Howard Brinton, in his chapter on Community (p. 151), tells us that in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

The overseers were guided by the Queries, which were questions answered by the lower meetings to the higher meetings at first vocally by appointed representatives and later, after 1755, in writing. Answers to the Queries were expected to reveal shortcomings in the membership. Thus the Quarterly Meeting could learn the state of the Monthly Meetings, and the Yearly Meeting could learn the state of the Quarterly Meetings and extend advice and help as might be required.

We give much attention to our concept of community, but this use of the queries is a practical expression of that concern. They were a means of support for our faith community, a way for us to be accountable to each other. Later in the book he puts the 1755 change in the context of a reform movement in response to percieved laxness (this is the period when John Woolman raised the issue of taxes going for war, and Quakers resigning from the Pennsylvania Assembly over that issue).

The queries were to be answered every three months, and there were separate queries for ministers and elders. The 1806 Discipline lists nine queries to "be read, deliberately considered and answered in each preparative and monthly meeting once a year; in order to convey an explicit account in writing to the quarterly meeting ..." The queries tended to be practical and specific. The first was "Are all our religious meetings for worship and discipline duly attended; is the hour observed; and are friends clear of sleeping, and of all other unbecoming behaviour therein?" The fifth "Are poor Friends necessities duly inspected, and they relieved or assisted in such business as they are capable of. Do their children freely partake of learning to fit them for business: And are they and other Friends children placed among Friends?" The sixth would seem to be a catchall for the testimonies. "Do you maintain a faithful testimony against oaths; an hireling ministry; bearing arms, training, and other military services; being concerned in any fraudulent or clandestine trade; buying or vending goods so imported, or prize goods; and against encouraging lotteries of any kind?"

There are two points worthy of note here. The early queries deal much less with matters of opinion. In each case one would be able to cite examples of lateness to meeting, poor Friends being or not being supported, or of someone having taken an oath. Also, they were to be answered in writing. We were to be held accountable.

By 1927 the Hicksite yearly meeting had twelve queries, one to be read each month. Only indicated portions were to be answered in writing to be forwarded to the quarterly meeting. [here I read from the 1927 edition of The Book of Discipline (Hicksite), p.117-8]. As she points out, it is the practical matters that are singled out for responses.

In the 1955 Faith and Practice: A Book of Christian Discipline (note how "discipline" is now an afterthought) of the newly united Philadelphia Yearly Meeting there are still twelve queries, and inclusion of responses in the state of the meeting report is at the discretion of the monthly meeting. The purpose of the queries is explicitly first self examination, and only secondly to provide guidance on the sort of information useful for reports to larger meetings. This seems to be a significant move from corporate accountability in a faith community to individualism. Marty Grundy tells us that by the 1972 edition the now fifteen queries were a "reminder of the ideals Friends seek to attain." (taken from page 187). The concept of mutual accountability seems to have been lost.

Our current Faith & Practice as revised in 1997 (with further minor revisions in 2002) reflects this understanding. "Friends approach queries as a guide to self-examination, using them not as an outward set of rules, but as a frame work within which we assess our convictions and examine, clarify, and prayerfully the direction of our lives and the life of the community." (p.205). Further down the page it mentions ways the queries are considered by meetings, and says "some value the preparation of written answers; some use them as an aid for inward reflection ..."

It gives us twelve queries, each containing two sets. The first set in each of the twelve is for the consideration of the meeting. The second set, in italics, is for personal reflection. It is noted some meetings read the complete query while others read only the first set in meeting, leaving the second set for private consideration. My own meeting reads the query toward the end of worship on the second first day of the month, laeving time for responses out of the silence. We  leave the decission of what to read up to the Friend reading the query; who ever is on the facing bench that day. When it is my turn I read only the first set, and maybe not all of that, finding the whole thing much to much to remember, much less consider, at a time.

[Here we look at the queries in our current discipline and discuss them in terms of their usefulness in supporting our communities.]   

"Advices and Queries" were seen together for most of our history. Britian Yearly Meeting still does this. We came close to deleting advices as such all together. They were to be replaced by the volume as a whole. But the advices were kept "in support of those who cherish them." (p. 82). Do our meetings no longer presume to give advice? This is the same question of the place of a faith community to which we hold ourselves accountable.

[Discussion of what it means to be a member of a faith community/monthly meeting]

Burlington Quarterly Meeting has recently minuted its concern that quarterly meetings regain their place in the ordering of the yearly meeting. Not mentioned was the place of the quarters in receiving written responses to the queries. Though we may not want to return to allowing the quarterly meetings to discipline the monthly meetings (I for one would not want to), the expectation that queries would be answered in writing (I would suggest the portion addressed to the meeting in this case) and read at quarterly meeting would almost guarantee they be given deliberate consideration.
 

The Book of Discipline of the Religious Society of Friends: Christian Practice Business Procedure. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting held at Fifteenth and Race Streets, 1927).

Brinton, Howard. Friends for 350 Years. (Wallingford: Pendle Hill, 2002).

Cooper, Wilmer. A Living Faith. (Richmond: Friends United Press).

Faith & Practice. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1997).

Grundy, Marty. The Queries as Corporate Self-Discipline, a Pendle Hill lecture (4/7/1997).

The Old Discipline. (Glenside, PA: Quaker Heritage Press, 1999), available from the FGC Bookstore or the PYM Library.

Wallace, Terry H.S.  The Queries: Are We Who We Claim to Be -- Christians Bearing the Fruits of Christ's Presence?. Quaker Life (Jan/Feb 2001).