Different kinds or "flavours" of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends is a
Christian body formed by George Fox and
his followers in the mid-17th century in
England. It spread rapidly through the
British Isles, Europe and North America.
In the 19th century in North America,
Friends split into separate factions,
generally over issues of authority and
form of worship. While some Friends viewed
the Bible as the inalienable Word of God,
others believed that Scripture was
inspired by the Holy Spirit and that the
Holy Spirit guides faithful readers in
interpreting the Scriptures. Most Friends,
today, fall somewhere in the middle of
this spectrum.
Quaker involvement in
business and worldly civil society led to
other splits. For instance, Conservative
groups originated from the concern that
the witness of early Friends—who famously
lived in the world, but were not
of the world—was diluted and
diverted from its purpose. Many
Conservatives have felt that without the
discipline to retain some separation from
the world, Quakerism risks having its
silent form of worship mistaken for
complicity in the injustice of the world.
These questions continue to live as part
of Quaker conversation and reflection,
within and between meetings and churches.
FWCC is the organization that provides the
forum for Friends of different worship
traditions and cultures to interact with
one another.
Profiles of Various “Flavours”
The following descriptions are of some of
the main Quaker traditions. They have been
composed from contributions by various
Yearly Meetings and by the umbrella
organisation, Friends United Meeting.
Programmed tradition: Friends United
Meeting
Friends
United Meeting (FUM) grows out of
the evangelical expression of the Quaker
Movement. We embrace both pastoral and
unprogrammed Friends Meetings and are
deeply influenced by the fact that our
largest population centre is in eastern
Africa, followed by the United States of
America. We have 27 member yearly
meetings.
FUM is a Christian movement. We
anticipate that continuing revelation will
be consistent with the Scriptures, because
the Holy Spirit is the source of both.
Where worship centres on Christ and
involves a listening spirituality, we
believe those involved will begin to
reflect the character of Jesus—bearing
testimony to peace, simplicity, equality,
moral purity, and integrity. The global
community of the Church is an important
part of this testimony. Knowing that God
has already placed a witness (the Light of
Christ within everyone), it is our joy to
share the love of God and the transforming
power of the Holy Spirit with others.
FUM is also a cooperative programme of
our member yearly meetings. Our purpose is
“to energize and equip Friends through the
power of the Holy Spirit to gather people
into fellowships where Jesus Chris is
known, loved and obeyed as Teacher and
Lord.” Our priorities are evangelism,
global partnership, leadership training
and communication.
Evangelical Friends in North
America:From Northwest Yearly Meeting
Evangelical Friends in North America are
a collection of five Yearly Meetings
mostly comprised of programmed and
semi-programmed churches. These Friends
emphasize the divinity of Jesus Christ and
focus on encouraging people to personally
know and follow Christ in complete
obedience to the teachings found in
Scripture and to the leading of God’s
Spirit.
Across these five Yearly Meetings, some
emphasize historic Friends testimonies
more than others. Those that do see the
work of peacemaking, social justice,
simplicity, etc., as central to their
Christian faith. All are active in local
outreach/evangelism and cross-cultural
mission efforts. Most EFCI (Evangelical Friends Church
International) local churches are
served by men or women in pastoral
ministry—some full-time, others
bi-vocationally, and a few as volunteers.
Worship in the Conservative tradition:
Ohio Yearly Meeting
The personal, immediate, continuing
experience of Jesus Christ speaking to
their specific condition is the beginning
and end of Ohio Yearly Meeting
Friends’ discipline and life. The hour of
worship is His to program as He sees it:
our task—to respond in worship—does not
depend on any one appointed person, but on
Christ’s loving ministry in our midst. We
gather in awed expectation for Christ to
speak to our corporate condition, and His
Spirit, in the silence or through free
gospel ministry and anointed prayer,
inspires and guides us as His body, not
just as so many individuals. We believe
that as we individually and communally
look humbly to Him, our spirits will be
washed, prepared and fed in a measure
proportional to our obedience.
Unprogrammed or Liberal Friends
From Philadelphia Yearly Meeting:
The Light Within is the fundamental and
immediate experience for Friends. It is
that which guides each of us in our
everyday lives and brings us together as a
community of faith. It is, most
importantly, our direct and unmediated
experience of the Divine. Friends have
used many different terms or phrases to
designate the source and inner certainty
of our faith—a faith which we have gained
by direct experience . . .
George Fox refers in his Journal to “that
Inward Light, Spirit, and Grace by which
all might know their salvation” and to
“that Divine Spirit which would lead them
into all truth.” He wrote: “There is one,
even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy
condition” and encouraged Friends “to walk
cheerfully over the world, answering that
of God in every one.” Many Friends
interpret “that of God” as another
designation for the Light Within.
Our worship is the search for communion
with God and the offering of
ourselves—body and soul—for the doing of
God’s will. The sense of worship can be
experienced in the awe we feel in the
silence of a meeting for worship or in the
awareness of our profound connectedness to
nature and its power. In worship we know
repentance and forgiveness in the
acknowledgment of God as the ultimate
source of our being and the serenity of
accepting God’s will.
Visit Friends
General Conference for more on
unprogrammed Friends.
World Distribution of Friends by
“Flavour”
Programmed Friends
There are Programmed friends in Belize,
Cuba, El Salvador, India, Jamaica, Kenya,
Mexico, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, and
USA.
Evangelical Friends
There are Evangelical Friends in Bolivia,
Burundi, Cambodia, Congo, Guatemala,
Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia,
Ireland, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, Philippines,
Russia, Rwanda, Taiwan and USA.
Conservative Friends
There are Conservative Friends in the
USA, United Kingdom, and Greece.
Unprogrammed Friends
There are Unprogrammed Friends in
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Congo, Costa
Rica, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France,
Germany, Ghana, Honk Kong, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Kenya,
Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Palestine,
Russia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United
Kingdom, USA
Links to Other Descriptions of Friends
