‘In stillness we can ask ourselves whether there might be seeds of war within ourselves.’

Tim Gee considers the Peace Testimony

'In almost any Quaker Meeting you’ll find at least one person engaged in action for peace...' | Photo: Jonathan Meyer / Unsplash.

Although Quakers in Britain don’t often preach, they certainly teach, often by example. One of the better known of these examples is set in the 1660s. Margaret Fell, one of the earliest Friends, rode from Cumbria to London to petition the king not to oppress the new Quaker movement. She took a letter showing that they were not violent. The document declared the Society of Friends ‘a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love and unity’; and who ‘bear our testimony against all strife, and wars’. The event is a helpful starting marker for what we now call the Quaker Peace Testimony.

In tune with the Quaker aversion to creeds or dogma, this testimony is not a set of rules. Rather it is a cumulative experience of action and reflection over three and a half centuries. In almost any Quaker Meeting you’ll find at least one person engaged in action for peace, perhaps through education, conflict resolution, human rights volunteering or welcoming people who have needed to flee their homes elsewhere. ‘Testimony’ though is about more than that. To give testimony is to offer witness to the truth as we experience it. For a faith group like the Quakers, that is by definition a spiritual endeavour, and manifests differently for different people.

A more recent source of these stories is the Scottish peacemaker Helen Steven, who once found herself attempting to stop a nuclear submarine by paddling in its way in a canoe. She later reflected on how making ourselves totally open to the working of the Spirit can ‘lead us in directions we had never dreamed of, to new challenges and new ways of living adventurously’, adding ‘those who think that worship in Meeting will give them a quieter life may be in for a surprise!’.

But peacemaking isn’t only about action. In stillness we can ask ourselves whether there might be seeds of war within ourselves, or ways in which our lives contribute to injustice. To give a personal example, for me as a man this has led to a process of beginning to identify, then trying to unlearn, the various ways that our culture has taught us that masculinity and violence go together. The Quaker community has been a supportive one in which to embark on this process.

Quaker Meeting can also prove a strengthening experience, as if building up reserves of calm to be called on during the week. Peacemaking doesn’t need to be about avoiding conflict, but at its best it tries to resolve conflict in a way that maintains the dignity of all parties.

I don’t want to give the impression that Quakers are some kind of angelically patient people. We’re not. Every one of us is on a journey. The point is that the journey is towards a more peaceful world, attempting along the way to build peaceful communities. And it is a journey that everyone is welcome to be part of, wherever your starting point.

Tim’s third book Why I am a Pacifist is published by Christian Alternative.

More in the series:

‘What part do I play in making my faith community more reflective of my neighbourhood?’ Gill Sewell reflects on the Testimony to Equality

‘The Divine is like water, tangible but hard to catch.’ Rhiannon Grant on what Simplicity means to her

‘If we have a testimony to Truth, and if testimony is faith in action, how clear is our witness?’ John Lampen calls for a reinvigoration of the Truth Testimony

‘In the silence I brought my vanity and thoughtlessness into the Light.’ Rosie Carnall testifies on Sustainability

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