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

Tim Gee considers the Peace Testimony

by Tim Gee 27th September 2019

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.