Your Favorite Testimony?

" What is the most important Testimony?" This question was asked by one of the children in my Meeting during an intergenerational worship sharing where the children asked questions about Quakerism which we used as Queries. (Prewritten in First Day school the hour before.) The adults were quick to explain that there was no best testimony, that they were like children - you loved all of them and had no favorites. Someone acknowledged that at certain moments in your life one might be more important or more of an issue. What I found myself thinking about was that I feel all our testimonies flow out of the same beginning premise: the idea that that of God is found in all people. (A belief that I think may also be the one common connecting thread between all branches of Friends.) So far example, I believe that the Peace testimony makes sense because if there is that of God in another person how could you kill it? Or how could you treat one child of God with less equity than another? The Integrity testimony also follows because how can be dishonest or deceptive with another child of God? In the simplicity testimony we seek to avoid all distraction from knowing God. We do not adorn ourselves or our homes in ways that would distract others from experiencing that of God in us or them selves. It of course is also important to come into community with all parts of the Light dispersed amongst people, and to relate to the earth in good stewardship because this also is a creation of Our Creator. We strive for social justice because this is the only appropriate way to treat God's children. It is interesting to see that we do not all conceptualize these testimonies the same way, over time or location. Growing up I recall only 4 being taught: the Peace testimony, simplicity, equality and social justice. Integrity was understood to be covered in social justice. Looking at a pamphlet by East Coast Friend Gordon Browne I see he lists only 4 but they are Peace, Equality, Simplicity and Community. He then lists the call to truth telling and integrity as a requirement of equality - treating all of God's children the same with the same truth. However, he states that plain and honest speech is an expression of simplicity which he has described as not be distracted from God's truth in any form. He also sees stewardship and social justice as expressions of simplicity stating: "Respect for God's creation and, therefore, concern for the environment and the right use of the world's resources is another obvious expression of the testimony of simplicity." He says in relationship to social justice that American Friends are "privileged beyond the wildest imaginings of most other world's people. This fact is the occasion for special awareness of responsibility for good stewardship and for commitment to social justice." So certainly there are many ways to "slice" these testimonies! Similarly we do not all understand historic Quaker behavior as coming from the same testimonies. For example I have heard some people say Quakers wore black and white and grey because of the simplicity testimony and others say it was because of the testimony on social justice and the reality that in those days the dying of fabric was highly toxic and gravely shortened the life of the workers dying the fabric. I have also heard Friends involvement in abolition and the vote for women as alternately stemming from the social justice testimony or the equality testimony. Either, both - it really points to how interwoven the testimonies really are - perhaps because they come from this same root of acknowledging that of God in all others. Friends have testimonies instead of creedal statements because we understand them to be our best current understanding of the Truth. We believe that Truth is known experientially and that our understanding of truth can evolve over time with more information and more experience. So of course the truth is so completely interwoven!