I. THE QUAKER MOVEMENT

SUMMARY OF QUAKER HISTORY

In the Seventeenth Century, there was much confusion and uncertainty in England regarding religious concepts and practices. In the previous century, the Reformation had begun in Europe under the leadership of the Anabaptists, Martin Luther, and others. At an even earlier time, in the Fourteenth Century, John Wyclif began the Lollard movement which flourished for a time in England until persecution forced it underground. Quakerism grew out of the ferment. One Seventeenth Century group closely related in spirit to the earlier Lollard movement was the "Seeker" movement in England. The alienation of the "Seekers" from the established religious order was sufficiently great that they no longer felt they could, in good conscience, meet in the established churches. Thus they met in homes, in silent meetings, seeking and waiting for the way they believed would open to them. Many of these people, along with others from various religious groups who sought a more inward and spiritual religion and a more faithful practice of religious and moral principles, joined in the group that first called itself the "Religious Society of Friends" and was quickly nicknamed "Quakers."

The first leader of the Quaker movement, George Fox, born in 1624 in North England, may well have had a tradition of family teaching in religion going back to the time of the suppressed Lollard movement, for he observes in his Journal that his mother was "of the stock of the martyrs." As a young man, George Fox earnestly sought to live a life of purity and love. After searching vainly for help from the established religious groups and after an inward transformation experience opening to him the knowledge that the love and power of God were available to all people without the help of priests, ministers, or sacraments, Fox began to form little bands of people committed to the same beliefs and practices. The best-known words from Fox's Journal expressing this conviction of an immediate and person relationship with God are these: "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition."

But George Fox and others who shared this new faith with him believed their religion was more than direct communion with God. They believed it also meant power to live according to the principles they had accepted as the teaching of God. Thought they fully accepted the basic Christian principles of grace and forgiveness of sins and understood that they, with all others, needed this divine help, they also asserted unequivocally their conviction that they were called to live by the highest of moral principles. The Sermon on the Mount and the rest of the teachings of Jesus, as well as the openings they felt God gave to them in their own lives, were to be obeyed completely. Not only were their acts to be in harmony with their principles, but they believed their attitudes also should express the same consistency. Hence, the classic statement of George Fox when he was asked to accept an appointment in the Army: "I told them I knew whence all wars arose, even from the lusts, according to James's doctrine; and that I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars."

Though Fox and the Quakers who were to follow him did not see immediately the full implications of these teachings in all phases of their lives, they did begin very early to see the revolutionary directions their lives would have to take. Abandonment of war and violence, the practice of absolute integrity, the refusal to give false honor to anyone, simplicity of life, respect for the equality of all people before God - these practices and convictions gradually became the hallmark of the new movement.

Believing that God spoke directly to all, the Friends saw no reason to continue the use of priests and pastors in their own worship and life. Rather, they believed every person should be a minister before God. Nor did they believe people should rely upon liturgy in worship, for they saw this as a temptation to seek satisfaction in the correctness and beauty of liturgical worship rather than in obedience to God. Consequently, the Meetings for Worship had no human plan, and each participant was expected to be obedient to the leading of the Spirit to worship in silence or to speak or pray as the Spirit might lead.

The first formalization of an organizational structure came in the year 1652 and this is generally considered the birthdate of the Religious Society of Friends. From that time, George Fox and others began the development of the structure of Monthly Meetings, Quarterly Meetings and Yearly Meetings, now common in Quakerism. A Yearly Meeting was not actually set up, however, until that step was taken in New England in 1661, and London Yearly Meeting was established soon afterward, building on the earlier Skipton Yearly Meetings.* The Meeting for Sufferings came into being about 1675 as a kind of executive committee to provide relief to Friends and their families suffering from persecutions and to publicize information on such acts of injustice and cruelty. The Meeting for Sufferings in London Yearly Meeting evolved into that group's executive committee.

From the beginning, the new religious movement faced a great deal of persecution. George Fox himself was in jail many times. In the period from 1650 until the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, it is generally estimated not less than 10,000 Quakers were imprisoned in England and approximately 400 died in prison. In addition, some gave their lives as martyrs in New England before freedom of religion was established in the new colonies there.

Faced with continuing persecution in England, a new convert, William Penn, son of Admiral Sir William Penn of the British Navy, used a debt owed him by the Crown because of his father's services and requested the grant of a colony in the New World. Thus there came to birth Pennsylvania, a haven from persecution and an opportunity to practice the Quaker faith as a "Holy Experiment." All the thirteen colonies had Quaker migrations to them in some measure. At varying times, in addition to Pennsylvania, Quakers constituted a controlling force politically and numerically in Rhode Island, North Carolina, and in parts of New Jersey.

Quakers were under fierce attack from many quarters and they responded with vigorous presentations of their faith, both spoken and written. Sometimes this meant public debates and it often meant large public meetings. Coming at a time when most people were deeply interested in religion and there was great uncertainty about the inherited faith of the various religious groups, Quakers won many converts. The power of their Meetings for Worship and the example of their lives, if we judge from the testimony of the converts, were the persuasive factors in the coming of these people to the Religious Society of Friends. Though William Penn is the best known of these people, the names of Robert Barclay, Isaac Penington, Margaret Fell and many others stand out in this list of people, some well educated and affluent, who joined the despised and radical new group.

