Quakers do not have a creed or doctrines. Instead, we reflect on queries and advices to determine how well we are living up to our ideals. Each month, we consider, both individually and in community, that month's queries and advices.
The queries and advices are listed below, in month order, followed by a table with links to pdf documents that can be downloaded by individuals who are signed up for quaker.app.
“Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you
go, so 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 every one. Thereby you can be a blessing in them and make the witness of
God in them bless you. Then you will be a sweet savor and a blessing to the Lord
God.”
~ George Fox (1656)
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a Meeting, . . .
1. Become grounded in, and clear about, the understandings of our faith?
2. Take opportunities to know people from different religious and cultural backgrounds, to
worship with them, and to work with them on common concerns?
3. Share our faith and beliefs with others, respectfully communicating our presence and our
principles to the community around us?
4. Invite persons not in membership to attend our meetings for worship, remaining sensitive to each person’s needs and hesitations?
5. Welcome inquirers and visitors, and encourage their continued presence and participation?
6. Express tenderness to the needs of isolated Friends and Meetings, and to nearby Meetings seeking support?
7. Encourage members to seek opportunities to meet and work with Friends beyond our
meeting?
8. Engage in this ministry, not only to reach out to others, but also to humbly learn from them in order that we all may deepen our understanding of Truth?
Advice:
1. Become well grounded in the principles, testimonies, practices, and history of the
Religious Society of Friends.
2. Seek opportunities to interact with and learn from Friends locally, regionally, nationally,
and internationally.
3. Join with other faiths in worship, in social action, and in spiritual dialogue.
4. Honor the gifts, talents, and resources of all individuals and communities, and serve as
safe spaces for diverse voices, while bearing witness to Friends’ faith.
“The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights
upon it.”
~ Chief Joseph
“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must
understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter
what their color.”
~ Maya Angelou
"Virtue can only flourish among equals.”
~ Mary Wollstonecraft
“Until we can respect another person without justification except
that he or she is a child of God, it is not really respect.
Queries:
~ Paul Lacey
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting . . .
1. Live in a way that affirms the equality and worth of all people, treating others with
dignity and respect?
2. Engage in examination to reveal and eliminate overt and hidden prejudices?
3. Identify and confront inequities in the world around us?
4. Recognize and address the effects of past oppression and privilege on all persons today?
5. Acknowledge our own privilege, and work to use that privilege to accomplish positive
social change for all?
6. Speak truth to power in ways that honor the dignity of people on all sides of an issue?
Advice:
1. Actively strive to respect all people and to understand the contexts from which differing
ideas spring.
2. Celebrate the richness of communities composed of many cultures and opinions.
3. Respond to opportunities to establish personal and professional relationships with people
whose backgrounds differ.
4. Search for and respond to that of God in every person.
“To teach is to create a space in which the community of truth is practiced.”
~ Parker Palmer, author, educator, activist
“Knowledge is love and light and vision.”
~ Helen Keller, author and activist
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting, . . .
1. Educate members and attenders about the history, traditions, principles, and testimonies of the Religious Society of Friends?
2. Share insights with one another about incorporating Quaker practices into our daily lives?
3. Welcome children into an understanding the Quaker faith?
4. Respond to persons who are inquisitive about Quaker history, traditions, and practices?
5. Acquire and share resources on the Quaker faith?
Advice:
1. Take time to explore spiritual literature, including records of the lives, experiences, and
teachings of Friends.
2. Seek to understand the variety of expression Quaker faith takes today.
3. Remain open to serving as both learner and teacher.
4. Let Spirit serve as a guide to choosing educational topics and methods.
“Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and
forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but
praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.”
~ Isaac Penington (1667)
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting, . . .
1. Foster a spirit of community and connection among the meeting’s members and
attenders?
2. Extend welcome to newcomers and help interested attenders discern desire for
membership?
3. Practice patience, openness, and consideration toward all?
4. Settle differences in a spirit of love and humility, recognizing that another’s
viewpoint may be closer to the truth than an idea too firmly held?
