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{{Short description|Family of Christian religious movements}}
{{Redirect|Quaker}}
{{Redirect|Society of Friends|the Greek movement for independence|Filiki Eteria|the followers of the Public Universal Friend|Public Universal Friend|the associations known as Friendly Societies|Friendly Society}}
{{For|the sect that broke off from the Quakers in the mid-18th century|Shakers}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox Christian denomination
| name = Religious Society of Friends
| image = Religious denominations of the world - comprising a general view of the origin, history, and condition of the various sects of Christians, the Jews, and Mahometans, as well as the pagan forms of (14761837356).jpg
| imagewidth =
| alt =
| caption = [[George Fox]], the principal early leader of the Quakers
| main_classification =
| theology = Variable; depends on meeting
| founder = [[George Fox]] <br> [[Margaret Fell]]
| founded_date = Mid-17th century
| founded_place = England
| separated_from = [[Church of England]]
| separations = [[Shakers]]<ref>{{Cite book |author=Michael Bjerknes Aune |author2=Valerie M. DeMarinis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bxn6Thqm9KsC&pg=PA105 |title=Religious and Social Ritual: Interdisciplinary Explorations |publisher=SUNY Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-7914-2825-2 |page=105}}</ref>
| fellowships = [[Friends World Committee for Consultation]]
| associations = [[Britain Yearly Meeting]], [[Friends United Meeting]], [[Evangelical Friends Church International]], [[Conservative Friends]], [[Friends General Conference]]
| footnotes =
}}
{{Quakers vertical}}
{{Protestantism}}
{{Christianity|expanded=hide}}
'''Quakers''' are people who belong to the '''Religious Society of Friends''', a historically [[Protestantism|Protestant Christian]] set of [[Christian denomination|denominations]]. Members refer to each other as Friends after {{Bibleverse|John|15:14|KJV}} in the Bible. Originally, others referred to them as Quakers because the founder of the movement, [[George Fox]], told a judge to "quake before the authority of God".<ref>{{cite web |title=Where Did the Names "Quaker" and "Friends" Come From? |url=https://www.wcfriendschurch.org/friends-quakers |publisher=Walnut Creek Friends Church |access-date=21 June 2024 |language=English|quote=They called themselves “Friends” because of the words of Jesus recorded in John 15:14, “You are my friends, if you do what I command you.” The early Friends were Christians who believed they could live like Jesus because Jesus lived in them. The name “Quaker” was applied to the early Friends by their critics. The early Friends were so aware of the presence of God among them that they sometimes trembled with excitement. Upon being threatened by a judge to “quake” before the authority of his court, George Fox told him to quake before the authority of God.}}</ref>
The Friends are generally united by a belief in each human's ability to be guided by the [[inward light]] to "make the witness of God" known to everyone.<ref>{{Cite book |title=George Fox's Journal |last=Fox |first=George |date=1903 |pages=215–216 |publisher=Isbister and Company Limited |url=https://archive.org/stream/georgefoxsjourn00nicogoog#page/n245 |quote=This is the word of the Lord God to you all, and a charge to you all in the presence of the living God; be patterns, be examples in all your countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people and to them: then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you: then to the Lord God you will be a sweet savour, and a blessing.}}</ref><ref name="Charles2015">{{cite book|last=Hodge|first=Charles|title=Systematic Theology|date=12 March 2015|publisher=Delmarva Publications, Inc.|language=en|page=137|quote=This spiritual illumination is peculiar to the true people of God; the inward light, in which the Quakers believe, is common to all men. The design and effect of the "inward light" are the communication of new truth, or of truth not objectively revealed, as well as the spiritual discernment of the truths of Scripture. The design and effect of spiritual illumination are the proper apprehension of truth already speculatively known. Secondly. By the inner light the orthodox Quakers understand the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit, concerning which they teach, – (1.) That it is given to all men. (2.) That it not only convinces of sin, and enables the soul to apprehend aright the truths of Scripture, but also communicates a knowledge of "the mysteries of salvation." ... The orthodox Friends teach concerning this inward light, as has been already shown, that it is subordinate to the Holy Scriptures, inasmuch as the Scriptures are the infallible rule of faith and practice, and everything contrary thereto is to be rejected as false and destructive.}}</ref> Quakers have traditionally professed a [[priesthood of all believers]] inspired by the [[First Epistle of Peter]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/11/ |title=Membership {{!}} Quaker faith & practice |website=qfp.quaker.org.uk |access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bym-rsf.org/publications/fandp/11worship.html |title=Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith & Practice |date=August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120413213340/http://www.bym-rsf.org/publications/fandp/11worship.html |archive-date=13 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse |1 Peter |2:9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title='That of God' in every person |url=https://quakers-belux.org/that-of-god-in-everyone/ |publisher=Quakers in Belgium and Luxembourg}}</ref> They include those with [[Evangelical Friends Church International|evangelical]], [[Holiness movement|holiness]], liberal, and [[Conservative Friends|traditional Quaker]] understandings of Christianity, as well as [[Nontheist Quakers]]. To differing extents, the Friends avoid [[creed]]s and [[hierarchical structure]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://quakertheology.org/ministers-1.htm|title=The Trouble With 'Ministers' |last=Fager |first=Chuck |website=quakertheology.org |access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref> In 2017, there were an estimated 377,557 adult Quakers, 49% of them in [[Africa]] followed by 22% in [[North America]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 2017 |title=FWCC World Map 2017 |url=https://fwccawps.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/fwccworldmap2017.pdf |access-date=August 1, 2024 |website=FWCC-AWPS}}</ref>
Some 89% of Quakers worldwide belong to ''evangelical'' and ''programmed'' branches that hold services with singing and a prepared [[Bible]] message coordinated by a pastor (with the largest Quaker group being the [[Evangelical Friends Church International]]).<ref name="epistles2012page8">{{Cite book |last1=Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain |title=Epistles and Testimonies |year=2012 |url=http://old.quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/epistles-and-testimonies-2012.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115151223/http://old.quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/epistles-and-testimonies-2012.pdf |archive-date=15 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Angell |first1=Stephen Ward |last2=Dandelion |first2=Pink |title=The Cambridge Companion to Quakerism |date=April 19, 2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-13660-1 |page=290 |language=en |quote=Contemporary Quakers worldwide are predominately evangelical and are often referred to as the Friends Church.}}</ref> Some 11% practice ''waiting worship'' or ''[[Quakers#Unprogrammed worship|unprogrammed worship]]'' (commonly ''Meeting for Worship''),<ref name="epistles2012page7">{{Cite book |last1=Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain |title=Epistles and Testimonies |year=2012 |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/epistles-and-testimonies-2012.pdf |page=7 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119013805/http://www.quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/epistles-and-testimonies-2012.pdf|archive-date=19 November 2015}}</ref> where the unplanned order of service is mainly silent and may include unprepared vocal ministry from those present. Some meetings of both types have [[Recorded Minister]]s present, Friends recognised for their gift of vocal ministry.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fgcquaker.org/library/ministry/recordedministers-drayton.html |title=FGC Library: Recorded Ministers in the Society of Friends, Then and Now |last=Drayton |first=Brian |date=23 December 1994 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414010203/http://www.fgcquaker.org/library/ministry/recordedministers-drayton.html |archive-date=14 April 2012 |access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref>
