The 2nd Query

Meeting for Business

What are Queries?

Queries are an approach that Friends use to guide self-examination, using them not as an outward set of rules but as a framework within which we assess our convictions and examine, clarify, and consider prayerfully the direction of our lives and the life of our spiritual community.

Rooted in the history of Friends, the Queries reflect the Quaker way of life, reminding Friends of the ideals we seek to attain.  While the text of the Queries has changed somewhat over the years, it has been marked by consistency of convictions and concerns within Friends testimonies - simplicity, peace, integrity, stewardship, equality and community - as well as by strength derived from worship, ministry and social conscience. 

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice includes twelve Queries.  Most meetings consider one Query each month during worship and meetings for business.  Each Query consists of two sections: one pertaining to the corporate life of the meeting; the other pertaining to individual reflection.  Many meetings read the Query aloud during a meeting for business each month and set aside time for corporate discernment and reflection.  Other meetings publish the Query in their newsletters for members and attenders to consider on their own.

The full text of all twelve Queries and a more in-depth explanation of the Queries may be found in PYM Faith and Practice and on this website on the page devoted to the Queries.

2.   Meeting for Business

• Is our meeting for business held in the spirit of a meeting for worship in which we seek divine guidance?
• Are we careful to keep in the spirit of worship each of the concerns that emerge, whether of nurture, of Spirit, of social concerns, of property, or of finance?
• Are Meeting decisions directed by prayerful consideration of all aspects of an issue and are difficult problems considered carefully with patient search for truth, unhurried by the pressures of time?
• How do we respond if we notice the meeting has lost an understanding of the presence of God?
• Do we recognize that we speak through our inaction as well as our action?
• Do I regularly attend meeting for business and in a spirit of love and unity? If unable to attend, how do I attend to my responsibility?
• Do I consider prayerfully the many concerns that are lifted up on any issue, acknowledging that the search for truth in unity involves what God requires, being open to personal transformation as the community arrives at the sense of the meeting?