5. Enter with tender sympathy into the joys and sorrows of each other’s lives, ready to
give help and to receive it, channeling God’s love and forgiveness?
6. Recognize and respond to those whose conduct or manner of living gives grounds for
concern?
7. Notice that an attender or member is becoming distant from the meeting, and respectfully respond to that diminished involvement?
8. Use clearness committees to support our members and attenders?
Advice:
1. Strive to include everyone in the life and activities of the meeting, listening respectfully
to all, from the youngest to the oldest.
2. Address differences rather than avoiding them.
3. Seek unity and speak kindly as we respond to differences.
4. Offer loving counsel to others who desire it; also seek counsel from others and graciously accept help from them.
5. Guide opening minds with tenderness, seeking to awaken in them love, understanding,
and security in God’s love for all.
“Only when we see that we are part of the totality of the planet, not a superior
part with special privileges, can we work effectively to bring about an earth
restored to wholeness.”
~ Elizabeth Watson, “Your God is Too Small” (1996)
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting, . . .
1. Increase our awareness of, and celebrate, the gifts the natural world bestows upon us?
2. Consider the significance of, and offer gratitude for, the natural world, including water,
air, minerals, soil, flora, and fauna?
3. Live in harmony with nature, honoring the unity, sacredness, and integrity of all creation?
4. Encourage informed, responsible, equitable, and sustainable use of the Earth’s gifts?
5. Enjoy the resources needed to thrive without infringing upon the wellbeing of others?
6. Help to restore the natural world in all its splendor?
7. Promote just distribution of nature’s gifts among all God’s creation?
8. Encourage sensitivity toward the environmental impact of decisions relating to property,
goods, services, energy, and investments?
9. Protect the natural world and its creatures against abuse and harmful exploitation or
neglect?
Advice:
1. Rejoice in the splendor of God’s continuing creation.
2. Walk gently over the Earth, with loving consideration for all creatures.
3. Care for the natural world each day so that it may be preserved for the future.
4. Use technology with an eye toward simplifying and adding quality to life without adding
undue burden on the natural world.
5. Act as a faithful steward of nature in the creation, purchase, use, and disposal of
substances, particularly those that are hazardous.
6. Continue to educate ourselves so that we may act with intention to honor the natural
world.
"Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to
my life and try to understand what it is truly about--quite apart from what I would
like it to be about--or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no
matter how earnest my intentions.”
~ Parker J. Palmer
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting, . . .
1. Live so that Truth prospers in our lives?
2. Let our lives speak – that is, live true to our personal values and character, as well as to
the principles of the Quaker faith?
3. Strive to balance inner spiritual life with work and family responsibilities, so that over
commitment, worry, and stress do not diminish integrity?
4. Speak personal truth mindfully yet compassionately, while also seeking others’ truths?
5. Live in the Spirit that heals estrangements that may arise from resentments, nagging
fears, promises not kept, and alienation from others?
6. Encourage and support others’ pursuit of integrity in their lives?
Advice:
1. Remember that we are all one in God.
2. Use our capabilities and possessions as God’s gifts entrusted to us to share with others in humility, courtesy, and affection.
3. Choose employment, when possible, that provides the greatest opportunity for the use of our talents in service of others.
4. Be conscious of peer and cultural pressures that are not consistent with personal values
and Quaker principles.
5. Affirm that all statements, spoken and written, are based in integrity, thus eliminating the
need for judicial oaths.
6. Encourage use of clearness committees to help one another in pursuit of Truth.
7. Stay tender and open to the leadings of the Spirit.
“Live simply that others may simply live.
~ St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1771-1821)
“I was plain, and would have all things done plainly; for I did not seek
any outward advantage to myself.”
~ George Fox (1624-1691)
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting, . . .
1. Center life in awareness of God’s presence, so that all things take their rightful place?
2. Define simplicity, respecting individual differences in definition, in order to live as simply as possible?
3. Recognize how much is enough?
4. Honor the fact that what is needed changes over time?
5. Avoid commitments beyond the strength and Light God provides?
6. Unclutter our lives of excessive possessions and activities so that we are free from the
burdens of material excess and can focus on the needs of others and our own spiritual
growth?
