In January we are going to join with other Northwest Yearly Meeting churches in observing Peace Month. This year the focus is on our Quaker testimonies. A helpful way to remember the testimonies is with the acronym SPICE, which stands for Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community and Equality.
Friends throughout history have exemplified living out their faith in ways that are world-changing. That fact makes this upcoming series a wonderful way to continue our conversation about Discipleship: Together on the Jesus Way.
Friend’s testimonies are values and practices that overtime have come to express the way we have felt led by God to enact God’s love in the world. They are general themes that provide a framework that gives guidance to our choices. The testimonies rise from a concern for purity, holiness and consistency with God’s order and are based on our desire to live as if the kingdom of God were a reality now and not some golden age of the past or a blessed event in the future. These outward expressions of enacting God’s love in the world are based on our direct relationship with God and a profound belief in the power of God to prevail over the forces of sin and evil in the world and all of creation.
We will engage the whole congregation in this conversation as the children will also explore the testimonies at an age-appropriate level each week. Our hope is that we will all feel challenged and equipped to follow Christ’s call more faithfully as Friends with a history as well as a future.
