Faith and Practice

Beliefs and Practices of Friends Meeting of Austin

Traditionally among the the Society of Friends, each yearly meeting (a regional gathering of local meetings) adopts a statement which describes the belief and practices of Friends meetings who are affiliated. This is called "Faith and Practice" or the yearly meeting book of "discipline." The word discipline is used in the sense of teaching.

Our yearly meeting, South Central Yearly Meeting, does not have a standard book of discipline. The affiliated monthly meetings may create their own document or adopt one used by another yearly meeting.

The Friends Meeting of Austin has adopted the Faith and Practice of North Pacific Yearly Meeting (NPYM), with some revisions which are recorded in our minutes.

Here we provide the text of NPYM Faith and Practice with changes and annotations to reflect our own practice in Austin.  Sections on New Meetings, Quarterly Meetings and the Yearly Meeting have been omitted since they pertain to the practices and procedures on North Pacific Yearly meeting.