Testimonies
A spirit-guided life of Friends is attentive to the ongoing inward experience of the Divine and is faithful in interpreting that experience in the actions of the outward life. Friends have, over generations and across all our expressions of the Quaker faith, come to have some common understandings or normative testimonies that illuminate these signposts.
Two Friends in the 1900's have organized these ways of living in the world. Howard Brinton in 1943
as part of his Guide to Quaker Practice organized Quaker way of witnessing to the world into what has been come to be known as
SPICE.
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Four social testimonies
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Simplicity,
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Peace,
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Community,
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Equality
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One personal testimony
In more recent years, a second S has been added to make the word SPICES. Friends found that a faithful life requires a commitment to proper Stewardship of all that God has given us.
Click here to see a fuller definition of each testimony and here to see one Friends School interpretation of the Howard's SPICES and their application.
A more recent Friend, Wilmer Cooper, organized the testimonies of all types of Quakers into:
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Four religious testimonies:
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Direct inward experience of God,
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Enlightenment of the Light within,
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Communal experience of the spirit,
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Sacramental view of life.
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Four social testimonies.
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Peace,
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Simplicity,
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Equality,
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Integrity
A fuller explanation of Wilmer's understanding of these testimonies can be found here.