From what I can gather, it is a statement of how any particular yearly meeting is structured and the processes used within it. It speaks of tradition within the yearly meeting and shares some spiritual truths as revealed to past Quakers. This quote from 1656 is meaningful, I believe, in placing value on FP's among Quakers:
Dearly beloved
Friends, these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk
by, but that all, with the measure of light which is pure and holy, may
be guided: and so in the light walking and abiding, these may be
fulfilled in the Spirit, not from the letter, for the letter killeth,
but the Spirit giveth life.
Advices from the elders at Balby, 1656
Britain Yearly Meeting Quaker faith & practice, 1995, §1.01
Britain Yearly Meeting Quaker faith & practice, 1995, §1.01
The old English aside, it definitely says FP's are not rules and regulations. Some yearly meetings, our own included, do not have their our own Faith and Practice but refer to another yearly meeting's FP for guidance, putting even more distance between outlining traditions and serving as rules and regulations.
Peace, light and laughter. Sheila
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