• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Mission & Structure
    • General Secretary
    • Finance
    • Employment
    • Quakerism
  • News
    • News
    • Post Your Story +
    • Newsletters
    • Meeting Statements
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Post Your Event +
    • Annual Sessions
    • Continuing Sessions
  • Programs
    • Grants
    • Youth
      • Children (K-5th)
      • Middle School Friends (6-8th)
      • Young Friends (9-12th)
      • Friends Who Care for Youth
    • Young Adults (18 +)
    • Counseling
    • Aging Services
    • Pastoral Care
  • Resources
    • Faith & Practice
    • Library
    • Governance & Stewardship
    • Ministry & Care
    • Outreach & Communications
    • Peace & Social Justice
    • Religious Education
  • Community
    • Working Together
    • Bridge Contacts
    • Resource Friends
    • Councils
      • Administrative Council
      • Nominating Council
      • Quaker Life Council
    • Services for Community Engagement
  • Directory
    • Find a Meeting
    • Staff
    • Leadership
    • Quarterly Meetings
    • Arch Street Meeting House
  • Donate
  • Search

Concerns, Leadings and Testimonies

Throughout our history Friends have understood that we are not meant to conform to the ways of the world, but to live in obedience to the Light Within and through this witness to transform the world. An individual or group may feel a direct intimation of God’s will, a tender sense of a need or difficulty either within the meeting or in the larger community. Initially, such a concern may not be linked to any specific action, but may simply be a troubled sense that something is awry. When the concern gains clarity and focus, Friends refer to it as a “leading,” a sense of being called by God to undertake a particular course of action. The leading may be short-term or it may involve an ongoing transformation of the person’s life, the community, and even the world.

When a leading to act in a public way arises, the Friend may seek to initiate a process of discernment and testing within the meeting. This testing process is a form of spiritual discipline for both the Friend with a leading and for the meeting community. It is intended to result in clearness for both regarding what is to be done.

For more than 350 years, Friends have adopted practices that reflect deeply held, historically rooted attitudes towards living in the world. The collective experience of “concerns” and “leadings” over time has led to what Friends refer to as “testimonies.” The testimonies are outward expressions that reflect the inward experience of transformation through divine leading. Contemporary Friends may identify our testimonies as simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship using the acronym SPICES. However, in the past, the testimonies referenced specific acts of Friends responding to truth as they understood it. For instance, the testimony against taking oaths grew out of the intention to speak truth always and not only when one’s hand was on the Bible. Even today we say that our “testimony” is a demonstration in our outward lives of Spirit’s movement within us.

Primary Sidebar

Faith & Practice

Purchase

Quakerbooks.org is currently selling copies of Faith & Practice.

Buy Now!

Editions
First adopted in 1955, Faith & Practice was revised in 1972. After 25 years and numerous reprintings, it was revised in 1997, 2002 and again in 2017, with updates in the section on Yearly Meeting structures and a new section of biographical notes.

Ongoing Discernment
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting appoints a Faith and Practice Revision Group to periodically review and revise Faith and Practice.  We revise Faith and Practice from time to time in order to reflect continuing spiritual discernment, incorporate new governance structure and practices and generally bring the book “up to date.”

Before Footer

Resources

  • Faith & Practice
  • Governance & Stewardship
  • Ministry & Care
  • Outreach & Communications
  • Peace & Social Justice
  • Religious Education
  • Library

About Us

  • Mission & Structure
  • Administrative Council
  • Nominating Council
  • Quaker Life Council
  • Finance
  • General Secretary
  • Employment

Community

  • How We Work Together
  • Addressing Racism
  • Collaboratives
  • Sprints
  • Threads
  • Resource Friends
  • Bridge Contacts

Footer

Contact Us

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
1515 Cherry St
Philadelphia, PA 19102
info@pym.org
215-241-7203
215-241-7045 (FAX)
Directory

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Email Newsletters

The latest news, events and program updates from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Subscribe →
© 2021 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting · Privacy Policy · SiteMap