The "Testimonies" and the Testimonial Life

Spirit-led action. This is the heart of the Quaker approach to social change: to follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit, which seeks always to lead us into right thought, right word, and right action. Our goal is to live our outward lives in accordance with the inward guidance of the Spirit.

The "Testimonies"

The testimonies. Over the centuries, Quakers have been led to certain “testimonies,” truths about how to live in the world and relate to our society that we have confirmed are true for us over and over again. Lists of such testimonies commonly include the following:

• Peace and nonviolence. We are opposed to wars and embrace nonviolent methods of social change. We encourage our young people to seek conscientious objector status in times of war.
• Equality and social justice. We seek equality for women, for people of all races, ethnicities, and religions, for LGBTQ+ folks and all gender identities, for immigrants, and for all oppressed and marginalized people.
• Criminal justice reform. We seek to end mass incarceration, solitary confinement, and an end to the death penalty.
• Care for the earth. We seek:
• not just the preservation of our mother earth but the restoration of a stable and life-sustaining climate and whole and healthy ecosystems everywhere;
• environmental justice—an end to using neighborhoods of color as our toxic waste sites, and other forms of environmental discrimination;
• access to clean, affordable energy for all;
• a sustainable economy and energy system;
• the end of mass extinction, the health of our oceans, and the reversal of our climate catastrophe.
• Simplicity. We seek to live as lightly on the earth as possible, we embrace a plain religious architecture without religious accoutrements, and we practice a radically simple form of worship.
• Right sharing of the world's resources. In the 1960s, Friends formed an organization called Right Sharing of World Resources that partners with women in Guatemala, India, Kenya, and Sierra Leone for local development projects.
• Honesty and integrity. Following Jesus’ injunction (Matthew 5:34), we do not take oaths in court or elsewhere; rather we affirm our truthfulness, seeking to “let our yay be yay and our nay be nay.” We seek to be honest and truthful in all of our dealings. In general, we seek to “let our lives speak,” to be authentic and genuine in our personhood, and to be faithful to our conscience.

More on Quaker Social Witness

Faith and Practice: Central Philadelphia Meeting is a member of a denominational organization called Philadelphia Yearly Meeting PYM), so called because it means annually to conduct its business. PYM publishes a book called Faith and Practice that describes our beliefs and practices. Faith and Practice has sections on what we call social witness, work to mend the world: