Authority to Revise Faith and Practice

This text is from Chapter 10 of Faith & Practice, the book that provides guidance for Friends in New England Yearly Meeting.

The Yearly Meeting at its annual session has sole authority to change or add to this book of Faith and Practice.

Proposals for changes to particular sections of Faith and Practice (like other Yearly Meeting business) may come to the Yearly Meeting business session either from a Yearly Meeting committee or from a quarterly meeting. A monthly meeting wishing to propose revisions should bring a minute to its quarterly meeting, which after due consideration may forward it to the Yearly Meeting with its endorsement.

If the Yearly Meeting business session approves an amendment, the revised or new text should be published with the minutes of that session. The change takes provisional effect upon that preliminary approval, and meetings and individuals are encouraged to use it for a year to gauge its practical effect and help Friends discern whether the change is rightly ordered. The amendment must then come to a subsequent Yearly Meeting business session (normally in the subsequent year) for final approval. Copies of the revised text will then be made widely available in a form easily inserted into the printed book.

From time to time the Yearly Meeting may see that it would be desirable to review and revise the entire book of Faith and Practice. When this occurs, the Yearly Meeting shall establish an appropriate committee and define the scope of its work. In any event, the text of any successor or replacement Faith and Practice must be approved at two annual sessions of the Yearly Meeting, and should be widely distributed throughout the Yearly Meeting during the revision and approval process.