Quakerism is a [[Christian mysticism|mystical Christian]] movement variously described as both [[Evangelicalism|proto-evangelical]] and [[Christian universalism|universalistic]], [[Quietism (Christian contemplation)|quietist]] and [[Progressive Christianity|progressive]]. It arose in mid-17th-century England from the [[Legatine-Arians]] and other [[English Dissenters|dissenting Protestant groups]] breaking with the [[Established church|established]] [[Church of England]].<ref name="Hope1997">{{Cite book |title=Christian Scholar's Review, Volume 27 |date=1997 |publisher=[[Hope College]] |page=205 |language=English |quote=This was especially true of proto-evangelical movements like the Quakers, organized as the Religious Society of Friends by George Fox in 1668 as a group of Christians who rejected clerical authority and taught that the Holy Spirit guided}}</ref> The Quakers, especially the [[Valiant Sixty]], sought to convert others by travelling through Britain and overseas preaching the Gospel; some early Quaker ministers were women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bacon |first=Margaret |title=Mothers of Feminism: The Story of Quaker Women in America |year=1986 |publisher=Harper & Row |___location=San Francisco |pages=24}}</ref> They based their message on a belief that "Christ has come to teach his people himself", stressing direct relations with God through [[Jesus Christ]] and belief in the universal priesthood of all believers.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fox |first1=George |editor1-first=Wilson |editor1-last=Armistead |title=Journal of George Fox |year=1803 |edition=7 |volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYxFAAAAIAAJ |page=186}}</ref> This personal religious experience of [[Christ]] was acquired by direct experience and by reading and studying the [[Bible]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/church-families/friends-quakers.html |title=Friends (Quakers) |author=World Council of Churches |work=Church Families |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811123047/http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/church-families/friends-quakers.html |archive-date=11 August 2011}}</ref>
Friends focused their private lives on behaviour and speech reflecting emotional purity and the light of God, with a goal of [[Christian perfection#Quaker teaching|Christian perfection]].<ref name="Stewart1992">{{Cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Kathleen Anne |title=The York Retreat in the Light of the Quaker Way: Moral Treatment Theory : Humane Therapy Or Mind Control? |date=1992 |publisher=William Sessions |isbn=9781850720898 |language=en|quote=On the other hand, Fox believed that perfectionism and freedom from sin were possible in this world.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/quakersamerican00levy |url-access=registration |title=Quakers and the American Family: British Settlement in the Delaware Valley |last=Levy |first=Barry |date=30 June 1988 |publisher=Oxford University Press, US |isbn=9780198021674 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/quakersamerican00levy/page/128 128]}}</ref> A prominent theological text of the Religious Society of Friends is ''A Catechism and Confession of Faith'' (1673), published by Quaker divine [[Robert Barclay]].<ref name="Coffey2020">{{cite book |last1=Coffey |first1=John |title=The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume I: The Post-Reformation Era, 1559-1689 |date=29 May 2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-252098-2 |page=399 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Short Account of the Life and Writings of Robert Barclay |date=1827 |publisher=Tract Association of the Society of Friends |page=22 |language=en}}</ref> The [[Richmond Declaration|Richmond Declaration of Faith]] (1887) was adopted by many [[Quakers#Hicksite–Orthodox split|Orthodox Friends]] and continues to serve as a doctrinal statement of many yearly meetings.<ref name="Williams2019">{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Walter R. |title=The Rich Heritage of Quakerism |date=13 January 2019 |publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing |isbn=978-1-78912-341-8 |language=en |quote=From time to time, over the three centuries of their history, Friends have issued longer or shorter statements of belief. They earnestly seek to base these declarations of the essential truths of Christianity upon the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures. The most detailed of these statements commonly held by orthodox Friends is known as the Richmond Declaration of Faith. This instrument was drawn up by ninety-nine representatives of ten American yearly meetings and of London and Dublin yearly meetings, assembled at Richmond, Indiana, in 1887.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Declaration of Faith Issued by the Richmond Conference in 1887 |url=https://www.quakerinfo.com/rdf.shtml |access-date=30 May 2024 |language=English |date=23 July 2008 |quote=A conference of 95 delegates appointed by 12 Friends (Quaker) yearly meetings representing the Orthodox branch of Friends across the world met in Richmond, Indiana in September 1887. This conference issued a Declaration of Faith, which has been widely used by Orthodox Friends ever since.}}</ref>
Quakers were known to use [[Thou#Religious uses|''thee'']] as an ordinary pronoun, to wear [[plain dress]], and to practice [[teetotalism]]. They refused to [[Oath#Christian tradition|swear oaths]] or to [[Conscientious objector#Religious motives|participate in war]], and they [[abolitionism|opposed slavery]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Society-of-Friends |first1=Richard T. |last1=Vann|title=Society of Friends {{!}} religion |work=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref>
Some Quakers founded banks and financial institutions, including [[Barclays]], [[Lloyds Bank|Lloyds]], and [[Friends Provident]]; manufacturers including the footwear firm of [[C. & J. Clark]] and the big three British [[confectionery]] makers [[Cadbury]], [[Rowntree's|Rowntree]] and [[J. S. Fry & Sons|Fry]]; and philanthropic efforts, including abolition of slavery, [[prison reform]], and [[social justice]].<ref name=Jackson2010>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8467833.stm |title=How did Quakers conquer the British sweet shop? |last=Jackson |first=Peter |date=20 January 2010 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref> In 1947, in recognition of their dedication to peace and the common good, Quakers represented by the British [[Friends Service Council]] and the [[American Friends Service Committee]] were awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]].<ref name="Jahn-1947">{{Cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1947/press.html |title=Award Ceremony Speech (1947) |last=Jahn |first=Gunnar |author-link=Gunnar Jahn |publisher=Nobel Foundation |access-date=6 October 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://quaker.org/legacy/minnfm/peace/nobel_peace_prize.htm |title=The Quaker Peace Testimony and the Nobel Peace Prize |last=Abrams |first=Irwin |author-link=Irwin Abrams |date=1991 |access-date=24 November 2018}}</ref>
==History==
{{Main|History of the Quakers}}
===Beginnings in England===
{{see also|Britain Yearly Meeting#History}}
[[File:Fox by Lely 2.jpg|thumb|upright|George Fox, a leading early Quaker]]
Religious strife in the [[Kingdom of England]] had existed for centuries, with [[proto-Protestant]] groups (mainly the [[Lollards]]) emerging before the [[English Reformation]] brought radical ideas to the mainstream. During and after the [[English Civil War]] (1642–1651) many [[English Dissenters|dissenting Christian groups]] emerged, including the [[Seekers]] and others. A young man, [[George Fox]], was dissatisfied with the teachings of the [[Church of England]] and [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformists]]. Whilst living in [[Mansfield]], [[Nottinghamshire]] in 1647 he claimed to have received a revelation that "there is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition",<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/> and became convinced that it was possible to have a direct experience of Christ without the aid of ordained clergy. In 1652 he had a [[vision (spirituality)|vision]] on [[Pendle Hill]] in Lancashire, England, in which he believed that "the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered".<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/> Following this he travelled around England, the Netherlands,<ref name="Netherlands">{{Cite journal |last=Nuttall |first=Geoffrey |title=Early Quakerism in the Netherlands: Its wider context |journal=The Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association |year=1955 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=3–18 |doi=10.1353/qkh.1955.a395167 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/quaker_history/v044/44.1.nuttall.pdf |jstor=41944566 |s2cid=161640592 |access-date=21 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016102656/http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=%2Fjournals%2Fquaker_history%2Fv044%2F44.1.nuttall.pdf |archive-date=16 October 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Barbados]]<ref name=Barbados>{{Cite book |last=Gragg |first=Larry |title=The Quaker community on Barbados: challenging the culture of the planter class |year=2009 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |___location=Columbia |isbn=9780826218476 |url=https://archive.org/details/quakercommunityo00grag_0 |url-access=registration |edition=[Online-Ausg.]}}</ref> preaching and teaching with the aim of converting new adherents to his faith. The central theme of his Gospel message was that Christ has come to teach his people himself.<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/> Fox considered himself to be restoring a true, "pure" Christian church.<ref name="BBC Overview"/>
In 1650, Fox was brought before the [[Magistrates of England and Wales|magistrates]] [[Gervase Bennet]] and Nathaniel Barton, on a charge of religious [[blasphemy]]. According to Fox's autobiography, Bennet "was the first that called us Quakers, because I bade them tremble at the word of the Lord".<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/>{{rp|125}} It is thought that Fox was referring to {{Bibleverse |Isaiah |66:2 |AKJV}} or {{Bibleverse |Ezra |9:4 |AKJV}}. Thus the name ''Quaker'' began as a way of ridiculing Fox's admonition, but became widely accepted and used by some Quakers.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Margery Post Abbott |title=Historical dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) |year=2003 |page=xxxi|display-authors=etal}}</ref> Quakers also described themselves using terms such as true Christianity, Saints, Children of the Light, and Friends of Truth, reflecting terms used in the New Testament by members of the early Christian church.
