Experience the best teacher: Roy Payne on notions, creeds, and ‘travelling documents’

‘True Christianity came out of an experience of God, rather than a set of beliefs.’

by Roy Payne 29th November 2024

When Friends try to recount our experiences of the divine, we are trying to describe the indescribable. I use terminology that is meaningful for me, but you may need to translate it. It is the experience itself that matters. Since the time when Quakerism arose, Friends have been concerned with enabling people to have this experience, which I would describe as the transforming power of God’s grace – you use your own words. But however we depict this experience, it was the manner in which early Friends went about enabling it that would cause so much conflict.