2. What is Quaker Testimony?
Where Do They Come From?
Where Do They Go?
Some Current Issues of Testimony
in North America
3. Testimony
commonly considered to be a statement,
either of faith or of fact (as in a court of law)
Quaker testimony is not written, but is
written about
5. “Be patterns, be examples in all countries,
places, islands, nations, wherever you come,
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 everyone”
” George Fox 1656
7. “To live sacramentally is to make
thousands of little daily decisions”
Jonathan Dale 2002
8. Core values endure, but action will
evolve to match the times and
circumstances
9. Where do the testimonies
come from?
All testimony flows from the notion of “that of God”
in all people
Peace
Truth and Integrity
Equality
Simplicity
11. Testimonies Over Time
Among Friends, some different forms and
expressions of testimony have arisen, but all flow
back in some way to the core values
Historical examples:
plain speech and dress
hat honor
Contemporary examples: refusal to use titles,
careful use of language, choosing to live and
participate in a mixed neighborhood
12. In North America
(and elsewhere)
growing conversation about the environment and
Earth care
Is this an adjustment to existing testimonies to make
more explicit our obligation to all of creation?
Does it matter?
17. Testimonies are a “tool, not a rule”
Framework and language of testimonies
give us a tool to examine ourselves and
communities and choose a way forward
19. Quakerism is “a voyage of spiritual discovery
undertaken with friends, which is reflected in
turn in their journeys. They offer a faith based
on personal experience”
Geoffrey Durham 2010