Quakers and Peace

The Peace Testimony is probably the best known and best loved of the Quaker testimonies. Its roots lie in the personal experience of the love and power of Christ which marked the founders of the Quaker movement. They were dominated by a vision of the world transformed by Christ who lives in the hearts of all. Friends sought to make the vision real by putting emphasis on Christian practice rather than primarily on any particular dogma or ideological system. Theirs was a spontaneous and practical religion. They recognised the realities of evil and conflict, but it was contrary to the spirit of Christ to use war and violence as means to deal with them.

The Peace Testimony has been a source of inspiration to Friends through the centuries, for it points to a way of life which embraces all human relationships...

It is not surprising ... that we have not always all reached the same conclusions when dealing with the daunting complexities and moral dilemmas of society and its government...

In the closing years of the twentieth century [and now in the 21st century] we as Friends face a bewildering array of social and international challenges, which have widened the relevance of the Peace Testimony from the issue of peace and war between states to the problems of tensions and conflicts in all their forms.

(The four paragraphs above are from the preamble to Quaker Faith & Practice 24.01)

See the answer to the question:
Do you have to be a pacifist to be a Quaker? here.
          
The logo above is used by Quaker Peace and Social Witness about which see much more here.

The "Preparing for Peace" website from Westmorland Quakers is here.

The Westmorland book "Anatomy of War" (a study guide for young people) has been used in local colleges - details are here.

The Northern Friends Peace Board web site is here.

Further statements and discussions dating from 1660 in London through a series of European wars and two world wars to New Zealand (Aotearoa) in 1987 can be found below on this page.

The early statements of the Society's corporate witness set out the basic principles of the peace testimony and served to distinguish Quakers from those suspected of plotting to overthrow the established authorities.

The preceding paragraph is the preamble of QF&P 24.04: "Declaration to Charles II, 1660", and part of the text follows here:

Our principle is, and our practices have always been, to seek peace, and ensue it, and to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the good and welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all. All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world...

... the spirit of Christ which leads us into all Truth will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.

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The preambles to QF&P sections 24.05, 06, 07 and 08 (in the two boxes immediately below) indicate that responses were made over time to a series of conflicts. The full text can be found on the QF&P website at the end of 24.04 in italics here.

QFP 24.05 was issued by Yearly Meeting in London 1744, during the War of the Austrian Succession

QFP 24.06 was issued by Yearly Meeting in London 1804, 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars

QFP 24.07 was issued by Yearly Meeting in London 1900, during the South African War

QFP 24.08 was issued by London Yearly Meeting 1915, during the First World War

Statements during the Second World War, and from New Zealand in 1987, follow below.

Issued by London Yearly Meeting 1943, during the Second World War (part of QF&P 24.09)

All thoughtful men and women are torn at heart by the present situation. The savage momentum of war drags us all in its wake. We desire a righteous peace. Yet to attain peace it is claimed that, as Chungking, Rotterdam and Coventry were devastated, so the Eder and Moehne dams must needs be destroyed and whole districts of Hamburg obliterated. The people of Milan and Turin demonstrate for peace but the bombing continues. War is hardening our hearts. To preserve our sanity, we become apathetic. In such an atmosphere no true peace can be framed; yet before us we see months of increasing terror. Can those who pay heed to moral laws, can those who follow Christ submit to the plea that the only way is that demanded by military necessity?
True peace involves freedom from tyranny and a generous tolerance; conditions that are denied over a large part of Europe and are not fulfilled in other parts of the world. But true peace cannot be dictated, it can only be built in co-operation between all peoples. None of us, no nation, no citizen, is free from some responsibility for this situation with its conflicting difficulties.
... Now is the time to issue an open invitation to co-operate in creative peacemaking, to declare our willingness to make sacrifices of national prestige, wealth and standards of living for the common good of men.


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Public statement of the Yearly Meeting of Aotearoa-
New Zealand, 1987, at a time when many Friends were making submissions to a committee established by their government to review defence policy (QF&P 24.10)

We totally oppose all wars, all preparation for war,
all use of weapons and coercion by force, and all
military alliances: no end could ever justify such
means.
We equally and actively oppose all that leads to
violence among people and nations, and violence to other species and to our planet.
Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender.
We are not passive when threatened by the greedy,
the cruel, the tyrant, the unjust.
We will struggle to remove the causes of impasse
and confrontation by every means of nonviolent resistance available.
...
We must start with our own hearts and minds.
Wars will stop only when each of us is convinced that war is never the way.
The places to begin acquiring the skills and maturity and generosity to avoid or to resolve conflicts are in
our own homes, our personal relationships, our
schools, our workplaces, and wherever decisions are made ...

The full text of the Aotearoa-New Zealand statement
as reproduced in QF&P is here.