About Quakers
So I opened to the people that the ground and house was no holier than another place, and that the house was not the church, but the people which Christ is the head of.
The Religious Society of Friends arose in mid seventeenth century England as a movement which radically redefined Christian Truth according to personal, direct encounter with the Living God as revealed in Jesus Christ. The driving force in the early years of the movement was George Fox, who was born in the English Midlands in 1624. While Fox was still a young man, his spiritual quest led him to challenge the religious leaders of the day, as he felt that they failed to live by the beliefs they claimed to hold. In 1647, his life was changed by a religious “opening”: “I heard a voice which said, ‘there is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition.’ And when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy”. He spent the rest of his life traveling and sharing his new understanding of the human-divine relationship, unfettered by any need for mediation by a priestly caste. The clergy felt the threat and Fox and other early Friends were regularly imprisoned for their beliefs and for speaking about them in church and street. We are fortunate that many early Friends kept journals, which continue to be basic reading and inspiration for modern Quakers. Fox had a profound knowledge of the Bible; his Journal, sermons and other writings draw liberally upon scripture.
Fox’s teachings included the opening that there is a divine spark – “the Light within” – in every man and woman, and thus humans have immediate access to God without the need for an ordained priest, consecrated building or outward sacrament. He and his companions gathered together in worship as seekers after Truth, waiting expectantly for God’s inward guidance in silence or through the spoken word of those led to minister. The silence was not an end in itself, but rather a medium through which the “still small voice” might speak to open hearts. In his epitaph for Fox, William Penn wrote, He had an extraordinary gift in opening the scriptures. He would go to the marrow of things. ... But above all he excelled in prayer. The inwardness and weight of his spirit ... and the fewness and fullness of his words have often struck even strangers with admiration (Fox, Journal, Preface).
Although Fox is regarded as the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, his intention had been rather to share as widely as possible his vision of original Christianity. Like Luther before him, he hoped to reform human hearts and eventually the church rather than found another sect. Outward persecution and internal challenges to unity led him to the task of preserving the seed of his discoveries in a Religious Society of Friends. It was his organizational genius with the support of Margaret Fell, later his wife, which enabled the Quaker movement to survive the religious and civil turmoil of the time, while other similar groups were short-lived. With Fox’s efforts and encouragement to others, the faith spread to other parts of Europe and across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and North America. The Quaker nickname appears to have arisen as a result of a remark made by Justice Bennett of Derby while questioning Fox concerning a charge of blasphemy in 1650. The Justice used the term to mock Fox, who had bid them tremble at the word of God (Fox, Journal, p.58).
Driven from many parts of Britain by persecution, Quakers spread to those colonies of North America that welcomed them. There, Quaker theological and civic influence was significant, particularly in Pennsylvania under the leadership of William Penn, and later in North Carolina and Indiana. The nineteenth century saw the forces of liberalism and evangelical renewal affecting Quaker Meetings in a manner that led to schisms among North American Friends. The followers of the charismatic New Yorker, Elias Hicks, emphasised the role of the Inward Light in guiding individual faith and conscience, while Orthodox Friends emphasised biblical authority as well as the Inward Light. This led to the Hicksite/Orthodox separations in several Yearly Meetings (YMs – see below under “Quaker Structures”). By the late 1830s, an English Friend, Joseph John Gurney, traveled among Meetings in the United States, adding evangelical fervour to Christian orthodoxy, insisting that the Bible was the only source of divine Truth. This led most of the Orthodox YMs to separate into Gurneyite or Wilburite (now called Conservative) groups. The separations and realignments among North American Friends that have continued into the late twentieth century have resulted in the emergence of similar differences among Quaker populations in other lands as Quaker missionaries and immigrants passed on their different understandings of Quaker faith and practice.
By the mid twentieth century, there were at least four distinct branches of Friends in North America. Friends General Conference (FGC) addresses the needs of Friends in the liberal, unprogrammed tradition, and the orthodox Friends United Meeting (FUM) grew out of the westward migration and a consequent revitalization of Quakers with Meetings developing programmed worship and releasing a Friend to serve as pastor. Five Yearly Meetings have separated from the orthodox branch of Friends to form a group of evangelical YMs, now called Evangelical Friends Churches International (EFCI), which also includes the YMs developed in the Evangelical Friends mission fields. FUM and EFCI Meetings for worship are Christ-centered and almost all are programmed, with some incorporating a time of “open worship” based on silence. Conservative Friends maintain most of the Quaker distinctives, including unprogrammed worship and an explicitly Christ-centered theology.
Most Friends in Latin America and the Caribbean practise a programmed form of worship similar to that of their parent churches in the United States. There are also large FUM-related Quaker groups in East Africa, especially in Kenya, and growing EFT Meetings in Asia and in Burundi and Rwanda. Friends in Europe, Japan, Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand generally follow the unprogrammed tradition of worship and live with a wide variety of theologies in their midst. Quakers may be found in around 70 countries worldwide; we now number around 280,000 with half living in the Americas. The international profile of Friends is multifaceted and continues to change.
