In a very real sense, the future of Friends in the coming generation is going to depend on what kind of Faith and Practice we use, and the spirit in which we use it. Many of the battles in Indiana Yearly Meeting over the last few years have centered around key sections in Faith and Practice which have been interpreted very differently by groups of Friends on various sides.
Some Friends see Faith and Practice as a “rule book” which allows the conservative/evangelical majority to enforce their views on a literal reading of the Bible. Other Friends have demanded that Faith and Practice be used to crack down on meetings which would like to use outward physical sacraments of baptism and communion.
Most yearly meetings make it very difficult to change Faith and Practice, and the struggles to change it have become “proxy wars” for the various theological, spiritual and cultural differences among Friends. It may be worth taking a moment to step back and look at the history of Faith and Practice, and at how various groups of Friends use this resource.
Friends in Great Britain started making collections of minutes on various subjects as early as the late 1600’s. The earliest collection, the “Epistle from the Elders at Balby” of 1656, was careful to conclude,
“Dearly beloved Friends, these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by; but that all, with a measure of the light, which is pure and holy, may be guided: and so in the light walking and abiding, these things may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not in the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.”
A major step in the evolution of Faith and Practice in our area was the creation of the Uniform Discipline in 1897 by Five Years Meeting (now Friends United Meeting). This was intended to provide a common basis for Friends in the Orthodox tradition, and many yearly meetings still draw heavily on this document.
Things started to break up when the Uniform Discipline was revised in 1940 and divided into 3 sections: 1) Faith and Life; 2) Organization and Business Procedure; 3) Authorised Declaration of Faith. Some yearly meetings refused to include the Declaration of Faith. Most adopted the second section on organization and business procedure, and have adapted it over the years to their own situation.
A number of Friends have suggested that as Indiana Yearly Meeting prepares to divide, that both sides be allowed to continue to use the old Faith and Practice, or adopt sections of it, till they have time to come up with their own new version. One other suggestion would be to change the order of the material, and place the Richmond Declaration of Faith at the rear of the book as an historical document, and make the opening of the book focus on our mission statement today.
For many Friends today, the language of Faith and Practice has become dated, stilted and old-fashioned. It’s no longer a guide filled with living voices on important issues – it’s almost a “dead letter”.
A few yearly meetings have taken a different approach. Britain Yearly Meeting and New England Yearly Meeting have created anthologies of quotations from Friends of many different opinions, which reflect the majority views of their yearly meetings but which include prophetic voices of Friends on the cutting edge of various issues. This approach is particularly helpful as a way for Friends to discuss “hot button” issues such as human sexuality, or rapidly-changing issues such as peace or linking Friends together using electronic technology.
Another helpful development has come as some yearly meetings have made their Faith and Practice available online in .pdf format which can be searched easily for information. An even better practice is to use hyperlinks to make it easy to navigate – click here to see how this works.
Smaller yearly meetings, or independent/unaffiliated monthly meetings, have had the freedom to create fresh versions of Faith and Practice. They typically try to stay within the broad tradition of Friends, but use modern language and often address difficult issues in a fresh way. For example, click here to look at the Faith and Practice of Freedom Friends Meeting.
In a future post, let’s take a look at a particular section of Faith and Practice – the Advices and Queries.
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Click here for more examples of Faith and Practice of other Friends meetings.
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