FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, The Meeting Community

Advices and Queries for the Twelfth Month

The Meeting Community

Advices

Meetings for Worship and Business are the center of our spiritual community. There, as we come to know each other in the Spirit, we build the “beloved community.”

Mutual respect and care in the Meeting form the foundation from which we can test, support, and exercise leadings of the Spirit. At its best, the Meeting community provides a framework for us to learn and practice mutual care, which strengthens us as we act in the world.

All members of the Meeting community should share in the care of one another. While respecting privacy, we must be aware of and sensitive to each other’s needs. We must also be willing to ask for assistance when we are in need.

Queries

  • Do I strive to be inclusive in my relationships within the Meeting?
  • Do I care for the reputation of others, refraining from gossip or disparaging remarks?
  • Am I committed to the difficult work of forgiveness, and affirming God’s love for the whole community?
  • How are love and unity maintained among us?
  • Do we practice the art of listening, even beyond words?
  • How have we been sensitive to the personal needs and difficulties of members and attenders, young and old?
  • Do we visit one another in our homes and keep in touch with distant members?

*From Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice, pp. 58-59

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Faith and Practice, Peace

Advices and Queries for the Eleventh Month*

Peace

Advices

Friends oppose all war as inconsistent with God’s will. As every person is a child of God, we recognize God’s Light also in our adversaries. Violence and injustice deny this reality and violate the teachings of Jesus and other prophets.

Friends challenge their governments and take personal risks in the cause of peace. We urge one another to refuse to participate in war as soldiers, or as arms manufacturers. We seek ways to support those who refrain from paying taxes that support war. We work to end violence within our own borders, our homes, our streets, and our communities. We support international order, justice, and understanding.

Become an instrument of peace. At every opportunity, be peacemakers in your homes, workplaces and communities. Steep yourself in the power of the universal Spirit. Examine your actions for the seeds of violence, degradation and destructiveness. Overcome the emotions that lie at the root of violence and nurture instead a spirit of reconciliation and love. Come to know the oneness of all creation and oppose the destruction of the natural world.

Queries

  • Do I live in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars?
  • How do I nourish peace within myself as I work for peace in the world?
  • Where there is distrust, injustice, or hatred, how am I an instrument of reconciliation and love?
  • What are we doing to remove the causes of war and destructions of the planet, and to bring about lasting peace?
  • Do we reach out to all parties in a conflict with courage and love?

*from  PACIFIC YEARLY MEETING FAITH AND PRACTICE (2001), 57-58

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Faith and Practice, Personal Relationships

Advices and Queries for the Tenth Month

Personal Relationships

Advices

In daily relationships with others, both inside and outside the home, our lives as Friends speak immediately and lastingly. In these relationships, our faith may also be severely tested. We are called to respond to that of God in everyone: we are all children of God.

Friends celebrate any union that is dedicated to mutual love and respect,
regardless of the unique make-up of the family. We strive to create homes where
the Spirit of the Divine resides at the center and where the individual genius
of each member is respected and nurtured.

Human sexuality is a divine gift, forming part of the complex union of body, mind and spirit that is our humanity. In a loving adult relationship in a context of mutual responsibility, sexuality brings delight, fulfillment and celebration.

The presence of children carries a special blessing as well as responsibility. Children bring unique spiritual gifts — wonder, resiliency, playfulness and more. Recognize and honor the Divine Light within children and treat them with the dignity and respect that is due to all people. Listen to and learn from children; share with them those values and practices that are central to our own lives. Special care must be given to resolving problems between adults and children in a manner that gives equal weight to the feelings and needs of both children and adults. Tender parenting is one of the critically important peace vocations in our society. Make every effort to offer all parents the personal and institutional support that this challenging work requires.

Take a strong stand against any form of abuse, whether that abuse is minor or severe, and whether it is emotional, physical or sexual in nature. The terrible impact of abuse on the most vulnerable members of our families creates lifelong suffering for its victims and is a major source of violence in our society. Perpetrators are themselves usually victims of similar violence and should be approached with compassion as well as firmness.

Queries

    • Do I make my home a place of friendliness, joy and peace where residents and visitors feel God’s presence?

