This Year’s Testimony: Equality, Equity, & Social Justice
One of the traditions we have at San Francisco Friends is to focus on one of our Quaker testimonies (aka: the SPICES) for the year. To do this we use some queries to help guide our thinking and acting. Our testimony for this year is Equality, Equity, & Social Justice—a significant component of our mission at Friends. Quaker schools have unique language and practices (Meeting for Worship and clerking, for example), so before we go too much further I thought it would be helpful to clarify or remind folks what the terms testimony and queries actually mean and how we use them. What is a Testimony? According to Quaker Jonathan Dale, “The word testimony is used by Quakers to describe a witness to the living truth within the human heart as it is acted out in everyday life… Testimony is a way of living not a creed. It is not a form of words but a mode of life based on the realization that there is that of God in everybody, that all human beings are equal, that all life is interconnected.” – Faith into Action: Quaker Social Testimony, 2000 Quaker testimonies or values are taught both explicitly and implicitly at SFFS. Many of them are learned experientially; from their first days in kindergarten, children are introduced to sitting in silence, problem solving and decision making in a group, and to daily service and reflection. Traditionally, Quaker testimonies have the following characteristics: • A testimony is something we are called or led to—not something we choose to do on our own. It arises from a relationship with our Inner Light (in some classes they call that the “small, still voice” we listen for during Meeting for Worship, our “Inner Teacher”). • A testimony must be something you can testify to; a public behavior. • A testimony must be representative of our entire community (something that all Quakers—and in our case the SFFS community—generally agree upon). • A testimony must be “a cross to the conscience,” or something that calls on us to act outside our comfort zone. What is a Query? “Since the late 1600s, Friends have used queries to reflect upon and assess their faith and practice. Rooted in the history of Friends, the queries reflect the Quaker way of life, reminding Friends of the ideals we seek to attain. Friends approach queries as a guide to self-examination, using them not as an outward set of rules, but as a framework within which we assess our convictions and examine, clarify, and consider... the direction of our lives and the life of the community.” – Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Faith and Practice, 1997 Quakers use queries for personal reflection, self-examination, or spirited discussion. At Friends, queries help us animate our values and frame a concern we wish to explore within ourselves, our school, or our greater community. We post these simple questions in our classrooms, read queries to center reflection at Meeting for Worship, and use them to guide discourse in our discernment of a difficult issue or quandary.
Background on This Year’s Testimony, Equality, Equity, & Social Justice Each of these questions is designed to encourage reflection, discussion, and help guide our thinking and acting, both as individuals and as a community. Typically, we have used three queries in the past, and together they operate at three concentric circles of influence and action: • One focusing on SELF • One focusing on OTHERS (peers, colleagues, neighbors, etc.) • One focusing on the GREATER COMMUNITY, COUNTRY, or WORLD Moreover, many teachers already practice inquiry-based learning in their classrooms and we see ample opportunities for deepening and furthering discussions in classrooms and amongst communities in general. It could therefore serve our community—be it in classrooms, meetings, conversations, etc.—for us to broaden the way in which our queries are framed by further exploring things such as: • Knowledge (What?) – What does equality/equity/inclusion look, feel, and sound like? • Purpose (Why?) – Why is equality/equity/inclusion important? • Form (Where?) – Where does equity and inclusion show up in my home life and in our school life? • Method (How?) – How do we embody and encourage the testimony of Equality, Equity, & Social Justice at school and beyond? I look forward to exploring these queries with you throughout the year. In community, Guybe