Thought for the Week: Conscience not creed

Harvey Gillman reflects on 'conscience not creed'

by Harvey Gillman 23rd May 2014

This year we’re beginning to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the first world war. I was once asked by a national newspaper whether Quakers were pacifists as quite a few had refused to enlist in that war, believing that warfare was wrong. I tried to point out that Quakers did not have creeds, that one had to follow one’s own convictions, but that the basic idea that there was something of God in everyone has led most Quakers throughout history to witness against war as being against the will of God.