Faith and Practice

Testimonies

unity

 Friends believe that it is possible for the human spirit to be in direct communion with the Divine. Seeking God’s will together, we believe way will open and unity will emerge.

 The way is one; Christ the truth of God; and he that is in the faith, and in the obedience to the light which shines from his Spirit into the heart of every believer, hath a taste of the one heart and of the one way, and knoweth that no variety of practices, which is of God, can make a breach in the true unity.

isaac penington, 1659, philadelphia yearly meeting
faith & practice, 1997, p. 163.257

 One of the queries in continuous use since 1682 asks, “Are love and unity maintained among you?” Early Friends considered themselves part of a great movement that would soon sweep the world. Unity and mutual care in the Quaker community in the face of persecution demonstrated to the world the working of God among us.

 Working together to discern and serve God’s will both nourishes and benefits from unity. This unity grows from trust in one another and readiness to speak out, confident that together, Friends will find the truth.

 True unity may be found under great apparent differences. This unity is spiritual, it expresses itself in many ways, and we need divine insight that we may recognize its working. We need forbearance, sympathy and love, in order that, while remaining loyal to the truth as it comes to us, we may move forward with others to a larger and richer experience and expression of the will of God

london yearly meeting, 1916