Understanding Our Roots: The Quaker Tradition
While Friends Home in Kennett is under the care of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), it is a non-sectarian community, committed to honoring all faiths.
With the historical connection to the Quaker community, residents thought it would be interesting to learn more about Quakerism.
In learning about Quakerism, as in exploring other faith traditions, one often begins by examining the values embraced by practitioners.
In the Quaker tradition, the exploration begins with “testimonies.”
Our Core Values for Belief and Action
“Testimonies” are what Quakers call “the ways we have found to live and act based on our beliefs.”
In recent years, the acronym SPICES has emerged as shorthand for these value categories: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship.
Quaker schools often articulate these values as they often need to give their students (most of whom are not from Quaker families) a way to understand the school’s values.
For example, the San Francisco Friends School suggests this interpretation:
- Simplicity: Clearing the way for deeper engagement in ourselves, our community, and our education.
- Peace: Creating peace in ourselves and our community.
- Integrity: Being true to oneself and one’s values and honest with others.
- Community: Respecting and valuing every person’s place in our lives.
- Equality: Respecting every person’s right to fairness and respect.
- Stewardship: Valuing the gifts we have been given.
Applying SPICES to Our Community
Here at Friends Home, residents develop a theme for each month that extends to table conversations, inclusion in the in-house newsletter (The Friendly Times), and other activities that align with the theme.
For example, recent themes include exploration of the spiritual aspect of our lives, self-care and acceptance, and the importance of socialization.
Practicing Accountability Through Queries
Communities adopting the SPICES tradition often put these core values into practice through “queries”—questions designed to grab our attention, drive our actions, and even shake us out of moments of complacency.
Queries are designed to hold us accountable to what we believe is most important.
It has become a special way to examine and reexamine one’s faithfulness to these testimonies through both self-examination and communal consideration.
The practice differs from many other faith communities because it is based on questions rather than statements of fact. While the questions are the same, the answers vary for every seeker.
Here are some queries the residents developed for the discussion of Quakerism:
- How do I honor both my beliefs and those of the larger community?
- How do we nurture and expand the diversity of our communities?
- How am I called to action by my communities, great and small?