The first chapter in the 1985 NEYM Faith and Practice (pp. 9-25) is titled “Illustrative Experiences of Friends.” It begins, “In this chapter the attempt has been made to state truth, not by formulating it, but by expressing it through the living personal and corporate experience of Friends. . . The passages in this chapter have been selected as illustrations of deeply spiritual experiences sufficient to illustrate the variety of way in which the heavenly vision has come with living power to human souls. While modes of thought and utterance change, the central truths remain.”
We appreciate this affirmation that experience is the foundation of Quaker faith. We would like to retain this affirmation of experience as the basis of faith, and have retained this title for Chapter 1 in the draft table of contents. However, we would like to convey a greater variety of Quaker experiences across time and cultures. Below are several such statements of Friends’ experience as possible texts, but we have made no decision to include them. Instead we offer them as examples of what we seek and invite you to suggest others. Drawing on the very rich pool of possibilities we hope to receive, we will discern what texts to suggest in a first working paper.
We invite you to send other illustrative experiences of Friends for possible inclusion in the book. Complete citation information is necessary for obtaining permission to use quotations in print. When sending quotations, please include the following: • author • title of book/pamphlet • title of article from a periodical • date of publication • publisher or name of periodical • location of publisher or periodical volume & number (if there is one) • page number
If the quotation is from a speech or personal conversation, give what information you can, such as the event and date where the statement was made. When possible, please cite the original source rather than a secondary source.
Isaac Penington (1616-1679) First, IT hath pleased the Lord to manifest to me, that there is a light wherewith he (in his tender mercy, love, and good-will) enlighteneth mankind. This light I have found my own soul enlightened with, even from my very childhood, though I never took notice of it, to be what it is, till the Lord manifested it to me. But ever since it pleased the Lord to manifest it to me, and to turn my mind to it, I have found it to shine inwardly in my heart, even as the outward light of the sun shineth outwardly to the outward eye.
Secondly, By this light it hath pleased the Lord to give me the distinction of things inwardly in my own heart. The Lord hath shown me by it evil and good in my own heart, and taught me to choose the good, and refuse the evil. So that as my eye hath been turned to this light, and kept to this light, I have known and walked in the way of life; for the power which hath appeared in this light, hath created me anew, made me a child of light, and taught and caused me to walk in this light, as God is in the light. And in this light I have experienced fellowship with the Father who is light, and with his Son who is light also, and with all the children of light.
“Some experiences which it hath pleased the Lord to give me concerning His Way, His Truth, His Church and People, against whom the Gates of Hell cannot Prevail” Isaac Penington, in The Works of the Long-Mournful and Sorely-Distressed Isaac Penington, London: Benjamin Clark, 1681, vol.2 p. 489
Rufus Jones (1863-1948) I had no ecstatic experiences, I was subject to no miraculous-seeming revelations, no sharp break occurred in the unfolding steps of a normal and ordinary life. . . . I have few epoch-dates to record and no single Damascus vision. What I do feel sure of, however, is a frequent influx of divine life and power—the warm intimate touch of a guiding Hand. I somehow felt all through those college years that I was being prepared for something.
Rufus M. Jones: The trail of life in college, 1929, pp. 135–136. (1985 NEYM Faith and Practice, p. 24)
The 1985 World Gathering of Young Friends In July 1985, over 300 Young Friends from 34 countries, 57 yearly meetings, and 8 monthly meetings met at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Here is an excerpt from the Epistle of that Gathering.
Epistle of the 1985 World Gathering of Young Friends We have come together from every continent, separated by language, race, culture, ways we worship God, and beliefs about Christ and God... We have been challenged, shaken up, at times even enraged, intimidated, and offended by these differences in each other. We have grown from this struggle and have felt the Holy Spirit in programmed worship, singing, Bible study, open times of worship and sharing, and silent waiting upon God.
We have ... wondered whether there is anything Quakers today can say as one. After much struggle we have discovered that we can proclaim this: there is a living God at the centre of all, who is available to each of us as a Present Teacher at the very heart of our lives. We seek as people of God to be worthy vessels to deliver the Lord’s transforming word, to be prophets of joy who know from experience and can testify to the world, as George Fox did, ‘that the Lord God is at work in this thick night’.
The challenges of this time are almost too great to be faced, but we must let our lives mirror what is written on our hearts - to be so full of God’s love that we can do no other than live out our corporate testimonies to the world of honesty, simplicity, equality and peace, whatever the consequences.
Epistle of the World Gathering of Young Friends, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1985 in London Yearly Meeting Proceedings 1986, pp. 226-227
The 2005 World Gathering of Young Friends (England) In 2005, 226 Young Friends from 58 Yearly Meetings and 9 monthly meetings and regional groups gathered at Lancaster University in Lancaster, England. Here is an excerpt from the Epistle of that Gathering.
Epistle of the 2005 World Gathering of Young Friends (England) Twenty years have passed since the last World Gathering of Young Friends, held in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. To what purpose were we summoned once more?
