Advices and Queries

‘Advices and queries are intended for use in Quaker meetings, for private devotion and reflection, as a challenge and inspiration to us as Friends in our personal lives and in our life as a religious community, and as a concise expression of our faith and practice for enquirers and the wider world.’             

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Advices and Queries for November.

17.  Do you respect that of God in everyone though it may be expressed in unfamiliar ways or be difficult to discern?  Each of us has a particular experience of God and each must find the way to be true to it.  When words are strange or disturbing to you, try to sense where they come from and what has nourished the lives of others.  Listen patiently and seek the truth which other people’s opinions may contain for you.  Avoid hurtful criticism and provocative language.  Do not allow the strength of your convictions to betray you into making statements or allegations that are unfair or untrue.  Think it possible that you may be mistaken.

18.  How can we make the meeting a community in which each person is accepted and nurtured, and strangers are welcome?  Seek to know one another in the things which are eternal, bear the burden of each other’s failings and pray for one another.  As we enter with tender sympathy into the joys and sorrows of each other’s lives, ready to give help and to receive it, our meeting can be a channel for God’s love and forgiveness.