referring to days of the week and months by numbers to erase all non-Christian reference, and using "plain" language to avoid the then common honorific "you" for social superiors. Refusal to participate in war, strict honesty in business, equality of men and women, the gentle upbringing of children, noncoercion of conscience, the settlement of differences without suing each other in courts of law, declining to observe traditional religious holidays, and nonconformity to fashion in dress and conduct became some of the more enduring traditions of the Society. Meetings for worship to celebrate marriage or the life of a deceased Friend still take place with simple arrangements; these traditions testify to the spiritual nature of our lives and gather us into community. Silence before meetings for business, committee meetings, and meals has been another Friends' custom.

Yet, tradition is no substitute for faith; practices may become empty.

. . .IN GOSPEL ORDER

Gospel order is life lived in God's transforming, guiding, and sustaining power.

--Sandra Cronk,
Gospel Order (Pendle Hill pamphlet 297)

Early Friends identified a need for the right ordering of community life, which they called "gospel order," based in the life and teachings of Jesus. George Fox called this order the New Covenant of Jesus Christ, a divine, not an institutional, structure by means of which Christ could be "present in the midst of his people as ruler, governor, and orderer." Instead of the rules common to churches of their time, Friends developed some essentials of faith and practice embodied in queries and advices. These practices encouraged them to base their inward life on worship and waiting on the Lord, to obey the promptings of the spirit through what became our social testimonies, to conduct meeting business as worship with reverence for God and love and respect for each other.

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