7. Speak simply, and only as the Spirit leads?
8. Organize the life of our meeting so that it helps us lead simple lives?
Advice:
1. Celebrate! A simple lifestyle, freely chosen, is a vital source of strength.
2. Resist buying what you do not truly need and what you cannot afford.
3. Choose only those “conveniences” that actually simplify life.
4. Follow God’s leading to simplicity in lifestyle, activities, and words.
5. Remember that commitment to simplicity can free us to serve those in need and promote sharing of the world’s bounty.
“The spiritual life has many sources of nourishment, among them the
companionship of other seekers, the pleasures of solitude and silence, keeping
faith as we wait for leading, experiencing the confirmation of having followed
the leadings we have been given, and times of testing. . . . Joy is finally the
greatest source of nourishment for the spiritual life, because it is God's
greatest gift to us."
~ Paul Lacey, Earlham professor (1995)
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting, . . .
1. Seek spiritual discernment, understanding, and guidance through silence?
2. Remain open to new Light, from whatever source it may come?
3. Enrich spiritual practice through solitude, companionship, community, worship,
education, and the arts?
4. Remain spiritually strong in the face of circumstances that test our faith?
Advice:
1. Call upon God with an open heart—in times of joy, in times of sorrow, and when
tested by difficult situations or interactions.
2. Remember that the spirit of God is at work even in the ordinary activities,
experiences, and interactions of daily life.
3. Know that spiritual learning continues throughout life, often in unexpected ways;
every stage of life, from beginning to end, offers fresh opportunities for spiritual
learning.
4. Make spiritual practice an integrated part of daily activities.
5. Choose recreations that do not diminish spiritual growth and grounding.
6. Take time to facilitate spiritual growth through reading, contemplation, and
discussions of spiritual life.
“We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward
weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever; and this is our
testimony to the whole world. . . . The spirit of Christ, by which we are
guided, . . . will never move us to fight and war against any man with
outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms
of this world."
~ excerpt from Declaration of Friends to Charles II (1660)
“Peace is my parting gift to you, my own peace, such the world cannot
give. Set your troubled hearts at rest, and banish your fears.”
~ Jesus, as quoted in John 14:27 NEB
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting . . .
1. Nurture peace within?
2. Weave the practice of peace into the fabric of daily life?
3. Nurture peace, nonviolence, and wholeness in all our relationships?
4. Seek to eliminate the causes of hatred, injustice, and violence in all its forms?
5. Resist militarization?
6. Work to heal the wounds of war?
7. Take stands in support of peace?
Advice:
1. Seek the Light within as the first step toward peace.
2. Cultivate an active spirit of love and peace.
3. Seek that of God in every person, even those who act with violence or hatred.
4. Strive for nonviolent approaches to resolve conflicts in all aspects of life.
5. Promote the ministry of reconciliation among individuals, groups, and nations
with love and sensitivity.
6. Be courageous in promoting peace, including standing up against violence in any
form.
“This is to me the hour of greatest joy I ever had in this world. No ear can hear, no tongue can utter, and no heart can understand the sweet incomes and the refreshings of the spirit of the Lord, which I now feel.” ~ Mary Dyer (1611-1660)
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting, . . .
1. Foster expectant waiting for divine guidance?
2. Communally experience God’s presence in the living silence?
3. Draw strength and guidance for our daily lives from meetings for worship?
4. Respond to the Spirit’s prompting to minister, whether in silence, through the spoken word, or through action after meeting for worship?
5. Ground all our meeting’s activities in worship, and ensure these activities nourish the meeting’s worship?
Advice:
1. Come to meeting promptly with expectant hearts and minds prepared for communion with Spirit.
2. Quiet our hearts and minds for worship so the whole group can be knit together in spiritual fellowship.
3. Share responsibility for the meeting for worship, whether through silence or through the spoken word.
4. Be ready to speak if the Light so leads. Learn to recognize when a message comes from deep experience of the Divine, and when it is intended for the group to hear.
