Membership establishes a commitment. It means that for each member the Religious Society of Friends provides the most promising home for spiritual enlightenment and growth. It commits a person to the daily pursuit of truth after the manner of Friends and commits the Meeting to support the member in that pursuit. Membership includes a willingness to live in spiritual unity with other members of the Religious Society of Friends.
— Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, revised Faith and Practice
Ideally, membership is the outward sign of an inner experience of the Living God and of unity with the other members of a living body. It implies a commitment to enter wholeheartedly into the spiritual and corporate activities of the Society and to assume responsibility for both service and support, as way opens.”
— New England Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice
We none of us are members because we have attained a certain standard of goodness, but rather because, in this matter, we still are humble learners in the school of Christ. . . . Our membership of the Society of Friends should commit us to the discipleship of the living Christ. When we have made that choice and come under that high compulsion, our member-ship will have endorsed it.
— Edgar G. Dunston, 1956. London Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice, #370
The test for membership should not be doctrinal agreement, nor adherence to certain testimonies, but evidence of sincere seeking and striving for the Truth, together with an understanding of the lines along which Friends are seeking that Truth.
— Friends World Conference, 1952
Quaker service springs from the roots of our faith. It grows out of the inner experience of that deep compassion and sense of oneness with all mankind which Jesus Christ revealed as the eternal love of God for man. We must seek to live our whole lives in the awareness of the presence of the love of God, giving time gladly to meditation and worship, to the outreach of preaching from the heart, and to the compassionate sharing of the burdens of our neighbors.
— Friends World Conference, 1952
These articles are from Resources
for Fostering Vital Friends Meetings
See also: the FGC Quaker Library
