This Faith and Practice is the revised (2001) edition of the Book of Discipline (to use the traditional terminology) of the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. It follows a long line of books of discipline going back almost to the beginning of the Society.
| A Book of Discipline seems necessary to make our testimonies clear and to ensure the
orderly transaction of business. . . . The use of the
word "Discipline" is objectionable to many as
being somewhat misleading, both as to the nature and
the extent of the material in this book. For the
"Discipline" might seem to suggest a rigorous
enforcement of rules and regulations such as Friends
would never recommend or tolerate. Actually what we
find in these volumes or "Disciplines" is more in
the nature of guidance in self-discipline.
--Jane P. Rushmore, 1959 |
For almost a decade following the beginning of the ministry of George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, his fellow believers were without formal organization. As they grew in numbers, they recognized responsibilities to encourage, admonish, and help one another in spiritual and temporal affairs, and, later, they found it necessary to provide for the preservation of order in their fellowship and for the care of the poor and of those who suffered for the sake of conscience.
In 1656, elders assembled at Balby, in northern England,
wrote twenty "advices," printed halfway through this volume,
which were among the first such written attempts to detail the
principles of the new Society. Later, in 1668, George Fox
drafted advices and regulations that served for a long time as guides
for the Society. They have formed the basis for the book of
discipline of Britain Yearly Meeting and for all later books of
discipline. As the various yearly meetings were established
in