5. Avoid speaking in a manner that fosters discussion or debate.
6. Allow for a period of silence after a message has been spoken, so the group can reflect on what has been said and continue to be grounded in silent worship.
7. Receive the vocal ministry of others with a tender spirit.
“Being orderly come together, not to spend time with needless, unnecessary and
fruitless discourses; but to proceed in the wisdom of God, not in the way of the
world, as a worldly assembly of men, by hot contests, by seeking to outspeak and
overreach one another in discourse as if it were controversy between party and
party of men, or two sides violently striving for dominion, not deciding affairs by
the greater vote. But in the wisdom, love and fellowship of God, in gravity,
patience, meekness, in unity and concord, submitting one to another in lowliness
of heart, and in the holy Spirit of truth and righteousness, all things [are] to be
carried on; by hearing, and determining every matter coming before you in love,
coolness, gentleness and dear unity.”
~ Edward Burrough (1662)
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting . . .
1. Maintain the spirit of worship in our meetings for business?
2. Discern and honor the will of God?
3. Seek and wait for sense of the meeting, striving to unite in good grace even when our personal perspectives tend in another direction?
Advice:
1. As members, attend meetings for worship with attention to business and warmly invite attenders to participate as well.
2. Extend support to the meeting’s affairs so the burden will not rest upon only a few.
3. In all duties connected with meetings for business, seek the leadings of the Light, remembering that we are pursuing our collective truth.
4. Remember that the foundation of a lasting decision lies in the search for unity—that is, a corporate seeking of the Light in an atmosphere of love, trust, and mutual forbearance.
5. Be mindful that decisions result from a unity that is based on sense of the meeting. Remember that unity is different from consensus; it is not unanimity. In Friends’ practice, unity refers to a sense of oneness and an ability to move forward together.
6. Speak simply and respectfully, allowing the Spirit to lead, with willingness to admit the possibility of being in error.
7. Understand that, as we release our attachment to our own ideas, the Light may reveal solutions none of us has considered.
8. Discern when to continue laboring on an issue and when to let it season or lay it aside.
We are all the poorer for the crushing of one man, since the dimming of the Light
anywhere darkens us all.
~ Michael Sorensen (1986) Quaker Faith and Practice (London)
Queries:
How do I as a Friend, and we as a meeting, . . .
1. Seek to transform the world with loving spirit?
2. Take an active interest in the social and economic conditions of our community?
3. Investigate the causes of inequality and work to end injustice?
4. Understand the causes of war and violence, and, guided by Spirit, support conditions and institutions that promote peace?
5. Act to sustain and restore the Earth and educate others about the importance of caring for the natural world?
6. Listen and respond when a member lifts up leadings and concerns regarding social
responsibility?
7. Use privilege constructively in order to speak truth to power?
Advice:
1. Act upon Friends’ belief in honoring that of God in everyone.
2. Seek to live guided by Friends’ testimonies.
3. Encourage and support those seeking clearness regarding their social responsibility.
4. Keep an alert, sensitive, and questioning mind in order to see the unacceptable, and avoid accepting it.
5. Cherish diversity.
6. Provide compassionate assistance to those in need.
7. Work for the abolition of the death penalty.
8. Exercise civic responsibilities, such as lobbying for just causes and being an informed
voter.
9. Choose a lifestyle and investments that contribute to improving, rather than exploiting,
the human condition and the Earth. "Be an informed consumer. Use your buying power to
support your values."
10. Work toward realizing a peaceable kingdom on earth.
month | subject | download link |
|---|---|---|
First Month (January) | Ministry of Outreach | |
Second Month (February) | Equality | |
Third Month (March) | Spiritual Education | |
Fourth Month (April) | Care for the Meeting | |
Fifth Month (May) | Care of the Natural World | |
Sixth Month (June) | Integrity | |
Seventh Month (July) | Simplicity | |
Eighth Month (August) | Our Spiritual Lives | |
Ninth Month (September) | Peace | |
Tenth Month (October) | Meeting for Worship | |
Eleventh Month (November) | Meetings for Business | |
Twelfth Month (December) | Social Responsibility and Witness |