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What we are is truly seen in
what we do. We may claim to be a people of faith and love, but if our
actions belie our claims, the truth is not in us. Faith and works are
inseparable. As James so directly put it: “Show me your faith without deeds,
and I will show you my faith by what I do.” Faith without deeds is
invisible, useless, a lie. Faith without works is as a dead spiritual tree
that bears no fruit. “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without deeds is dead.
Before we begin I want to say that the
yearly meeting I am referring to in the beginning is London yearly meeting
since that is where the queries were born. This will be the history, which
eventually evolved to include yearly meetings around the world. Most yearly
meetings have their own unique set of queries and you have been given a copy
of NWYM queries.
The Quaker practice of receiving and
answering Queries is rooted in the essential question: Are we being faithful
to the hope that is within us? Receiving and answering the Queries is far
more than a mere personal self-examination. It is meant to be a corporate
self-examination of the unity of our faith and life together as Friends, as
Christ’s church.
Now, before we examine how the queries might
be used it is interesting to know where our queries came from, what earlier
friends had in mind, and how they used them. This is not so that we can
imitate earlier friends, but that, knowing the queries’ origin, we can make
a more informed choice about our own use of them.
Our Quaker Queries grew out of a fundamental
challenge to Quaker identity, character, and discipline. Also, Yearly
Meetings began the practice of querying Monthly and Quarterly Meetings as to
how truth prospered among them and how friends were in peace and unity. The
practice established that Quakers were not simply a band of individualists,
each doing his or her own thing. They were God’s people witnessing to His
presence and power in their lives by the visible fruits produced by their
faith and salvation. Quakers were a people who stood for certain spiritual
and moral absolutes.
The queries, then, remind us
that the church is not a spiritual supermarket with lots of spiritual fruits
for sale in the produce section. They remind us we are not to wander up and
down the aisles, testing each fruit to see if we should “buy” it. “This
fruit’s too hard! I’d never be able to stomach it. This one’s too mushy—I
reject it. And this one! It’s old! No longer nutritious for our time. Ill
toss it!” Selective obedience to God’s will has never been an option.
Friends have assessed the state of this
religious society through the use of queries since the time of George Fox.
Rooted in the history of Friends, the queries reflect the Quaker way of
life, reminding Friends of the ideals we seek to attain. From the Christian
tradition, friends have taken as a standard the life and teaching of Jesus,
not only as recorded in the New Testament, but even more importantly as
revealed inwardly, as we seek God’s truth and its expression through our
lives today. Friends approach queries as a guide to self-examination, using
them not as an outward set of rules, but as a framework within which we
assess our convictions and examine, clarify, and consider prayerfully the
direction of our lives and the life of the community. Over the years, the
content of the general queries has changed, as each generation finds it own
voice. The earliest general queries of London yearly meeting asked for
specific facts and figures asking 3 questions. 1. What friends in the
ministry, in their respective counties, departed this life since the last
yearly meeting? 2. What friends imprisoned for their testimony have died in
prison since the last yearly meeting? 3. How has the truth prospered amongst
them since the last yearly meeting and if Friends are in peace and unity?
Today, queries that are looking for specific factual answers are not
included in the general queries. The language of the queries today is
language that encourages the probing-in-depth of an issue or a concern. (I
wonder if that is why we seldom read or think about them). While changes in
specific focus and language are inevitable over time, the queries have been
marked by consistency of convictions and concerns within friends
testimonies—simplicity, peace, integrity, stewardship, equality and
community—as well as by strength derived from worship, ministry and social
conscience. There may be times when a meeting will reword a query or
contemplate a new one to meet its particular situation. (After checking on
the Internet, I have found this to be very true. We (NWYM), have fewer than
most yearly meetings and even though we are asked probing questions, you
should read some of them!!)
