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. I often saw the necessity of keeping down to that root from whence our concern proceeded, and have cause, in reverent thankfulness humbly to bow down before the Lord, who was near to me, and preserved my mind in calmness under some sharp conflicts, and begat a spirit of sympathy and tenderness in me towards some who were grievously entangled by the spirit of this world.

Love was the first motion, and thence a concern arose to spend some time with the Indians, that I might feel and understand their life and the spirit they live in, if haply I might receive some

3 instruction from them, or they be in any degree helped forward by my following the leadings of Truth amongst them.

Harvey Gillman, 1988 For a Quaker, religion is not an external activity, concerning a special ‘holy’ part of the self… There is no part of ourselves and of our relationships where God is not present… It must take into account… our attitudes to other human beings in our most intimate as well as social and political relationships. It must also take account of our life in the world around us, the way we live, the way we treat animals and the environment.

How we relate to people is what we actually believe about them… How we treat others is our personal statement about God… All else is as Friends say a mere notion.

Daniel Seeger, 1984 Spiritual wisdom is not something we know, but it is something we are; it is a quality of being. … We can embody spiritual truth, but we cannot adequately articulate it. … Those who have a grasp of this never engage in debates about doctrine. They know that the Truth is to be lived, not merely to be pronounced by mouth. And they know that by their so living, that which is unutterable will be rendered visible.

Jenny O’Shea, 1993 Backhouse Lecture: Living the way: Quaker Spirituality and Community. Our task is to inaugurate the Way of God in this time and in this land; our tools are our personal experience with the Light Within, and our corporate experience in using collective guidance to discover and enact God’s will in the world. To do this we must not become more like early Friends, but more like ourselves as we are in the eye of God.

Gerald Hewitson We walk over this world, with its obvious darkness, pain, and sorrow, not untouched, but not caught up in its miasma of destruction; resting in God’s love so we can be patterns and examples which call out that of God in everyone.

Wolf Mendl What matters is living our lives in the power of love and not worrying too much about the results. In doing this, the means become part of the end. Hence we lose the sense of helplessness and futility in the face of the world’s crushing problems. We also lose the craving for success, always focusing on the goal to the exclusion of the way of getting there. We must literally not take too much thought for the morrow but throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the present. That is the beauty of the way of love, it cannot be planned and its end cannot be foretold.

Sue Doessel There are issues in using the testimonies as a ready-made answer to what we are to do with our lives… This omits the step of cultivating a direct connection with the Divine, and seeking guidance for our lives from there. In that sense, it bypasses the primary message of Quakerism.

4 Patience Schenk As we grow in the spirit, our lives come increasingly under divine guidance.

Patricia Loring One’s life evolves as one responds to God, and interior nudges and promptings well up… Each of us is a unique part of the unfolding of the universe, with unique gifts to be used in the service of God, in ways to be discerned on an on-going basis… We are responsible to discern our gifts and use them as led… We experience slow and steady change through unremitting faithfulness, the slow steady movement from false self to true self.

Elizabeth de Sa The Quaker testimonies are outward expressions of internal connectedness with [God], indicative of the nudging of the Spirit to live in right order… We increase our experience of the Divine as we move into ever-increasing alignment.

Michael Birkel Friends have always expected the Holy Spirit to transform individuals and then guide them into ways to transform society… The testimonies were intended to open the heart by challenging the conscience and conduct of others… to get them to reflect on their own behavior.

