About 9 years ago I began to give voice to
a lifelong frustration of mine. The frustration was that I cannot answer the
question “What do Quakers believe?” I would always answer the questions somewhat
defensively. I would say, “it’s kind of hard to know
what Quakers believe, but let me tell you what I believe.” Or I would say, “well, it’s hard to know
what Quakers believe today but let me tell you what Quakers believed at the beginning.” Or I would say what I thought Quakers believed
and I would hope that no one else was listening because I did not want to be overcalled. And so I had all of those experiences as a
lifelong Quaker and I said, “this is for the birds!” We can do better than this. My name is Arthur Larrabee. I’m a member of Central Philadelphia Monthly
Meeting. I live near West Chester, Pennsylvania, very
close to Westtown School. My work in the world is the work of teaching
and consulting about Quaker decision making. In attempting to name what I believe are core
principles, or core beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends as understood by unprogrammed
Quakers, I’m hoping that we would move in the direction of strengthening our faith practice,
and strengthening our faith practice with each other and be more clear and affirming
of what we’re able to say to the world, what we’re able to carry out into
the world. Quakers use many names to describe this spiritual
presence. Among the names we use are God, spirit, the
light, the inward light, the inner light, Christ, truth, love. This statement of belief is similar to the
first statement, and Quakers will talk about there being that of God in everyone, and it
is the belief that the creator has endowed each person with a measure of the divine essence,
and that as a consequence, all of life is sacred
and interconnected. Our belief leads us into a form of worship
that does not rely on clergy or liturgy or creed. Rather, we come together in the silence. We sometimes refer to our worship as “waiting
worship.” Waiting to hear—listen for—the still,
small voice within, and listening for that of God—the still, small voice—speaking
to us. When we come together in community, each of
us brings our own manifestation of the divine energy. When we come together in community, we experience
and embrace our diversity; we experience a much larger understanding and vision of God. For many of us, the Bible is an inspired record
of humankind’s interaction with God through the ages. Quakers find that the truth and the teachings
found in the Bible are an inspiration for daily living and also an inspiration for our
worship together. Quakers are very clear that the revelation
of God’s truth did not end with the writing of the Bible. We believe that God has continued to reveal
God’s truth and make God’s will and energy, truth—known to humankind down through the
ages, down to the present day. We find that our experience of worship and
our experience of the Divine is enriched by welcoming truth from different sources. We welcome spiritual truth from different
sources. Individually and collectively, we witness
to God’s presence in our lives by the way we live our lives and the way we model God’s
truth in the world. One of the consequences of listening for the
inward voice and being led into outward expressions of faithful living and witness and action
are Quaker testimonies. Testimonies that are well known today are
testimonies of simplicity and peace and integrity, community, equality and stewardship. Quakers believe that the way we live our lives
in of much more importance than what we say. There’s an old Quaker expression, “Let
your life speak” and that’s very much a part of Quakerism: the understanding that
the way we model God’s truth in our lives is to let our lives speak it.
Friend speaks my mind.