Friends’ Beliefs
For many, including some Friends, the image of Quaker beliefs presents a confusing landscape. This is partly because Friends do not live by the rigidity of creeds, but rather by the experiential nature of their faith. Friends experience the work of God’s spirit in their lives in many different ways. The Inward Teacher – the voice within – helps us discern between good and evil while the community of Friends supports its members in further discernment and in obeying calls by the Holy Spirit. Central to our belief is that all of life – all of creation – is sacred and so religion is not limited to one place or one day a week. The Bible is fundamental to Friends’ understanding of Christ’s presence and work, and the chief outward means of knowing God’s will, even as we acknowledge, with other Christians, that scripture can rightly be interpreted only under the power of the Holy Spirit. While some Friends today regard the Bible as merely one of several inspiring books, to most it is the cherished record of God’s working with humankind, and an indispensable part of Christian life. Fox repeatedly reminded his followers that the same Holy Spirit which had inspired the scriptures in the past inspires believers in present times. For Friends, the Christian rites of baptism and eucharist are spiritual rather than physical experiences. The presence of Christ with His church is not designed to be by symbol or representation but in the real communication of his own Spirit (Faith and Practice of Indiana YM of the RS of F (1976), p.27).
The Testimonies
Rather than subscribing to a set of someone else’s words as a statement of personal belief as in church creeds, Friends try to make their daily lives a witness to the living Truth known in the human heart. Many have learned that the words, which serve to describe conviction, can change and mature with spiritual growth. Out of the experience of leadings of the Spirit, Friends have come to value social testimonies to how Truth might be expressed through the life of each individual. Over the years, as in any evolutionary process, the emphasis has changed, but Friends’ basic social testimonies of Peace, Integrity, Equality and Simplicity have remained constant. Some writers have also included Community, Stewardship and Social Responsibility in their lists of Quaker testimonies. Adherence to a set of testimonies is not required for membership in any Quaker body, but the testimonies do serve as a means of expressing much Quaker concern and witness in the world. It was the honesty or integrity of Quaker businesses that made them so successful as the world of business developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Believing in the precious value of each person, Elizabeth Fry campaigned for prison reform while John Woolman, John Bright, John Greenleaf Whittier, Lucretia Coffin Mott and Eli Coffin were key figures in the movement that led to the abolition of slavery. The promotion of peace, reconciliation and social justice has been a feature of Quaker activities worldwide.
Quaker Structures
Since the seventeenth century, the “Religious Society of Friends” has meant a fellowship held together by spiritual forces operating through each individual. For Friends’ communities, God is the One Guide at the head of all Meetings, whether for worship or for making corporate decisions. Already challenged by the tendency toward unbridled enthusiastic individualism among new converts, George Fox and the first generation of Friends saw the need for “Gospel Order” in which each member participated in the search for Truth (God’s Will) and was willing to have his/her concerns tested by the Meeting for business.
It is the Monthly Meeting that decides upon and holds the membership of individual Friends. In many countries, each local Meeting is a Monthly Meeting; in others, Monthly Meetings consist of a collection of several smaller Local Meetings. In Britain, Local Meetings are called “Local Meetings”, in Kenya, “Village Meetings” and in Australia, “Recognised Meetings”. In Australia, the body holding an individual’s membership is a state-wide Regional Meeting.
The entire body of Friends from one country or region comes together for an annual gathering to do business and to come to know one another in the spirit. These bodies are called Yearly Meetings and in an ecclesiastical sense, each Yearly Meeting (YM) comprises a Friends “Church” with the authority to make statements or other significant decisions on behalf of its members. The membership and geographical detail of Yearly Meetings vary throughout the world. The membership of several British, Kenyan or American (North and South) Monthly Meetings is larger than that of several Yearly Meetings in other parts of the world. Quakers in the divided Ireland all belong to one Ireland YM, while there are at present four YMs in Bolivia, sixteen in Kenya and 33 in the USA.
The Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) was formed in 1937 to “facilitate loving understanding of diversities among Friends while we discover together, with God’s help, our common spiritual ground” and “to facilitate full expression of our Friends’ testimonies in the world”. The FWCC World Office is in London and there are Section offices with secretaries and committee structures to serve the four FWCC Sections: Europe & the Middle East Section, Section of the Americas, Africa Section and Asia-West Pacific Section.
There are several areas in the world not included in the network of Yearly Meetings. The collection of about two dozen groups and well over 100 individual isolated Friends in these areas have many things in common and are the primary audience of this volume. These groups and individuals are welcome to relate to the International Membership Committee (IMC) based at the FWCC World Office in London. Within the limits of geography, human energy and funds, the IMC attempts to serve the individuals as a Monthly Meeting, holding the membership of around 60 Friends and providing literature and responses to inquiries from anyone. At the same time, the IMC relates to the small groups as a parent body, providing literature, the occasional visit and advice when it is requested.
Rufus Jones, a Friend from New England, inspired the foundation of the Wider Quaker Fellowship in 1936 as a way of reaching out to those whose religious leadings or aspirations for peace and social justice are similar to those of Friends, but who wish to maintain membership in their present faith. This network by mail, an FWCC Section of the Americas program, now reaches more than 3,000 people in about 80 countries. Many Friends around the world who read English (three mailings a year) or Spanish (one mailing a year) appreciate this “ministry of literature”.
Ohio YM (Conservative) has developed an Affiliate Membership option, which is “intended to provide spiritual support for Friends who live outside our normal geographical area and who feel a sense of spiritual isolation.” Application is made to a specific Monthly Meeting within OYM. “When applicants are already members of another Meeting, they may be accepted concurrently as Affiliate Members in OYM. ... As long as the Lord’s truth is being served, such Friends are encouraged to remain members of the Meeting where they reside, seeking to live faithfully where God has placed them.” (Excerpts from The Book of Discipline of OYM, Barnesville, Ohio, USA, 1992, p.9.) Ohio YM (Conservative) maintains both the Christian and unprogrammed Quaker traditions.