Suggested Readings The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, Ed. Phillips Moulton, 1971. Michael L. Birkel, Silence and Witness: The Quaker Traditiion, 2004. Chapters on Discernment and The Testimonies in this excellent book. Rex Ambler, The Quaker Way: A Rediscovery, by Rex Ambler, 2013. Chapters 5 through 7 are especially relevant to these topics, but the whole book, only 144 pages of text, is clear, insightful, readable, and excellent. PHP 64, Of Holy Disobedience, by A. J. Muste. On conscientious objection to serving in the military and the choices of what to do instead. Clear and relevant as ever. PHP 96, John Woolman and the 20th Century, by Reginald Reynolds PHP 109, Another Will Gird You: A Message to the Society of Friends, by Mildred Binns Young. A condemnation of our excess and a call to simplicity and to address poverty PHP 122, The Civil War Diary of Cyrus Pringle, forward by Henry Cadbury. The story of a Vermont conscientious objector. PHP 129, Nonviolent Action: How It Works, by George Lakey PHP 145, What Doth the Lord Require of Thee, by Mildred Binns Young. What is our responsibility toward poverty and injustice caused by exploitation and indifference? PHP 231, Quaker Testimonies and Economic Alternatives, by Severyn T. Bruyn PHP 234, Lucretia Mott Speaking: Excerpts from the Sermons and Speeches of a Famous Nineteenth Century Quaker Minister and Reformer, by Lucretia Mott PHP 238, Laurie Tatum, Indian Agent: Quaker Values and Hard Choices, by Robert Hixson PHP 244, Reflections on Simplicity, by Elaine Prevallet. A lovely pamphlet on the spirituality of simplicity.

5 PHP 254, To Martin Luther King with Love: A Southern Quaker’s Tribute, by David W. Pitre PHP 257, Artist on the Witness Stand, by Fritz Eichenberg, with eight of his beautiful woodcut prints. The artist witnesses to his own time; let it be with conscience, integrity, and caring. PHP 259, Stewardship of Wealth, by Kingdon Swayne PHP 264, Leading and Being Led, by Paul A. Lacey. Clear, insightful, and helpful, with many examples from Fox, Penn, and John Woolman. PHP 271, Practicing Compassion for the Stranger, by Nancy Alexander PHP 275, 1987, The Needle’s Eye: a Philippine Experience, by Carol Reilley Urner. A telling and moving story of the author’s concern and experience of working for tribal land rights in the Philippines. PHP 293, The Ministry of Presence: Without Agenda in South Africa, by Avis Crowe and Dyckman W. Vermilye. An American couple discerns a leading to live in South Africa for a year and a half with a concern for a ministry of presence. PHP 305, Spiritual Discernment: The Context and Goal of Clearness Committees, by Patricia Loring. About discernment, guidelines for it, and how we grow spiritually through faithfulness. PHP 314, Spiritual Hospitality: A Quaker Understanding of Outreach, by Harvey Gillman PHP 326, Liberation Theology for Quakers, by Alice and Staughton Lynd. How these Friends sought to live liberation theology, and their conclusions about how to do so. PHP 383, Answering the Call to Heal the World, by Patience Schenk. About leadings, discernment, faithfulness, and support. PHP 388, Expectant Listening: Finding God’s Thread of Guidance, by Michael Wajda PHP 397, Quaker Witness as Sacrament, by David Snyder. How he has come to understand the relationship between peace work and personal spirituality. PHP 399, Matthew 18: Wisdom for Living in Community, by Connie McPeak Green and Marty Paxson Grundy. The testimony of peace begins in our own families and meetings; their experience using Jesus’ instructions for resolving conflicts. PHP 400, Finding the Taproot of Simplicity: A Movement between Inner Knowledge and Outer Action, by Frances Irene Taber. For the inward life to continue to grow, the outward life must respond to it; the implications of simplicity. PHP 404, Kindling a Life of Concern: Spirit-led Quaker Action, by Jack Kirk. Living God’s values and way of life. PHP 405, Envisioning a Moral Economy, by Tom Head PHP 408, An Art of Small Resurrections: Surviving the Texas Death Chamber, by Walter Long. Forgiveness as a spiritual practice, that helps him endure in his work as a death penalty appeals attorney. PHP 412, Answering the Violence: Encounters with Perpetrators, by John Lampen. The first motion in peace work must be love; how Quaker peacemakers can work for peace in situations of violence. PHP 415, Living Our Testimony of Equality: A White Friend’s Experience, by Patience Schenk. On responding to modern racism.

J. Rosenberg, 2013

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