Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
For more info, read the pamphlet this interview is based in! "Quaker Testimony: What We Witness to the World
pendlehill.org/product/quaker-testimony-what-we-witness-to-the-world
QuakerSpeak is a weekly video series. New video every other THURSDAY!
SUPPORT QuakerSpeak! quakerspeak.com/donate
SUBSCRIBE for a new video every other week! http://fdsj.nl/QS-Subscribe
WATCH all our videos: http://fdsj.nl/qs-all-videos
___
Become a Friends Journal subscriber for only $28
http://fdsj.nl/FJ-Subscribe
Filming and Editing by Christopher Cuthrell
___
Transcript:
About 10, 15, years ago I began noticing that a particular set of testimonies known by the acronym SPICES (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality and Sustainability or Stewardship) they were being treated as if they were ‘the testimonies’, to the exclusion of all others. That then led me into the question, “What are testimonies? Where do they come from? Do these go all the way back to George Fox? Did did he come down from Pendle Hill with a stone tablet that had: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity...”. I didn't think so, but I didn't know.
I'm Paul Buckley. I live in Richmond, Indiana, and I attend Clear Creek Friends meeting, which is part of the Ohio Valley yearly meeting. What is a testimony?
It seemed to me that there were five essential characteristics when you talk about a ‘Quaker’ testimony. First of all, that it originates in God. And if that term God isn't one that you use, that's not what's critical here. It's something that I have been given that has touched me in my soul.
Secondly, a testimony has to testify. It's got to be outward public behavior. Something that I do privately by myself, might be a deeply held belief, but it doesn't testify.
Third, a testimony, if it's a Quaker testimony, has to be communal. I have personal testimonies. I've been called to travel in the ministry. That's a testimony, but it's a personal one. The entire Society of Friends is not called to do those things. But, there are some things that I feel we are called to as a community, and those deserve the label of being Quaker testimonies.
Four, this is the good one I think. Testimonies, and this goes back to the very beginning, are challenging. Early friends, for example, wore what we call plain clothes. They didn't just wear them because it was something that Quakers did. They did it because they felt called to it by God, and they did it because wearing those plain clothes was a challenge to the people around them. Because, what I am implicitly saying is, “You don't need to spend extra money to look that way.” And even more, a challenge to themselves because you had to dress in a way that made you stand out from everyone else. That made you look somewhat ludicrous.
And then finally, getting back to the characteristics, a testimony is rooted in love. If it doesn't come out of love, if it comes out of pride, or it comes out of showing off in some way not a testimony. It's an expression of love. So, five characteristics. If something doesn't have all five, it's not a Quaker testimony.
You can go back to the 1940s and Howard Brinton wrote a Pendle Hill pamphlet in which he talked about what Quakerism is. And one of the things that he put in there was a statement about social testimonies. People began talking about these social testimonies more and more as being characteristics of being a Friend. By the 1990s, somewhere I think probably in the mid 1990s, this particular acronym catches on. Research that I've done and that other people have done seems to indicate that early in the use of SPICES it was for children. SPICES became an easy way of telling children some Quaker values in a format that made it easy to remember. And it's catchy. It really is catchy. It's a great way to introduce these things to kids and people realized well, that's a pretty good way of answering the question from the newcomer on Sunday morning who says, “What do Quakers believe?” Well, trot out the SPICES, “Well, we believe in peace and integrity and, well, simplicity. You don't want to forget that one.”
One thing that we've lost when we put so much emphasis on SPICES is that these testimonies, all testimonies, are fruits of the spirit. They're things that we're led into by God. But by using spices so frequently we lose that sense of them being the products of our relationship with God, and begin thinking about them as if they're their roots. They can be a good way of starting things if you recognize how little they are, and if you don't use them as a substitute for really thinking about...
___
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
For more info, read the pamphlet this interview is based in! "Quaker Testimony: What We Witness to the World
pendlehill.org/product/quaker-testimony-what-we-witness-to-the-world
QuakerSpeak is a weekly video series. New video every other THURSDAY!
SUPPORT QuakerSpeak! quakerspeak.com/donate
SUBSCRIBE for a new video every other week! http://fdsj.nl/QS-Subscribe
WATCH all our videos: http://fdsj.nl/qs-all-videos
___
Become a Friends Journal subscriber for only $28
http://fdsj.nl/FJ-Subscribe
Filming and Editing by Christopher Cuthrell
___
Transcript:
About 10, 15, years ago I began noticing that a particular set of testimonies known by the acronym SPICES (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality and Sustainability or Stewardship) they were being treated as if they were ‘the testimonies’, to the exclusion of all others. That then led me into the question, “What are testimonies? Where do they come from? Do these go all the way back to George Fox? Did did he come down from Pendle Hill with a stone tablet that had: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity...”. I didn't think so, but I didn't know.
I'm Paul Buckley. I live in Richmond, Indiana, and I attend Clear Creek Friends meeting, which is part of the Ohio Valley yearly meeting. What is a testimony?
It seemed to me that there were five essential characteristics when you talk about a ‘Quaker’ testimony. First of all, that it originates in God. And if that term God isn't one that you use, that's not what's critical here. It's something that I have been given that has touched me in my soul.
Secondly, a testimony has to testify. It's got to be outward public behavior. Something that I do privately by myself, might be a deeply held belief, but it doesn't testify.
Third, a testimony, if it's a Quaker testimony, has to be communal. I have personal testimonies. I've been called to travel in the ministry. That's a testimony, but it's a personal one. The entire Society of Friends is not called to do those things. But, there are some things that I feel we are called to as a community, and those deserve the label of being Quaker testimonies.
Four, this is the good one I think. Testimonies, and this goes back to the very beginning, are challenging. Early friends, for example, wore what we call plain clothes. They didn't just wear them because it was something that Quakers did. They did it because they felt called to it by God, and they did it because wearing those plain clothes was a challenge to the people around them. Because, what I am implicitly saying is, “You don't need to spend extra money to look that way.” And even more, a challenge to themselves because you had to dress in a way that made you stand out from everyone else. That made you look somewhat ludicrous.
And then finally, getting back to the characteristics, a testimony is rooted in love. If it doesn't come out of love, if it comes out of pride, or it comes out of showing off in some way not a testimony. It's an expression of love. So, five characteristics. If something doesn't have all five, it's not a Quaker testimony.
You can go back to the 1940s and Howard Brinton wrote a Pendle Hill pamphlet in which he talked about what Quakerism is. And one of the things that he put in there was a statement about social testimonies. People began talking about these social testimonies more and more as being characteristics of being a Friend. By the 1990s, somewhere I think probably in the mid 1990s, this particular acronym catches on. Research that I've done and that other people have done seems to indicate that early in the use of SPICES it was for children. SPICES became an easy way of telling children some Quaker values in a format that made it easy to remember. And it's catchy. It really is catchy. It's a great way to introduce these things to kids and people realized well, that's a pretty good way of answering the question from the newcomer on Sunday morning who says, “What do Quakers believe?” Well, trot out the SPICES, “Well, we believe in peace and integrity and, well, simplicity. You don't want to forget that one.”
One thing that we've lost when we put so much emphasis on SPICES is that these testimonies, all testimonies, are fruits of the spirit. They're things that we're led into by God. But by using spices so frequently we lose that sense of them being the products of our relationship with God, and begin thinking about them as if they're their roots. They can be a good way of starting things if you recognize how little they are, and if you don't use them as a substitute for really thinking about...
___
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
