Preamble to Sierra-Cascades’ Faith & Practice
Note: It's traditional among yearly meetings to have a book of Faith and Practice that expresses the spiritual commitments and culture of the yearly meeting. That's the "faith" part. The "practice" part is content that describes organizational details and processes.
We are a new yearly meeting, so we are still developing our book of Faith & Practice. Here’s the preamble, approved on June 8, 2024 at annual sessions.
The Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends is a voluntary association of Quaker meetings, churches, and individuals whose worship, ministry, and service are centered in Christ, guided by Quaker testimonies and experience, and committed to the full participation of LGBTQ+ people in all aspects of the life and leadership of the Yearly Meeting. We see these three values as interrelated and mutually reinforcing.
We understand the Quaker testimonies as a call:
to live simply and sustainably;
to seek nonviolent responses to conflict, and refuse participation in war and preparation for war;
to speak the truth and keep our promises;
to make common decisions based on our community’s practice of prayer and discernment rather than majority rule or force of personality;
to regard each other—and all people—with a commitment to equality and equity, rejecting all false distinctions based on social, cultural, or economic status;
in the wider world, to support, advocate, and initiate efforts toward peace, justice, care of Creation, and relief of suffering in ways that are consistent with these testimonies;
in all things, to put Love first.
As we set forth these values and commitments, we acknowledge that they are to some extent aspirational, not an inventory of our successes as of today.
We also understand that we have a variety of faith languages and experiences among us. We do not require of each other, or of newcomers, any standard interpretation or test to be part of our community. We are committed to listening and learning together, building trust in God and each other through the ways that we worship, conduct business, guard each other’s reputations, and resolve conflicts tenderly.
Anyone who feels drawn to our community based on these values and testimonies, and the ways we live them, will be joyfully welcomed.