[[File:JamesNayler-2.jpg|thumb|left|[[James Nayler]], a prominent Quaker leader, being pilloried and whipped]]
Quakerism gained a considerable following in England and Wales, not least among women. An address "To the Reader" by [[Mary Forster (Quaker)|Mary Forster]] accompanied a Petition to the [[Parliament of England]] presented on 20 May 1659, expressing the opposition of over 7000 women to "the oppression of Tithes".<ref name="Feminist">Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds, ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 388.</ref> The overall number of Quakers increased to a peak of 60,000 in England and Wales by 1680<ref name=PopulationHistory>{{Cite book |title=The population history of England, 1541–1871: a reconstruction |last1=Wrigley |first1=Edward Anthony |last2=Schofield |first2=Roger |last3=Schofield |first3=R. S. |year=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |___location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=0-521-35688-1 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pV9SZS4WpjkC}}</ref> (1.15% of the population of England and Wales).<ref name=PopulationHistory/> But the dominant discourse of Protestantism viewed the Quakers as a blasphemous challenge to social and political order,<ref name="Levy 6">{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=6}}</ref> leading to official persecution in England and Wales under the [[Quaker Act 1662]] and the [[Conventicle Act 1664]]. This persecution of dissenters was relaxed after the [[Declaration of Indulgence (1687)|Declaration of Indulgence]] (1687–1688) and stopped under the [[Act of Toleration 1689]].
One modern view of Quakerism at this time was that the direct relationship with Christ was encouraged through spiritualisation of human relations, and "the redefinition of the Quakers as a holy tribe, 'the family and household of God{{Single double}}.<ref name="Levy 13">{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=13}}</ref> Together with [[Margaret Fell]], the wife of [[Thomas Fell]], who was the vice-chancellor of the [[Duchy of Lancaster]] and an eminent judge, Fox developed new conceptions of family and community that emphasised "holy conversation": speech and behaviour that reflected piety, faith, and love.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=53, 130}}</ref> With the restructuring of the family and household came new roles for women; Fox and Fell viewed the Quaker mother as essential to developing "holy conversation" in her children and husband.<ref name="Levy 13"/> Quaker women were also responsible for the spirituality of the larger community, coming together in "meetings" that regulated marriage and domestic behaviour.<ref name="Levy 78">{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=78}}</ref>
===Migration to North America===
{{see also|History of the Quakers#William Penn and settlement in colonial Pennsylvania}}
The persecution of Quakers in North America began in July 1656 when English Quaker missionaries [[Mary Fisher (missionary)|Mary Fisher]] and [[Ann Austin]] began preaching in Boston.<ref name=EB1911>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Friends, Society of |volume=11 |page=227 |first=Alfred |last=Brayshaw}}</ref> They were considered heretics because of their insistence on individual obedience to the [[Inward light]]. They were imprisoned in harsh conditions for five weeks and banished by the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]].<ref name=EB1911/><ref>Edward Digby Baltzell, ''Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia'' (1996) p. 86.</ref> Their books were burned, and most of their property confiscated.<ref name="EB1911" />
[[File:Mary dyer being led.jpg|thumb|Quaker Mary Dyer led to execution on Boston Common, 1 June 1660.]]
