Living a Quaker Life, the Testimonies, and Leadings
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III Living a Quaker Life, the Testimonies, and Leadings Faith into action Living a Quaker life follows directly from the (usually) gradual transformation we experience in standing in the Light, in opening our hearts and minds to be reached by the Spirit. We are led by the Spirit into a way of peace, love, and unity; it is our part to attend carefully and to follow faithfully. We seek the leading of the Spirit in our own lives and collectively in our meetings for business. Our faith must be translated into action. The spiritual reality we seek to live by is largely too deep and intimate to be expressed well in words, but it is very down-to-earth. And Quaker experience is that as we act on it we get a firmer grasp of it, and if we do not act on it, we lose the grasp of it, as well as the joy and peace of it. Our conduct comes as a response to the inner promptings of love and unity, rather than from living by a set of rules. Guidelines can be helpful in pointing to the reality or Truth as the early Quakers called it, but Quakers seek to live from inward experience of Truth. The testimonies We have also received from earlier Friends a tradition of shared convictions that we call the testimonies. They are deeply felt, historically rooted attitudes and ways of living in the world that bear witness to the Truth. They reflect the inward experience of the Light as to how to live in the spiritual and temporal reality of this world. There is no single list of the testimonies; five are commonly spoken of: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality. Modern Friends often add the integrity of creation or unity with nature, reflecting our modern awareness and concern about our connection to and the wellbeing of all the non-human world. There is a large Quaker literature on the Testimonies, including commentary in most Faith & Practices. Briefly, Simplicity implies the primacy of God at the center of our lives, shedding distractions. It also expresses our concern with the right sharing of the world’s resources. The testimony of Peace arises from and affirms the experience of the sacredness of every person and the unity of all people arising from that of God in everyone. We are called to be peacemakers and to root out all the causes of strife and violence in our lives and communities. We also work to heal the wounds of war and violence. Integrity is the whole of life open to Truth, so that actions and words and beliefs conform to the Way of the Spirit. It comes out in genuineness in life and dependability in speech and behavior. Equality also arises from recognizing that of God in everyone, so that all must be treated with respect, caring, and integrity. This testimony of equality is still as radical as ever, as it challenges prejudice, privilege, injustice, and domination in the world. Community calls us to caring and respect for all, and witnesses to the unity we experience with all. We extend this realization, caring, and commitment to our community with nature. The implications of our testimonies evolve as the society and world we live in changes. What concerns and witness are we called to now as we live out our testimonies? The Advices and Queries have been developed by Friends to assist us in working out the implications of the Quaker way in our own lives. They can be found in any Faith & Practice, and can be read out in meetings for worship and considered on one’s own. They challenge and inspire us to consider deeply and follow faithfully. 1 Leadings, concerns, and ministry While all Friends are called to integrate the testimonies into the ways of their lives, a leading is a particular call for the individual Friend. A leading is an intimate inner guidance of the Spirit, that reveals a concern about a specific matter and one or more actions to be done. The concern and the actions may be quite specific and time-bound or may be ongoing and gradually develop into an area of personal ministry. The leading often, or even usually, takes time to reveal itself fully, often emerging into increasing clarity as steps are taken in faithfulness. To discern what the leading is and what actions are being called for is a subtle process of attention, faithfulness, and learning the Spirit’s signals. As Paul Lacey says (PHP 264), we are able to see the way only as it opens, and it opens further as we follow it faithfully. Support in this process is very helpful, from loving and challenging people who support our process and are practiced at discernment themselves. A person may find informal support, offer mutual support and discernment with a small group, or request a clearness or oversight committee to be appointed by the meeting. Ministry, among Friends, is service that one is led to offer, within the meeting or in the world. It could be vocal ministry, i.e., speaking as led by the Spirit in meeting for worship. This is a prophetic ministry of expressing what the Spirit gives one to say. It could be one of many other kinds of ministry, such as a ministry of teaching, of support for individuals, of healing, of welcoming newcomers, of music, of support and challenge for spiritual development, of visiting other meetings to forge connections, of peacemaking, or witnessing against oppression, or many others. One’s ministry arises out of ongoing leadings. Discernment and faithfulness are essential; there is always a danger of either outrunning one’s guide or neglecting the guidance. Faithfulness to guidance, in the experience of Friends, is essential to the process of growing in the Spirit. And again as Paul Lacey (PHP 264) says, the risk is that we may search so hard for the transcendent insight that we miss the small quiet promptings, the inward motion of caring, that can only become clear with patient attention and faithfulness to small beginnings. Quaker Service Friends have established numerous organizations to provide service and witness to Friends’ testimonies. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) works in North America and around the world for peace, equality, human rights, war and disaster relief, and more, in very compelling ways. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) works to lobby the federal government on legislation and policy. The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) works at the UN in both New York and Geneva, often bringing together diplomats for off-the-record sessions to communicate and work out issues. Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR) raises funds for grass-roots development and empowerment programs with extremely poor people in India and Africa. Friends United Meeting maintains health care and educational programs in areas where earlier Quaker missionaries worked. Friends in other countries also support service organizations of many kinds. See their websites for more information. Various Friends on Living a Quaker Life -- Quotes The Meeting of Elders at Balby, 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 light which is pure and holy, may be guided; and so in the light 2 walking and abiding, these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not in the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. George Fox Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone, whereby in them ye be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you. Let your lives speak. I told them I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars… I told them I was come into the covenant of peace which was before wars and strifes were. We utterly deny all wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretense whatsoever. And this is our testimony to the whole world. The 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 any war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world. 1661 Margaret Fell We are a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love, and unity. 1660 William Penn It is conformity of mind and practice to the will of God, in all holiness of conversation, according to the dictates of this Divine principle of Light of Life in the soul which denotes a person truly a child of God. John Woolman He tells that he said to a slaveowner, “I cannot write thy will without breaking my own peace,” and respectfully gave him his reasons for it. And about a visit to a slaveowner, “We had to decide what was the practical thing, to spend four days in comfort or to live in peace with ourselves afterwards.” In the beginning of the twelfth month [1758] I joined … in visiting such as had slaves. Some whose hearts were rightly exercised about them appeared to be glad of our visit, but in some places our way was more difficult.