June 7th 2026

Early Friends confronted Christians of their day, charging them with having replaced the 

direct experience of God’s Spirit with human aids and institutions like a rigid interpretation of scripture and the establishment of creeds and other church doctrines. To Friends, scripture can be an essential testimony to the Truth, which continues to be revealed when read in the Spirit in which they were given: “Come to stay your minds upon that spirit which was before the letter; here ye learn to read the scriptures aright,” to quote George Fox (Epistle. 10). Likewise, the purpose of religious authority is not to establish an outward uniformity of religious practice but to help Friends keep present, individually and corporately, in this personal relationship to the divine.

South Central Yearly Meeting, Faith and Practice, page 11