Quaker Way of Life
"Walk cheerfully in the world, answering that of God in everyone…" |
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advice from George Fox (1624-1691),
the first of the Quakers |
The insight that there is ‘that of God’ in everyone has led Quakers to place a special value on truth, equality, simplicity and peace. These four key testimonies, as they are known, have evolved and taken different forms over the years. But they have always been rooted in the search for truth and integrity. |
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Truth and Integrity
The concern for truthfulness led Quakers from early days right up to today to refuse to take oaths. An oath somehow signifies the possibility of two different levels of truthfulness. Quakers believe that truth and integrity should be lived out each and every day. Friends are greatly concerned about truth and integrity in public affairs, as well as private lives.
Equality
In the early days, the testimony to the equality of all people before God led to Quakers refusing to take off their hats in the presence of ‘superiors’. They also addressed everyone with ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ without consideration of rank. It also led them to maintain the spiritual equality of men and women in their meetings.
Today, this concern for equality is reflected in a refusal to use social titles. Everybody, young and old, is called by first and family names. This witness to the equality of all has also resulted in work for prison reform, and for the improvement of community relations. Friends have been active in campaigns against slavery for centuries (see a later panel)
Simplicity /Lifestyle
One way of living out the testimony to simplicity is an unostentatious life-style and refusal to consume unnecessary goods and services. It ties in with traditional ideals of simplicity, thrift and temperance and the refusal to engage in get-rich-quick enterprises such as raffles, lotteries, gambling, betting and financial speculation.
Peace
Friends are best known for their ‘peace testimony’ and their refusal to support war, violence and coercion as a means of settling disputes or achieving desired ends. The peace testimony implies an opposition to the arms trade, to conscription, and to the threat of nuclear war as a deterrent. Quakers promote reconciliation, mediation and conflict resolution, rather than revenge and retribution. |
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Scene of passive resistance from Fox’s Journal shows Fox attacked by a servant with a rapier.
"A servant man came raving out of another room, with a naked rapier in his hand and set it just to my side. But I looked steadfastly at him and said; Alack for thee, poor creature! What wilt thou do with thy carnal weapon? It is no more to mee than a straw. The standers by were much troubled and he went away in a rage."
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The difficulty of living out the peace testimony especially has led to much heart-searching and, in some cases, to fines, imprisonment, even death. As late as 1914-18, during the First World War, many Quakers who refused to carry arms were thrown into prison, where they were often treated worse than criminals.
Others were able to work on the frontline in ambulance brigades.
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Photograph of an etching taken from an original print showing members of the Friends Ambulance Unit in August 1918.
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In 1947, the Quakers, represented by their two great relief organisations, the Friends Service Council and the American Friends Service Committee, were given the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.
"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 walking and abiding, these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not from the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." |
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Postcript to a letter to ‘the brethren in the north’ from elders at Balby, 1656. |
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Green Issues
A comparatively new testimony has developed concerning conservation of the environment. What Quakers in the past considered ‘innocent trades’ (see neighbouring panel from the Quaker tapestry) are being rethought today. |
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The Famous Quaker Tapestry…
… was inspired by a chance remark. In 1981. the comment led Anne Wynn-Wilson – an accomplished embroiderer – to devise an alternative to the often-used colouring activity for the children of her Quaker meeting. She created a design and taught the children how to embroider. They started with a piece about George Fox, the society’s seventeenth-century founder.
The children’s enthusiasm attracted the adults in the meeting and they also took up their needles. The idea spread, and over the years many other Quaker Meetings in this country and overseas became involved in the project, eventually resulting in 77 inspiring and colourful, modern, embroidered panels telling something of the Quaker story and Quaker principles.
PLEASE NOTE - Since these tapestries were created, Quaker thinking has moved onwards and not all the sentiments expressed are necessarily those of Friends today. One of the Quakers here today would be happy to talk about this with you…
The complete display of the panels can be seen at The Exhibition Centre at Friends Meeting House, Stramongate, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 4BH; it is open to the public from early spring to late autumn each year.
For more information, telephone: 01539 722975 or visit their website www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk |
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