| | by admin | | posted on 25th June 2025 in Quakers in 100 Objects | | views 63 | |
Simple in form but deep in spirit, the Advices & Queries Booklet has become a guide and companion to Friends seeking truth, peace, and faithfulness in daily life.
In Britain, Advices & Queries appear as Chapter 1 in Quaker Faith & Practice (QF&P), the Book of Discipline of Britain Yearly Meeting. This chapter opens with an invitation to “take heed… to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts,†reminding Friends that these passages are spiritual prompts — not commandments.
But this practice is far from unique to Britain. Most Yearly Meetings around the world — whether Canada, Australia, Denmark, Germany, or those across the Americas — begin their books of discipline with a similar format: a combined set of advices (wisdom from spiritual experience) and queries (thought-provoking questions) intended to guide both worship and daily life.
In each case, the structure is similar: the book opens with a devotional and reflective grounding, setting the tone for worship, business meetings, and personal discernment. This shared format highlights the importance Friends place on spiritual guidance that is rooted in experience, relational, and open-ended, rather than prescriptive. It connects Quakers around the world in a gentle yet profound common practice.
The Advices & Queries Booklet is a small, often pocket-sized publication containing a selection of thoughtful prompts, reflections, and reminders rooted in Quaker spirituality. It distils centuries of shared Quaker experience into short passages that offer both challenge and comfort. These are not rules or commandments, but living questions — open-ended and spacious — inviting Friends to examine their lives and discern their leadings.
Its origins lie in the early days of Quakerism. By the late 1600s, Friends had begun to issue regular “queries†to help local meetings stay spiritually grounded and ethically faithful. Slowly, these queries were combined with “advices†— gentle prompting to purposeful living — evolving over time into the format we recognize today.
In most Quaker meetings in Britain, a passage from Advices & Queries is read aloud during meeting for worship, often monthly or more frequently. The language is spare and poetic, gently grounding worship, and inspiring thought. Many Friends carry the booklet with them; others revisit it in times of need or reflection. In households, it often sits alongside Quaker Faith & Practice and a Bible — a quiet companion for inward discernment.
Entries range from the soulful — “Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come?†— to the practical — “Are you honest and truthful in all you say and do?†They invite integrity of action and attention to the inward Light, without presuming perfection.
The booklet used today in Britain draws directly from Quaker Faith & Practice, Chapter 1, and was most recently revised in 1994. It contains around 42 numbered entries, some sentences, others short paragraphs. A complete reading takes under an hour, but many Friends will dwell on one query for a week or longer.
The tone is invitational, not prescriptive — reflective of Quaker trust in continuing revelation: truth unfolds over time, and we are called to walk in its light. Together, advices and queries are not about doing more, but about being faithful, honest, and attentive — to oneself, to others, and to Spirit.
Physically, the Advices & Queries booklet is often plain — a modest cover, small enough to fit in a pocket. But over time, through repeated reading and reflection, it becomes sacred. Some Friends write personal notes in the margins; others return annually to favourite passages. Newcomers often find a query that seems to speak directly to them, and hold it close.
This small booklet embodies something central to Quaker life: not certainty, but attention. It prompts questions, not answers; invites listening, not assertion. In its quiet way, it shapes a spiritual life grounded in honesty, love, and ongoing seeking.