If you’re part of a faith community, you can ask this about your own circle: What do we have in common? That is, if we were required to write a “confession of faith” (in my case, for our Quaker meeting), what would we profess? What I’m envisioning is not a listing of what we do together, which our annual State of Society Report too easily becomes, but rather what lies under and behind our actions. I know that some Mennonite congregations from time to time draft what they call a “constitution,” although a corporate “mission statement” may also do here. The idea is to sharpen the focus of what a group already possesses and where it would like to go into the future. It’s a way of acknowledging and enlarging on the strengths and dreams of its members. Think of one retailer’s slogan, “Let’s build something together,” with its unvoiced understanding that they’re talking about people’s homes, rather than their investment portfolios, and maybe you get the picture.
I would hope that what we have in common is something other than similar tastes, income, educational attainment, lifestyles, party affiliation, or the like. Perhaps, in asking the question, we can even come to a clearer understanding of what diversity we, in fact, possess, and the potential it offers us.
Answering the question would, I suspect, be far more difficult than we might originally anticipate. On one hand, answering candidly might actually prove divisive. We’ve seen this as we responded to New England Yearly Meeting’s attempt to revise Faith and Practice for the next generation. On the other, delving into the question might also lead us into a clearer understanding of the core energies at the heart of our worshiping community. I recall Caroline Stephen’s amazement Friends can do anything, considering that Quakers are essentially a body of mystics. We’ve heard others compare trying to get us moving together like “trying to herd cats” or go somewhere with “a wheelbarrow full of frogs.”
What I do know is the difficulty of maintaining a witness – even plainness – apart from a community of faith. Community, with its definition of common unity. In the end, it requires far more than strength in numbers. It’s a matter, I’d say, of strength from our hearts.
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Now, for my stab at the statement:
Dover Friends Meeting (Quaker) is a body of individuals and families who together encourage and pursue the New Testament goals of simplicity, equality, honesty, integrity, nonviolence and pacifism, and divine love in daily life. At its organizational core are the weekly hour of open, waiting worship in the presence of the Holy Spirit and the monthly meeting for business, both conducted in accord with the longstanding manner of the Society of Friends.
Jnana's Red Barn 
I like this idea of a mission statement of sorts. Thank you
What we have in common is one soul
Now, to define “soul” … oh, this does get, well, I still love your concept. It points to what Zen Buddhism calls Big Self in contrast to Little Self.
Well for me, it points to what Christ says too. 🙂
I’ve been through this process of shared definition. As you say, it can be more difficult than anticipated.
One thing I’ve noticed that seems to help. Move away from nouns to verbs. Oh, not so as to dwell on past actions. Instead, to focus more on action itself. Isn’t there some truth that we might be known best by what we actually do and less by what we say we do?
Yes!
As one example, I’ll bring up the concept of “Truth” or “the Truth,” which is so common in religious, philosophical, and even political polemics, and then suggest you look for the ways it works as a verb and then as an adjective or adverb.
And then as a hint, let me suggest the sequence “true,” truer,” “truest.”
I’ll avoid going into the ongoing discussion, for now, but I will say there have been some pretty lively discussions and new perspectives in some of the workshops where we’ve considered this.
Will love hearing what you come up with.
Well, for truth, I suppose the verbs would be “seeing clearly” and ” reflecting clearly”. A person or community which does that wouldn’t be holders of A Truth, and instead would be as glass or a mirror, purely seeing and sharing what they see without biasing the view.
“Quakers are essentially a body of mystics” – I never knew this. What a beautiful post.
Wishing you peace,
Allison