ABSTRACT
The Religious Society of Friends values both inward spiritual life and its outward expression in the world. Quakers do not wait for charismatic leadership but approach the world as everyday prophets who follow personal and communal leadings to promote social justice in the communities where they live. They seek to listen for the inward guidance of the Light of Christ not only in worship, but also in their day-to-day lives. Friends are best known for their refusal to participate in war and their efforts to replace warmaking with peacemaking. Friends believed that truth-telling in daily life is grounded in the larger Truth they know from the Inward Christ, a Truth that requires honesty about their own inward state and faith in the transformation of oneself in the Light. Living in this larger truth can heal hearts and bring people into wholeness in their sense of self and open their heart to actions formed in compassion and justice.
