join with other faith communities in worship, in spiritual
dialogue and in social action?
c. What are we doing to invite persons to attend our meetings for worship, to welcome
them when they come, to listen sensitively to their needs and hesitations and to
encourage their continued attendance?
195
d. How do I share my spiritual life and experience with others?
e. Does my life as a Friend attract others to our religious society?
f. What opportunities have I taken to worship with people from other religious and
cultural backgrounds and work with them on common concerns?
11. Witnessing in the World: Education
a. What does our meeting do to support and improve public education?
b. What help do we provide for the children and adults in our meeting to pursue their
educational goals?
c. What is our meeting’s role in support for Friends’ education? If our meeting is
connected to a Friends school or schools, does this relationship nurture spiritual life
and the manifestation of Friends principles?
d. Do we enable children in our meeting to attend a Friends school? Does our meeting
work with the family to consider all available means of support?
e. How do I show my concern for the improvement of public education in my
community?
f. Do I demonstrate my encouragement and support for Friends education through
awareness and service?
12. Witnessing in the World: Witness and Civic Responsibility
a. What is our meeting doing:
1) To become aware of systemic legal, economic and political injustices in our local
community?
2) To build relationships with other faith communities around common concerns?
3) To reduce polarization within the larger community?
4) To work together with others to address injustice?
b. How does our meeting assist in restoring public recognition that government fulfills
legitimate functions?
c. Am I mindful of how my lifestyle, work-life and investments affect others?
d. Am I open to seeking clearness on matters of conscience? Am I open to assisting
others in doing so?
e. Do I fulfill my civic responsibilities when they do not conflict with divine leading?
B. Guidelines for a Spiritual Self-assessment of the Meeting
When early Friends met one another, they would ask “How does the Truth prosper with thee?”
rather than asking “How are you?” They wanted to know about each other’s spiritual condition
and relationship with the Divine.
196
Undertaking a prayerful assessment of the Friends meeting’s spiritual condition and needs and
issuing a state-of-the-meeting report on a regular basis can provide a deep and meaningful
opportunity that draws the community together. The meeting’s self-examination process may
involve several steps. The meeting could begin with queries that address its spiritual strengths
and weaknesses and also efforts to foster growth in the spiritual life of each member and of the
meeting as a whole. The meeting may use the queries suggested below; it may use selections
from the general queries above; it may decide to use queries from some other source; or it may
formulate its own queries. The meeting may charge one of its standing committees, such as
worship and ministry, or an ad-hoc group to prepare a response to the chosen queries or to
oversee a process of gathering information more widely in the meeting from which to prepare a
response. In the latter case, the committee may hold discussions with committee clerks, the
meeting’s young Friends, or new attenders, for example; or it could conduct worship sharing by
small groups within the meeting or by the meeting as a whole. The committee will prepare a
draft report in a format that is most helpful to the meeting. The report is then submitted to the
meeting for discussion and approval.
After approval by the monthly meeting, the meeting may agree to share its spiritual selfassessment with other meetings.
Suggested Queries for a Spiritual Self-assessment of the Meeting:

What practices and strategies are employed by our meeting to help members and
attenders of all ages prepare for worship—whether in meeting for worship or in meeting
for business?

What are the challenges to and opportunities for enhancing the worship of our meeting,
and what are we doing to address these?

What opportunities are provided to address topics important to deepening both personal
spiritual journeys of members and the spiritual life of the meeting?

What is most needed to strengthen the communal witness of the meeting to the local
community and beyond?

To what priorities does God call our meeting? How do our annual budget, our meeting’s
standing committees and other aspects of the meeting’s life reflect those priorities?
C. Meeting Checklist
Friends have a tradition of using queries to test or explore how the meeting community fulfills its
responsibilities. The earliest queries formulated by London Yearly Meeting asked for specific
facts and figures: which Friends had died while imprisoned; which Friends were imprisoned at
that time; and what were their sufferings. Even in the more abstract question “How does Truth
prosper with thee?” there was an expectation of a quantifiable answer— such as, the number of
new Friends.
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More recently, queries that elicit specific, factual answers have been considered in addition to the
general queries and their focus is the “right ordering” of the affairs and organization of the
meeting. The checklist that follows is intended to assist meetings.
1. State of the Meeting
a. Does the meeting engage in regular self-assessment and reflection? Does it prepare a
state-of-the-meeting report?
b. Does the meeting have the spiritual, physical, financial and intellectual resources to
fulfill its mission? If not, what steps are being taken to fill the gaps? Has it considered
calling on the quarterly or yearly meeting for assistance?
c. Does the meeting seek expert advice, when needed, regarding the mental health or
behavioral issues of its members and attenders, finance and accounting, labor and
employment practices, and property and real estate?
d. Are mechanisms for succession of leadership available and used? Do these
mechanisms encourage the nurturing of new leaders? If the membership of the
meeting is small, is there a plan for ensuring a succession of leadership?
e. Does the meeting have clear and effective procedures for the replacement of the clerk,
the treasurer or other officers of the meeting in case of need?
f.
Does the meeting consistently attempt to ensure that the work of the meeting is
equitably and broadly shared?
g. Does the meeting pay attention to outreach and care of visitors?
h. Does the meeting provide religious education for all ages?
2. Work of the Meeting
a. Does the meeting enumerate specific and strategic goals for itself?
b. Does the meeting regularly review and assess its current needs and develop
procedures and committees to address those needs?
c. Is the meeting’s committee structure appropriate for the size of the meeting?
d. Do the meeting’s committees have clearly defined responsibilities?
e. Do the committees function in ways that fulfill these responsibilities?
f.
Does each committee receive a budget adequate to enable it to fulfill its
responsibilities?
g. Do committees report regularly to the meeting?
h. Are committees laid down if they are no longer essential to the life of the meeting?
i.
Is there broad representation of meeting members and attenders in the work of
meeting committees? Does the meeting have a plan to increase participation in
committee activities when active participation of members and attenders declines?
3. Property and Employees
a. Is title to real property
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1) Held by the meeting as a permanent corporate body, as recommended by the
yearly meeting?
2) Held by the trustees of an unincorporated body (and if so, are the trustees all
living and competent to serve)?
b. Does the meeting participate in the Friends Insurance Group’s Master Policy or
otherwise carry adequate insurance to cover loss, replacement and liability?
c. Does the meeting provide adequate financial and other resources for appropriate
maintenance of its property both now and in the future? Are funds regularly budgeted
for repair and replacement of property?
d. Is real property managed with care for the integrity of the natural world?
e. Are the meeting’s burial grounds simple in style and carefully maintained, with
accurate records that are up-to-date and accessible?
f.
Does the meeting have policies for hiring, oversight and dismissal of employees? Are
these policies consonant with Friends principles?
g. Do employees receive caring oversight and equitable compensation and benefits?
4. Investments
a. Does the meeting have processes in place to help it plan for its short- and long-term
financial needs?
b. Does the meeting regularly review and monitor its investment principles and
performance?
c. Does the meeting have sufficient expertise among its own members to effectively
manage its investments? If not, or when it needs additional expertise, does it employ
the services of an investment firm such as Friends Fiduciary Corporation?
d. Are endowments and working capital invested in a fiscally and socially responsible
way?
e. Is the income from restricted gifts and endowments put to the uses specified by the
donor?
5. Finance and Budget
a. Does the meeting have a long-term financial plan that includes:
1) Increasing endowment through bequests and planned giving?
2) Increasing current support through fundraising and growth of membership?
3) Utilizing multi-year budgeting?
4) Developing multi- year schedules for the repair, maintenance and renovation
of meeting buildings and grounds?
b. Does the meeting approve a budget each year?
c. During the year does the meeting approve discretionary expenditures that deviate
from the approved budget?
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d. Does the treasurer report to the meeting each year on the prior year’s income and
expenses and the meeting’s balance sheet? Does the treasurer also report periodically
to the meeting on its financial situation?
e. Does the meeting have proper checks and balances in place in the disbursement of its
funds?
f.
Are the meeting’s accounts regularly reviewed by a committee appointed for this
purpose, its trustees or, if appropriate, an independent outside auditor?
g. Do the meeting’s treasurer and finance committee observe generally accepted
accounting practices and standards in handling the meeting’s finances?
h. Does the meeting seek the financial support of all its members? Does it make clear
the expectation that each member will contribute as able?
i.
Are routine operating funds financed by living members and attenders?
j.
Does the meeting have a process for extending financ ial support to members
experiencing hard circumstances or suffering as a result of witness to Friends
testimonies?
k. Does the meeting’s budget include resources to support and give witness to Friends
testimonies in the local community and the world?
l.
Does the meeting’s budget provide financial support for the quarterly and yearly
meetings?
m. Are the meeting’s patterns of spending and consumption socially and environmentally
responsible?
6. Records
a. Are official membership records maintained? Is a member of the meeting assigned
this responsibility? Are the membership statistics presented to the monthly and yearly
meetings annually?
b. Are informal records of members and attenders maintained in order to communicate
with and build the meeting community?
c. Does the meeting (and any institutions under its care) keep clear and accurate
financial records? Are these and other meeting records (deed, corporate by-laws,
operating records, etc.) kept in a secure location?
d. If the meeting is incorporated, are its records maintained and its corporate procedures
conducted in accordance with good practice and legal requirements?
e. Are minutes of the business of the monthly meeting and of significant meeting
committees accurately and neatly kept on acid-free paper and taken in a timely
manner to the Friends Historical Library at Haverford or Swarthmore College?
f.
Has the meeting established document retention guidelines to reduce the storage of
unnecessary routine items such as vendor invoices?
D. Queries and Checklist on End-of-Life Matters
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Our Quaker Advices recommend that we “make provisions for the settlement of all outward
affairs while in health, so that others may not be burdened and so that one may be freed to live
more fully in the Truth.” With this in mind, Friends of any age are advised to consider the
following queries and the checklist of recommendations for end-of-life documents, tasks and
decisions.
1. Queries for the Individual
a. What thought have I given to both short- and long-term adjustments I will need to
make in my living arrangements as my personal energy and abilities decrease, as
health problems require increasing attention, as driving a car becomes difficult or
dangerous and as my personal support network changes?
b. Have I made arrangements to turn over decision-making about my life to another
person when I am no longer competent to make decisions?
c. Have I made a will clearly spelling out the disposal of my personal possessions after
death?
d. Have I made arrangements for the disposal of my body and for notification of family,
friends and communities upon my death?
e. Have I indicated in writing any preferences for a funeral or memorial service to assist
the decision making of those I leave behind?
2. Queries for the Meeting
a. How does our meeting encourage the continued engagement in meeting affairs of
members who have problems with mobility, hearing, sight and lack of transportation
to meeting?
b. How does our meeting help members get access to information that can help them
address the short- and longer-term adjustments they may need to make in their living
conditions as their circumstances change?
c. How does our meeting assist its members and their families in making arrangements
should their physical or mental capacities become limited?
d. How does our meeting help its members and their families face the issue of balancing
the quality of their lives against prolonged existence?
e. Does our meeting encourage and assist its members to prepare wills, to find
information and make choices about the disposal of their bodies, including simple or
green burials, to indicate preferences as to funerals or memorial services, and to let
the meeting know of their choices?
3. A Checklist for the Settlement of All Outward Affairs
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a. Prepare a will that reflects my current wishes, including the name(s) of guardians for
any minor children.
b. Prepare a durable financial power of attorney—to delegate authority over my
financial matters to a trusted friend or family member.
c. Prepare a living will to ensure that when I approach the end of my life, I will receive
the kind of medical treatment I would wish and may also relieve my loved ones of
some difficult decisions.
d. Prepare a durable power of attorney for health care—to delegate authority over my
health care to a trusted friend or family member.
e. Pre-select a hospice agency should I develop a life-limiting condition.
f.
Arrange for the disposition of my body after death, with or without a funeral director;
organ donation or donation of my body to science; and, if applicable, a grave
location. (This information might be shared with the memorial or pastoral care
committee of my meeting.)
g. Share with my meeting’s memorial or pastoral care committee any special wishes I
have for my memorial meeting for worship.
h. Assemble records and documents such as:
1) A list of information needed to complete my death certificate.
2) A current list of my assets, related contact information and account numbers,
including usernames and passwords, as needed; the location of any safety deposit
box and key—(The executor of my estate will need this information.)
3) Biographical information for my obituary.
4) A list of names and phone numbers of people, organizations, utility companies
and my post office to be notified of my death.
i.
Give a copy of the items in “h.” above to a family member, friend or your attorney.
j.
The items on the list in “h.” will need to be reviewed and updated periodically as
laws, forms and requirements for documents and procedures change. Additional help
can be obtained from the yearly meeting’s Care and Aging Coordinator and from
Quaker Aging Resources (quakeragingresources.org), a collaborative project of
Philadelphia and New York yearly meetings.
E. Procedures for Membership
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1. Application for Membership
When a sense of commitment between an attender and a Friends meeting is strong, a member of
the meeting may encourage the attender to apply for membership or the attender may initiate that
process. In some cases, members of a family may apply together. There are several steps
involved in the application process, some taken by the meeting and some by the attender.
a. The attender sends a written request to the clerk of the meeting, stating why he/she is
moved to join the Religious Society of Friends.
b. Typically, the clerk reads the applicant’s letter at the next meeting for business and then
refers the application to the pastoral care or membership committee. That committee
promptly appoints a clearness committee to visit the applicant.
c. The clearness committee is expected to make this visit as soon as possible. During the
visit, the committee members and the applicant explore together, in a probing and candid
manner, fundamental questions of religious faith and practice. The clearness committee is
expected to explain both the responsibilities of membership in a Friends meeting and the
nature of the commitment the meeting makes when it accepts an application for
membership. The applicant will be encouraged to share expectations concerning the
meeting and the significance of membership.
Among the questions the committee might ask the applicant are:

What are some milestones in your spiritual journey? How do you expect
membership in the meeting to help you in this journey?

