“Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center – a life of unhurried peace and power….. It is serene. It takes not time, but it occupies all our time.” (Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion, p.116, 124.)

“Simplicity does not mean drabness or narrowness but is essentially positive, being the capacity for selectivity in one who holds attention on the goal. Thus simplicity is an appreciation of all that is helpful towards living as children of the Living God.” (FAITH AND PRACTICE, North Carolina Yearly Meeting – Conservative, 1983.)

Simplicity is essential to our relationship with the Divine. It is the deepest leading of spiritual life in stewarding needs, time, money, possessions and energy for the purpose of our relationship with the Divine. Inward and visible simplicity are the characteristic way, sign, and witness to the spiritual life of Friends.

Simplicity can set free richness of spiritual life and joy in living. It nurtures creativity and sensitivity to the natural world and is a sturdy, functional and serviceable guide to our lives. It can remove barriers to engagement with others. This testimony encourages Friends to consider obstacles in our lives which interfere with this Divine experience.

Quakers affirm the needs of the physical life, beauty, artistic expression, and community life. Friends recognize that simplicity manifests itself in diverse ways within each life and among lives in the same community. The practice of this testimony changes throughout our lives and requires a constant awareness. We recognize the pressures to conform to the materialism of our society. Discernment, with the assistance of the wider Quaker community, supports intentional development of practical applications

Friends’ public witness to the testimony of simplicity promotes equity in the distribution of resources, sustainable economic development, and long-term care of the natural world. It is the result of Friends’ seeking the Divine and discerning how they are led to live from this Center.

Frances Taber, a contemporary Friend writes, “It may surprise some of us to hear that the first generation of Friends did not have a testimony for simplicity. They came upon a faith which cut to the root of the way they saw life, radically reorienting it. They saw that all they did must flow directly from what they experienced as true, and that if it did not, both the knowing and the doing became false. In order to keep the knowledge clear and the doing true, they stripped away anything which seemed to get in the way. They called those things superfluities, and it is this radical process of stripping for clear-seeing which we now term simplicity.” (Frances Irene Taber, Finding the Taproot of Simplicity: The Movement between Inner Knowledge and Outer Action, p. 59, within the book Friends Face the World, 1987,with permission of the author)

Many nineteenth century Friends carried this radical process to excess. They exercised an outward practice in dress and lifestyles that, long after it has been abandoned, leaves a false impression that Quakers are most notable for their austerity and plainness.

Listen to Frances Taber again, “The taproot of simplicity is to be found at that point in the life of a Friend when the realization comes that his or her inner and outer lives are connected, that for the inward life to continue to grow, there must be a response from the outward life. It is at that point where awareness dawns that spiritual knowledge itself comes from an open relationship between one’s inner and outer lives, and from a free movement between the two.” (Frances Irene Taber,Ibid.)

Queries

Individual:

  1. What does simplicity mean at this time in my life?
  2. What am I attached to that distracts me from the Divine?
  3. How do I integrate my Inner life and my outward life?
  4. The gospel of Matthew asks, Where is your treasure? (Matthew 6:19-21)
  5. How do I advocate for the application of simplicity in public life and policies?
  6. When may external conspicuous display be appropriate?
  7. How do I relate simplicity to our other testimonies?

Meeting:

  1. How do we apply the testimony of simplicity to our meeting’s life?
  2. How does our meeting support and encourage individuals to remove barriers to relationships with the Divine?
  3. How does the testimony of simplicity affect celebrations, holiday programs, weddings and memorials?