PEACE TESTIMONY – Approved October 18, 2008

Northern Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice

The Quaker witness for peace is as relevant today as ever and speaks powerfully to a world afflicted with suffering, violence, and war. We have a vision of a peaceable kingdom, here and now, in which the Divine leads us to reject violence in any form.

The peace testimony of early Friends was rooted in their personal experience of the love and power of Christ. When George Fox was offered release from prison if he would serve in Cromwell’s army he responded: “. . . I told them I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion for all wars, and I knew from whence all wars did rise . . . I told them that I was come into the covenant of peace which was before wars and strives were.” - George Fox, 1651.

“Wars arise from inner desires – that is where the conflict begins. Because God resolved that conflict in the heart of George Fox through the victory of the Lamb, George Fox could not participate in outward wars. War was obsolete; his life was centered in love.” – Michael Birkel,2004.

This peace testimony of the early Quakers was not based on some principle that they developed, but on their experience of Divine grace through which they came into the covenant of peace. “The peaceable kingdom is the kingdom of God. On a fundamental level this means that we enter the kingdom through God’s love (grace) and not through our own struggling. The kingdom of peace is a gift. We do not build it with our hands, although we are called to be faithful citizens of this kingdom with all of our hearts, minds, and strength”. -Sandra Cronk, 1984.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12:2 New International Version

The Peace Testimony is our witness to the world of a transformed life centered in love. To have an experiential knowledge of the Divine changes our hearts, our relationships, and our desires. We aspire to be rooted in this transforming power. We hope to experience this power that makes us incapable of acts of violence and oppression and gives us “the peace that passes all understanding.” We try to manifest this inner peace in the often troubled world that surrounds us. This peace witness begins in our own hearts and lives. Jesus’ great commandment was to love. That love can ripple out in ever widening circles, starting with ourselves, our families, our faith communities, then to our nation and the entire world including our enemies. This love requires compassion, but living our lives centered in this love also requires constructive action that seeks an end to poverty, violence, and suffering. God’s grace can transform our lives, it releases us from hatred and offers an invitation to others to be transformed. We envision an end to war but the Peace Testimony calls us to more than that, it calls us to a peaceable kingdom here on earth now. The Kingdom of God is within us. We bring a message of good news as an alternative to war and violence.

Violence is real and pervasive in our world. We support the role of the state in constraining people from hurting others, and we recognize that organized violence requires organized constraint. What we do not support is the use of violence, injustice and discrimination as a means to this end. We are grateful to those who keep us safe, and we honor them with our respect and compassion, even as we seek to spread nonviolence among them. We utterly oppose killing, capital punishment and violent tactics of any kind. We seek to minister with respect and compassion to victims and perpetrators alike, and to all those who work with them. We seek to be present with all parties to conflict.

Individual Quakers and Quaker Meetings have struggled to discern their leading with respect to witnessing to the peaceable kingdom. There is great diversity among us regarding the question of whether some violence can reach a point where it can no longer be constrained by non-violent means. Some Friends have been led to be conscientious participants in the effort to constrain violence, even to the point of participating in physical forms of constraint. However, as Quakers seeking to live in the life and power that takes away all occasion for war, certain principles have prevailed as witness to our testimony.

 

We Repudiate War:  We seek a world that chooses non-violent means to accomplish its goals and seeks to heal the hates and hurts of individuals and nations. We hold that it is inconsistent with our religious testimony to participate in violent struggle and therefore we support those who take the stand as conscientious objectors to war and violence.  We ask “Can war truly be the will of God?”  We recognize the bravery and commitment of those who fight on every side, and extend compassion to all who suffer for any reason.

 

 

 

We Seek To Stop Preparation for War:  We work for disarmament. We seek to transform all war-devoted technology, industry, commerce and political activity into peace-devoted alternatives. “In days to come…they shall beat their swords into plowshares…” Micah 4:3. We support those who resist the war system with civil disobedience, such as refusing to pay war-related taxes, choosing to live simply, below the taxable level, refusing to register for the draft, or blockading war preparation activities. And we support those who return from war to civilian life.
 
We Seek To Eliminate The Seeds of War:  We work for social and economic justice and for the right sharing of world resources. We seek an Earth restored by a deep reverence for the natural processes that sustain all life, that all people may breathe and drink and harvest without fear. We seek to move toward a vision of our population in balance with the rest of creation, so that undue pressure on scarce resources is not the root of conflict. We strive to share and celebrate our differences and to live in harmony with all our inevitable conflicts.
We Seek To Sow The Seeds of Peace: All of the above is focused on the important and essential work of prevention to which many of us are called in diverse ways. But the real heart of the Peace Testimony is not prevention but transformation – being transformed by God’s love. This is a radical vision of the peaceable kingdom, a vision that through faithful lives, our energy can shift from fear and prevention to love and nurture. We are all connected. A more peaceful and compassionate world is as close as reaching out to strangers and friends alike, and letting peace radiate from each of our lives. This is work to which all of us are called daily – we need only listen and respond. Our job is to live into the Light in the different ways that we are led, and trust that our work together will lead us toward a safer and more peaceful world.
“He has told you… what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” – Micah 6:8.

Queries

For the Meeting:

  1. What does your meeting do to bring our peace witness to the wider community and the world?
  2. How does your meeting live out the peace testimony within its own practice?
  3. How does your meeting teach and practice the peace testimony with your youth?
  4. How is our peace testimony grounded in right relationship with all creation?
  5. How does your meeting learn ways of peace from other groups and communities?

 For the Individual:

  1. How do you nurture peacefulness in your own heart?
  2. How does your life reflect the need for peace in your families, your meeting, your community and the workplace?
  3. What do you do about domestic violence, prison violence, police violence and violence in entertainment?
  4. What daily activities support peace-building?
  5. What do you do about institutional violence?
  6. How can you cease supporting war?