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APPENDIX The Philadelphia Queries of 1955
I. MEETINGS FOR WORSHIP AND BUSINESS
1.Religious Meetings
Are your meetings for worship and business held in expectant waiting for divine guidance?
Is there a living silence in which you feel drawn together by the power of Cod in your midst?
Do your meetings give evidence that Friends come to them with hearts and minds prepared for worship?
Are your meetings a source of strength and guidance for daily Christian living?
1. Ministry
Is the vocal ministry in your meetings exercised under the direct leading of the Holy Spirit, without prearrangement, and in the simplicity and sincerity of Truth?
Do you foster the use and growth of the spiritual gifts of your members?
1. Participation in Meeting
Do your resident members attend meetings regularly and punctually?
To what extent are your meetings for worship attended by persons not in membership and are they welcomed and encouraged to continue attendance?
Are your meetings for business held in a spirit of love, understanding and forbearance, and do you seek the right course of action in humble submission to the authority of Truth and patient search for unity?
II. FRIENDS' CARE OF ONE ANOTHER
1. Unity within the Meeting
Are love and unity maintained among you?
Do you manifest a forgiving spirit and a care for the reputation
of others?
When differences arise, are endeavors made to settle them speedily
and in a spirit of meekness and love?
5.Education
Do your children receive the loving care of the Meeting and are they brought under such influences as tend to develop their religious life?
What efforts are you making to educate all your members in the knowledge of the Bible, of Christianity and of the history and principles of Friends?
Do you maintain schools for the education of your youth under the care of teachers of Christian character in sympathy with the principles of Friends and supervised by committees of the Meeting?
Do you encourage members to send their children to Friends' schools and do you give such financial aid as may be necessary?
5. Oversight of the Membership
What is being done to draw members together into a spirit of fellowship?
Does the Meeting keep in contact, either by visits or personal letters, with all its members?
Are Friends in material need assisted as their circumstances require? Do you counsel with those whose conduct or manner of living gives ground for concern?
III. RESPONSIBILITIES OUTSIDE THE MEETINGS
5. Social and Economic Relationships
What are you doing as individuals or as a Meeting:
To aid those in need of material help?
To encourage total abstinence and remove the causes of intemper‑
ance?
To insure equal opportunities in social and economic life for those
who suffer discrimination because of race, creed or social class?
To create a social and economic system which will so function as to
sustain and enrich life for all?
5. Civic responsibility
What are you doing as individuals or as a Meeting:
To understand and remove the causes of war and develop the conditions and institutions of peace?
To carry your share of responsibilities in the government of your community, state and nation, and to assure freedom of speech, and of religion and equal educational opportunities for all?
5. Extending Our Message
What are you doing as individuals or as a Meeting:
To interpret to others the message of Friends and to cooperate with others in spreading the Christian message?
IV. PERSONAL LIVING
5. The Home
Do you make a place in your daily life for inward retirement and communion with the Divine Spirit?
Do you make your home a place where friendship, peace, and refreshment of spirit are found, and do you have regular periods of family worship?
Do you frequently and reverently read the Bible and other religious literature?
Do you choose those recreations which will strengthen your physical, mental, and spiritual life and avoid those that may prove a hindrance to yourself and others?
11. Self-Discipline
Do you keep to simplicity and moderation in your speech, your manner of living, and your pursuit of business?
Are you careful to keep your business and your outward activities from absorbing time and energy that should be given to spiritual growth and the service of your religious society?
Are you punctual in keeping promises, just in the payment of debts, and honorable in all your dealings?
Are you free from the use of judicial oaths, from betting and gambling and from practices based on the principles of gambling?
Are you free from the use and handling of intoxicants and the misuse of drugs?
Do you take your right share of responsibility in work and service for the Meeting?
12. Human Brotherhood
Do you live in the life and power which takes away the occasion of all wars? Do you seek to take your part in the ministry of reconciliation between individuals, groups, and nations? Do you faithfully maintain our testimony against military training and other preparation for war and against participation in war as inconsistent with the spirit and teaching of Christ?
In all your relations with others do you treat them as brothers and equals?