    • Are my sexual practices consistent with my spiritual beliefs, and free of manipulation and exploitation?

    • What barriers keep me from responding openly and lovingly to each person?

    • Do we open our thoughts, beliefs and deep understandings to our children and others who share our lives and our hospitality?

    • Do we provide our children and young adults with a framework for active, ongoing participation in meeting?

from Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice (2001), 56-57

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Integrity

Advices and Queries for the Ninth Month

Integrity and Personal Conduct*

Advices

Integrity has always been a goal of Friends. It is essential to trust, to all communication between people and between people and God. Integrity grounds our beliefs, thoughts, and actions in our spiritual center and makes us whole.

Friends believe that we are called to speak the truth. A single standard of truth requires us to conduct ourselves in ways that are honest, direct, and plain, and to make our choices, both large and small, in accord with the urgings of the Spirit. It follows that we object to taking an oath, which presupposes a variable standard of truth. Be true to your word.

. . . let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay.

James 5:12 (King James Version)

From early days Friends have opposed gambling and practices based on chance. These activities profit from the inevitable loss of others, promote greed, and conflict with good stewardship. Public lotteries have not furthered their purported benefit to the public good. All addictions are of concern. As the use of alcohol and tobacco all too often entail serious risks to self and others, Friends who serve alcohol at home should be diligent in offering alternatives. Alcohol should not be served at Meeting gatherings.

Find recreation that brings you joy and energy. Be aware of how your choices affect yourself and others.

Queries

  • How do I strive to maintain the integrity of my inner and outer lives?
  • Do I act on my principles even when this entails difficult consequences?
  • Am I honest and truthful in all that I say and do, even when a compromise might be easier or more popular?
  • Am I reflective about the ways I gain my wealth and income and sensitive to their impacts on others?
  • Is my life so filled with the Spirit that I am free from the misuse of alcohol and other drugs, and of excesses of any kind?
  • Do we, in our Meeting, hold ourselves accountable to one another, as do members of a healthy family?

*from Faith & Practice of Pacific Yearly Meeting (2001), 55-56

FriendQuaker Events, Films, Peace, Social Activism

Film Screening 8/24: No Other Land

Please Join Us

On Sunday, August 24th from 12:30-2PM, we will be hosting a free screening of the film No Other Land. This film, which was producted by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of activists, shows the destruction of a Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank. It was named Best Documentary Feature Film at the March 2025 Academy Awards.

Visitors are welcome.

We will be having a potluch lunch before the screening, so feel free to bring a dish to share.

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Simplicity

Advices and Queries for the Eighth Month: Simplicity

Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center—a life of unhurried peace and power. It is simple. It is serene. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time.

Thomas R. Kelly, Testament of Devotion, 1941 p.124

Advices

A life centered in God will be directed toward keeping communication with God open and unencumbered. Simplicity is best achieved through a right ordering of priorities: maintaining humility of spirit, avoiding self-indulgence, resisting the accumulation of unnecessary possessions, and avoiding over-busy lives.

Elise Boulding writes in My Part in the Quaker Adventure: “Simplicity, beauty, and happiness go together if they are a by-product of a concern for something more important than ourselves.”

Queries

  • Do I center my life in an awareness of God’s presence so that all things take their rightful place?
  • Do I live simply, and promote the right sharing of the world’s bounty?
  • Do I keep my life uncluttered with things and activities, avoiding commitments beyond my strength and light?
  • How do I maintain simplicity, moderation, and honesty in my speech, my manner of living, and my daily work?
  • Do I recognize when I have enough?
  • Is the life of the meeting so ordered that it helps us to simplify our lives?

from Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice (2001), 54

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Reaching Out

Advices and Queries for the Seventh Month*

Reaching Out

Advices

Friends’ fellowship begins and is nurtured within the home and Meeting. It reaches greater fulfillment as we carry our beliefs into the wider community.

Share your Quaker faith. Take time to learn about other people’s experiences of the Light and, as you learn, give freely from what you have gained. Respect the experiences and opinions of others, but do not be afraid to say what you value. Welcome the diversity of culture, language, and expressions of faith in your Monthly Meeting, the Yearly Meeting and the world community of Friends. Encourage discourse with Friends of Pastoral and Programmed traditions, and with members of other faiths.