Here we tried each others’ forms of worship, silent and programmed, songs in many different languages, scriptural readings, hand holding. We were open, amazed, stretched and blessed. We learned that the great presence in our lives can be called by many names, Jesus, Christ, God, Inner light, Spirit, Love or many others. Ultimately, through listening to the Spirit that moved us, not the words in which we expressed our movement, we strived to become one organism, one body made up of many different parts (1 Corinthians 12:13). We were united not so much in the expression of our faith as in our common desire to be unified and by the power of the Spirit amongst us during these 9 days. We were challenged to put aside the labels we hide behind, programmed, unprogrammed, liberal, evangelical, and come together as Friends of the Truth, seeking together for the common truth behind our language. We have not finished this process. We are only at the beginning of a long path, but the love and joy we have felt in being in this place together have allowed us to come this far, and we pray that they will lead us further yet.
-- http://www.wgyf.org/england_epistle.html
Ramón A. González Longoria Escalona (1949- ) I place a high value on prayer and reading the Bible while traveling. Each one helps me to confront problems and to keep moving forward spiritually. They give me Isaiah’s “eagle’s wings” to soar over any difficulty I may come across. . . . But I have learned that when God sends us out, He always provides whatever we truly need in our work. When I was first called to ministry overseas, I almost said to God, as Moses did, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent in English. In this language I am slow of speech and tongue.” God’s response was the same as it was to Moses, “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” Upon arriving I always discovered that God had provided Aarons – male and female – to translate for me, to fulfill his promise: You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if it were your mouth and as if you were God to him. Exodus 4:15-16 (NIV)
Ramón A. González Longoria Escalona in
Walk Worthy of Your Calling: Quakers and the Traveling Ministry
Margery Post Abbott and Peggy Senger Parsons, ed.
Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 2004
pp. 245, 247
Eden Grace (1968- ) I recently did a presentation .. on the Fifth World Conference of Friends and Young Friends International Conference in Kenya, the theme of (which) was to be “Spiritual Nourishment.” In preparing, ..this theme .. seemed all wrong to me. What I finally realized that nourishment is too cozy a word for what happened to me. What happened to me was scary and electrifying. It was confusing and challenging and very unsafe. The things that I lean on that make me feel safe were taken away from me. By the end of the Gathering I felt there was nothing I could count on. The safety of my small meeting where we all believe the same thing so we don’t have to talk about it, was shattered.
I’m slowly coming to realize that I have been pushed, not of my own choosing, into a Christian faith. I had been so safe before, believing in God and feeling that Christ didn’t have much relevance for me. To worship Christ was to confuse the messenger with the message and the message was the love of the universal God. … What does it mean to say, “In Jesus’ name we pray?” I didn’t understand the concept. But more importantly I felt at that moment an urge to need to find out. I had to know what it meant to worship in the name of Christ. That need has not left me, and it has shaken me and challenged me more and more since I returned to the USA.
In Kenya we did not all share the same concept of trust between people. I found it hard to feel safe with people who were so different from me. I felt like hiding much of the time, avoiding meeting new people and engaging in new ideas. I wanted to be safe and I felt that I had a right to be. Trust was not something that I felt capable of there. But what I have been realizing as I process the experiences of Kenya is that to trust and obey is a much harder and much better thing than to think and to plan and to study and to calculate and to reason. To trust and obey means letting go and that is what I have the hardest time doing. I want it all to make sense before I am willing to surrender. But right now is all I can do is to actively give myself to Christ and let him guide me. I am more confused spiritually than I have ever been, but I am also more alive than I have ever been.
Eden Grace Marifiki, Amigos, Friends 1991, A Report of the participants of the Young Friends International Gatherings 1991, “One Body, Many Parts”/ Las Reuniones Internacionales de Jóvenes Amigos 1991, “Un Cuerpo, Muchos Miembros.” London: International Young Quaker Committee, 1991, pp. 6-7
Parker Palmer (1939- ) My vocation …is the spiritual life, the quest for God, which relies on the eye of the heart. My avocation is education, the quest for knowledge, which relies on the eye of the mind. I have seen life through both of these eyes as long as I can remember – but the two images have not always coincided. Sometimes I have struggled with the spiritual crisis brought on by the educated mind: how can the heart be true when my senses and reason reduce reality so self-confidently to their own narrow terms? Sometimes the question has turned: how can these diminishments of reality possibly be credited when the spiritual vision is so rich with depth and meaning? But – unable to blink one eye, shut them both, or live in a blur – I have been forced to find ways for my eyes to work together, to find a common focus for my spirit-seeking heart and my knowledge-seeking mind that embraces reality in all its amazing dimensions.
Parker Palmer To Know As We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993 pp. xxiii, xxiv
Last Updated Sunday, September 17 2006 @ 06:42 AM EDT
Contact The Committee
Email (preferred):
Postal mail: Jan Hoffman, clerk, 343 West St, Amherst MA 01002
Adobe Reader
The downloadable documents on this web site are in Adobe PDF format. If you do not already have the free Adobe Reader application for your computer, download it now.