In 1660, English Quaker [[Mary Dyer]] was hanged near<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.celebrateboston.com/ghost/boston-neck-executions.htm |title=Boston Neck Gallows, Colonial Execution Place for Quakers |website=www.celebrateboston.com |access-date=2020-01-03}}</ref> [[Boston Common]] for repeatedly defying a [[Puritan]] law banning Quakers from the colony.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rogers |first=Horatio |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5_5yIgpa-YC |title=Mary Dyer of Rhode Island: The Quaker Martyr That Was Hanged on Boston |pages=1–2 |publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC |isbn=9781103801244}}</ref> She was one of the four executed Quakers known as the [[Boston martyrs]]. In 1661, [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] forbade Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism.<ref name=CHLS>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzvHvEDPosQC&pg=PR41 |title=Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia |editor1-first=Francis J. |editor1-last=Bremer |editor2-first=Tom |editor2-last=Webster |year=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=xli |isbn=9781576076781}}</ref> In 1684, England [[Massachusetts Bay Colony#Revocation of charter|revoked the Massachusetts charter]], sent over a royal governor to enforce English laws in 1686 and, in 1689, passed a broad Toleration Act.<ref name=CHLS/>
[[File:William Penn at 22 1666.jpg|thumb|left|upright|William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and West Jersey, as a young man]]
Some Friends migrated to what is now the north-eastern region of the United States in the 1660s in search of economic opportunities and a more tolerant environment in which to build communities of "holy conversation".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=113}}</ref> In 1665 Quakers established a meeting in [[Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey|Shrewsbury, New Jersey]] (now Monmouth County), and built a meeting house in 1672 that was visited by George Fox in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shrewsburyquakers.org/article/history|title=History of Shrewsbury Quakers|date=11 August 2014}}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> They were able to establish thriving communities in the [[Delaware Valley]], although they continued to experience persecution in some areas, such as [[New England]]. The three colonies that tolerated Quakers at this time were [[West Jersey]], [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]], and [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], where Quakers established themselves politically. In Rhode Island, 36 governors in the first 100 years were Quakers. West Jersey and Pennsylvania were established by affluent Quaker [[William Penn]] in 1676 and 1682 respectively, with Pennsylvania as an American commonwealth run under Quaker principles. William Penn signed a peace treaty with [[Tamanend|Tammany]], leader of the Delaware tribe,<ref>{{Cite book |author=David Yount |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pk7ycUq3cxsC&pg=PA82 |title=How the Quakers invented America |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=82 |isbn=978-0-7425-5833-5}}</ref> and other treaties followed between Quakers and Native Americans.<ref name="BBC Overview">{{Cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/quakers_1.shtml |publisher=BBC |work=Religions |title=Quakers |access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref> This peace endured almost a century, until the [[Penn's Creek Massacre]] of 1755.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.penntreatymuseum.org/treaty.php|title=Penn Treaty Museum|website=www.penntreatymuseum.org}}</ref> Early colonial Quakers also established communities and meeting houses in North Carolina and Maryland, after fleeing persecution by the Anglican Church in Virginia.<ref>[https://www.dailypress.com/1989/01/15/quakers-often-fled-virginia/ "Quakers Often Fled Virginia"], Rowlings, Virginia, ''Daily Press'', 15 January 1989</ref>
In a 2007 interview, author David Yount (''How the Quakers Invented America'') said that Quakers first introduced many ideas from England that later became mainstream, such as democracy in the Pennsylvania legislature, the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] to the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] from Rhode Island Quakers, trial by jury, equal rights for men and women, and public education. The [[Liberty Bell]] was cast by Quakers in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania.<ref>[https://www.c-span.org/video/?202202-17/quakers-invented-america How the Quakers Invented America], a five-minute interview with David Yount by Peter Slen, C-SPAN, 1 November 2007.</ref>
===Quietism===
{{see also|Quietism (Christian philosophy)}}
Early Quakerism tolerated boisterous behaviour that challenged conventional etiquette; however, by 1700, its adherents no longer supported disruptive and unruly behaviour.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=58}}</ref> During the 18th century, Quakers entered the ''Quietist'' period in the history of their church, becoming more inward-looking spiritually and less active in converting others. Marrying outside the Society was cause for having one's membership revoked. Numbers dwindled, dropping to 19,800 in England and Wales by 1800 (0.21% of the population),<ref name="PopulationHistory"/> and 13,859 by 1860 (0.07% of population).<ref name=PopulationHistory/> The formal name "Religious Society of Friends" dates from this period and was probably derived from the appellations "Friends of the Light" and "Friends of Truth".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maurer |first=Johan |title=The Publishers of Truth and the Enemy of Truth: Evangelical Friends Consider Good and Evil |url=https://www.academia.edu/4737865 |journal=Good and Evil: Quaker Perspectives, ed. Jackie Leach Scully and Pink Dandelion |date=January 2007 |language=en}}</ref><!-- Woolman and others used the term "Friends" much earlier-->
===Splits===
{{cladogram|title=Divisions of the Religious Society of Friends
|caption=The divisions of Quakers 1800–1900s. Orthodox adopt "mainstream [[Protestant scholasticism|Protestant orthodoxy]]". Liberals value the [[Inward light|Inner Light]] over the Bible. Conservatives want to conserve the Inner Light over outward [[evangelicalism]]. Late 1800s many meetings became programmed ([[Church service|pastoral]]) with splits by unprogrammed meetings. 2019 [[Beanite Quakerism|Beanite]] - 2 Yearly Meetings joined FGC, 1 YM remained unaffiliated. (US and world membership K=1,000. 49% in Africa) <br>[[World War I|WWI]] [[Testimony of peace|peace work]] brought the diverse Friends together in followship formalized with the [[Friends World Committee for Consultation]] in 1937.
|clades=
{{clade
|1={{clade
|label1=Orthodox
|1={{clade
|1={{clade
|1={{clade
|label2=Wilburite
|sublabel2=1842
|2={{clade
|label1= . Conservative
|sublabel1= (Unprogrammed)
|1=[[Conservative Friends]] 1842 (US 2K)
}}
|label1=Gurneyite
|1={{clade
|label1=Orthodox
|1={{clade
|label1=Programmed
|sublabel1=(Pastoral)
|1=[[Friends United Meeting]] 1902 (US 25K, world 170K)
|label2=Evangelical
|sublabel2=1924 (Pastoral)
|2=[[Evangelical Friends Church International]] 1947 (US 34K, world 200K)
}}
|label2=Beanite
|sublabel2=1889
|2={{clade
|label1= . Independent (US 3K)
|sublabel1=(Unprogrammed)
|1=unaffiliated (US 1K)
}}
}}
}}
}}
|2=Beaconite (1836-1850s)|state2=dashed}}
|label2=Hicksite (Liberal)
|sublabel2=1827
|2={{clade
|label1= (2019 + Beanite US 2K) . Unprogrammed
|1=[[Friends General Conference]] 1900 (US 22K, world 32K)
}}
}}
}}
}}
Around the time of the [[American Revolutionary War]], some American Quakers split from the main Society of Friends over issues such as support for the war, forming groups such as the [[Free Quakers]] and the [[Universal Friends]].<ref>Pink Dandelion (2007). ''An Introduction to Quakerism'' ({{ISBN|0521841119}}), p. 78.</ref> Later, in the 19th century, there was a diversification of theological beliefs in the Religious Society of Friends, and this led to several larger splits within the movement.
====Hicksite–Orthodox split====
The Hicksite–Orthodox split arose out of both ideological and socioeconomic tensions. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Hicksites tended to be agrarian and poorer than the more urban, wealthier, Orthodox Quakers. With increasing financial success, Orthodox Quakers wanted to "make the Society a more respectable body – to transform their sect into a church – by adopting mainstream Protestant orthodoxy".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crothers |first=Glenn |title=Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth: The Society of Friends in Northern Virginia, 1730–1865 |year=2012 |publisher=University Press of Florida |___location=Gainesville |pages=145}}</ref> Hicksites, though they held a variety of views, generally saw the market economy as corrupting, and believed Orthodox Quakers had sacrificed their orthodox Christian spirituality for material success. Hicksites viewed the Bible as secondary to the individual cultivation of God's light within.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crothers |first=Glenn |title=Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth |pages=145}}</ref>
With Gurneyite Quakers' shift toward Protestant principles and away from the spiritualisation of human relations, women's role as promoters of "holy conversation" started to decrease. Conversely, within the Hicksite movement the rejection of the market economy and the continuing focus on community and family bonds tended to encourage women to retain their role as powerful arbiters.
[[Elias Hicks]]'s religious views were claimed to be [[universalist]] and to contradict Quakers' historical orthodox Christian beliefs and practices. Hicks' Gospel preaching and teaching precipitated the ''Great Separation'' of 1827, which resulted in a parallel system of Yearly Meetings in America, joined by Friends from Philadelphia, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Baltimore. They were referred to by opponents as Hicksites and by others and sometimes themselves as Orthodox. Quakers in Britain recognised only the Orthodox Quakers and refused to correspond with the Hicksites.
