Faith & Practice Revisions

The outline below shows the current plan for reorganizing and augmenting the material in the first half of NPYM's Faith and Practice. The existing material will not change substantively, although much will be moved into new places in the reworked sequence. A few sections will be new to Faith and Practice, filling gaps identified during discussions at Quarterly and Yearly Meeting events in 2005-06.

Hotlinks show the sections available for review as working drafts. The Committee on the Discipline encourages meetings, worship groups, and individuals to read and consider these drafts and also to use them as they would use sections of the published Faith and Practice, for example in meetings for worship for business or in adult education sessions. We also encourage interest groups at Quarterly and Yearly Meeting gatherings.

The Committee is open to comments and suggestions about this outline and the review drafts. We hope that Friends will consider the drafts as they are posted, season their responses through community discernment, and then share the benefit of that discernment with us. Comments may be sent to any member of the Committee. We are also open to communications from individuals although we would prefer that Friends season their responses through their meetings, both to deepen the individual's discernment and to involve more Friends in the process. Local Friends' groups may wish to invite some from the Committee on the Discipline to visit and help them consider Faith and Practice, how it is used, and how it might change.

As draft sections become ready for general review, the Committee will post them here and will also send them to each meeting with a request that copies be made available to Friends who do not have access to the Internet. Again, we encourage isolated Friends to process concerns and suggestions through their Quarterly Meetings and through Annual Session.

We hope that circulating draft sections in this way will engage individuals and the Yearly Meeting community as a whole in the Faith and Practice revision process, keep that process open and transparent, and make the book stronger and more useful for Friends throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Active members of the NPYM Committee on the Discipline: Timothy Travis and Jay Thatcher of Willamette QM; Dave Coahran and Debbie Townsend of PNQM; and Susan Swanstrom of MGOF.


SECTION I: FAITH

1. History:
NPYM Timeline

2. Friend's Beliefs [PDF]

3. Living In The Spirit (Working Title)
Spiritual Experience
Faith
Prayer [PDF]
Creativity (New Section) [PDF]
Religious Education [PDF]
Worship
Discernment (includes Meeting for Business, Clearness)
Participation in the Life of the Meeting [PDF]

4. Fruits of the Spirit
Testimony of Integrity

Integrity
Witness
Living in the World
Civic Responsibility: The Individual & the State

Testimony of Community

Community
Unity
Family
Home & Children
Fulfilling the Later Years
Mutual Care

Testimony of Harmony

Peace
Sexuality
Recreation
Fear & Safety (New Section, Working Title)
Harmony with Creation (New Section) [PDF]

Testimony of Simplicity

Simplicity
Stewardship

Testimony of Equality

Equality
Right Relationship to Wealth (New Section) [PDF]