Faith and Practice

 We, like every generation, must find the Light and Life again for ourselves. Only what we have valued and truly made our own, not by assertion but by lives of faithful commitment, can we hand on to the future. Even then, we must humbly acknowledge that our vision of the truth will, again and again, be amended.

britain yearly meeting
quaker faith & practice, p. 17, 1995

 The Quaker way emphasizes experience over religious belief or doctrine. It is inherently difficult to capture the essence of that experience in words.Yet every Faith and Practice attempts to do that very thing.

 As time passes, the body of experience grows and shifts and a Yearly Meeting may be moved to take up the task of revising its book of Faith and Practice. The book offered here is a revision of the 1985 edition, which in turn was based on revisions of 1973, 1963, 1957, and 1952, and the original plan of organization adopted at Palo Alto in 1942.

 This Faith and Practice describes the beliefs of Friends and the structures and processes of Pacific Yearly Meeting, and its Quarterly and Monthly Meetings. It also explains the spiritual foundation of these processes and of our way of worship. It should be of interest and value to newcomers and old-timers alike.

 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.

advices from the elders at balby, 1656
britain yearly meeting
quaker faith & practice, 1995, §1.01