====Beaconite controversy====
[[Isaac Crewdson]] was a [[Recorded Minister]] in [[Manchester]]. His 1835 book ''A Beacon to the Society of Friends'' insisted that the inner light was at odds with a religious belief in [[Salvation (Christianity)|salvation]] by the [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]] of Christ.<ref name=Bebbington>{{Cite book |last=Bebbington |first=David William |title=Evangelicalism in modern Britain: a history from the 1730s to the 1980s |url=https://archive.org/details/evangelicalismin0000bebb |url-access=registration |year=1989 |publisher=Unwin Hyman Ltd |___location=London |isbn=0-415-10464-5}}</ref>{{rp|page=155}} This Christian controversy led to Crewdson's resignation from the Religious Society of Friends, along with 48 fellow members of Manchester Meeting and about 250 other British Quakers in 1836–1837. Some of these joined the [[Plymouth Brethren]].
====Rise of Gurneyite Quakerism, and the Gurneyite–Conservative split====
[[File:Joseph John Gurney.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Joseph John Gurney was a prominent 19th-century British Friend and a strong proponent of evangelical views.]]
''Orthodox'' Friends became more [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] during the 19th century<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bronner |first=Edwin B. |title=Moderates in London Yearly Meeting, 1857–1873: Precursors of Quaker Liberals |journal=Church History |year=1990 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=356–371 |doi=10.2307/3167744 |jstor=3167744|s2cid=163077764 }}</ref> and were influenced by the [[Second Great Awakening]]. This movement was led by British Quaker [[Joseph John Gurney]]. Christian Friends held [[Revival meeting]]s in America and became involved in the [[Holiness movement]] of churches. Quakers such as [[Hannah Whitall Smith]] and [[Robert Pearsall Smith]] became speakers in the religious movement and introduced Quaker phrases and practices to it.<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=157}} British Friends became involved with the [[Higher Life movement]], with Robert Wilson from the [[Cockermouth]] meeting founding the [[Keswick Convention]].<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=157}} From the 1870s it became common in Britain to have "home mission meetings" on Sunday evening with Christian hymns and a Bible-based sermon, alongside the silent meetings for worship on Sunday morning.<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=155}}
The Quaker Yearly Meetings supporting the religious beliefs of Joseph John Gurney were known as ''Gurneyite'' yearly meetings. Many eventually collectively became the Five Years Meeting (FYM) and then the [[Friends United Meeting]], although [[London Yearly Meeting]], which had been strongly Gurneyite in the 19th century, did not join either of these. In 1924, the [[Central Yearly Meeting of Friends]], a Gurneyite yearly meeting, was started by some Friends who left the Five Years Meeting due to a concern of what they saw as the allowance of modernism in the FYM.<ref name="Dandelion2007"/>
Some Orthodox Quakers in America disliked the move towards evangelical Christianity and saw it as a dilution of Friends' traditional orthodox Christian belief in being inwardly led by the [[Holy Spirit]]. These Friends were headed by [[John Wilbur (Quaker minister)|John Wilbur]], who was expelled from his yearly meeting in 1842. He and his supporters formed their own Conservative Friends Yearly Meeting. Some UK Friends broke away from the [[London Yearly Meeting]] for the same reason in 1865. They formed a separate body of Friends called [[Britain Yearly Meeting#Fritchley General Meeting|Fritchley General Meeting]], which remained distinct and separate from London Yearly Meeting until 1968. Similar splits took place in Canada. The Yearly Meetings that supported John Wilbur's religious beliefs became known as [[Conservative Friends]].
===
{{Main|Beanite Quakerism}}
===Richmond Declaration===
In 1887, a Gurneyite Quaker of British descent, [[Joseph Bevan Braithwaite]], proposed to Friends a statement of faith known as the [[Richmond Declaration]]. Supported by many of the older, longstanding members in the London Yearly Meeting, Braithwaite saw the Richmond Declaration of Faith as being a bulwark against "unsound and dangerous doctrine" in times when Friends were "in a state of discipline and warfare".<ref name="Kennedy">Kennedy, Thomas Cummings ''British Quakerism 1860-1920: the transformation of a religious community'' Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 117. {{ISBN|0-19-827035-6}}</ref> This statement of faith was agreed to by 95 of the representatives at a meeting of [[Friends United Meeting|Five Years Meeting]] Friends, but unexpectedly the Richmond Declaration was not adopted by London Yearly Meeting because a vocal minority, including [[Edward Grubb (Quaker)|Edward Grubb]], opposed it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Thomas C. |title=British Quakerism 1860–1920: The Transformation of a Religious Community |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |___location=New York}}</ref>
15 years after the signing on the Richmond Declaration, Five Years Meeting was established in 1902 by a collection of orthodox yearly meetings. In 1963 Five Years Meeting was renamed [[Friends United Meeting]].
===Missions to Asia and Africa===
[[File:BrummanaMissionHouse.jpg|thumb|Friends' Syrian Mission, 1874, built this mission house in [[Ramallah]].]]
Following the [[Christian revival]]s in the mid-19th century, Friends in Great Britain sought also to start missionary activity overseas. The first missionaries were sent to [[Benares]] ([[Varanasi]]), in India, in 1866. The Friends Foreign Mission Association was formed in 1868 and sent missionaries to [[Madhya Pradesh]], India, forming what is now the Mid-India Yearly Meeting. Later it spread to [[Madagascar]] from 1867, China from 1896, [[Sri Lanka]] from 1896, and [[Pemba Island]] from 1897.<ref name="mundus"/>
After the [[1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus]] between Christians and Druze, many missionaries flocked to [[Ottoman Syria]]. These missionaries included Friends from several nations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pym.org/a-quaker-in-beirut-lebanon-interview-with-friend-tony-manasseh/|title=A Quaker in Beirut, Lebanon: Interview with Friend Tony Manasseh · Philadelphia Yearly Meeting|date=18 March 2021|website=www.pym.org}}</ref> The Friends Syrian Mission was established in 1874, which among other institutions ran the [[Ramallah Friends School]] in the West Bank, which still exist today and is affiliated with the [[Friends United Meeting]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/team-member/rania-maayeh|title=Rania Maayeh|website=www.friendsunitedmeeting.org}}</ref> The Swiss missionary [[Theophilus Waldmeier]] founded [[Brummana High School]] in [[Lebanon]] in 1873.<ref name=mundus>{{Cite web |title=Gateway to missionary collections in the United Kingdom |url=http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search?coll_id=235&inst_id=7 |publisher=MUNDUS |access-date=6 December 2011 |archive-date=15 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615101530/http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search?coll_id=235&inst_id=7 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Evangelical Friends Churches from [[Ohio Yearly Meeting]] sent missionaries to India in 1896,<ref name="Century of Planting">{{Cite book |last=Nixon |first=Eva Anna |title=A Century of Planting: A history of the American Friends' mission in India |publisher=Barclay Press |___location=Newburg, OR, US |year=1985 |isbn=0-913342-55-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/centuryofplantin00nixo}}</ref> forming what is now [[Bundelkhand Yearly Meeting]].
Cleveland Friends went to [[Mombasa]], [[Kenya]], and started what became the most successful Friends' mission. Their Quakerism spread within [[Kenya]] and to [[Uganda]], [[Tanzania]], [[Burundi]], and [[Rwanda]].
