What are Quaker Testimonies? Compiled by Carol Laursen 3/24/19

Testimonies did not always occupy the central space in Quaker theology that they seem to occupy at present. For the first 300 years of our history, the word “testimony” was most often used by Friends in its conventional meaning, that is, as formal speech (verbal or written) regarding a topic of importance— especially of legal or religious significance. George Fox, Robert Barclay, and John Woolman use the word exclusively in this sense. Friends did occasionally extend “testimony” to include actions or behaviors that characterized members of the Religious Society of Friends. As early as 1696, William Penn listed nine “testimonies peculiar to us,” among which are Friends refusal to pay tithes, swear oaths, or observe holy days; their opposition to “war among Christians”; and their adoption of plainness of speech and apparel. Michael D. Levi May 31, 2013

The experience of Friends was that the Light led them into an understanding of the Christian life and the way it was to be lived. We express the principles they discovered in terms such as Truth, Equality, Simplicity, and Peace. However, these are not abstract qualities, but vital principles of life. Early Friends expressed them in the ways of action which they called the testimonies, and for which they were prepared to suffer and to die. BYM F&P 5th Edition 19.33

[...] our testimonies are not a pre-packaged set of values. Our spiritual experience, our openness to 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. Ben Pink Dandelion (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice, 2018, #127)

In 1943 Howard Brinton published Guide to Quaker Practice (Pendle Hill Pamphlet 20), in which he groups Friends social testimonies into four categories: community, harmony, equality, and simplicity. This appears to be the origin of the current canon. By the 1970s comparable groupings began to appear in yearly meeting Faith and Practice books. After Brinton, descriptive historical accounts, typically citing Scripture to cement legitimacy, turned into articulations of broad principles. Essentially concrete observations became abstract concepts. Michael D. Levi May 31, 2013

One modern way of organizing the testimonies is Quaker SPICES, which includes the following: Simplicity: Use financial and natural resources carefully; value Spirit over material objects Peace:Seek solutions to problems or disagreements; make decisions by consensus (secular) for ‘sense of the meeting’ (spirit-led); use conflict resolution Integrity: Let your life speak: your outer life reflects your inner life; treat others with respect and honesty Community: Build authentic community/interpersonal relationships; do no harm; teach respect; respect one another. Equality: Respect differences; each has a share of the Light. Stewardship: Protect and care for the earth; promote environmental, economic, and social ; promote social justice and the need for equal access to resources. [Thanks to Connecticut Friends School for wording.]

The following are a gathering of perspectives from the wider Quaker community.

The Quaker Testimonies are the expressions of the experience shared by Friends of basic ways in which living in The Light will show in our lives. They are not like doctrines, imposed from without, but what understanding each individual will come to about conducting life in The Light when contemplating how to implement the love we share. For that reason each person will have a personal understanding of each testimony, but also for that reason the testimonies should serve as basis for self-examination. -Nate Swift, Medford Friends, NWYM

Quaker Testimonies started out as individual leadings of the Spirit that became widely accepted as guidelines for . They have changed over time. For example there used to be a testimony about how one decorated pie crust. Relatively recently they have been formulated in to a shortlist. This concise list makes it easier to teach the Testimonies but also makes it easier to think of them as rules, which they are not. Someone trying to follow them as rules runs the risk of practicing the very thing that Fox taught against – i.e. professing something that they do not profess. Testimonies are a sign post but not the destination. The destination is walking a Spirit filled life. When one does that then one tends to live into the Testimonies as a byproduct and as one lives into the Testimonies one walks more deeply in the Spirit. -Kenn Harper, Rochester, NY