How familiar are you with Friends faith and practice? Which of these particularly
attracted you to Friends? Which aspects do you find puzzling or disturbing?

Do you welcome participation in a religious community whose unity of spirit
coexists with a diversity of beliefs? Are you prepared to join a meeting
community which includes people whose perspectives differ considerably from
your own?

Have you read and reflected on the queries and advices? Which of these do you
find most helpful? Which do you find puzzling or disturbing?

How closely are you in harmony with Friends testimonies and with Friends’ work
for peace and social justice?

What gifts do you believe you might bring to the meeting community? In what
ways would you like to share your time and talents with the meeting?

Are you willing to provide the meeting with financial support in order to help the
meeting carry out its activities and fulfill its responsibilities?
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
Do you understand the relationship among the monthly, quarterly and yearly
meetings? Are you aware of and willing to meet our expectation of financial
support for programs, services and facilities associated with the quarterly and
yearly meetings?
d. The clearness committee will report to the pastoral care committee regarding the outcome
of its visit with the applicant for membership.
e. If there is a positive recommendation from the clearness committee to the pastoral care
committee, and if that committee concurs, it will recommend at the next meeting for
business that the meeting accept the application for membership.
f.
Action by the meeting may be postponed until a later session to give time for members to
become better acquainted with the prospective member.
g. If the meeting approves the application for membership, it will minute its decision and
appoint two or more Friends to welcome the new member.
h. The name of the new member and other pertinent information will be given to the
meeting recorder for the meeting’s records, and will be reported to the quarterly and
yearly meetings.
The desire of an attender to become a member is generally a cause for rejoicing. However, the
pastoral care committee may advise the meeting to postpone acceptance or even to reject an
application if there is good reason to do so, such as an applicant’s inflexible disagreement with
some significant aspect of Friends faith and practice. In cases where the pastoral care committee
recommends postponement of a decision or rejection of an application, and the meeting agrees,
the committee should maintain sympathetic communication with the applicant, clearly
explaining the reason for the hesitancy and seeking to help remove it. If and when the committee
judges the applicant to be ready for membership, it should then encourage the meeting to
consider and accept the application for membership.
If a person whose residence is remote from meetings of Friends wishes to become a member, the
meeting may consider carefully whether the applicant’s needs, as well as those of the meeting,
will be served by membership at a distance or whether the person’s spiritual needs can be met in
another way.
2. Transfer of Membership to Another Meeting
Friends who live at a distance from their own monthly meeting but near another may find it
useful to transfer their membership to the nearer one. On occasion, a Friend may request a
transfer for reasons other than a change of residence. The procedure indicated below applies in
every case. To initiate the transfer process, the Friend requests a letter of transfer from his/her
current meeting to the new meeting. These two meetings each have responsibilities regarding the
transfer.
a. Duties of the meeting from which the member is transferring.
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1) When a meeting receives an application for transfer, the meeting clerk asks the clerk
of the pastoral care committee to prepare a letter of transfer, recommending the
Friend to the care of the meeting to which transfer is requested. (If the pastoral care
committee is concerned about the applicant’s behavior or commitment to the
Religious Society of Friends, this recommendation may be qualified or the request for
transfer may even be denied.)
2) If the meeting approves the application for transfer, the meeting clerk signs and
forwards the letter to the receiving meeting. A copy of the letter is also prepared for
the records.
3) When the meeting issuing the transfer receives acknowledgment that the new meeting
has accepted the Friend into membership, it terminates the Friend’s membership,
noting its action in the minutes.
b. Duties of the meeting to which the Friend is transferring.
1) The clerk of the meeting to which a member is being transferred will acknowledge
receipt of the letter of transfer.
2) The clerk refers it to the pastoral care committee which in turn recommends action to
the monthly meeting. If there is ground for serious objection to the transfer, the letter
is returned to the meeting which issued it. If there is no objection, the meeting accepts
the transfer and records the Friend as a member, and its clerk reports this action to the
issuing meeting.
3) Following a transfer, the meeting will appoint two or more Friends to welcome the
new member, including an invitation to attend meetings for worship and business,
serve on committees and otherwise fulfill the responsibilities of membership.
c. Duties of recorders concerning letters of transfer.
1) When notified of the approval of the letter of transfer by the accepting meeting, the
recorder of the meeting issuing the transfer changes that meeting’s membership
records and reports this action to the yearly meeting.
2) The accepting meeting’s recorder adds the new member to the meeting’s membership
records and notifies the yearly meeting of this action.
3. Termination of Membership
a. Resignation by the individual
Members may find that they are no longer in accord with the faith and practice of Friends or no
longer wish to be actively involved in their monthly meeting. Such members may be encouraged
to seek the assistance of the pastoral care committee or others in the meeting in examining their
beliefs and practices and the reasons for disagreement or lack of involvement with Friends. If no
resolution results, they may resign from the Religious Society of Friends by submitting a letter of
resignation to the clerk of their meeting.
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When a member submits a letter of resignation, the meeting may still take action. A committee
appointed by the pastoral care committee or from the meeting at large may visit the person,
inquire in love and forbearance into the cause of the proposed resignation and, if appropriate,
endeavor to bring this person back into the fellowship of Friends. A resignation may be accepted
without appointing such a committee if the meeting is satisfied that the member’s decision will
not be altered by further efforts.
When the meeting accedes to a member’s decision to resign, a minute is prepared stating that this
Friend is released at their own request. The individual is no longer a member of the Religious
Society of Friends. The letter informing the former member that their decision to resign has been
accepted will show sensitivity to the person leaving membership.
b. Release by the monthly meeting
When a member disregards the obligations of membership, exhibits lack of interest, fails to reply
to communications from the pastoral care committee or passes out of the knowledge of the
meeting, it is clear that the member no longer values being part of the life of the meeting. In such
cases it is normally the task of the pastoral care committee to attempt to restore interest and
involvement. The meeting may appoint a special committee to deal with inactive members.
If continued efforts prove unavailing, the meeting prepares a minute noting the circumstances
and recording removal of the individual from membership. The clerk of the meeting promptly
sends notice of this action to the individual.
In the case of a Friend whose actions seem out of harmony with the standard of conduct
appropriate to the Religious Society of Friends, the meeting, primarily through the pastoral care
committee, may seek to renew the commitment of the member to Friends practice. If this effort
fails, and if the committee believes that it can accomplish nothing further, it should report this to
the monthly meeting, which may appoint a special committee to make further attempts to reach a
satisfactory solution.
If all these efforts are to no avail, the meeting is expected to take steps toward removal of the
Friend from membership. The pastoral care committee or a special committee will prepare in
writing a proposed minute of removal recommending such action. When the minute is received
by the monthly meeting, the meeting clerk will convey a copy to the person involved, and
indicate that further action will be deferred to a future meeting for business. The member who is
subject to removal is invited to explain their position to the meeting in person or in writing.
After the member has had an opportunity to explain their position, if the monthly meeting still
believes that the membership of the Friend in question should be terminated, it then approves the
minute of removal and the individual is notified of the action. It is expected that all dealings
involving removal from membership will be handled with the utmost patience, forbearance, and
consideration, for the sake of both the individual and the meeting.
A person whose membership has ended either by resignation or by action of the monthly
meeting, and who subsequently desires to join either the same or a different meeting, may do so
by following the procedure outlined earlier for application for membership.
F. Quaker Marriage Procedure
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Marriage is a sacred commitment of two people to love one another in faithful partnership with
the expectation that the relationship will mature and be mutually enriching. Friends know that
marriage depends on this mutual commitment of the couple and not on any external service or
words. Thus, the ceremony in which the couple formally announces this commitment is
performed by the couple alone, in the presence of God, the families and the worshiping
community. Both the solemnity and the joy of the occasion are enhanced by its simplicity. The
meeting extends its loving care through a process of clearness for the couple and, upon approval
by the meeting, through careful attention to a meeting for worship for marriage. In addition, the
meeting ensures that any applicable legal requirements are addressed.
1. Securing Meeting Approval
The couple intending marriage writes to the meeting or meetings under whose care they wish to
be married. Any date the couple plans for the wedding should be far enough in the future to
allow the meeting time to fulfill its responsibilities.
When the clerk receives the request, the letter is customarily read at meeting for business, often
after preliminary consideration by the pastoral care committee. The meeting then appoints a
committee of clearness. Some meetings have standing committees for this purpose, chosen from
Friends of proven abilities.
a. Forming a clearness committee
1) When only one meeting is being asked to provide oversight, the couple simply sends its
request to this meeting, which then appoints the clearness committee. (A meeting may
offer assistance to its members wishing to be married under its care, but living too far
away to be married there.)
2) When the two belong to separate meetings, and desire the involvement of both, they must
allow time for both meetings to consider the request. The meetings may each name
clearness committees, or they may decide to name a joint committee. If one meeting is at
a distance, a correspondent from one meeting may be appointed to confer with the
clearness committee at the meeting where the wedding will take place.
3) When one of the couple is not a member of the Religious Society of Friends, the
clearness committee endeavors through consultation with the couple and the family and
friends of the non-member to discover whether obstacles exist.
4) If the meeting agrees to consider a marriage under its care when neither party is a
member of a meeting, the clearness committee takes the necessary steps to become
familiar with the couple and their circumstances before recommending approval. It
should encourage the couple to take ample time to attend meetings for worship and to
allow themselves and the members of the meeting the opportunity to come to know each
other.
b. The clearness process
The term clearness referred originally to clearness from other marriage commitments. Today, the
marriage clearness committee also explores with the couple what it takes to achieve the
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permanence and satisfaction of a committed, loving relationship, and the extent to which the
couple is prepared for the dedication and constancy such a relationship requires.
The purpose of clearness is well served when members of the committee ask thoughtful
questions, listen attentively and leave space for worship in the exchange. A committee under the
weight of the couple’s marital success knows that failure to speak truth in kindness is to risk
possible suffering.
The committee might ask the couple such questions as the following:

How did the couple meet? What values and beliefs do they hold in common? On what
matters do they differ? Can they meet differences with humor and respect? Are they
open to considering outside help if such guidance seems warranted?

Do they both see marriage as sacred? Are they open to seeking divine assistance both
when things are going well and when they encounter difficulties? What are their plans
for nurturing the spiritual basis for their marriage?

Do they each see themselves and their partner as equal and trusted, sharing
responsibilities and decisions? Do they communicate feelings, needs, dreams and
fears?

Are they aware of the need for other friendships that contribute to both individual
growth and the marriage relationship?

Have they thought about children, and the joys and the challenges families create,
including consideration of how the work is shared?

If either partner has children, has the couple discussed with them the changes that
marriage will bring?

How do they view their relationships to their extended families? To their community?
To society as a whole?

Are there prior obligations—legal or financial or both—that need to be met?

What are the views of the parents concerning this relationship? (Parents may send a
letter.)

