Statement of Social Testimony

“A Social Testimony” was written by the Industrial and Social Order Council, included in their 1945 report to London Yearly Meeting, and publicised widely “in the hope that it may become as widely accepted as is the Society‘s Peace Testimony“.

In full, it reads:

A SOCIAL TESTIMONY

Deep in each human soul lies the seed of the eternal divine life. Its flowering to the glory of God is the aim and purpose of man’s being. To this end, the resources of the world have been given to all men individually and for their corporate life. To all men they are given, to all men in common ownership they belong. And although these resources may be administered by particular individuals, groups or nations, any system which limits their availability for all men and women, regardless of colour or creed, is hindering Christian fellowship and the divine order.

All men are of the family of God. No man is a “hand” to be kept in or thrown out of the economic life of the community as suits the needs of any system. The community is a fellowship wherein each man and woman should find a place of significant service and creative living. All are members, all share the duty and should enjoy the right of helping to determine its policies, whether political or economic, industrial or social. For its foundations rest in a democracy based on the brotherhood of man and drawing its reality from the fatherhood of God.