Friends' peace testimony is not a creed, in the sense of a statement of belief true for all time. Nor is it a code of behaviour, a set of rules to which all Quakers individually and corporately must adhere. On the simplest level, 'testimony' means 'bearing witness'; and Friends' long history of witness to peace can be found in public statements and personal reflections, in their refusal to bear arms in times of civil and international conflict, in acts of prophetic confrontation and quiet, reconciling diplomacy. But these are merely outward and visible signs of inward conviction. This conviction springs from a living Spirit, mediated through the human experience of those trying to understand and follow its leadings. It grows afresh in every life, in every worshipping group, in every generation. Because there is no single, world-wide authority that can speak for all Friends, there cannot be a single, absolute answer to any question that begins, "What is the Quaker position on . . . ?" Nonetheless, there are certain principles that have emerged again and again in the lives of Friends in different times and situations, informing their efforts to lead lives that are faithfully guided by the Holy Spirit. Friends call these principles "testimonies." There is no definitive list of the testimonies, but under different names they have continued to reappear with both consistency and fresh variation in the lives of the Friends who adhere to them. "They are not optional extras, but fruits that grow from the very tree of faith" (Harvey Gillman, 1988). The best known of these testimonies is the Peace Testimony. Yet since there is no single authoritative expression of it, perhaps the best way to understand it is to look at some of the different ways it has been expressed by individual Friends and Friends communities. Submitted by QICadmin on Thu, 2011-05-26 15:54

PEACE I told (the Commonwealth Commissioners) I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars and I knew from whence all wars did rise, from the lust, according to James's doctrine... I told them I was come into the covenant of peace which was before wars and strifes were. George Fox 1651

At the heart of this conviction is Friends' experience that there is something of God - the seed of God - in all people. Quakers believe that more can be accomplished by appealing to this capacity for love and goodness, in ourselves and in others, that can be hope for by threatening punishment or retaliation if people act badly. This is not to ignore the existence of evil. It is to recognize that there is no effective way to combat evil with weapons which harm or kill those through whom evil is working. We must turn instead, in the words of early Friends, to the 'weapons of the spirit', allowing God to reach out through us to that of God in those with whom we are in conflict. 'Spiritual weapons' - love, truth saying, , imagination, laughter - are weapons that heal and don't destroy. All this sounds grand indeed; its consequences are for the most part very ordinary. The peace testimony is not something Quakers take down from a shelf and dust off only in wartime or in times of personal or political crisis. Living out a witness to peace has to do with everyday choices about the work we do, the relationships we build, what part we take in politics, what we buy, how we raise our children. It is a matter of fostering relationships and structures - from personal to international - which are strong and healthy enough to contain conflict when it arises and allow its creative resolution. It is a matter of withdrawing our co-operation from structures and relationships which are unjust and exploitative. It is a matter of finding creative ways of dealing with conflict when it does arise, with the aim of freeing all concerned to find a just and loving solution. © May 1996 Quaker Home Service

SIMPLICITY I wish I might emphasize how a life becomes simplified when dominated by faithfulness to a few concerns. Too many of us have too many irons in the fire. We get distracted by the intellectual claim to our interest in a thousand and one good things, and before we know it we are pulled and hauled breathlessly along by an over-burdened program of good committees and good undertakings. I am persuaded that this fevered life of church workers is not wholesome. Undertakings get plastered on from the outside because we can’t turn down a friend. Acceptance of service on a weighty committee should really depend upon an answering imperative within us, not merely upon a rational calculation of the factors involved. The concern-orientated life is ordered and organized from within. And we learn to say No as well as Yes by attending to the guidance of inner responsibility. Quaker simplicity needs to be expressed not merely in dress and architecture and height of tombstones but also in the structure of a relatively simplified and co-ordinated life-program of social responsibilities. Thomas R Kelly, 1941 (BYM F&P 20.36)

I want to list ten controlling principles for the outward expression of simplicity. They should not be viewed as laws but as one attempt to flesh out the meaning of simplicity into twentieth-century life. First, buy things for their usefulness rather than their status. Second, reject anything that is producing an addiction in you. Third, develop a habit of giving things away. De-accumulate. Fourth, refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry. Fifth, learn to enjoy things without owning them. Sixth, develop a deeper appreciation for the creation. Seventh, look with a healthy skepticism at all ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes. Eighth, obey Jesus’ injunction about plain, honest speech. Ninth, reject anything that will breed the oppression of others. Tenth, shun whatever would distract you from your main goal. Richard J Foster, 1979 (BYM F&P 25.09