Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 24th July 2022

Dear Friends,

Newcomers to the Society are often attracted by our values and practices, like peace work, simplicity of life and the pursuit of integrity. They are soon told that these are testimonies. They then find that there is no authoritative statement of what the testimonies are, only hallowed examples of their implications in particular circumstances. They find that Friends debate the demands which the clearly recognized testimonies make on people, and also what new testimonies there ought to be. Thus, they find that the testimonies are what Quakers stand for. They are religious, ethical, collective, demanding, developing – and vague.

In fact, the area of imprecision with which they are surrounded is the greatest strength of the testimonies. It enables them to be flexible as circumstances in the world change, and provides individual Friends with a constant challenge to work out for themselves what God is asking of them.

Newcomers need to understand that the testimonies are not pragmatic responses to the spirit of the age, being neither political principles or programmes, but the outcome of the Quaker religious tradition, the greater whole against which they have to be evaluated and practiced.

Passages taken from the Swarthmore Lecture for 1990, Testimony and Tradition, some aspects of Quaker spirituality, by John Punshon.

These words speak to our condition as we try to make sense of events in the Ukraine and in Russia.

In friendship

Nancy

On behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team; Bob Harwood, David Hitchin, Chris Lawson, Theresa Samms and Nancy Wall