What other questions does the couple have?
The clearness committee does its best to confirm that the intended partners follow a true leading
in seeking marriage. The focus for the committee is the two people being married and attention
to their responsibilities to each other. Particularly with young people, the meeting seeks from the
parents of both partners expressions of their unity with the planned marriage, usually in the form
of a letter. When either partner brings children to this union, their well-being must be considered.
The clearness committee and the couple may include the children in the clearness process, if
helpful and appropriate.
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2. Meeting Approval
The clearness committee, if it is satisfied that there is no obstacle to the proposed marriage,
reports its approval of the marriage to the monthly meeting at its next business session. If two
meetings are involved, then each will consider the request. The meeting(s) will then approve
holding an appointed meeting for worship for marriage, in accordance with the couple’s wishes.
Wedding invitations should be sent out only after the meeting’s approval is granted.
3. Overseeing the Wedding
When the meeting has given its approval for the wedding to take place under its care, it appoints
an oversight committee from among its members to oversee the arrangements. The persons to be
married should be asked whether there is anyone they would like particularly to serve on this
committee. Members of another meeting may be included if so desired.
The oversight committee provides guidance to the couple as the marriage ceremony is arranged,
including the obtaining of the applicable legal license and the Quaker marriage certificate.
Oversight continues through the ceremony and afterwards, to assure that details are completed in
right order. The oversight committee ordinarily assumes responsibility for the certificate and
license until these are signed by the couple after the wedding, and the latter is submitted to the
proper office.
It is important to allow enough time to obtain the license and to prepare the Quaker marriage
certificate. The couple, in consultation with the oversight committee, should give thoughtful
consideration to the text of the certificate, which includes the marriage vows. The couple
arranges for the preparation of the certificate.
4. Conducting a Quaker Wedding
A Quaker wedding is a meeting for worship in which a marriage commitment takes place. As the
meeting for worship begins, a designated person will rise to explain the nature of Quaker
worship, and of a Quaker wedding specifically. Printed information about Quaker worship is also
useful.
Following a period of silence, as long or as short as the couple is led to observe, the two rise and,
each taking the other by the hand, make their promises to each other, in the words from their
marriage certificate, in tones clear enough to be heard throughout the meeting. When they are
seated again, the marriage certificate is brought to them for their signatures. The certificate is
then read to the meeting by a person asked in advance to do so. The meeting then continues and
offers an opportunity to those present to share messages about marriage and the couple. The
person chosen to close the meeting may, if desired, first allow the wedding party to withdraw. At
the close of the meeting, all those who have been present are asked to sign the certificate as
witnesses.
Friends are urged to consider carefully the intrusion into the spirit of worship that recording of
any kind can present. Photographing, visible audio taping and videotaping during the ceremony
are usually discouraged.
5. Following the Wedding
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Both sections of the marriage license obtained from the county or municipality are signed by the
couple and by members of the oversight committee as witnesses. The proper section of the
license thus signed is then returned within the legal time limit to the office from which it was
obtained.
The marriage certificate is given to the meeting’s recorder (or other designated person) to be
copied for the records of the monthly meeting. When this has been done, the recorder gives the
certificate to the newly married couple.
At the next business meeting the oversight committee reports to the meeting that the marriage
has taken place in accordance with Friends practice, and that the requirements of the law have
been properly observed.
Ongoing care and nurture of those married under a meeting’s care continues as long as the
couple is in the community of the meeting. If the couple relocates, the meeting may maintain an
informal relationship with them and stay open to requests for support or help, but the actual
nurture is best carried out by a meeting to which the couple transfers.
6. Marriage Not Under the Care of the Meeting
a. Marriage of members apart from the meeting community
 Members who marry outside the meeting should promptly inform the meeting of
their marriage. It is then the task of the meeting to assign members to visit the
newly married couple—or, if they live far away, to write to them—and to express
the meeting’s continuing interest and care. Non-member marriage partners should
be made welcome and invited to attend meetings for worship and business and
other meeting activities if they live within reach of the meeting.
 Meetings may offer a place of worship and other assistance at the request of
Friends from a distance who wish to be married there but under the care of their
home meeting. Communication between meetings assures the proper clearness
process and helps in the oversight of the wedding.
b. Marriage of non-members
There are occasions when non-members request marriage with the help of a meeting, using the
Friends marriage ceremony. Since Friends hold marriage to be under divine guidance, the couple
should be fully aware and agreeable to the nature and procedures of marriage for Friends.
Meetings are encouraged to consider in advance what services they can offer, and to look into
the legal aspects of marriage of non-members, so that when such requests are made, they can be
considered realistically and in a timely fashion.
7. Review of Responsibilities Required for the Good Order of a Quaker Wedding Ceremony
To promote clarity and understanding, the duties and responsibilities of the persons to be
married, of the clerk and of the committees of the monthly meeting are separately outlined here.
These should be reviewed in conjunction with the previous text.
a. Responsibilities of the persons to be married
1) To present to the monthly meeting under whose care they wish to be married the
following written communications, usually directed to the clerk’s attention:
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


A letter signed by both parties stating their intention of marriage and their desire
that the monthly meeting have oversight of the wedding. Whenever possible or
appropriate this request should be accompanied by letters from parents or
guardians assuring the meeting of their interest in, and approval of, the plans
under consideration.
Upon approval for marriage, a request for permission to be married in a specially
appointed meeting for worship for marriage (or, more rarely, a regular meeting for
worship). The request should include the date of wedding and the time of day
desired.
Suggested names of Friends whom the couple would like to serve on an oversight
committee for the wedding.
2) To meet with a clearness committee to explore their leading to marry.
3) To mail out invitations only after approval has been granted by the meeting or meetings
involved.
4) To meet with the oversight committee named to oversee the marriage, at a time and place
suggested by the committee, to discuss plans for the wedding, including the choice of
persons to read the marriage certificate and to open and close the meeting for worship.
5) To have the certificate prepared in ample time, with carefully considered language.
6) To inform themselves, with the assistance of their oversight committee, of all applicable
legal requirements of the state in which the marriage is to take place and of the forms to
be used.
7) To arrange for securing the appropriate license.
8) To give the license to the oversight committee before the wedding and also have the
marriage certificate ready.
9) To commit to memory the promises to be made vocally, which are traditionally to the
following effect: In the presence of God and these our friends, I ____[Name]____ take
thee ____[Name]_____to be my husband/wife/partner, promising with divine assistance
to be unto thee a loving and faithful husband/wife/partner so long as we both shall live.
10) To sign the marriage certificate after the promises have been made.
11) To sign both sections of the marriage license directly after the wedding, one section being
kept by them and the other returned by a member of the committee overseeing the
wedding to the office from which the license was obtained.
b. Responsibilities of the clerk of the meeting
1) To present the letter of intention to marry—and other letters received supporting the
request—to the appropriate meeting committee at the earliest opportunity.
2) To see that the request is considered and, if accepted, that a committee for clearness is
appointed.
3) To arrange for presentation of the clearness committee’s report to the next monthly
meeting for business.
4) When the report has been accepted and the wedding allowed by the monthly meeting:
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5) To request the meeting to name an oversight committee for the wedding and to appoint a
meeting for worship to be held at the time and place requested for the wedding, if at all
possible; and
6) To inform the couple that the wedding has been allowed and they should meet with the
oversight committee.
7) To ensure that the oversight committee reports to the meeting for business following the
wedding.
c. Responsibilities of the clearness committee:
1) To make inquiry and conscientiously satisfy itself that there is nothing to interfere with
the accomplishment of the marriage; and in interviews with the couple to explore their
leading to marry. To make available to the couple books and pamphlets on marriage.
(The yearly meeting has a special fund that pays for books from Friends General
Conference for newlyweds.)
2) To report its findings and recommendations to the next meeting for business, including
any plans the couple has for date and time of the wedding.
3) To make sure that the welfare and rights of any children by a former marriage have been
properly considered and legally secured.
d. Responsibilities of the oversight committee
1) To meet with the couple to discuss plans for the wedding, including the choice of a
person to read the certificate and one to close the meeting, and to arrange for a rehearsal.
2) To see in advance that all applicable legal requirements have been met and that the
proper license has been obtained; also to see that both sections of the license are dated
and signed by the couple following the wedding and by two members of the committee as
witnesses and that the proper section of the license thus signed is returned to the office
from which it was obtained within the time required by law.
3) To review with the couple the promises they propose to exchange at the wedding and
make sure that the words of the certificate are consistent with them.
4) To see that the wedding and reception, if any, are accomplished with dignity, reverence
and simplicity.
5) To arrange for the care of the certificate following the meeting for worship for marriage
and to see that it is signed by those who are present as witnesses.
6) To deliver the certificate to the recorder for copying or duplication for the records of the
monthly meeting and to give the recorder the couple’s address to which the certificate
may be forwarded.
7) To report to the meeting whether the wedding has been suitably accomplished; whether
the applicable legal requirements have been satisfied; whether the certificate has been
properly recorded; and to report any name changes that result from the marriage for the
minutes of the monthly meeting.
8. The Marriage Certificate
The form below reflects the historic wording of the marriage certificate. It may be modified as
the couple desires to reflect their terminology for one another and pronoun usage. At minimum,
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the certificate includes the full names of the couple, name and location (city and state) of the
monthly meeting, date of the wedding, statement of the vows exchanged, signatures of the
couple and the signatures of those with oversight of the wedding and other witnesses. The couple
prepares the wording of the certificate and reviews it with the oversight committee before the
certificate is printed.
Whereas [name] of [Town and State], son/daughter of [names of parents: use mother’s maiden
name], and [name] of [Town and State], daughter/son of [names of parents: use mother’s
maiden name], having declared their intentions of marriage with each other to
____________________Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends held at
_________________, their proposed marriage was allowed by that meeting.
Now this is to certify to whom it may concern, that for the accomplishment of their intention, this
_____________day of the _______________month, in the year of our Lord ___________, they,
[name] and [name], appeared in a meeting for worship of the Religious Society of Friends, held
at _________________, and [first name], taking [first name] by the hand, did on this solemn
occasion declare that he took her, [name], to be his wife, promising with divine assistance to be
unto her a loving and faithful husband so long as they both shall live; and then in the same
assembly [name] did in like manner declare that she took him, [name], to be her husband,
promising with divine assistance to be unto him a loving and faithful wife so long as they both
shall live. And moreover, they, [name and name], did as further confirmation thereof, then and
there, to this certificate set their hands.
[spaces for signatures of couple, with names they will use after the wedding]
And we having been present at the marriage have as witnesses hereunto set our hands.
G. Guidelines for Care Committees
These guidelines utilize material found in The Spiritual Care Committee, a pamphlet prepared by
the School of the Spirit Ministry. The pamphlet identifies the person for whom care is provided
as “the Friend,” and that designation is used below. The pamphlet is available online at
schoolofthespirit.org/programs/the-spiritual-care-committee.
There are three types of care committees currently used by Friends: clearness committees,
pastoral care assistance committees and spiritual care committees. Clearness committees assist
those seeking to apply for membership or to be married under the care of the monthly meeting,
or those members or attenders seeking clarity about a personal or social concern. Pastoral care
assistance committees help those members and attenders who have physical, emotional, financial
or spiritual needs. Spiritual care committees (or spiritual nurturers) support those with spiritual
gifts or who are pursuing a leading or engaged in the work of ministry.
The members of care committees are usually selected by the pastoral care or worship and
ministry committee of the meeting, though the individual being supported may request that
certain persons be included. The process of selecting members for a care committee will include
consideration of those who can bring a diversity of skills, gifts, experience and personality type
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to complement the leading, ministry or need of the Friend for whom the committee is being
formed. Those selected would be expected to:

Mirror to the Friend the ways God is acting/shining/serving through them.

Demonstrate a willingness to accompany the Friend lovingly into difficult spiritual places.

Be able to challenge the Friend to live more deeply and fully the life of the Spirit, while also
accepting the Friend without judgment in the present moment.

Demonstrate clear willingness to devote the time necessary to prepare for the work of the
care committee and to attend the sessions of the committee with the Friend.
It is important to remember that the work of care committees benefits the faith community from
which they are formed as well as the individuals who are being nurtured and supported.
1. Guidelines for a Clearness Committee
Historically, clearness committees have been used by meetings primarily as part of the
membership and marriage procedures. In recent years, Friends have requested the support of a
clearness committee in order to discern how best to deal with an important personal decision,
whether to make a change in the circumstances of their lives, whether to test a leading or for
some other reason. A Friend may approach the pastoral care or worship and ministry committee
of the meeting and request that a clearness committee be formed. The request may include the
suggestion of one or more potential members of that committee.
It is especially important for the members of the clearness committee to accept fully that their
role in the session with the Friend is not to offer advice, nor to tell stories about their own
possibly similar experiences, but to ask questions that enable the Friend to discern whether there
is sufficient clarity regarding the issue or leading to move forward and take action.
In preparation for the initial meeting of the clearness committee, the Friend is advised to write a
brief account of the issue or leading to be considered, including relevant background information
and any possible steps that might be taken to address that issue or leading. The members of the
clearness committee would then read and reflect on this short paper in advance of the meeting.
The first meeting of the clearness committee usually includes the following elements:

Worship at the beginning, at the end and perhaps at appropriate moments during the meeting.

Deep listening by the committee members to an initial statement by the Friend regarding the
leading to be tested or the issue or potential decision to be clarified.

Carefully formulated, open-ended, probing questions from the committee members, not to
give advice or counsel but to help the Friend understand more clearly the nature of the
concern, issue or leading and the possible implications of making one decision or another—
for that Friend and for family members, the faith community and perhaps the wider
community.
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
An opportunity for the Friend to respond to these questions, and for the Friend and the
members of the clearness committee to consider together whether there are now additional
questions that need to be explored further.

Consideration of next steps, such as additional meetings of the individual with the clearness
committee, or further exploration by the individual and members of the committee of
particular aspects of the issue or leading that remain unclear or are not yet ready for a
decision.
The information provided by the Friend prior to meeting with the clearness committee, and the
information shared by that individual in the session with the committee, is confidential; and both
the Friend and the members of the clearness committee are expected to respect the need to
maintain confidentiality. Still, it is also expected that a report, absent details, will be given to the
care and counsel or worship and ministry committee which formed the clearness committee.
If the Friend has tested the leading with the assistance of the clearness committee and together
they are in unity to seek the support of the meeting for that leading, the matter is reported to the
pastoral care or worship and ministry committee and then to the meeting for business. If the
meeting decides to support the leading, the clerk of the meeting will draft a minute of support.
Such a minute acknowledges the role of the meeting in approving the implementation of the
leading and the ministry it entails and may also recommend the formation of a committee to
provide guidance, support and accountability for the Friend and the ministry.
2. Guidelines for a Pastoral Care Assistance Committee
Depending on the nature of an individual’s concern or issue, either that individual may request or
the pastoral care committee may decide that the formation of a pastoral care assistance
committee could be helpful. The role of this committee is to assist the Friend with whatever
stands in the way of living in the Spirit, such as temporary financial distress or job loss, the loss
of a loved one through estrangement or death, the development of a physical incapacity, behavior
problems associated with illness or trauma, or inappropriate behavior in meeting for worship or
other meeting activities. It is important that the pastoral care committee be able to recognize
when the issue at hand lies outside the competence of its members; in that case the pastoral care
committee will support the individual in seeking professional help.
The following queries may help those who serve on a pastoral care assistance committee:

Am I able to respect and be present to the person in need without imposing my own
judgment?