Friends have a long history of involvement in public and private education, sharing our values with the world and nurturing future generations. Be mindful of the needs of children in your community and of avenues for deepening understanding between peoples.

Queries

  • How does my life reflect Friends’ beliefs and thus encourage others to be interested in the religious society of Friends?
  • Do I respond generously to inquiries about the Quaker experience and belief?
  • What are we doing to help people of various races, cultures, and backgrounds feel at home among us and we among them?
  • How do we encourage newcomers to return and participate in activities of the meeting?
  • In what ways do we participate in the life of the interfaith community and in the wider fellowship of Friends?

*from Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice (2001), 53-54

Photo by McKenna Phillips on Unsplash

FriendQuaker Social and Civic Responsibility

June 14 Meeting for Worship in downtown LA

Orange Grove Friends’ Meeting: Gather for Meeting For Worship, Federal bldg downtown LA, Saturday noon

When: Saturday, June 14th 2025 from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Where: Federal Building DTLA300 N Los Angeles St, We will meet on the sidewalk on the right hand side facing the entrance of the building.

What to bring: Water, Mask, other preferred PPE.

Parking: Metro to Union Station Recommend. There is a large parking lot with free parking for up to 72 hours at the Heritage Square Metro Stop

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Social and Civic Responsibility

Advices and Queries for the Sixth Month*

SOCIAL AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

Advices

In the words of William Penn, “True godliness don’t draw men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.” Elsewhere he commented: “It is a reproach to religion and government to suffer so much poverty and excess.”

Poverty within a wealthy society is unjust, cruel, and often linked to skin color, gender, and language. We must examine our own privilege and role in the economic order that deepens this disparity. Friends should be alert to oppression and injustice, and persistent in working against them.

We value our part in shaping the laws of our country. Our task is to see that laws serve God’s purposes and build a just social order. Our first allegiance should be to God, and if this conflicts with any compulsion of the state, we serve our country best by remaining true to our higher loyalty.

If, by divine leading, our attention is focused on a law that is contrary to God’s law, we must proceed with care. Before acting, Friends should pray for further guidance and speak with the Meeting, family members, and all those who might be affected by the decision. If a decision involves disobedience to the law, we should make the grounds of our action clear to all concerned and be prepared to suffer any penalties without evasion. As a community, we must care for those who suffer for conscience’s sake.

Queries

  • What am I doing to carry my share of responsibility for the government of our community, nation, and the world?
  • Am I persistent in my efforts to promote constructive change?
  • How do we attend to the suffering of others in our local community, in our state and nation, and in the world community?
  • Do we try to understand the causes of suffering, and do we address them as a Meeting?
  • How do we, individually and as a Meeting, support the organizations that work to bring the testimonies of Friends into reality in our society?

*from Pacific Yearly Meeting Advices and Queries, 52-55

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Harmony with Creation

Advices and Queries for the Fifth Month*

Harmony with Creation

Advices

It would go a long way to caution and direct people in their use of the world, that they were better studied and knowing in the creation of it. For how could [they] find the confidence to abuse it, while they should see the Great Creator stare them in the face, in all and every part thereof?

Adapted from William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude 1693, 12-13

God is revealed in all Creation. We humans belong to the whole interdependent community of life on earth. Rejoice in the beauty, complexity and mystery of creation, with gratitude to be part of its unfolding. Take time to learn how this community of life is organized and how it interacts. Live according to principles of right relationship and right action within this larger whole. Be aware of the influence humans have on the health and viability of life on earth. Call attention to what fosters or harms earth’s exquisite beauty, balances and interdependencies. Guided by Spirit, work to translate this understanding into ways of living that reflect our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

Queries

  •  In what ways do I express gratitude for the wondrous expressions of life on Earth?
  • Do I consider the damage I might do to the Earth’s vulnerable systems in choices I make of what I do, what I buy, and how I spend my time?
  • In our witness for the global environment, are we careful to consider justice and the well-being of the world’s poorest people?
  • Does our way of life threaten the viability of life on Earth?

*from Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice (2001), 51