In 1682 when the 3 questions were asked that
I mentioned earlier, to each quarterly meeting, they were expected to answer
those questions orally. They were intended to produce factual information
from friends with local knowledge, so that the progress of friends
throughout the country could be seen and help given in the areas where it
was most needed. Being expanded in 1694 to 6 questions and further increased
in the early 1700’s their purpose was still mainly to elicit factual
information. The practice of oral replies to the questions became too
cumbersome and was replaced in 1706 by written replies from the quarterly
meetings. The system of replying to the questions took root in the society
and the term ‘query’ was increasingly used, in yearly meeting minutes from
1723 onwards, instead of ‘question’.
As the practice of replying to the queries
became more formal their purpose also began to change. The queries were
increasingly used to ensure consistency of conduct among friends and to
obtain information as to the state of the society. They included advice and
direction to overseers, dealing with personal differences, public scandal,
offenses against the church, backbiting, disowned persons not permitted in
meetings for business, none to oppose ministers publicly, burials, attending
meetings, and the form marriage certificates should take. In 1721, for
example, a query was added as to the receipt and payment of tithes, and in
1723 as to defrauding the king of his customs and excise, and many other
subjects were included in additional queries. In 1755 they were again
revised and added to. Friends were directed to consider them once every 3
months, with answers to be prepared by overseers or other weighty friends.
There were 13 queries, covering the outward behavior expected of people
professing to be friends. Appended were 4 administrative queries and 9 for
ministers and elders. The purpose of the queries after 1760 became
principally disciplinary, and monthly and quarterly meetings and their
elders and overseers regarded the queries as a touchstone on which they
could rely in administering the discipline.
There were periodic revisions of the queries
during the next hundred years, although the number of substantial changes
was few. When the queries were revised in 1791 yearly meeting adopted the
first ‘general advises’ for consideration by monthly and quarterly meetings.
They were short, and mainly concerned with the domestic life of the society
and its member. During the early nineteenth century friends were much
influenced by the evangelical movement and this was illustrated in the
revision of the general advises in 1833. They were completely re-written and
much expanded. They became of much greater importance than before, and their
purpose was no longer mainly disciplinary but instead they were used to
emphasize the importance of evangelical principles and to encourage friends
to consider whether they should not adopt them personally.
As friends in the early nineteenth century
entered more into the public and social life of the times, many of them
began to question traditional practices of the society including the very
large amount of time spent at business meetings in reading and drawing up
answers to the queries, which were often formal in nature. The value of the
queries for self-examination had been commended by yearly meeting from 1787
onwards, however the requirement of preparing written answers was virtually
abolished, and while the regulations continued to provide for a corporate
consideration of the queries by monthly and preparative meetings, this in
turn became in many places a formality. The general advises were revised
over the same period. They were lengthened and extended in scope, and
provision was made for them to be read at the close of meeting for worship.
After this, no major revision of the queries
took place until 1928. By this time many friends considered that they were
too negative in approach, had become uneasy at the evangelical language then
in use, and wished for greater emphasis on the social responsibilities of
Quakerism. These views were reflected in the revised queries, which again
increased in number. The requirement of corporate consideration of the
queries by friends’ business meetings remained but this became of much less
significance. The use of the queries became increasingly devotional- a
collection of exhortations on the right management of one’s own affairs both
inward and outward, and a collection of questions, or groups of questions,
in pondering which a whole meeting can achieve a corporate examination of
conscience’. The practice was established in many meetings of reading the
queries in meetings of worship.
A revision of queries, adopted in 1964,
contained a number of alterations to the previous edition and included
references to social problems not apparent in 1928.
In the revisions from the Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting in 1972, the introduction explains that “the queries reflect
to Quaker way of life, reminding Friends of the ideals we seek to attain.”
It adds that “Friends approach queries as a guide to self-examination, using
them not as an outward set of rules, but as a framework within which we
assess our convictions, and examine, clarify and consider prayerfully the
direction of our lives and the life of the community.” The language was
chosen, it explains, to encourage “the probing-in-depth of an issue or a
concern.” It is interesting that we are not expected to probe ourselves in
depth, or invite the Light to probe us, but rather to deal in depth with the
outward issues.
By 1984 some monthly meetings were
expressing unease with the 1964 edition of the queries. (This is for
Laverne) The use of masculine nouns and pronouns no longer seemed
justifiable, and some of the theological language used was being questioned.