Can I listen with compassion to the Friend’s account of the situation and the Friend’s deepest
concerns? Douglas Steere suggests that, “To ‘listen’ another’s soul into a condition of
disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever
performs for another.”

Am I ready to help the person in need turn the situation over to Spirit without expectation but
in the hope that “way will open” for a solution to be found?
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
Am I prepared to assist the person in finding professional help, if this seems to be required?
Those who have the experience of serving on a pastoral care assistance committee may discover
that it has been an opportunity to deepen their own spiritual understanding as well as to become
better acquainted with another member or attender of the meeting.
3. Guidelines for a Spiritual Care Committee
The meeting’s worship and ministry committee or the meeting itself may form a spiritual care
committee charged to encourage Friends who are spiritually gifted and/or called to a ministry
that furthers the work of continuing transformation. The committee seeks to provide a safe and
worshipful space where the Friend can be more intentional about becoming faithful to life in the
Spirit. It uses three basic tools to accomplish this purpose: deep listening, prayerful discernment
and faithful response.
The following queries may help the committee members and the Friend with a spiritual leading
or ministry to apply these tools:

What practices does the Friend use in order to increase the capacity to listen attentively to
Spirit?

What assumptions does the Friend make about living in faithful obedience to Spirit?

Is there anything that is currently blocking or interfering with the Friend’s capacity to engage
in the life of the Spirit?

In what ways is the Friend growing in the life of the Spirit and how is that growth being
manifested?

How can the spiritual care committee help the Friend increase trust in divine guidance for the
Friend’s leading or ministry?

What is the Friend’s relationship with the meeting? What expectations does the Friend have
of the faith community and are these expectations realistic?

Besides the spiritual care committee, what resources of guidance and support are available
for the Friend to draw upon when needed?
Through deep listening, prayerful discernment and faithful response, the spiritual care committee
and the Friend whose leading or ministry is being nurtured may grow in relationship with God;
the Friend may be anchored within the faith community; and the Friend may be held accountable
to God, to the leading or ministry and to the community. Indeed, spiritual care committees are
sometimes called anchor or spiritual accountability groups.
Sessions of the Friend with the spiritual care committee may develop according to the needs
expressed or perceived, but typically include the following elements:
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
The spiritual care committee and the Friend have an opportunity at the beginning and at the
end of the session for worship and centering.

A brief “check in” near the beginning of the session enables those present to become more
attuned with each other.

The Friend may wish to share experiences since the last session; topics and themes that have
opened during prayer, reflection, reading and the work of ministry; and concerns about how
to integrate more effectively the life of ministry with the demands of family, friends and the
faith community.

The spiritual care committee may wish to offer questions and concerns that might clarify
what the Friend has shared; encourage the Friend to reflect upon queries that may assist in
guiding spiritual life and growth; and consider with the Friend how the faith community
might more fully support or utilize the Friend’s ministry.

The clerk of the spiritual care committee or the Friend may summarize main points or
concerns raised in the session. This can clarify both the matters that have been covered, as
well as those that have not been adequately covered
In recent years, some Friends have expressed interest in the opportunities and challenges
afforded by a relationship between an individual Friend and a spiritual nurturer. Many of the
guidelines above that apply to a spiritual care committee could also be useful in supporting and
guiding this relationship. The worship and ministry committee of the meeting would have a
particular responsibility in selecting and training spiritual nurturers.
H. Preparing Minutes


Minutes for Religious Service. Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting has prepared detailed
guidelines for a meeting to consider in responding to a member who feels called to religious
service. The three sections of this pamphlet deal with discernment of the call, oversight and
support of the person who is called, and funding guidelines. One of the responsibilities
assigned to the monthly meeting is to prepare a minute for religious service, or traveling
minute. Such a minute should identify the nature of the proposed religious service, the kinds
of support undertaking that service might entail, the formation of a support/oversight
committee to work with the person involved, and a statement of the anticipated duration of
the ministry. quakercloud.org/cloud/central-philadelphia- monthlymeeting/resources/responding-calls-ministry.
Minutes of Concern. Monthly meetings may be asked to consider minutes of concern relating
to current issues regarding peace and social justice. Such minutes may come from an
individual with a leading, or from a committee such as the peace and social concerns
committee. It is helpful if a minute of concern includes a set of one or more action steps: for
instance, that the minute, if approved at a meeting for business of the meeting be submitted to
the appropriate quarterly meeting and then, after seasoning and approval, submitted to the
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
yearly meeting for consideration and approval. There should also be a clear statement of
what each body—the monthly, quarterly and yearly meeting—is being asked to do in order to
support those seeking to address a concern. It is also expected that the minute will include a
statement of the concern itself, the origin of the concern, and the person or committee which
is seeking approval of the minute and support for whatever action steps are involved.
Memorial Minutes. Some meetings continue the practice of preparing a memorial minute on
the death of a member or attender. Such minutes are focused on the contributions of that
person to the life of the meeting, and perhaps to the quarterly and yearly meeting and to other
Quaker organizations. If the person offered vocal ministry during meetings for worship, the
minute might indicate the nature of that ministry and its impact on the meeting. If the person
served on committees of the meeting, or as an officer, this would be noted. Though a
memorial minute might indicate the surviving members of the person’s family, it is not an
obituary and usually does not include statements relating to the person’s profession or
activities outside the meeting.
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VIII. Resources
This section provides a selection of references to books, pamphlets and on-line documents which
may be helpful to meetings and their officers as they set about the tasks involved in conducting
the business of the meeting.
A. Managing Quaker Business Processes
 Mathilda Navias, Quaker Process for Friends on the Benches. Quaker Publishing
Corporation, 2012. This is a comprehensive account of the most basic practices and
procedures involved in the conduct of Quaker business. Available separately, as a pdf, is
Sample Forms, Letters, Minutes and Reports to accompany Quaker Process for Friends on
the Benches. This includes: sample letters for an application for membership, a transfer of
membership, and a request to be married under the care of a monthly meeting; and forms to
be used to simplify end-of-life planning.
 Barry Morley, Beyond Consensus: Salvaging the Sense of the Meeting, Pendle Hill Pamphlet
# 307.
 Principles of Good Practice for Boards and Every Trustee of Quaker Organizations, 2005.
This publication is adapted from Principles of Good Practice for Friends School Boards &
Every Friends School Trustee, written by Arthur Larrabee in consultation with the Board of
Directors of the Friends Council on Education.
 Rosalie Bond, Treasurer’s Guide Manual. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 2008. This is
available as a pdf from pym.org.
 Elizabeth Muench, Friendly Audits: Guidance for those asked to review Quaker accounts
and for those who keep them. QuakerPress of FGC, 1990. This is available as an eBook from
quakerbooks.org.
 Quakerbooks.org. An online bookstore with books and pamphlets on such topics as: meeting
for business, meeting roles (clerk, recording clerk, elders, and archivists), meeting finances,
meetinghouses and properties.
B. Nurturing the Spiritual Needs and Gifts of Members and Attenders
 Pastoral Care Newsletter. Between 1993 and 2012, the Pastoral Care Working Group of
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting published some 76 editions of the Pastoral Care Newsletter.
These are available as pdfs from pym.org. In addition, a collection of articles from the first
10 years of the Pastoral Care Newsletter has been published under the title Grounded in
God: Care and Nurture in Friends Meetings, edited by Patricia McBee and published by
QuakerPress, 2002. This is available as an eBook from quakerbooks.org.
 Quaker Aging Resources at quakeragingresources.org is a collaborative project of
Philadelphia and New York yearly meetings
 Spiritual Care Committee. A pamphlet prepared by the School of the Spirit Ministry. The
pamphlet is available online at schoolofthespirit.org/programs/the-spiritual-care-committee.
 Friends General Conference has many resources to help meetings with outreach and
welcoming: fgcquaker.org/resources/you-are-welcome- here-booklet- learnings-quakerquest.
219
C. Answering Questions about Quaker Faith, Practice and Witness
There are numerous websites that can be used to find answers to a wide range of questions that
meetings or their members and attenders may have about all things Quaker. Many answers can
be found at the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting website, pym.org, or the Friends General
Conference website, fgcquaker.org. Other online sources for information about Quakers include:
 quakerinfo.org (Quaker Information Center)
 quakerinfo.com
 quaker.org
 quakerquaker.org
There is a list of current Quaker blogs available at Planet Quaker: planet.quaker.org.
Online glossaries may be found at:



pym.org/publications/pym-pamphlets/quaker-manual-of-style-and-glossary
quakerinfo.org/resources/glossary
fwccamericas.org/publications/images/FWCC1994.pdf. This resource includes a
Spanish/English glossary with advice to translators
In addition, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting library (located at 1515 Cherry Street in
Philadelphia) is an important resource for books and other materials relating to Quakers,
particularly in the Philadelphia area.
D. Preservation of Records
Historical records of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and many of its constituent monthly meetings
have been deposited with Friends Historical Library and housed at either the Haverford Quaker
Collection or at Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. These two institutions work
together to maintain the records for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and other Friends groups and
individuals. A third partner, Bryn Mawr College, maintains a guide to the three libraries,
including these archives:
trilogy.brynmawr.edu/speccoll/pymcomm.htm
Friends meetings are encouraged to deposit monthly meeting minutes and reports with Friends
Historical Library; these records remain the property of the originating meeting or its sucessor(s)
and are carefully stored and available for research. Questions about the process of depositing
meeting records should be directed to the Curator or Archivist at Friends Historical Libary.
In 1989, the Records Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting first published a Handbook on
Records: their Creation, Maintenance, and Preservation in the Meeting.
trilogy.brynmawr.edu/speccoll/bym/Handbook%20on%20Records3.htm
220
Sources of Extracts Contained in the Narrative
Advices; paraphrased from statements contained in epistles of the Yearly Meeting of
Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, 1694 and 1695
Barclay, Robert; An Apology for the True Christian Divinity: Proposition 2, Section 1; Friends
Book Store, Philadelphia, 1908
Declaration to Charles II 1660; Yearly Meeting, Britain; Quaker Faith and Practice, 1995,
segment 24.04
Elders at Balby; The Elders and Brethren send unto the Brethren in the North, Letters, etc., of
Early Friends, A. R. Barclay, ed., London, Harvey and Darton, 1841, Postscript to an epistle
issued by a meeting of elders at Balby, 1656
Fox, George; Journal, Nickalls, ed., London Yearly Meeting, 1975
Gwyn, Douglas, A Sustainable Life: Quaker Faith and Practice in the Renewal of Creation. 2013
Kelly, Thomas; Reality of the Spiritual World, Pendle Hill Pamphlet 21, 1942
Woolman, John; The Journal and Major Essays, Phillips P. Moulton, ed., New York, Oxford
Univ. Press, 1971
221
Biographical Notes of Authors
“May the light prevail over the darkness, may those who are here speak for all the
children of the Light, to the needs of other times as well as their own.”
Christian Faith and Practice in the Experience of the Society of Friends
(London Yearly Meeting 1960), Introduction to Chapter 1, p. 2.
The notes below will enable readers to learn more about the authors of the extracts. We have
attempted to present accurate information, but realize there may be errors. Please send
corrections to: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479.
The biographical notes are in alphabetical order with years of the person’s life when known,
followed by the numbering of the extract(s) by the author. Abbreviations include:
AFSC = American Friends Service Committee,
FCNL = Friends Committee on National Legislation
FGC = Friends General Conference
FWCC = Friends World Committee for Consultation
PhYM = Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
MARGERY POST ABBOTT [#22, 26] is the author of To Be Broken: A Quaker Theology for
Today, and several Pendle Hill Pamphlets and anthologies of Quaker writings. She is a graduate
of Swarthmore College and lives in Portland, OR.
NANCY C. ALEXANDER [#219] has served as a lobbyist for FCNL, with a special interest in
conflict resolution as applied to energy and environmental policies.
ROBERT BARCLAY (1648-1690) [#19, 40, 104, 199] was educated at the Jesuit Scottish
College in Paris. His Apology for the True Christian Divinity provides the first organized
statement of Quaker beliefs.
ELIZABETH BATHURST (1655-1685) [#233] traveled widely in the ministry in England in
the seven years between becoming a Quaker and her death. Her Truth’s Vindication had almost
disappeared until it was republished in Mary Garman, et al, eds., Hidden in Plain Sight: Quaker
Women’s Writings 1650-1700 (Pendle Hill, 1996).
NANCY BIEBER [# 181] is a teacher, psychologist, retreat leader, and spiritual director. She is
a member of Lancaster Monthly Meeting (PA).
DOROTHEA BLOM (1911-1991) [#20, 91] published nine books on design and color before
embarking on a new career emphasizing art as a link between the spiritual life and the outer
world. She taught for six years at Pendle Hill.
ELIZABETH POWELL BOND (1847-1926) [#76] was called matron when she came to work
at Swarthmore College in the late 1880s. She eventually became the institution’s first dean.
222
GEORGE BOOBYER (1902-1999) [#88] was a Quaker Biblical scholar and head of the
Divinity School at Newcastle University in Great Britain until 1967. He served on the committee
which prepared the New English Bible translation.
ELISE BOULDING (1920-2010) [#244] was a sociologist, feminist, workshop leader and
writer. She was the founder of Friends Peace Teams.
KENNETH E. BOULDING (1910-1993) [#6] taught economics at the University of Michigan
and then the University of Colorado. He wrote widely on a variety of topics, especially conflict
resolution. Friends know Kenneth chiefly as a Quaker poet, who wrote the Naylor Sonnets based
on James Naylor’s last words.
SAMUEL BOWNAS (1676-1753) [#51] was one of the most powerful Quaker ministers in the
18th century.
WILLIAM CHARLES BRAITHWAITE (1862-1922) [#208] was a British Quaker historian
and New Testament scholar. He was the author of The Beginnings of Quakerism and The Second
Period of Quakerism.
HOWARD H. BRINTON (1884-1973) [#55, 101, 202] and his wife Anna Cox Brinton taught
at Earlham and Mills Colleges. In 1938 they went to Pendle Hill, where Howard became director
of studies and Anna director for administration. Together they helped define the mission of
Pendle Hill as a religious community and retreat center for the study of Quaker mysticism. They
began the Pendle Hill pamphlet series and edited 100 of them. Howard also wrote the classic
Friends for 300 Years.
A. BARRET BROWN (1887-1947) [#96] was principal of Ruskin College at Oxford
University.
S. JOCELYN BURNELL [#28, 33, 105] received her Ph.D. in radio astronomy at Cambridge
University where she was involved in the discovery of pulsars. She is chairman of the
department of physics in the Open University (Great Britain) and has served as vice-president of
the Royal Astronomical Society. She is a former clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting.
EDWARD BURROUGH (1633-1663) [#140, 153] was a young farmer and separatist preacher
when recruited by Fox to the Quaker movement in 1652. Burrough was recognized as the
greatest Quaker preacher in London. In 1655 he went with Francis Howgill to establish
Quakerism in Ireland. He became the best-known early tract writer on Quaker doctrine and
politics. Burrough died in Newgate prison.
HENRY J. CADBURY (1883-1974) [#90] was among the foremost Biblical scholars of his day,
serving on the group of translators who produced the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. He
taught at Haverford College and the Harvard Divinity School. In 1947 he accepted the Nobel
Peace Prize for the AFSC wearing a tuxedo borrowed from its clothing workroom.
223
RACHEL R. CADBURY (1880-1969) [#112, 182] was a Friend from Moorestown, New
Jersey.
SAMUEL D. CALDWELL [# 13] is a member of Providence Monthly Meeting (PA) and
served as general secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
from 1981-1990.
ELIZABETH SEALE CARNALL (1935-2015) [# 177] was a member of South East Scotland
Area Meeting.
STEPHEN G. CARY (1915-2002) [#134] was a conscientious objector in World War II. He
worked at AFSC from 1946-1969 in various positions, ending as associate general secretary. In
1969 he became director of development at Haverford College, later serving as acting president
for a year and a half. From 1979-1991, he was clerk of the AFSC board.
RANJIT CHETSINGH [#185] was secretary/convenor of the General Conference of Friends in
India. For sixteen years he was a vice-chairman of the Friends World Committee and was its
general secretary in 1954-56.
SANDRA CRONK (1942-2000) [#174, 218] was a spiritual nurturer, teacher and historian of
religions. For ten years, she taught Quaker faith and thought, spiritual life studies, and religious
community at Pendle Hill. In 1990 she became a founding member of the School of the Spirit, a
ministry of contemplative prayer and religious study.
BEN PINK DANDELION [# 34, 114, 127, 130, 206, 207, 240] is a Reader in Quaker Studies
and directs the work of the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies at Woodbrooke Quaker
Study Centre and the University of Birmingham.
MICHAEL DAWSON [#158] is a member of Princeton Meeting (NJ).
HUGH DONCASTER (1914-1994) [#3] taught Quaker history at Woodbrooke, the English
Quaker study center, from 1942-1964.
RACHEL DAVIS DuBOIS (1892-1993) [#187] developed the Living-room Dialogues method,
which she used with inter-racial groups as an aid to mutual understanding. She later introduced
the method to the Society of Friends in the form of Quaker Dialogues with sessions on meeting
for worship, meeting for business and outreach. This may have been the beginning of the idea of
worship sharing.
CHRISTIE DUNCAN-TESSMER [# 196] was appointed general secretary of Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting in 2014 after serving as both the Associate Secretary for Program and Religious
Life and the Children’s Religious Education Coordinator. She is a member of Chestnut Hill
Monthly Meeting (PA).
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JOESPHINE DUVENEK (1891-1978) [#191] devoted her life to education and activist public
service. She was founder and director of the Peninsula School of Creative Education in
California and a supporter of Cesar Chavez’s Agricultural Workers Union.
ROSEMARY ELLIOTT [#147] is a member of Eastern Cape Regional Meeting, South Africa
Yearly Meeting.
GEORGE ELLIS (1939- ) [# 31, 89] is the Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Complex
Systems in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape
Town in South Africa. He joined the Religious Society of Friends in 1974.
JO FARROW [#184] serves as general secretary of Quaker Home Service in the UK. The
World in my Heart is her spiritual autobiography.
MARGARET FELL (1614-1702) [#85, 139, 204] was the wife of Judge Thomas Fell of
Swarthmoor Hall, near Ulverston in Lancashire. After meeting with George Fox in 1652 she
made her house (with her husband’s permission) the center for the Quaker movement. In 1669,
eleven years after Judge Fell’s death, Margaret Fell married George Fox, though their active life
of travels and imprisonments prevented them from living much together at Swarthmoor Hall.
VAL FERGUSON [#250] was for a long time a staff member at the London office of FWCC,
including being general secretary from 1986-91.
EILEEN FLANAGAN [#133, 228] is a member of Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting (PA) and is
active with the Earth Quaker Action Team.
RICHARD FOSTER [#50] is the author of Celebration of Discipline and has been part of the
pastoral team at Newberg Friends Church in Oregon.
ELFRIDA VIPONT FOULDS (1902-1992) [#54, 97, 155] was a noted British Quaker. She
conducted pilgrimages to ‘the 1652 country’ in Northwestern England for many years and
prepared a guidebook for independent visits to this region. She is the author of The Story of
Quakerism and several books about Quakerism for young people.
CAROLINE FOX (1819-1871) [#77] established friendships with the Coleridges, Carlyles and
Mills; her journal is an important source of information about them. She called her approach to
religion Quaker-Catholicism, though today we would call it Quaker Universalism.
GEORGE FOX (1624-1691) [#11, 23, 81, 164] was a charismatic preacher who gathered a
group of followers in the early 1650s to establish the Quaker movement. He survived persecution
and, with his wife, Margaret Fell, laid the administrative foundation of the Religious Society of
Friends.
URSULA FRANKLIN (1921-2016) [#45] was a materials scientist and university professor,
and a feminist and activist for peace and justice. She gathered and analyzed data on the
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strontium-90 accumulation in the teeth of Canadian children that was the result of fallout from
nuclear weapons tests.
ELIZABETH GURNEY FRY (1780-1845) [#216] was the daughter of a banker and member
of a prominent Quaker family. In 1813 she began visiting women and children in Newgate
Prison, London, and by 1817 she had established a school and founded a prisoners’ aid society.
NEWTON GARVER (1928-2014) [# 172] was a member of Orchard Park Quaker Meeting,
New York Yearly Meeting. He was a University at Buffalo philosophy professor, peace activist,
and a founder of the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund.
THOMAS GATES [# 32, 94, 113, 221] is a member of Lancaster Monthly Meeting (PA), a
physician, and a graduate of The School of the Spirit’s Spiritual Nurturer Program.
THOMAS and ELIZABETH GATES [# 143] went with their two young sons to live and work
at Friends Hospital at Lugulu in Kenya from 1991-1994. They are members of Lancaster
Monthly Meeting (PA).
HARVEY GILMAN [#242] for many years did outreach work for Friends Home Service
Britain. He is known for his writings on spiritual hospitality and the necessity for welcoming
strangers and minorities to our Meetings.
MARGARET GLOVER [#123] lives in London where she is an artist and peace activist.
GEORGE GORMAN (1916- 1982) [#201] was Assistant Secretary and then General Secretary
of Friends Home Service Committee of Britain Yearly Meeting. He was the author of two books
on Quakers: Introducing Quakers and The Amazing Fact of Quaker Worship.
CONNIE MCPEAK GREEN [# 79] is a member of Cleveland (Ohio) Meeting and served as a
hospice nurse for 32 years, helping people to complete their inner work and die with grace.
STEPHEN GRELLET (1773-1855) [#108] was born into a noble Roman Catholic family in
Limoges, France. He fought in a counter-revolutionary army, was taken prisoner and then
emigrated to the United States where he became a Quaker. He carried his ministry to all parts of
the United States and Europe.
MARTHA (MARTY) PAXSON GRUNDY [# 79, 145, 224, 225] is a member of Cleveland
Meeting (OH) and is active in FGC.
DOUGLAS GWYN (1948- ) [#161] has been a Friends pastor, a teacher, and a staff member at
Pendle Hill and at Woodbrooke. He is the author of several books, including: The Covenant
Crucified: Quakers and the Rise of Capitalism; Apocalypse of the Word: The Life and Message
of George Fox; and A Sustainable Life: Quaker Faith and Practice in the Renewal of Creation.
226
DEBORAH HAINES (1947- ) [#141] coordinated the Centennial observances of FGC in
2000.She is a professionally-trained historian and a member of Swarthmore Monthly Meeting
(PA).
PAMELA HAINES [# 194] is a member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (PA) and is
active in peace, justice, and environmental work in PhYM.
JONDHI HARRELL [# 223] is a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting (PA). He is the
Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Returning Citizens which offers
comprehensive services for prisoners and formerly incarcerated people in the areas of re-entry,
pre-entry, and advocacy.
EARL G. HARRISON, JR. (1936-2003) [# 151] was a leading Quaker educator serving as
head of school at Westtown School (PA) and Sidwell School (Washington, DC).
T. EDMUND HARVEY (1875-1955) [#72] was born in Leeds, England. He served in
Parliament for 18 years, during both world wars. He supported the rights of conscientious
objectors and worked to provide relief for the victims of war.
HARRIET HEATH [# 248] is a member of Radnor Monthly Meeting (PA) and is a licensed
developmental psychologist, and a certified school psychologist. She is the founder and director
of the Parent Center at Bryn Mawr College which provides parent programs at the college and in
the community.
EMILY HIGGS [# 226] is a member of Lancaster Monthly Meeting (PA) and has served as the
Director of Quaker Affairs for Haverford College and on the Board of the Young Adult Friends
Leadership Institute.
HELEN HOLE (1906-1983) [#243] was involved in Quaker education throughout her life. She
served as dean of Earlham College and was a member of the Pendle Hill Board.
DOROTHY HUTCHINSON (1905-1984) [#132] joined the Society of Friends in 1948 and was
a member of Abington Meeting. During World War II she founded Peace Now, which was an
effort to shift American policy from unconditional surrender to negotiation.
AYESHA (CLARK-HALKIN) IMANI [#10] is a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting
(PA). She founded two charter schools and has led workshops to help Quakers and others
uncover and dismantle racism.
YUKIO IRIE (1908- ) [#18] was a Japanese Friend and professor of English at Tokyo
University. He studied at Woodbrooke (England) in 1956-57.
GABBREELL JAMES [# 213] is a member of Green Street Monthly Meeting (PA) and has
served on Friends General Conference’s Central Committee and various Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting committees.
227
THOMAS H. JEAVONS [# 99] was general secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting from
1996-2006. He is a member of Swarthmore Monthly Meeting (PA).
FRED JENSEN [# 30] is a member of Buffalo Meeting (NY).
RUFUS M. JONES (1863-1948) [#9, 15, 95, 111, 157] was a professor at Haverford College,
who wrote numerous books about Quakerism and worked to turn Friends toward a mystical and
prophetic Christianity. He edited the American Friend for 20 years, and was the first chairman of
the board of the AFSC, serving from 1917 to 1928.
SHEILA KEANE [# 75] is a graduate of the School of the Spirit’s Spiritual Nurturer program
and the Earlham School of Religion. She is a member of Red Cedar Meeting (MI).
THOMAS R. KELLY (1893-1941) [#8, 39, 59, 61, 63, 69, 70, 83, 131, 138, 180] was a
professor of religion and philosophy at Wilmington, Earlham and Haverford colleges. In the last
three years of his life he produced several devotional classics, including A Testament of Devotion
and The Reality of the Spiritual World.
PAUL LACEY [#128, 144] taught English at Earlham College from 1960 to 2003, where he has
also been provost and acting president. He has led workshops at Pendle Hill on literary topics,
and conducted a workshop for teachers new to Friends schools under the auspices of the Friends
Council on Education. He was involved with AFSC beginning in 1954, and served as its clerk
from 2001 to 2010.
DIANA LAMPEN [#193] with her husband, John Lampen, has worked in a school for
delinquent boys and on peace-making projects in Northern Ireland. She now leads workshops on
mediation and on end of life issues.
JOHN LAMPEN [# 68, 159] is a Quaker educator and writer.
MARGERY MEARS LARRABEE (1919-2008) [# 227, 241] was a member of Mt. Holly
Meeting (NJ). She was a psychotherapist, teacher, and facilitator of workshops and retreats for
FGC and PhYM. She helped initiate Friends Counseling Service and Friends Servant Leadership
Institute.
JOE LEVINGER [# 126] is a member of Albany Friends Meeting (NY).
WILLIAM LITTLEBOY (1853-1936) [#93] was a highly respected clerk of London Yearly
Meeting.
KATHLEEN LONSDALE (1903-1971) [#122] was a crystallographer and the first woman
elected to the Royal Society in the physical sciences. She and her husband joined the Society of
Friends in 1935. In 1943 she spent a month in Holloway prison as a conscientious objector.
PATRICIA LORING [#149, 234] is the author of Listening Spirituality and taught at Pendle
Hill for 5 terms. She is a member of Bethesda Friends Meeting (MD).
228
MABLE LUGALYA [#119] is co-pastor with her husband, Alfred, of a Quaker meeting in
Nairobi, Kenya.
GORDON MACPHAIL (1956-1991) [#178] was a British Friend who gave up general practice
as a physician to do full-time hospice work for people with AIDS.
HOWARD MACY [#98] is professor of religion and biblical studies at George Fox College in
Newberg (OR). He is the author of Rhythms of the Inner Life, which explores the deeper
spirituality to be found in the Psalms.
MARCELLE MARTIN [#43, 73, 78, 80] is a member of Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting (PA)
and has served as teacher and spiritual nurturer at Pendle Hill. She is a graduate of the School of
the Spirit’s program on Contemplative Living and Prayer and the author of, Our Life is Love: the
Quaker Spiritual Journey.
IRENE MCHENRY [#152] is a member of Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting (PA) and a leader
in Friends education, having served as head of school at two Friends schools and as executive
director of the Friends Council on Education.
NOAH BAKER MERRILL [#24, 62] is a member of Putney Friends Meeting (VT).
BARRY MORLEY (1932-2000) [#150] taught at Quaker schools and worked with Quaker
camps. He also offered spiritual retreats with the Inward Bound program of Baltimore Yearly
Meeting.
JENNIFER MORRIS [#188] was born into an English Quaker family in the 1940s and taught
speech and drama.
LUCRETIA MOTT (1793-1880) [#103] was a recorded Hicksite minister. She became a major
national figure in both the anti-slavery and feminist movements.
ESTHER MURER (1935- ) [#148, 215] writes for the newsletter of Central Philadelphia
Monthly Meeting and edits Types and Shadows, a quarterly published by the Fellowship of
Quakers in the Arts. She has prepared a computerized index to scriptural references in the
writings of George Fox and other early Friends.
CAROL MURPHY (1916-1994) [#183, 238] wrote 17 Pendle Hill pamphlets dealing with
religious philosophy, psychology, comparative religion and methods of spiritual growth. She is a
member of Swarthmore Meeting (PA).
JANET MUSTIN [#16, 41] is an artist who works in print making and with oils. She is a
member of Lansdowne Monthly Meeting (PA).
JAMES NAYLOR (1617-1660) [#5] was a major leader in the early Quaker movement. In
1656, he permitted enthusiastic followers to strew garments in his path as he rode into Bristol,
229
England on a donkey. He was tried for blasphemy and cruelly punished. Released from prison in
1659, Naylor died the following year after being robbed and beaten while travelling toward his
home in the north.
URSULA JANE O’SHEA [#220] is an Australian Friend who served on the staff at
Woodbrooke for three years.
PARKER J. PALMER [#232] is a writer and teacher with a particular interest in the spiritual
life of educators. He has been dean of Pendle Hill and a staff member at the ecumenical St.
Benedictene Retreat Center in Wisconsin. He is now a senior associate of the American
Association for Higher Education.
ALEXANDER PARKER (1628-1689) [#35] was one of the earliest Quakers. He urged Charles
II to release imprisoned Friends and accompanied George Fox on his later travels.
ISAAC PENINGTON (1617-1679) [#82, 84, 92, 246] was the son of a leader in Cromwell’s
Parliament. He joined the Quaker movement when he was 42, and was both fined and
imprisoned for his faith. He is particularly recognized for his spiritual writings.
MARY PROUDE SPRINGETT PENINGTON (1644-1682) [#66, 175], the wife of Isaac
Penington, wrote an autobiography, which she hid in a wall. It was found forty years later.
SU PENN [# 229] is a member of Red Cedar Meeting (MI), Lake Erie Yearly Meeting. She
blogs about Quakerism, among other topics.
WILLIAM PENN (1644-1718) [#4, 37, 110, 116] was an Admiral’s son who became a Friend
and promoter of religious freedom. He founded a colony in Pennsylvania, which he called a Holy
Experiment. He was the author of many books and pamphlets, most notably No Cross, No Crown
and the Fruits of Solitude.
EMILY B. H. PHILLIPS [# 249] was a graduate of George School and a member of Gwynedd
Monthly Meeting (PA).
CLARENCE PICKETT (1884-1965) [#142] served as a Friends pastor, and as secretary of the
American Young Friends Movement. He headed the AFSC from 1929 to 1950, overseeing the
expansion of its mission and program work beyond war relief.
EVA J. PINTHUS [#166] was a German Friend who fled the Nazis and settled in England.
ELMYRA (AMHARA) POWELL [# 44] is a member of Orange Grove (CA) Meeting.
JOHN PUNSHON (1935- ) [#124, 212] was a tutor at Woodbrooke and, later, a professor at the
Earlham School of Religion. He is a recorded minister of Indiana Yearly Meeting and the author
of Portrait in Grey, a modern history of the Society of Friends.
230
LISA RAND [# 74] is a member of Unami Monthly Meeting (PA) and has been a staff member
at Friends Journal.
CHRISTINA REPOLEY [#120, 209, 222] is a member of the Atlanta Meeting (GA). She is the
founding executive director of Quaker Voluntary Service. She has been active with the
American Friends Service Committee and Friends General Conference’s Youth Ministries
Committee.
PAUL RICKETTS [# 210] is a member of Fort Wayne Meeting (IN). He is active on
committees of both AFSC and FGC.
CLIVE SANSOM (1910-1981) [#58] was an Australian Friend and a published poet.
PAT SAUNDERS [#21] is a Canadian Friend who worked on environmental and development
issues for Quaker Peace & Service (Britain).
VIRGINIA SCHURMAN [#230] serves on the board of the Tract Association of Friends and is
active in the Spiritual Formation Program of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. A microbiologist, she
wrote George Fox and the Care of Creation.
JANET SCOTT [#217], a British Friend, is head of the religious studies department of
Homerton College at Cambridge University.
JOB SCOTT (1751-1793) [#7] anticipated major themes of the Hicksite movement. Some
statements in his Journal (published in 1797) upset evangelicals.
DANIEL A. SEEGER [#102] is an active Universalist Friend. He headed the regional office of
AFSC in New York City and served as executive secretary of Pendle Hill. The law case he
brought during the Korean War establishes the right of conscientious objection for those not
officially members of any church but who are believers in a Supreme Being, which was his own
position at the time.
ADAM SEGAL-ISAACSON [#251, 252] is a member of Brooklyn Friends Meeting (NY).
LAVERNE MARIA (LVM) SHELTON [#46] is a member of Montpelier Meeting (VT), and
was a Friend in Residence at Pendle Hill.
STEVEN SMITH [#125] is a member of Claremont Monthly Meeting (Pacific Yearly Meeting).
He taught in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna
College in Claremont, California.
DANIEL O. SNYDER [# 100] is a member of the Swannanoa Valley Friends Meeting a
pastoral psychotherapist in Black Mountain, NC.
231
NIYONO SPANN [#162] is a member of Chester Monthly Meeting (PA) and is a musician and
organizational consultant specializing in leadership, transformation, and beyond diversity
training.
DOROTHY STEERE (1907-2003) [#189] was involved with AFSC from 1945 to 1980, as a
workcamp leader and in other capacities. Her essays were published in various Quaker journals;
she wrote a pamphlet, The Whole World in His Hands, in 1965. She was a member of Radnor
Meeting.
DOUGLAS V. STEERE (1901-1995) [#64, 121, 173, 231] was a member of the department of
religion at Haverford College. He was prominent in the rebirth of Radnor (PA) Monthly Meeting
and led the work camp movement in Finland after World War II. His book Dimensions of Prayer
is a Quaker classic.
CAROLINE E. STEPHEN (1834-1909) [#38, 237] interpreted the Quaker heritage in a
dynamic way to young people and others who may have taken it for granted. Her Quaker
Strongholds, published in 1890, influenced a whole generation.
JANE STOKES [# 169] was a British Friend and writer.
WILL TABER [# 12] is a Quaker blogger from Arlington, MA.
FRANCES IRENE TABER (1930- ) [#136] grew up among Conservative Quakers in Iowa and
Ohio Yearly Meetings. She has lived and worked among Friends in New England, Indiana and
Pennsylvania, between intervals at Barnesville (OH) where she had a variety of roles at Olney
School. While at Pendle Hill she became particularly interested in solitary silent retreats; she also
became a core teacher on spiritual nurturing for the School of the Spirit.
WILLIAM P. TABER (1927-2005) [#57, 65, 86, 214] had life-long roots among the
Conservative (unprogrammed) Friends of eastern Ohio. He was a teacher and administrator at the
boarding school in Barnesville (Olney School) for 20 years. He was made a recorded minister in
1966. He taught Quaker Studies and the Prophets at Pendle Hill.
TONYA THAMES TAYLOR [# 53] is a member of Fallowfield Monthly Meeting (PA) and
teaches history at West Chester University. She is director of the African American Minor, chair
of the Multicultural Faculty Commission, chair of the Executive Committee of the Frederick
Douglass Institute, and the director of the FDI Summer Scholars Program at West Chester
University.
AGNES L. TIERNEY (1868-1947) [#67] taught at Germantown Friends School (Philadelphia)
and served on the board of the Friends Freedman’s Association from 1909 until her death in
1947.
FREDERICK B. TOLLES (1915-1975) [#156] was a distinguished Quaker historian and
scholar. He was director of the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College. His books
included Quakers and the Atlantic Culture and Meeting House and Counting House.
232
N. JEAN TOOMER (1894-1967) [#42, 48] was active with Friends in the 1940s, when he
wrote for Friends Intelligencer, and was a popular leader of the high school group at Friends
General Conference.
CAROL REILLY URNER [#247] works on disarmament issues for the Women’s International
League for Peace & Freedom. She is a member of Sarasota (FL) Meeting.
JOSEPHINE VALLENTINE (1946- ) [#160] is a member of the Australian Parliament. She
refers to herself as an “eco-feminist.”
ELIZABETH GRAY VINING (1902-1999) [#186, 190, 195] served as a tutor to the crown
prince of Japan during the American occupation (1946-50). The book she wrote about that
experience, Windows for the Crown Prince, was a best-seller. Friends also value her biography
of Rufus Jones, her novel The Virginia Exiles, and her devotional anthologies.
MARY WADDINGTON [#107] is a member of Salem Monthly Meeting (NJ) and is an
accomplished photographer. She is a strong supporter of Quakers in the Arts.
TERRY WALLACE, SUSAN SMITH, JOHN SMITH, ARTHUR BERK, EDS. [#
205]edited Michael Hatfield's draft study of Friends faith and witness. They are members of
Ohio Yearly Meeting.
ELIZABETH WATSON (1914-2006) [#192] became a Quaker speaker and writer. Her book
Wisdom’s Dauqhters imagines the stories of the women around Jesus.
DANIEL WILSON (1913-2003) [#29] worked for AFSC and then at Pendle Hill from 19501970, serving as director for 15 years.
LLOYD LEE WILSON (1947- ) [#56, 87] is a member of Virginia Beach Friends Meeting. He
is a former clerk of North Carolina Yearly Meeting Conservative and a former general secretary
of FGC.
ROGER WILSON (1906-1991) [#129] was in charge of British Friends’ relief work in France
and Germany after World War II as secretary of the Friends War Victims Relief Committee. He
later served as clerk of London Yearly Meeting.
JOHN WOOLMAN (1720-1772) [#52, 60, 66, 109, 117, 170, 203] has been called “America’s
Quaker saint.” This tailor from Mount Holly (NJ) combined simplicity of life-style and
transcendent spirituality in the service of strong social concerns—particularly for the abolition of
slavery.
JILLIAN WYCHEL and DAVID JAMES [#253] are members of Whanganui/Taranaki
Monthly Meeting in Australia. They founded the Rowan Partnership, a freelance consulting
business that works mainly with public bodies and voluntary organizations on team
development, conflict resolution and social justice issues.
233
TAYEKO YAMANOUCHI [#47] was a member of Japan Yearly Meeting, having joined
Friends in 1947 while she was in Shanghai, China. From 1971-76 she was associate secretary of
the FWCC. She wrote Ways of Worship as background material for a study group at the 1979
FWCC Triennial.
ELIZABETH YATES (1905-2001) [#106] was an American Quaker author of historical novels,
a biography of Prudence Crandall, and books of memoirs. She was a member of Monadnock
Monthly Meeting (NH).
MILDRED BINNS YOUNG (1901-1995) [#27] grew up among Wilburite Friends in the midwest. She spent some time at Westtown School, where her husband, Wilmer, was dean of boys.
They also worked for AFSC in the South and were in residence at Pendle Hill from 1955-1961.
JOHN YUNGBLUT (1913-1995) [#14] served twenty years in the Episcopal ministry before
becoming a Quaker in 1960. He became director of Quaker House in Atlanta (GA), a faculty
member at Pendle Hill and later headed two retreat centers. A life-long student of mysticism, he
was inspired by Rufus Jones, Teilhard de Chardin and C.C. Jung.
Sources of Extracts from the Writings of Friends
[Pull this information from the third column in what is now the table form of Extracts from the
Writings of Friends. The Extracts will not be in a table in the printed edition. Include copyright
notice from Britain Yearly Meeting:
Britain Yearly Meeting. Quaker faith & practice. Fifth edition. London: The Yearly Meeting
of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain, 2013
© 2013 The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain
Index
234
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Faith and Practice Revision Group 2009-2016
September 2016 Report
The members of the Faith and Practice Revision Group have prepared this concluding record of our
work in the hope that our experience will be of interest and value to the next hardy band of
revisionists. We were fortunate to have two members with experience in revising the 1997 and 2002
editions. Because we recognize that this connection might not be available in the future, we have
prepared a summary of our work in progress.
1. Formation and Charge
The Faith and Practice Revision Group was formed by yearly meeting in session in July 2009.
Members of the original group included Annette Benert, Joan Broadfield, Martha Bryans, Howard
Cell, Gretchen Castle, Sandy Horne, and Bill Smith, with Wright Horne as PHYM staff. Sandy
Horne was unable to serve long, and Ann Yasuhara joined the group. Gretchen Castle served as
clerk until 2012, when she took a new job in London. Martha Bryans then became clerk. Ann died
in 2014. Bill left for Hawaii for two years and then rejoined us. Sallie Jones joined the committee in
2015.
The Nominating Committee of the yearly meeting authorized us to co-opt individuals as needed to
join in our work. We proceeded on this basis to engage Friends for specific tasks for finite periods
of time.
The charge to the committee was to align the text with actual practices in governance and structure;
to correct factual errors; and to “bring the book up to date.”
2. Meetings and Retreats
We met monthly for a total of 69 times for 3-4 hours each session over the course of seven years;
generally we did not meet in August. Included in the 69 meetings were 3 telephone conferences and
9 retreats when we gathered for a full day or a day and a half. Initially, we held meetings in
members’ homes; during the final two years, we met at Friends Center. Because all members of the
group were retired or semi-retired, we normally met on a weekday. We held retreats at
Downingtown Friends Meeting and Pendle Hill.
3. Expenses
With the exception of costs for the Pendle Hill retreats, expenses were minimal. Members could be
reimbursed for travel, but generally underwrote their own computing, printing and copying
expenses. The yearly meeting bore the costs of copying promotional materials for continuing
session in March 2016 and for printing 5 copies of the proposed revision for annual sessions in July
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2016. The yearly meeting also paid for the services of a copy editor who reviewed the entire
manuscript during the spring of 2016.
4. Process
Every meeting of the committee was planned and documented. The clerk was responsible for the
agenda (circulated in advance) and two others on the committee prepared minutes of every meeting.
Email was the primary means of communication. Drafts of documents were composed and
distributed in Word and identified by the author and date of the revision. We attempted to use
Google Docs but soon found the program difficult to navigate and so returned to the practice of
sharing revisions by email.
The yearly meeting staff provided support primarily by managing communications with monthly
meeting clerks and posting notices and drafts on the website. The communications staff assisted in
conducting several on-line polls using Survey Monkey.
5. Reports to Annual Sessions
From 2009 through 2016 our group has reported its progress to Friends during annual sessions.
Those reports (with the exception of the 2011) are appended.
6. Feedback from Friends
Soliciting the feedback from meetings and individuals was a crucial component of our work. Over
the course of seven years, more than half the monthly meetings participated in some way. Early in
the process, we determined that we would not follow the same practice as that used in the 1997
edition in which the yearly meeting held frequent called sessions to consider the book chapter by
chapter. Instead, we created specific opportunities to engage Friends, learn from meetings about
their experiences and practices, and benefit from the editing skills of many in our community.
Throughout the book we have endeavored to be descriptive, rather than prescriptive, of the
practices in use in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and its constituent monthly meetings.
Specific opportunities for feedback included:
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Review of the general queries by the Eco-Justice Working Group, as mandated by the 2005
minute approved by the yearly meeting (2010)
Consideration of beliefs, practices, and worship sections (annual sessions 2011)
Use of Survey Monkey questions to elicit ways meetings mark life transitions, use clearness
committees, and how care and council committees do their work (sent to 138 clerks of
meetings and care committees; 59 responses) (June 2012)
Consideration of The Light Within, our first presentation during sessions, with many note
cards turned in! (annual sessions 2012)
Consideration of alternative and revised general queries (annual sessions 2012)
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Seasoning of the reorganization of the book, historical background, meeting checklist, and
review of extracts with co-opted invitees (including yearly meeting general secretary and
presiding clerk) at retreat (February 2013)
Consideration of the meeting checklist (formerly “supplemental queries”) (annual sessions
2013)
Receiving Survey Monkey feedback from meeting clerks on the revised meeting checklist; 43
meetings responded (January 2014)
Consideration of the General Queries (annual sessions 2014)
Monthly meeting review of “experience and faith,” “faith reflected in our daily lives,” and
“faith reflected in our organization” (April 2014)
Coordination with long range planning clerks (March 2014)
Posting the three sections named above in advance of annual sessions (July 2014)
Sharing a brief history of the editions of Faith and Practice since 1955 at annual sessions (July
2014)
Presenting possible uses of the new section on resources for meetings and tools for
discernment during presentation at annual sessions (July 2014)
Asking for a review of Historical Background by historians (Charles Cherry, Christopher
Densmore, J. William Frost, Doug Gwyn, Thomas Hamm, Larry Ingle, Emma Lapsansky,
Ann Upton) (September 2014)
Sending Survey Monkey review of General Queries to all monthly meetings (March 2015)
Posting and inviting comment on completed drafts of sections I-V; VII; VIII (March-June
2015)
Soliciting favorite quotes and suggestions of new extracts (annual sessions 2015)
Organizing conversation tents (annual sessions 2015)
Soliciting on-line evaluation of extracts and suggestion of new extracts (through December
2015)
Asking clerks and elders to read the draft and offer suggestions (October 2015)
Incorporating new material on aging/end of life (November 2015)
Asking for feedback on all sections (except VI extracts) (due January 31, 2016)
Asking Undoing Racism Group to review sections and/or suggest additions (March 2016)
Posting final drafts of all sections (April and July 2016)
Conducting Work and Witness workshops (annual sessions 2016)
Requesting acceptance at annual sessions – not approved (July 30, 2016)
7. Organization of the Book
A major change in the new edition is the reorganization of the book to include three descriptive
sections (Experience and Faith; Faith Reflected in Practice and Daily Life; Faith Reflected in Our
Organization); and sections on the historical background; Friends organizations; extracts from the
writings of Friends; guidelines and procedures; and resources. A difficulty of the 2002 edition is that
Page 3 of 12
topics are addressed in numerous places throughout the book with no apparent rationale. We
provided overviews in the descriptive sections and detailed information in the new section devoted
to guidelines, checklists, and procedures.
8. Approaches to the Preparation of the Manuscript
In addition to the information gathered from individuals and meetings described above, we invited
several readers to share their perspective on the descriptive sections while they were being prepared.
These readers offered important suggestions on the organization and emphases of the first three
sections of the book, which has been significantly improved by their careful attention to this task.
Five prominent historians reviewed and critiqued the historical background section; we benefitted
from their insights although the current interpretation is our own.
The extracts from the writings of Friends employed quite a different process. Initially, we created a
separate sub-committee to involve more Friends. They set up a process to evaluate the extracts in
the 2002 edition. However, because this committee could not carry itself forward after Ann
Yasuhara’s death, work on the extract section was delayed for a year. At the 2015 annual sessions,
we invited all Friends to submit on-line their favorite quotations from the 2002 edition and to
suggest up to ten new extracts they would like to include. The committee also rated the 2002
extracts and suggested new ones for consideration. As a result, the new edition contains some 250
extracts, of which 100 are new. The general intent in the selection of new extracts has been to
incorporate the voices of PhYM Friends, women, people of color, and young Friends. We drew
heavily on published pieces in Friends Journal and Pendle Hill pamphlets.
We grouped the extracts according to the first three sections of the book, loosely following the
order of the topics those sections discussed.
We also secured copyright permission where needed to publish the new quotations. We operated
under the assumption that extracts from earlier editions were allowable under the fair use doctrine.
In fact, it is likely that securing permissions was unnecessary because of the brevity of the selections.
9. Milestones
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Re-organizing the contents (outline and table of contents) – September 2013
“Seeing the whole” by combing sections into one long document – January 2014
Leading with experience and faith rather than historical introduction – March 2014
Grouping procedures in a new section – March 2014
Winnowing, adding, and compiling extracts – February 2016
Posting the draft for the “first reading” – Spring 2015
Copying editing all sections – Spring 2016
Posting the revised draft for the “second reading” – April 2016