The skill and wisdom of Fox and his co-workers built an effective organizational structure which also allow for an amount of individual freedom sometimes close to anarchy. By contrast, the "Ranters," a group with some similarities to Quakers, finally dissolved as lack of discipline and control eroded their support among thoughtful, concerned people. One of the essential factors in this Quaker balancing of freedom and discipline was the "itinerant ministry," a quietly effective influence for order and inspiration in a non-authoritarian movement. Trusted leaders of the Quaker movement became "itinerant ministers" and were given "Minutes" by their respective Monthly Meetings to travel in the ministry, visiting new Meetings in England, Scotland, Ireland, the settlements of the New World and occasionally in continental Europe.

After the first half-century of rapid growth, the Quaker movement, for a variety of reasons, became more stable in numbers and began to draw into well-knit communities in order to live lives guarded from the rest of the world as far as possible. This resulted in an early emphasis on Quaker schools. Acceptance of people from outside of Quaker Meetings through marriage was discouraged and requirements for membership became increasingly rigid and legalistic. A consequence of this rigidity was the disownment by the Society of many thousands of people and the withdrawal of others who sought more freedom and opportunity to express their faith. In fairness to the Friends in America, it should be noted that the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were especially difficult, and the peace testimony of the Society was adhered to at the cost of a great many losses of members.

* There is record of general meetings for business as early as 1657, held at Skipton, England, and attended by elders from the northern counties. The first meeting of general scope appears to have been held at Skipton in 1660, and was attended by representatives from the principal Quaker sections of England and Wales. Fox called this a Yearly Meeting.

But the tendency to withdraw from the world had weakened Quakers in some ways and made them vulnerable to other forces working toward change. Increased internal rigidity expressed itself in doctrinal disputes and in disagreements about the proper pattern of life. Where early Friends had found unity in their experience of a living divine presence in their worship and in commitment to lives based on obedience to God and love of neighbors, by 1800 dissension and disunity began to break the bonds of love and fellowship.

In the United States, the first great division came in 1827 in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, followed by similar divisions in four other Yearly meetings in 1828. The apparent cause was a theological difference between the followers of Elias Hicks, a liberal minister, and the more orthodox leadership of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Actually there were other factors:

(1) A difference between the authoritarianism of the official Yearly Meeting structure and the greater emphasis by Hicks and his associates on personal freedom of belief, (2) A revolt by the rural followers of Hicks against the more affluent style of living of the city Quakers, and (3) The increasing activism and more evangelical beliefs of the urban Friends as opposed to the conservatism of the rural Quakers, much larger in number, who sought to keep closer to earlier Quaker patterns of life and thought.

A second division was the Gurney-Wilbur separation occasioned by differences in responses of American Quakers to the teachings of Joseph John Gurney of England who spent much time in Friends Meetings in this country beginning in 1837. Under the leadership of John Wilbur of New England, some groups of Friends took a strong stand in favor of adhering to the original testimonies and principles of Friends rather than accepting the interpretation given by Joseph John Gurney with its emphasis on a more evangelical theological position and a more activist position on social questions. Besides the division in New England, separation also occurred in Ohio, and later, in Iowa and Kansas, and North Carolina.

The third schism in American Quakerism, beginning early in the second half of the Nineteenth Century, was in some ways an extension of earlier divisions but was occasioned by the acceptance of revival tendencies and paid pastoral leadership by considerable numbers of Midwestern Friends, joined by some parts of Eastern and West Coast Friends later to form the Five Years Meeting, now called Friends United Meeting.

The First World War was a time of awakening for many Quakers and also a time of testing. In some Meetings, there was little of the peace testimony to be found. Among the Conservative Friends, however, there was generally strong support of the peace testimony as taught by early Friends. Under the leadership of Rufus Jones, representatives from most groups of Quakers joined with other concerned people to form the American Friends Service Committee, a united effort to give relief in Europe to those who were the victims of war and to provide an opportunity for young conscientious objectors to engage in practical programs for human betterment rather than to participate in war.

A trend toward unity among Friends has been encouraged by a series of Friends World Conferences, and these Conferences have now become an established part of the life of Quakers all over the world. A further development from this has been the birth and growth of the Friends World Committee for Consultation, with the American Section of that Committee providing help and guidance in the United States for many new Meetings and for the unification of Friends' efforts.

The Second World War found the Society of Friends more nearly ready to face the inevitable testing brought on by such a conflict, and the American Friends Service Committee was in a position to provide the necessary leadership. Most groups of Friends cooperated with the AFSC in support of the Civilian Public Service Program, established by law to provide alternative service opportunities for conscientious objectors.

Another outgrowth of common Quaker endeavors was the development at the close of World War II of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the only official religious lobby group operated in Washington, D.C. until very recently. Most, but not all, Quaker groups support the FCNL.

The Freedom in the Society of Friends for Monthly Meetings, Quarterly Meetings and Yearly Meetings to choose their own courses inevitably has meant continued division within the Society. There has been a considerable tendency toward unification of some groups of Friends, and the healing of old divisions has resulted in new unity in most Eastern Quaker group. But it must be understood that other divisions have not been healed. This is the price Quakers pay for the freedom and independence they so greatly treasure.

New Meetings, especially in university centers, now give promise of increase in numbers as well as new perspectives for service and for spiritual growth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR SUMMARY OF QUAKER HISTORY

The Works of George Fox, Marcus T.C. Goulds, Philadelphia, 1831

The Works of Isaac Penington, 4th Edition, Sherwoods, New York, 1861

William Penn, Works, Philadelphia, Friends Book Store, no date

An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, Robert Barclay, Friends Book Store, Philadelphia, 1908