Some recently evolving concerns were not referred to, and there was some
difficulty reading aloud some of the longer paragraphs.
In the light of these responses, and after
several more years of work on the revision of the whole list, a committee
prepared the present text, which was approved by yearly meeting in 1994.
Although the corporate use of queries is
governed by more flexible regulations than in the past, they should continue
to be a challenge and inspiration to friends in their personal lives and in
their life as a religious community which knows the guidance of the
universal spirit of Christ, witnessed to in the life and teachings of Jesus
of Nazareth.
Queries are not a call to increased activity
by each individual friend but a reminder of the insights of the society.
Within the community there is a diversity of gifts. We are all therefore
asked to consider how far the queries affect us personally and where our own
service lies. There will also be diversity of experience, of belief and of
language. Friends maintain that expressions of faith must be related to
personal experience. Some find traditional Christian language full of
meaning; some do not. Our understanding of our own religious tradition nay
sometimes be enhanced by insights of other faiths. The deeper realities of
our faith may be beyond verbal composition and our way of worship based on
silent waiting testifies to this.
Our diversity invites us both to speak what
we know to be true in our lives and to learn from others. Friends are
encouraged to listen to each other in humility and understanding, trusting
in the spirit that goes beyond our human effort and comprehension. So it is
for the comfort and discomfort of friends that these queries are offered,
with the hope that we may all be more faithful and find deeper joy in God’s
service.
Over the generations Friends have found that
the Divine Presence, the inward Teacher, has taught certain things to us as
a group. These lessons are not intellectual creations but practical guides
for daily living so that through our personal lives Friends might bear
witness to the world of these teachings and to the love and power of God. As
we all know, these testimonies had to do with our form of worship in
expectant waiting, with plainness of speech and dress, with a lifestyle of
honesty and integrity in business and domestic spheres, with peace,
equality, and simplicity.
There was a well-defined lifestyle by which
any Quaker anywhere could be readily identified. Those who made other
choices could not be owned as part of the meeting and its witness to the
world. For better or worse this is no longer the case. However, we are still
concerned to live lives of faithful attentiveness. As friends we are
continually invited to bring more and more parts of our lives into harmony
with divine love and truth. The queries offer us an opportunity to hear God
calling us to a more faithful life.
Sometimes the discussion of a query was the
high point of a monthly meeting. In one meeting that was noted, after a
rather tedious, long-winded, not particularly well-grounded meeting for
business the query that was considered was simply “how do we recognize what
we are called to be obedient to?” As people spoke to it, the silence
deepened and lengthened between speakers. Finally the speaking ceased
altogether and the Friends present were wrapped together in quietness and
love. The clerk ended the meeting but they were reluctant to leave. They
were in the presence of God, and found it good.
Careful and prayerful consideration of the
queries can be the outward structure that unites the individuals and the
faith community. If the intent of our meetings and of Friends is to grow
ever deeper in our relationship with the divine, and we have chosen the
Quaker path as our way, then the queries offer a checklist of how faithful
we are as we trudge along on our journey, together.
There is a Quaker way, it is not quite the
same as any other way. This is not to say other ways are not valid, only
that it is probably counter-productive to try to walk on several paths
simultaneously.
Yes, we can learn from other faiths. Yes, we
can worship with others. Yes, we can give thanks that God has taught diverse
peoples in diverse ways, all with the same underlying message of love, and
drawing humans God-ward. But we have chosen one way, the Quaker way. The
queries help us stay on our path and deepen within it.
Our Quaker way professes that the divine
will teach us, inwardly. We will be taught individually and we will be
taught together, as a faith community. Our responsibility is to be
teachable, and not a stiff-necked, stubborn, self-righteous people. A humble
opening of our selves to be searched by the divine through the queries is
one way to remain teachable.
George Fox continually referred to the
“power of God” or the “power of the Lord”. What is our experience of this
power? If we haven’t experienced it together, what is hindering its bursting
forth among us? What is God trying to teach us, in our meeting, today,
through our consideration of these things?
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