Posting final draft including three additions to correct minor omissions – July 2016
Page 4 of 12
10. Suggestions and Recommendations
At this writing the revision has not been accepted. At the second reading at annual sessions on July
30, 2016, the recommendation to accept the revision was not approved; consideration of the matter
was interrupted and there was not time during sessions for reconsideration.
The revision committee will finalize the draft (correcting the very few typographical errors,
formatting inconsistencies, non-substantive omissions, and preparing the brief biographies of
authors of extracts). We will then request to be laid down.
During the revision process, it became clear to us that many Friends are not using or are unfamiliar
with our current book of Faith and Practice. In some instances, this has been a conscious decision
because the book does not satisfy them or meet their needs. In other instances, it appears to be
benign neglect, oversight, or lack of awareness. We urge our yearly meeting to explore the new
edition of Faith and Practice and reclaim the transformational insights and practices of the Religious
Society of Friends in general and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in particular.
We conclude our work with gratitude for the opportunity to serve together over a long period of
time. Members of the committee appreciated one another and our individual perspectives. We
labored to put into words the diverse experiences of Friends in our yearly meeting. We were blessed
to have the right skills and up-swelling of energy just when we needed them. We believe that the
new edition fulfills the charge entrusted to us and its use will contribute and support a vital
experience, grounded in the Spirit, for Friends in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and beyond.
We recommend that:





A new group be appointed to take the book, once accepted, through layout, proofreading,
indexing, and printing.
The new edition be available online and searchable, as an e-book, and as a printed book
A study guide be developed to enable meetings and readers to explore and discuss the new
edition in groups or individually
The yearly meeting develop a program to encourage all within our yearly meeting to read,
discuss, and apply the rich material in this edition. (Britain Yearly Meeting has a good model
to emulate)
A member of our working group be asked to review the “page proofs” before publication.
Annette Benert, Lehigh Valley
Martha Bryans, Downingtown
Joan Broadfield, Chester
Howard Cell, Germantown
Sallie Jones, Birmingham
William Smith, Moorestown
Page 5 of 12
Annual Session Report 2010
Faith & Practice Revision Project Group
Thank you, Thomas.
Thank you for this opportunity … to speak to you today… to invite your ideas as we take up this work…
and most importantly, thank you for the opportunity to serve Yearly Meeting and the broader
community of Friends in this way. On behalf of the Project Group, we feel grateful, and humbled, and
passionate.
We are passionate about articulating our faith and our practice in ways that are helpful and inspiring.
We have been asked to make revisions because of new governance structures and practices. At the
same time, we see our role as bringing back to Friends any recommended changes that will strengthen
and deepen our understanding of our faith and practice.
The Project Group has met three times, each of us reviewing a different section to bring back to the
group. In this way we are reviewing Faith & Practice in its entirety.



