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Friends United Meeting |
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January/February 2001
The Queries
Are We Who We Claim to Be--
Christians Bearing the Fruits of Christ's Presence?
By Terry H. S. Wallace
What we are is truly seen in what we do. We may claim to be a people of faith and love, but if our actions belie our claims, the truth is not in us. Faith and works are inseparable. As James so directly put it: "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." Faith without deeds is invisible, useless, a lie. Faith without works as a dead spiritual tree bears no fruit. "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
The Quaker practice of receiving and answering Queries is rooted in the essential question: Are we being faithful to the hope that is within us? Receiving and answering the Queries is far more than a mere personal self-examination. It is meant to be a corporate self-examination of the unity of our faith and life together as Friends, as Christ's church.
Our Quaker Queries grew out of a fundamental challenge to Quaker identity, character, identity, and discipline. Hugh Barbour and J. William Frost, in their 1988 study The Quakers, identify this challenge as stemming from three small early schisms that appeared among Friends: small groups of Friends that followed John Perot, William Rogers and the Pennymans, and finally John Wilkinson and John Story. Each group went into separation over the nature of the Friends' witness to the world.
Perhaps the most serious of these was the Wilkinson-Story controversy, which arose over whether Friends on the Quarterly and Yearly Meeting levels could discipline Friends in a Monthly Meeting for having failed in their Quaker witness. Preston-Patrick Meeting in the North of England had bent under the severe winds of persecution, compromised Friends witness, and come under censure from Friends elsewhere.
The Wilkinson-Story faction took strong exception to such censure, claiming it was in the best position to determine what was an appropriate response. In short, what the faction asserted is that it would be the final arbiter of what and how much faithfulness is spiritually appropriate. That others should not be able to counsel and question its actions gave lie to Friends faith and unity in the Spirit. What the Wilkinson/Story faction appeared to be saying was "We'll be faithful, as long as it suits us. We'll endure as long as we feel we can. We'll witness to the faith that is within us, only as we see fit."
Persecutors saw the faction's inconsistency for what it was: a lack of faith, a sign for them that the Quaker revelation was in error because it did not produce the fruits it claimed. This lack of unity and faithfulness helped fuel the hatred and violence of those who hoped to obliterate the Quaker witness. If Quakers on the Quarterly and Yearly Meeting levels had not challenged the Wilkinson-Story position and disowned it, Friends witness to the truth of the gospel would have been nullified.
Thus, too, Yearly Meetings began the practice of querying Monthly and Quarterly Meetings as to how Truth prospered among them and how Friends were in peace and unity. The practice established that Quakers were not simply a band of individualists, each doing his or her own thing. They were God's people witnessing to His presence and power in their lives by the visible fruits produced by their faith and salvation. Quakers were a people who stand for certain spiritual and moral absolutes.
The Queries, thus, remind us that the church is not a spiritual supermarket with lots of spiritual fruits for sale in the produce section. They remind us we are not to wander up and down the aisles, testing each fruit to see if we should "buy" it. "This fruit's too hard! I'd never be able to stomach it. This one's too mushy--I reject it. And this one? It's old! No longer nutritious for our time. I'll toss it!" Selective obedience to God's will has never been an option.
In hearing the Queries, we are reminded of who we are as individuals and as the church--the people of God called to be a light to the world by letting our words and deeds proclaim the love, power, and presence of Christ Jesus.
In considering the Queries, we come under the cross, inwardly examining ourselves, reminded of who we are and what is expected of us as a people of God.
In responding to the Queries, as individuals and as Meetings, we unite with that cloud of holy witnesses through the centuries who have proclaimed with their lives: "Here we stand and we can do no other in Christ Jesus."
Terry Wallace is the author/editor of A Sincere and Constant Love: An Introduction to the Work of Margaret Fell (FUP) and Clerk of Worship and Counsel of Warrington Monthly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting. He, his wife, Diane, and daughter Emily, live in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
Copyright (c) 2001 Friends United Meeting
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