===Theory of evolution===
{{Main|Quakers in science}}
The [[theory of evolution]] as described in [[Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin's]] ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' (1859) was opposed by many Quakers in the 19th century,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Britain Yearly Meeting |title=Quakers and Science |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/quakers-and-science |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113071213/http://www.quaker.org.uk/quakers-and-science |archive-date=13 January 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> particularly by older evangelical Quakers who dominated the Religious Society of Friends in Great Britain. These older Quakers were suspicious of Darwin's theory and believed that [[natural selection]] could not explain life on its own.<ref name="Quakers & Evolution">{{Cite book |last=Cantor |first=Geoffrey |title=Quakers, Jews, and science religious responses to modernity and the sciences in Britain, 1650–1900 |year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |___location=Oxford |isbn=9780199276684 |url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0199276684.001.0001/acprof-9780199276684-chapter-7 |chapter=Quaker Responses to Evolution|doi=10.1093/0199276684.001.0001 }}</ref> The influential Quaker scientist [[Edward Newman (entomologist)|Edward Newman]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Britain Yearly Meeting |title=Edward Newman (1801–1876) |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/edward-newman-1801-1876 |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130207081241/http://www.quaker.org.uk/edward-newman-1801-1876 |archive-date=7 February 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> said that the theory was "not compatible with our notions of creation as delivered from the hands of a Creator".
However, some young Friends such as [[John Wilhelm Rowntree]] and [[Edward Grubb (Quaker)|Edward Grubb]] supported Darwin's theories, using the doctrine of progressive revelation.<ref name="Quakers & Evolution"/> In the United States, Joseph Moore taught the theory of evolution at the Quaker [[Earlham College]] as early as 1861.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=William |title=Joseph Moore: Quaker Evolutionist |journal=Indiana Magazine of History |date=June 1976 |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=123–137 |jstor=27790107}}</ref> This made him one of the first teachers to do so in the Midwest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.earlham.edu/about/president/gallery/moore|title=Presidential Gallery: Joseph Moore|access-date=17 November 2012|archive-date=14 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120914170712/http://www.earlham.edu/about/president/gallery/moore|url-status=dead}}</ref> Acceptance of the theory of evolution became more widespread in Yearly Meetings who moved toward liberal Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |editor1-last=Dandelion |editor1-first=Pink |editor2-last=Collins |editor2-first=Peter |date=March 26, 2009 |title=The Quaker Condition: The Sociology of a Liberal Religion |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |pages=2–3 |isbn=978-1847185655}}</ref> However, [[creationism]] predominates within evangelical Friends Churches, particularly in East Africa and parts of the United States.
===Quaker Renaissance===
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the so-called Quaker Renaissance movement began within London Yearly Meeting. Young Friends in London Yearly Meeting at this time moved away from evangelicalism and towards liberal Christianity.<ref name=Packer>{{Cite journal |last=Packer |first=Ian |title=Religion and the New Liberalism: The Rowntree Family, Quakerism and Social Reform |journal=Journal of British Studies|date=1 April 2003 |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=236–257 |doi=10.1086/345607 |jstor=10.1086/345607|issn=0021-9371}}</ref> This movement was particularly influenced by Rowntree, Grubb, and [[Rufus Jones (writer)|Rufus Jones]]. Such Liberal Friends promoted the theory of evolution, modern [[biblical criticism]], and the social meaning of Christ's teaching – encouraging Friends to follow the New Testament example of Christ by performing good works. These men downplayed the evangelical Quaker belief in the [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]] of Christ on the Cross at [[Calvary]].<ref name=Packer/> After the Manchester Conference in England in 1895, one thousand British Friends met to consider the future of British Quakerism, and as a result, Liberal Quaker thought gradually increased within the London Yearly Meeting.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blamires |first=David |title=The context and character of the 1895 Manchester Conference |journal=Friends Quarterly |year=1996 |volume=30 |page=50}}</ref>
===Conscientious objection===
[[File:Friends Ambulance Unit ambulance driver, with his vehicle in Wolfsburg, Germany.jpg|thumb|[[Friends' Ambulance Unit]] (FAU), a volunteer service founded by British Quakers, with a FAU ambulance and driver pictured in Germany in 1945]]
Formal legislation to exempt [[conscientious objector]]s from fighting was first granted in Great Britain in 1757 when Quakers were given exemption from military service, which was a milestone in [[freedom of conscience]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Halloran |first1=Kerry |title=Conscientious Objection: Dissent and Democracy in a Common Law Context |date=2022 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |page=121}}</ref>
During [[World War I]] and [[World War II]], Friends' opposition to war was put to the test. Many Friends became conscientious objectors and some in Britain formed the [[Friends Ambulance Unit]], aiming at "co-operating with others to build up a new world rather than fighting to destroy the old", as did the [[American Friends Service Committee]]. [[Birmingham]] in England had a strong Quaker community during the war.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Sian |title=Birmingham Remembering 1914–18}}</ref> Many British Quakers were conscripted into the [[Non-Combatant Corps]] during both world wars.
===World Committee for Consultation===
After the two world wars had brought the different Quaker strands closer together, Friends from different yearly meetings – many having served together in the Friends Ambulance Unit or the American Friends Service Committee, or in other relief work – later held several Quaker World Conferences. This brought about a standing body of Friends: the [[Friends World Committee for Consultation]].
===Evangelical Friends===
A growing desire for a more fundamentalist approach among some Friends after the First World War began a split among [[Friends United Meeting|Five Years Meetings]]. In 1924, the [[Central Yearly Meeting of Friends]] was started by some Friends who left the Five Years Meeting.<ref name="Dandelion2007">{{cite book |last1=Dandelion |first1=Pink |title=An Introduction to Quakerism |date=12 April 2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-84111-5 |page=165 |language=en}}</ref> In 1926, Oregon Yearly Meeting seceded from the Five Years Meeting, bringing together several other yearly meetings and scattered monthly meetings.
In 1947, the [[Association of Evangelical Friends]] was formed, with triennial meetings until 1970. In 1965, this was replaced by the Evangelical Friends Alliance, which in 1989 became [[Evangelical Friends Church International]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nwfriends.org/what-friends-believe/historical-statement/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131215748/http://www.nwfriends.org/what-friends-believe/historical-statement/|url-status=dead |title=Northwest Yearly Meeting Historical Statement |archivedate=31 January 2008}}</ref>
===Role of women===
[[File:SugarGroveFriendsDivision.jpg|thumb|left|[[Sugar Grove Conservative Friends Meeting House]], built in 1870 in [[Indiana]], with an openable partition between male and female sections]]
{{Main|Quaker views on women}}
In the 1650s, individual Quaker women prophesied and preached publicly, developing charismatic personae and spreading the sect. This practice was bolstered by the movement's firm concept of spiritual equality for men and women.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |last=Mack |first=Phyllis |publisher=University of California Press |year=1995 |___location=Berkeley |pages=165–211}}</ref> Moreover, Quakerism initially was propelled by the nonconformist behaviours of its followers, especially women who broke from social norms.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mack |first1=Phyllis |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |date=1995 |publisher=University of California Press |___location=Berkeley |page=3}}</ref> By the 1660s, the movement had gained a more structured organisation, which led to separate women's meetings.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Trevett |first1=Christine |title=Quaker Women Prophets in England and Wales, 1650–1700 |date=2000 |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |___location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|page=12}}</ref> Through the women's meetings, women oversaw domestic and community life, including marriage.<ref name="Levy 78" /> From the beginning, Quaker women, notably [[Margaret Fell]], played an important role in defining Quakerism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=69, 221}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bacon |first=Margaret |title=Mothers of Feminism |pages=24}}</ref> They were involved in missionary work in various ways and places. Early Quaker women missionaries included Sarah Cheevers and Katharine Evans. Others active in proselytising included [[Mary Penington]], [[Mary Mollineux]] and [[Barbara Blaugdone]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Persecution and Pluralism: Calvinists and Religious Minorities in Early Modern Europe 1550–1700 |editor1-first=Richard |editor1-last=Bonney |editor2-first=David J. B. |editor2-last=Trim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQJuObBQerIC |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2006|isbn=9783039105700 }}</ref> Quaker women published at least 220 texts during the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gill |first1=Catie |title=Women in the Seventeenth-century Quaker Community: a Literary Study of Political Identities, 1650–1700 |date=2005 |publisher=Ashgate |___location=Burlington, VT|page=1}}</ref> However, some Quakers resented the power of women in the community.