We are committed to seeking existing wisdom in areas where there are significant changes,
asking for input from particular Standing Committees, Working groups, clerks and staff.
We are committed to inviting input from anyone who wants to offer constructive ideas, and will
consider each idea as to how it contributes to the collective whole.
We are committed to bringing our work back to you for approval of revisions to Faith & Practice.
This work requires us to simultaneously hold both the big picture and details: we need to look to the
horizon, scan the spiritual environment, listen and sense and articulate God’s hope for us to live into our
faith. AND we need to ensure that we are clear in expressing the specific ways we work together to
strengthen and deepen our corporate experience. Words are important. It is in the tiny detail of nouns
and verbs and even articles that allows us to grow in our corporate understanding of how God draws us
into spiritual community.
It is a large task, somewhat daunting, and it is energizing.
Please contact any Project Group member with your ideas, whether in writing or to request a meeting.
Members:




Annette Bennert (Lehigh valley Mtg)
Martha Bryans (Downingtown Mtg)
Joan Broadfield (Chester Mtg)
Howard Cell (Germantown Mtg)


Ann Yasahara (Princeton Mtg)
Bill Smith (Moorestown Mtg)

Gretchen Castle
(Doylestown Mtg)
We look forward to hearing from you and to bringing this back to you for your consideration. Thank
you. Gretchen Castle, Clerk
Page 6 of 12
Annual Sessions July 27-31, 2016
Faith and Practice Revision Group
Report to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
2012 Annual Sessions
The Faith and Practice Revision Group, appointed by the yearly meeting in 2009, has been meeting
regularly. Our charge is to make revisions in Faith and Practice specifically to reflect the new governance
structure and practices – and to bring the book “up to date.” Even as we have been working, the structure and
practices of the yearly meeting are changing, and over this time, we have all become accustomed to seeking out
current and specific information by electronic means. While these factors have been in our minds, we have
continued to review the text of our current book of Faith and Practice with minute attention and to immerse
ourselves in the meaning and Spirit of this important source of information and inspiration. In fact, we love this
work and are filled with gratitude for the wisdom and experience of those who have labored before us. Many of
you are in this room today, and the spirits of our ancestors are surely here as well. We respect this historic
wisdom and experience even as we open our hearts and minds to the present and intimations of the future,
seeking the guidance of the Spirit in our work on behalf of the yearly meeting.
Our group now consists of five Friends:
Annette Benert (Lehigh Valley MM, Bucks QM)
Joan Broadfield (Chester MM, Chester QM)
Martha Bryans (Uwchlan MM, Caln QM)
Howard Cell (Germantown MM, Philadelphia QM)
Ann Yasuhara (Princeton MM, Burlington QM)
We appreciate the service, now concluded, of Gretchen Castle, Sandra Horne, and Bill Smith who were
on the original group and helped our work immensely.
The process for revision of Faith and Practice is clearly defined in the 2002 edition. “Any proposed
revisions should be widely circulated and discussed prior to formal acceptance and publication by the yearly
meeting. To assure full opportunity for responsible consideration by the membership, all changes in Faith and
Practice laid before the yearly meeting in annual session for preliminary reading may not be finally accepted
until a year later.”
Today, as last year at Annual Sessions, we invite you to share reactions and insights to a particular
section of text. We are still in a drafting stage, a testing stage, and are not ready to present a text for
“preliminary reading.” Throughout our process, we have invited feedback from the yearly meeting as a whole,
from particular groups, and from those serving in various roles in monthly meetings. Most recently, we
conducted an online survey of those involved with care and counsel/worship and ministry to understand specific
aspects of their work. We will continue to seek such advice as we focus on particular sections of text.
In the coming months, we will ask a group of individuals to read the drafts of whole sections to give us
feedback and comments. This feedback will be an important step in preparing the proposed changes for
consideration at a future annual or called session. We also intend to appoint a small group to assist with the
Extracts from the Writings of Friends section.
In gratitude for this opportunity to work on behalf of our yearly meeting.
Martha B. Bryans, Clerk
Email Contact: [email protected]
Page 7 of 12
Annual Sessions July 27-31, 2016
Faith and Practice Revision Group
2013 Annual Sessions
Report to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
The Faith and Practice Revision Group, appointed by the yearly meeting in 2009, has been
meeting regularly. Our charge is to make revisions in Faith and Practice specifically to reflect the new
governance structure and practices – and to bring the book “up to date.” Even as we have been
working, the structure and practices of the yearly meeting are changing. We continue to review the
text of our current book of Faith and Practice with careful attention and to immerse ourselves in the
meaning and Spirit of this important source of information and inspiration.
Our group now consists of five Friends:
Annette Benert (Lehigh Valley MM, Bucks QM)
Joan Broadfield (Chester MM, Chester QM)
Martha Bryans (Uwchlan MM, Caln QM)
Howard Cell (Germantown MM, Philadelphia QM)
Ann Yasuhara (Princeton MM, Burlington QM)
In 2012-13, we identified two groups of Friends, one advising us on the “Extracts from the
Writings of Friends” section and another reading and commenting on draft sections of text. The
extract group is hard at work while we have just begun to engage the readers. This feedback is an
important step in preparing the revised text for consideration at a future annual or called session of
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Today, as for the past three years at Annual Sessions, we invite you to share reactions and
insights to a particular section of text: the “Meeting Checklist.” In addition to today’s session, the
Meeting Checklist will be sent to monthly meetings via clerks, inviting your suggestions and feedback.
The process for revision of Faith and Practice is clearly defined in the 2002 edition: “Any
proposed revisions should be widely circulated and discussed prior to formal acceptance and
publication by the yearly meeting. To assure full opportunity for responsible consideration by the
membership, all changes in Faith and Practice laid before the yearly meeting in annual session for
preliminary reading may not be finally accepted until a year later.”
We intend to have a substantial portion of the book ready for preliminary reading during
2014. The Faith and Practice Revision Group will work with the PYM Clerks and General Secretary to
develop the best way to accomplish this task.
In gratitude for this opportunity to work on behalf of our yearly meeting.
Martha B. Bryans, Clerk
Email Contact: [email protected]
Page 8 of 12
Annual Sessions July 27-31, 2016
Faith and Practice Revision Group
2014 Annual Sessions
Report to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
The Faith and Practice Revision Group, appointed by the yearly meeting in 2009, has been
meeting regularly. We record with sadness the death on June 11, 2014 of our member, Ann
Yasuhara, who was an integral part of the working group since its formation. We minute our deep
appreciation for her insightful suggestions, deep understanding of and commitment to the Religious
Society of Friends, and her abundant gifts of friendship, humility, intellect, appreciation of beauty,
and joy.
We wish to express our gratitude to the many Friends and monthly meetings who have
provided incredibly helpful feedback as we focus our attention on three main sections of the revised
book of Faith and Practice. These three sections, I. Experience and Faith: II. Faith Reflected in Our
Practice and Daily Lives, and III. Faith Reflected in Our Organization, and the outline of the book, have
been revised and posted on the PYM website on the Faith and Practice Working Group page:
http://www.pym.org/faith-and-practice-revision-group
Limited numbers of reading copies of this material are available during Annual Sessions at the
Faith and Practice table in the hallway and in the Library. We are not asking for time this morning to
review those sections.
We would like to update you on our progress and outline future steps:
July 2014
Post the three main sections of the revised text online
March 2015
Post the remaining sections of the book online (Foreward,
Preface, Historical Background, Wider Religious Fellowship,
Advices and Quotations, Procedures and Tools for Discernment)
Spring 2015
Annual
Sessions
2015
Annual
Sessions
2016
√
Solicit feedback and suggestions for remaining sections
Called session of PYM to review remaining sections of the book
Preliminary (first) reading of entire book
(Second) reading of entire book for acceptance.
If accepted, lay down the Faith and Practice Working Group.
Assign Publications Committee (or other group) the task to
prepare and publish the approved manuscript.
To accomplish this timetable, we have asked PYM Nominating Committee to augment our
group which now consists of four Friends:
Annette Benert (Lehigh Valley MM, Bucks QM)
Joan Broadfield (Chester MM, Chester QM)
Page 9 of 12
Annual Sessions July 27-31, 2016
Martha Bryans (Uwchlan MM, Caln QM), Clerk
Howard Cell (Germantown MM, Philadelphia QM)
We welcome Friends to this service and invite you to speak with Thomas Swain, Clerk of
Nominations Committee if you are interested in joining us. As you can see, the task is focused, of
definite duration, and highly rewarding.
We have prepared a handout, A Brief History of the Editions of Faith and Practice Since 1955,
and welcome your questions and comments. (Working Group members respond).
We feel the flow of moving, living water within our faith community. This rush of fresh living
water is stirring up the silt at the bottom, taking apart log jams, running fresh and clear, and
quenching our thirst. We hope that our work reflects this energy and that the revision of Faith and
Practice captures and expresses that renewal and reinvigoration of our beloved Yearly Meeting.
In gratitude and looking forward,
Martha B. Bryans, Clerk
Email Contact: [email protected]
Page 10 of 12
Annual Sessions July 27-31, 2016
Report to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Annual Sessions
July 30, 2015
The Faith & Practice Revision Working Group reports the following progress:

 The current proposed draft was posted 7/9/2015 on PYM Faith & Practice website
This draft is complete with the exception of Section VI Extracts from the Writings of Friends
 Our report today is intended to constitute a “first reading” of the draft
 Comments from individuals and meetings are welcome! Please submit them by email to
Martha Bryans at [email protected] by January 31, 2016
 All comments will be considered with care by the working group and incorporated as
appropriate
 Section VI will be added after feedback from Friends (see below)
 The completed text will be professionally edited for consistency
 The revised final proposed revision will be posted by April 30, 2016
 The second reading for acceptance will occur at annual sessions July 2016
 Once accepted, the manuscript will be turned over to the publications group for publishing
electronically and in print
Process to Compile Section VI Extracts from the Writings of Friends
 Friends are invited to help identify quotations in the 2007 edition that should be retained in the
new edition – go to the website and indicate your favorites!
 Friends are invited to help identify new quotations from diverse voices for possible inclusion in
the new edition – go to the website and share the quotation, author, date, source, and
monthly/yearly meeting
 Please complete this work by December 31, 2015
Working Group (Originally appointed in 2009)
Annette Benert (Lehigh Valley MM, Bucks QM)
Joan Broadfield (Chester MM, Chester QM)
Martha Bryans (Uwchlan MM, Caln QM), Clerk
Howard Cell (Germantown MM, Philadelphia QM)
Sallie Jones (Birmingham MM, Concord QM)
Bill Smith (Moorestown MM, Haddonfield QM)
Page 11 of 12
Annual Sessions July 27-31, 2016
Faith and Practice Revision Group
Report to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
The Faith and Practice Revision Group is pleased to release the proposed new edition of
Faith and Practice of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to the yearly meeting for its consideration.
This constitutes the second reading and is presented for acceptance. It is our hope that a
great upwelling of creativity will ensue as Friends explore the new book in groups and as
individuals throughout the yearly meeting. We learned in the revision process that many
Friends, new and old, are unfamiliar with our current book. Perhaps the publication of the
new edition will inspire, for example, a sprint group to collect the various ways that meetings
encounter the book.
The revision group deeply appreciates the many suggestions, comments, responses that
Friends throughout the yearly meeting have shared with us over the past 7 years. Since
annual sessions last year, we have received feedback on the draft that was then under
consideration. The revision group addressed all of the suggestions and incorporated a great
many in the draft posted April 30, 2016. In the past three months, several omissions have
been brought to our attention; we have rectified that in the document posted and dated June
30, 2016. The revision group believes that the proposed new edition has been greatly
improved by the participation of many Friends.
We ask that Friends accept the new edition and turn attention to publishing and using the
new book.
Remaining Tasks for the Current Revision Group:
 Complete “Biographical Notes of Authors”
 Secure permission to include remaining new extracts
 Prepare detailed report on the process of revision for future revisionists
 Request that the current revision group be laid down
Additional Steps to Completion by a Successor Group or Individual:
 Prepare index and proofread; design layout
 Print paperback version and post online downloadable searchable version
 Plan for distribution and promote usage among Friends
Working Group (Originally appointed in 2009)
Annette Benert (Lehigh Valley MM, Bucks QM)
Joan Broadfield (Chester MM, Chester QM)
Martha Bryans (Uwchlan MM, Caln QM), Clerk
Howard Cell (Germantown MM, Philadelphia QM)
Sallie Jones (Birmingham MM, Concord QM)
Bill Smith (Moorestown MM, Haddonfield QM)
Page 12 of 12
Faith and Practice Revision Group
Queries for Reading/Using the Revised Faith and Practice:
16 September 2016
General:
1. At this point in your spiritual journey, how does this part of the revision speak to your
condition?
2. How does it speak to the condition of your family life?
3. How does it speak to the condition of your spiritual community?
Specific: These relate to the quotations from the Advices that open most of the sections.
Section I: Experience and Faith—How do I seek to place God at the center of my life and
activities? How does my meeting center God in its life and work?
Section II: Faith Reflected in Practice and Daily Life
A. Community Life—How has our meeting reflected and embodied the Kingdom of God, or
Beloved Community, in its life and work?
B. Personal Life—In what ways have I brought my life and work under the healing and
ordering of Spirit?
Section III: Faith Reflected in our Organization—To what extent does our meeting conduct its
affairs ‘with forbearance and warm affection for each other’?
Section IV: Historical Background—In what ways does the history of our Religious Society, and
its ‘continuing testimony regarding the power of Spirit to lead us out of confusion and violence,’
inform my understanding of and response to the present ‘times of disturbance’?
Section V: Friends and Some of Their Organizations—Which of the organizations identified in
this section are unfamiliar and which would I like to learn more about?
Section VI: Extracts—How might I utilize the Advices and Extracts as I seek to center God in
my life and work? How might my meeting assist in this process?
Section VII: Guidelines and Procedures—In what ways might I and my meeting use these
guidelines and procedures to enhance the effectiveness of our spiritual community?
Section VIII: Resources—How might I and my meeting take advantage of these resources to
enhance the quality of worship and the conduct of business?