A close-up of the Quaker Way tree, for the full image see the bottom of the main article. Photo: BDRC.
Now we are seven: Mary Woodward on the first draft of the new book of discipline
‘Working title: Our Quaker Way: the spiritual discipline of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain.’
What is a book of discipline?
The introduction to our current book, Quaker faith & practice, says the roots of the word ‘discipline’ lie in ideas of learning and discipleship. Discipline in our Yearly Meeting consists for the most part of advice and counsel, the encouragement of self-questioning, of hearing each other in humility and love.
Our first book of discipline was issued in 1738, in manuscript form. There have been many revisions since, roughly every generation. Quaker faith & practice is the title given to the tenth such revision. 1861’s three volumes were called Christian doctrine, Christian practice and Church government. The first of 1921’s three volumes was renamed Christian life, faith and thought. 1959’s book of discipline had two volumes: Christian faith and practice and Church government. In 1985 the then London Yearly Meeting asked Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) to appoint a revision committee, whose work resulted in Quaker faith & practice, where church government and Quaker practice are interwoven rather than being seen as two totally separate subjects.
In 2018 Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) discerned that the time was right for a new book of discipline, and, in 2019, your current Book of Discipline Revision Committee was appointed. Minute 31 of BYM 2018 exhorted us to be prayerful, creative, joyful and bold. We recently met for the twenty-fifth time.
The initial twenty-four Friends who met together in Friends House in May 2019 were clear from the start that we were not simply going to do a ‘cut and paste’ job on Quaker faith & practice (Qf&p). What we needed to do was start with a blank sheet of paper and explain not only what Quakers do but how and why we do the things we do. A lot of the writing in Qf&p assumes that its readers know what is being talked about, and why Quakers do things the way we do. We’ve had to think long and hard about how to explain and describe our practices. We’ve looked for new extracts from Quaker writings to illustrate these to add to some still very relevant extracts from Qf&p.
As well as writing new draft text, a lot of thought has gone into ensuring that it will be as inclusive as possible, and reflects the huge diversity within BYM. At the same time, consideration has been given to the use of non-text material where it could be helpful, and ways of making the text easier for everyone to read.
We also started to consider the internal structure of the book. Should it be like an ‘A to Z guide’? Could it be two A-Zs: one for faith and one for practice? What about beginning with what unites us, exploring our diversity, and then drawing together in unity again? What about a tree structure, where our Quaker roots support a trunk of values and practices which then bear leaves and fruit of many kinds? Could we have a forest – an image of diversity and unity, where the diversity creates a healthy ecosystem that invites many different ways of travelling through it?
Gradual discernment led your committee to focus on the tree structure as a visual image of the new book we were drafting. This was presented to MfS at the end of 2025. You can see our clerks’ report to sufferings on the MfS part of the Quakers in Britain website (MfS 2025 12 13), along with the current version of the tree diagram (see also above). The roots of the tree are our Quaker history. From them grows the strong trunk of our Quaker faith and experience. The trunk divides into three major branches: our Quaker faith in action, our Quaker community, and our Quaker life journeys. These subdivide into many different topics, reflecting the many different ways we live our individual Quaker lives.
‘It’s a relief and an excitement to let go of the last seven years’ labours.’
At our committee Meeting in November 2025 we spent a lot of time discerning what our working title might be. ‘Revising Qf&p’ could be misleading: a new title makes it clear that we are producing a completely new book. It was fascinating to see the development of our working title – Our Quaker Way: The spiritual discipline of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain. ‘Our’ way because it’s not the only Quaker way – other Yearly Meetings have their own; ‘the spiritual discipline’ because our practice is based on listening for the Spirit’s guidance; and ‘the Religious Society of Friends’ because this links us back to the very earliest days of using these words to describe ourselves.
Of course, this is only a working title. BYM in session will discern the title of the finished book.
At our recent very hard-working committee Meeting at Hinsley Hall, Leeds, we celebrated our seventh birthday as a committee, and agreed a minute which says: ‘We celebrate having completed a first draft text of Our Quaker Way: The spiritual discipline of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain. With final agreed amendments, the main text will shortly be passed to the BYM publications team.’
It’s both a relief and an excitement to let go of the last seven years’ labours and look forward to a new phase in the life of the Book of Discipline Revision Committee.
The really exciting piece of news is that the draft text is going to be launched as a Document in Advance at Yearly Meeting on 21 November this year! This means that Friends will have a good seven months to read and digest the text before it comes to Yearly Meeting Gathering in July 2027. It also means that the committee will be spending the next few months working with Woodbrooke and BYM staff to provide resources and guidance to help Friends read, reflect, and respond to the draft text once it is available.
It’s also your opportunity to be fully involved in the work. Clear your diaries and prepare to receive the draft text in November – and spend the time up to then thinking, and talking with your friends and families, about what you might want to see in Our Quaker Way: The spiritual discipline of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain.
Meanwhile, please continue to uphold us in your prayers and engage with our social media channels on Facebook and Instagram…
As ever, your committee can’t do this without you!
Mary is from the Book of Discipline Revision Committee. She says: ‘Note for your diaries: there will be two (identical) sessions among the online preparation sessions for this year’s Yearly Meeting: Saturday 21 March at 4pm and Monday 23 March at 6:30pm. We’ll also be giving an update on our work during the Sunday morning session at Yearly Meeting itself (3 May).’