In the early years of Quakerism, George Fox faced resistance in developing and establishing women's meetings. As controversy increased, Fox did not fully adhere to his agenda. For example, he established the London Six Weeks Meeting in 1671 as a regulatory body, led by 35 women and 49 men.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mack |first1=Phyllis |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |date=1995 |publisher=University of California Press |___location=Berkeley|page=289}}</ref> Even so, conflict culminated in the Wilkinson–Story split, in which a portion of the Quaker community left to worship independently in protest at women's meetings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Janney |first=Samuel |title=History of the Religious Society of Friends, from its Rise to the Year 1828 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyreligiou07janngoog |year=1861 |publisher=Hayes & Zell |___location=Philadelphia |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyreligiou07janngoog/page/n303 298]}}</ref> After several years, this schism became largely resolved, testifying to the resistance of some within the Quaker community and to the spiritual role of women that Fox and Margaret Fell had encouraged. Particularly within the relatively prosperous Quaker communities of the eastern United States, the focus on the child and "holy conversation" gave women unusual community power, although they were largely excluded from the market economy. With the Hicksite–Orthodox split of 1827–1828, Orthodox women found their spiritual role decreased, while Hicksite women retained greater influence.
According to ''Quakers In The World'', "The Women’s Suffrage Movement in the USA is widely considered to date from the First Women’s Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York State in 1848. This meeting was instigated by five women who had been closely involved in the abolition of slavery, all but one of whom were Quakers."<ref>{{cite web |title=Quakers and the American Women's Suffrage Movement |url=https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/183/Quakers-and-the-American-Womens-Suffrage-Movement |website=Quakers in the World |access-date=26 January 2025}}</ref>
===Friends in business and education===
{{See also|List of Quaker businesses, organizations and charities|List of Friends schools}}[[File:John Cadbury.jpg|thumb|upright|English Quaker [[John Cadbury]] founded Cadbury in [[Birmingham]], England, in 1824, selling tea, coffee and drinking chocolate.]]
Described as "natural capitalists" by the [[BBC]], many Quakers were successful in a variety of industries.<ref name=Jackson2010/><ref name="King">{{Cite book |last1=King |first1=Mike |title=Quakernomics: An Ethical Capitalism |date=2014 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=9780857281128 |page=51}}</ref> Two notable examples were [[Abraham Darby I]] and [[Edward Pease (railway pioneer)|Edward Pease]]. Darby and his family played an important role in the British [[Industrial Revolution]] with their innovations in ironmaking.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=Ryan |date=27 July 2012 |title=Danny Boyle's intro on Olympics programme |work=Awards Daily |url=http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2012/07/27/danny-boyles-intro-on-olympics-programme/ |url-status=dead |access-date=20 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130206135250/http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2012/07/27/danny-boyles-intro-on-olympics-programme/ |archive-date=6 February 2013}}</ref><ref name="Quaker Enterprise">{{Cite book|last=Burns Windsor|first=D|title=The Quaker Enterprise: Friends in Business |publisher=Frederick Muller Ltd |year=1980 |isbn=0-584-10257-7 |___location=London}}</ref> Pease, a [[Darlington]] manufacturer, was the main promoter of the [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]], which was the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives.<ref name="King"/> Other industries with prominent Quaker businesses included banking ([[Lloyds Banking Group]] and [[Barclays PLC]]), pharmaceuticals ([[Allen & Hanburys]]), chocolate ([[Cadbury]] and [[J. S. Fry & Sons|Fry's]]), confectionery [[Rowntree's|(Rowntree]]), shoe manufacturing ([[C. & J. Clark|Clarks]]), and biscuit manufacturing ([[Huntley & Palmers]]).<ref name=Jackson2010/><ref name="Quaker Enterprise" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=M. |title=Made to Last: The Story of Britain's Best Known Shoe Firm |publisher=Profile Books |___location=London |pages=19–20}}</ref> [[Voltaire]]'s ''[[Letters on the English]]'' (1733) included the spirit of commerce and religious diversity in Great Britain, with the first four letters based on the Quakers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/hc/letters-on-the-english/letter-ion-the-quakers|title=Letter I – On the Quakers. Letters on the English.|last=Voltaire|first=François Marie Arouet de.|date=1909–1914|website=www.bartleby.com|publisher=The Harvard Classics|orig-date=1734|access-date=22 July 2024}}</ref>
Quakers have a long history of establishing educational institutions. Initially, Quakers had no ordained [[clergy]], and therefore needed no [[seminary|seminaries]] for theological training. In England, Quaker schools sprang up soon after the movement emerged, with [[Friends School Saffron Walden]] being the most prominent.<ref>On Quaker schools in Britain and Ireland, see [http://www.quaker.org.uk/subject-guides Quaker Schools in Great Britain and Ireland: A selective bibliography of histories and guide to records].</ref> Quaker schools in the UK and Ireland are supported by The Friends' Schools' Council.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Quaker Education {{!}} Discover Education in UK Quaker Schools |url=https://www.aquakereducation.co.uk/ |access-date=2019-06-13 |website=A Quaker Education |language=en-GB}}</ref> In Australia, [[Friends' School, Hobart]], founded in 1887, has grown into the largest Quaker school in the world. In Britain and the United States, friends have established a variety of institutions at a variety of [[Educational stage|educational levels]]. In Kenya, Quakers founded several primary and secondary schools in the first half of the 20th century before [[History of Kenya#Independence|the country's independence]] in 1963.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quaker Schools/Friends Schools |url=https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/66/Quaker-SchoolsFriends-Schools |access-date=18 October 2022 |website=Quakers in the World}}</ref>
===International development===
International volunteering organisations such as [[Service Civil International]] and [[International Voluntary Service]] were founded by leading Quakers. [[Eric Baker (activist)|Eric Baker]], a prominent Quaker, was one of the founders of [[Amnesty International]] and of the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=T. |last=Buchanan |year=2002 |jstor=3180761 |title=The Truth Will Set You Free': The Making of Amnesty International |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=575–597 |doi=10.1177/00220094020370040501 }}</ref>
The Quaker [[Edith Pye]] established a national Famine Relief Committee in May 1942, encouraging a network of local famine relief committees, among the most energetic of which was the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, [[Oxfam]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Black |first1=Maggie |title=A Cause for Our Times: Oxfam – The First Fifty Years |date=1992 |publisher=Oxfam |page=9}}</ref> [[Irving Stowe|Irving]] and [[Dorothy Stowe]] co-founded [[Greenpeace]] with many other environmental activists in 1971, shortly after becoming Quakers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/amchitka-hunter/ |title=Greenpeace International: The History of Greenpeace |publisher=Greenpeace.org |date=2009-09-14 |access-date=2021-09-20 |archive-date=18 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118030237/http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/amchitka-hunter/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
===Friends and slavery===
{{See also|Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|Abolitionism in the United States}}
Some Quakers in America and Britain became known for their involvement in the abolitionist movement. In the early history of [[Colonial America]], it was fairly common for Friends to own slaves, [[History of slavery in Pennsylvania#British colony|e.g. in Pennsylvania]]. Following moves by Britain Yearly Meeting to pursue an agenda leading to reparations for Quaker involvement in slavery, Ann Morgan published in 2024 her study of the involvement of Lancaster Quakers in the enslavement economy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=Ann |title=The 18th Century Enslaving Industry: Lancaster Quakers' Involvement |publisher=Amazon |year=2024 |isbn=9781805586852 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Quakers in Britain - Reparation |url=https://www.quaker.org.uk/resources/reparations |access-date=2 July 2024}}</ref> During the early to mid-1700s, disquiet about this practice arose among Friends, best exemplified by the testimonies of [[Benjamin Lay]], [[Anthony Benezet]] and [[John Woolman]], and this resulted in an abolition movement among Friends.
