The focus of this podcast is a brief examination of the approximately first half of the document: “A Brief Synopsis of the Principles and Testimonies of the Religious Society of Friends”. The document was created in 1912 and also shows the minutes of adoption from the seven then-existing Conservative Yearly Meetings Friends: Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, New England, Canada, Kansas, Western. It was printed in 1913, and was created in order to communicate in the rapidly-changing world of the early 1900s (especially with the rapid acceptance of “Higher Criticism”) how the beliefs of Conservative Friends were very close to those of the original, early Friends of the mid and latter 17th century.
As a side note, Henry notes that Joel Bean, had been a member of the Gurneyite Iowa Yearly meeting, and while he did not call himself a Conservative Friend, appears to have presented himself as one, and was one of the founders in College Park Meeting in San Jose, California and which is credited as later becoming the beginning of Pacific Yearly Meeting.
The document covers Conservative Friends' beliefs: God, God as a Spirit, Jesus Christ as His only begotten Son (in Greek, “unique”), atonement through Christ and remission of sins through Him, Christ through His death destroyed death, Christ manifested as a man, baptism (repentance and regeneration), life after earthly life, divine worship, ministry of the gospel (an unpaid ministry), the lack of need of seminary training to be a true minister of the gospel, and finally (in this session) the Spirit alone can open the mysteries contained in the Holy Scriptures.
When Jesus suffered, the Godhead part of Him did not die, but the human part did die.
It would really be more appropriate if instead of thinking of and speaking Jesus Christ as one name, He should really be seen as Jesus, the Christ.
The discussion moves to the development of the Nicene Creed and Friends’ approach to it. Early Friends were much less interested in arguing over theology and arguing over the meaning of words than they were that their lives, hearts and spirits needed to be changed from within. They wanted to get beyond the literalist wording of things.
There is a discussion of the “sing-song” form of spoken ministry that could be often heard among Conservative Friends ministers in the 19th Century and early 20th Century.
Documents:
Word Reference:
Credits:
The words to the music are from Margaret Fell’s Letter to the King on Persecution in 1660. The music was composed and sung by Paulette Meier. Paulette’s work can be found at Paulette meier.com
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