Introducing Early Quakers

Transcript for Episode 10: 

Quaker Testimony - Simplicity

Ann:

Welcome to this podcast series coming courtesy of Silver Wattle Quaker Centre, located in central New South Wales on the edge of Werriwa or Lake George, the largest freshwater lake in Australia. We acknowledge and give thanks for First Nations groups’ care of Country. We commit to its ongoing care.

I’m Ann Zubrick, a member of the Silver Wattle Board.

In 2026, Introducing early Quakers expanded into a new series, exploring Quaker values and testimonies.

Through personal reflections shared by Australian friends. These episodes draw on the experiences and insights of several contributors and are narrated by different voices within the Quaker community. Together, they invite us to reflect on how Quaker testimonies continue to shape faith and practice today.

Here is Introducing Early Quakers Episode 10:

A personal reflection on the simplicity testimony. Written by Wayne Baker Smith. Edited and narrated by Michael Corbett.

Michael:‍ ‍

Simplicity

‘Live simply that others might simply live’

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton – 1774 to 1821

If ask to define simplicity, most people are apt to say that it has something to do with owning and doing less.

Desiring and buying fewer material goods

Purging excesses of goods

Filling our lives with often unnecessary commitments

So, if we are just to look at simplicity alone, we become aware that we discard all these endless items. God’s not looking for extra shelving.

Are these not the excesses which tend to obscure our vision of reality inwardly, simplicity is the spiritual detachment from the things of this world?

This brings us to, SPIRITUAL SIMPLICITY

Spiritual simplicity is the work on our self’s

Greedy self

Vengeful self

Critical self

Egotistical self

Our Faith and Practice reminds us ‘the heart of Quaker ethics is summed up in the word simplicity’. Simplicity is forgetfulness of self and remembering of our humble status of a waiting servant of God – The Light – spirit.

Thus simplicity is all that will nurture us and lead us through the Light in which we worship. Simplicity  needs a heart and its centre is having a clear purpose [being attentive to the Light].

Quaker Lloyd Lee Wilson said:

‘Simplicity is the name we give to our effort to free ourselves, to give full attention to God’s still, small voice: the sum of our efforts to subtract from our lives everything that competes with God for our attention and clear hearing’.

Andrew Hull in the Friends Journal wrote:

The sense I have is that the work of spiritual simplicity is situated inside ourselves because it is easy to think that what obscures God in others is something about the other. For example, when I meet a man experiencing chronic street homelessness, I might think that of God is what lies beneath his needle marks, body lice, and the smell of alcohol, and my work is to look beneath those things to find that of God in him. Wrong. That is spiritual grandiosity . Spiritual simplicity means looking at myself: what about me thinks that that of God in this man? Where am I feeling tempted to pull away from him, to judge him, to misperceive him, to belittle him, to disconnect from him? What do I need to give up to see him as God does?  Spiritual simplicity means uncovering these aspect of myself and learning to let them go’.

Spiritual simplicity or trying to act from a place of love.

The silence In which we worship

What is the importance of this silence and how are we to navigate with heart and mind prepared?

We come across the term ‘centring down’ which is often used to describe this silent waiting. A description often used, the actions of settling into the meeting so worshippers can receive some kind of spiritual experience. A U.K. Meeting described it like this: ‘Centring down’ is Quaker speak for the technique of becoming still and silent as the meeting moves into silence’.    With early Quakers however it is not a phrase you will find and reference to. However, in Alistair Lomax’s deliberations, he notes that 19th century   Friends, like Elis Hicks, did in fact use this phrase. Maybe this description misrepresents the true nature of Quaker worship and lends itself all too readily to the suggestion that Quaker worship is somehow a kind of technique, even a kind of meditation technique. 

In other words, a human-centered view of worship which is not part of the prophetic Quaker tradition that arises from the everlasting gospel preached by George Fox, which in contrast points to the fact that true worship – ‘Worship in the spirit and truth’, John 4;23.

 This is an experience that God initiates and to which we respond. To get to the heart of this we need to understand how Fox and early Quakers encountered Christ Jesus. Their key experience was knowing that Christ was a prophet, God’s son, or speaker from heaven. This knowledge of Christ as God's prophet is key to understanding the true meaning of worship. In a way, Quaker worship in itself is a response to God’s call to hear and obey Christ Jesus. Quaker worship is a direct consequence of hearing and obeying Christ, or the Spirit, or the Light and not just one way of worship but many ways.  It is true that part of the response is to become still and attentive, so that we can hear Christ’s voice and receive his teachings, but that does not mean the silent worship is a technique that even demands God’s attention.

George Fox had thoughts on the matter. ‘And all you that are in your own wisdom, and in your own reason, tell of silent waiting upon God, that is famine to you; it is a strange life to you to come to be silent, you must come into a new world’.

However in this silence in which we practice, is a Waiting worship, a journey and experience of being gathered before God or Spirit and lead into being guided by God. This observation leads us to our testimonies, the fruits of this listening.   

This testimony asks; 

Does it originate from God or the Spirit? 

Does it demand outward public awareness? 

Does it call on all Quaker communities? 

Is it rooted in Love?                

Ann:

We hope these stories have sparked reflection and a deeper appreciation for the courage and spiritual depth of early Friends.

If you'd like to explore Quaker spiritual practices or join us for a retreat or course — either in person or online — visitsilverwattle.org.au.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONSQueries for Reflection and Discussion

1. When you hear the word "simplicity," what comes first to mind—owning less, doing less, or something deeper?

2. What things in your life compete with God's still, small voice for your attention?

3. Wayne describes simplicity as "forgetfulness of self and remembering our humble status as a waiting servant of God." What does this mean to you?

4. Andrew Hull suggests that spiritual simplicity requires us to examine ourselves rather than judge others. Have you experienced a time when you needed to let go of an assumption or prejudice in order to see someone more clearly?

5. What practices help you become still and attentive in Meeting for Worship?

6. George Fox wrote, "You must come into a new world." What might this "new world" look like in your own spiritual life?

7. How do our testimonies arise from listening and waiting upon the Spirit?

8. Is there something you feel called to let go of—an attachment, habit, fear, resentment, or expectation—in order to live more simply and faithfully?

9. Wayne concludes with four questions of discernment. Which one speaks most deeply to you today?

   • Does it originate from God or the Spirit?

   • Does it demand outward public awareness?

   • Does it call on all Quaker communities?

   • Is it rooted in Love?

10. What might the testimony of simplicity ask of us as individuals, and what might it ask of our Meetings?