Preface

What is presented herein represents the labor of nearly a decade by almost a score of committee members and by many, many members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in their home Meetings and in sessions of yearly meeting.

Of importance has been the recognition that formerly latent differences among yearly meeting members have become explicit and vigorous. During the decades in which the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings were preparing for and consummating reunion, Friends remembered that the separation of 1828 seemed to have arisen over theological words and phrases and were wary of using such terms for fear of renewing the schism. In recent years that worry has faded and there is more outspoken diversity of expression among us. It has also become clear that Friends sometimes find clarity of communication difficult because of the lack of a commonly understood religious vocabulary, as members from many different religious backgrounds and experience have joined the Society of Friends.

From the beginning it was determined by those entrusted with the task of revising the 1972 Faith and Practice that more was expected than to update that version. As a matter of policy, sexist language has been removed except in direct quotations. We have returned to the understanding of early Friends that Faith and Practice, as a whole and as a book of discipline, comprises advices regarding the 'good order used among us' which have been confirmed by experience. Still, we have included—at the beginning of the section of quotations—the extracts from Epistles of the Yearly Meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, 1694 and 1695, which many Friends find especially helpful, and which appeared in the 1972 edition under the heading Advices.

In conclusion, we have tried to respect the deeply felt leadings of sometimes diverse groups and of individual Friends without attempting to represent them in detail. The quotations section, extracts from the works of Friends past and present, is intended to reflect more directly the richness of our diversity.