Quaker social testimony in our personal and corporate life

This is an essay about the realness of the Quaker faith, how real faith takes over your life. It is about one part of the process of spiritual growth, with spiritual awareness and life changes contributing to each other. The testimonies are concrete expressions of our realization of the very nature

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of the universe, and the whole of life becomes sacramental. The Quaker testimonies are neither values nor rules, but a way of being and living aligned with the sacred reality of the universe. Prayerfully examining our lives in the Light can contribute to our spiritual growth; lifestyle choices are a continual spiritual practice. Dale gives examples from his own spiritual journey. He writes revealingly about the gradual process of attending to one lifestyle choice after another, a process of patient loving nagging by the Light.
Being concrete, testimony is actually practical, about such things as the food we buy, the energy we use, where we live, speaking truth and peaceful relationships, and about advocacy for public policy on these matters.
Dale points out that spiritual discernment regarding testimony is both an individual and corporate process. The meeting has a role both in discerning testimony and in taking considered corporate action, as well as in lovingly encouraging individual discernment regarding our lives. He shares several ideas on how meetings can do these well.
Dale's message is not new to Friends, but it is always radical, and is one of those lessons that we learn many times, each time a little deeper. This pamphlet contributes to that deeper learning.

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