It seems that there are almost as many different kinds of Quakers as there are Christians. At its best the Society, or if you prefer, the Church, proclaims the basics of what William Penn (1644-1718) called "primitive Christianity revived" and makes room for the widest possible diversity within that unity – hence the need for listening. Our conviction is that Quakers are united in faith and express that unity in various manners, cultural practices, and symbolic structures. Today Quakers seem more and more led to face differences in practice and to cherish them. Jack L. Willcuts, an evangelical Friend, writes: "To be one in the Spirit is true togetherness. Not that we look alike, dress alike, sound alike, or even think alike . . . Unity is spiritual, uniformity is mechanical." Such an attitude does not imply liking the habits of others or wanting to copy them. Likes and dislikes are the small change of human personality; love is the gold standard of God.
Isaac Penington (1616-1679) summarized the case:
"And oh, how sweet and pleasant it is to the truly spiritual eye to see several sorts of believers, several forms of Christians in the school of Christ, every one learning their own lesson, performing their own peculiar service, and knowing, owning, and loving one another in their several places . . , For this is the true ground of love and unity, not that such a man walks and does just as I do, but because I feel the same Spirit and life in him . . . and this is far more pleasing to me than if he walked in just that track wherein I walk."
The hope is that any Quaker reading this primer will be able to say: "Although I might not have expressed it so, yes, this is the nature of Quakerism."
