Friends believe that all people can have a direct experience of the Divine, individually and in shared worship. We have many ways of naming our experience. Some of them are God, Christ, Spirit, Inward Teacher, Inner Light, and Seed, among others.
We observe that paying attention to and following the Divine changes us. We try to live out our convictions every day in our actions.
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) comes out of the Christian Protestant Tradition. We recognize, and many Friends embrace, practices from many of the world’s Faith Traditions, including Universalist and Humanist approaches.
To help us focus Quakers have developed a set of “testimonies,” which serve as guiding principles. Although the list of testimonies or their emphasis can change from time to time, or differ in emphasis from one Friends Meeting to another, the generally accepted ones embraced by our North Pacific Yearly Meeting include:
- Simplicity
- Peace
- Integrity
- Community
- Equality
- Stewardship