Nine of the twelve founding members of the [[Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade]], or The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, were Quakers:<ref name=hoi>{{cite web | title=Foundation of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade| website=History of Information | url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3700 | access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref> [[John Barton (quaker)|John Barton]] (1755–1789); [[William Dillwyn]] (1743–1824); George Harrison (1747–1827); [[Samuel Hoare Jr]] (1751–1825); Joseph Hooper (1732–1789); John Lloyd; [[Joseph Woods (abolitionist)|Joseph Woods]] Sr (1738–1812); James Phillips (1745–1799); and Richard Phillips.<ref name =anjou>{{cite book |author=Leo D'Anjou |title=Social Movements and Cultural Change: The First Abolition Campaign |year=1996 |publisher=Aldine de Gruyter |isbn= 978-0-202-30522-6 |page=198}}</ref> Five of the Quakers had been amongst the informal group of six Quakers who had pioneered the movement in 1783, when the first petition against the slave trade was presented to Parliament. As Quakers could not serve as Members of Parliament, they relied on the help of Anglican men who could, such as [[William Wilberforce]] and his brother-in-law [[James Stephen (British politician)|James Stephen]].
By the beginning of the [[American Revolutionary War]], few Friends owned slaves. At the war's end in 1783, Yarnall family members along with fellow Meeting House Friends made a failed petition to the [[Continental Congress]] to abolish [[slavery in the United States]]. In 1790, the Society of Friends petitioned the [[United States Congress]] to abolish slavery.<ref>{{cite news |title=Quaker Petition on Slavery (1790)1 |url=https://iws.oupsupport.com/protected/files/content/file/1607148377342-quaker_petition_on_slavery.pdf |access-date=September 20, 2021 |agency=Oxford University Press}}</ref>
One example of a reversal in sentiment about slavery took place in the life of [[Moses Brown]], one of four Rhode Island brothers who, in 1764, organized and funded the tragic and fateful voyage of the [[slave ship]] ''Sally''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cds.library.brown.edu/projects/sally/|title=The Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally: 1764–1765|website=cds.library.brown.edu}}</ref> Brown broke away from his three brothers, became an abolitionist, and converted to Christian Quakerism. During the 19th century, Quakers such as [[Levi Coffin]] and [[Isaac Hopper]] played a major role in helping enslaved people escape through the [[Underground Railroad]].<ref>Ralph Dannheiser, "[http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2008/11/20081112170035abretnuh3.838748e-02.html Quakers Played Major Role in Ending Slavery in the U.S]{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}", IIP Digital, 12 November 2008</ref> Black Quaker [[Paul Cuffe]], a sea captain and businessman, was active in the abolitionist and [[American Colonization Society|resettlement movement]] in the early part of that century.<ref>{{cite book|first =Rosland Cobb|last= Wiggins|chapter= Paul Cuffe: Early Pan-Africanist|title=Black Quakers, Brief Biographies|editor-first= Kenneth|editor-last= Ives|publisher= Progressive Publisher|date= 1995|isbn= 9780896700239}}</ref> Quaker [[Laura Smith Haviland]], with her husband, established the first station on the Underground Railroad in Michigan. Later, Haviland befriended [[Sojourner Truth]], who called her the Superintendent of the Underground Railroad.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003936719 |title=A Quaker pioneer: Laura Haviland, Superintendent of the Underground |first=Mildred E. |last=Danforth |series=Exposition-banner book |publisher=Exposition Press |___location=New York |date=1961}}</ref>
However, in the 1830s, the abolitionist [[Grimké sisters]] dissociated themselves from the Quakers "when they saw that Negro Quakers were segregated in separate pews in the Philadelphia meeting house".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Rebels against slavery |newspaper=[[Boston Globe]] |date=March 10, 1968 |page=358 |via=[[newspapers.com]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38265245/the-boston-globe/}}</ref>
==Theology==
{{See also|Friends United Meeting|Evangelical Friends Church International|Central Yearly Meeting of Friends|}}
Quakers' theological beliefs vary considerably. Tolerance of dissent widely varies among yearly meetings.<ref name=QWRC-intro/> Most Friends believe in [[continuing revelation]]: that God continuously reveals truth directly to individuals. George Fox, an "[[Valiant Sixty|early Friend]]", said, "Christ has come to teach His people Himself".<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/> Friends often focus on trying to feel the presence of God. As [[Isaac Penington (Quaker)|Isaac Penington]] wrote in 1670, "It is not enough to hear of Christ, or read of Christ, but this is the thing – to feel him to be my root, my life, and my foundation..."<ref name=PeningtonLetter/> Quakers reject the idea of [[priest]]s, believing in the [[priesthood of all believers]]. Some express their concept of God using phrases such as "the inner light", "inward light of Christ", or "Holy Spirit".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Muers |first1=Rachel |title=Quaker Theology |url=https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/QuakerTheology#section2 |journal=St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology |date=2022}}</ref>
Diverse theological beliefs, understandings of the "leading of the Holy Spirit," and statements of "faith and practice" have always existed among Friends.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.quakermaps.com/info |title=A Brief Introduction to Quakerism |date=30 January 2010 |work=QuakerMaps.com (Beta) |access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref> Due in part to the emphasis on immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit, Quaker doctrines have only at times been codified as statements of faith, confessions or theological texts. Those that exist include the ''Letter to the Governor of Barbados'' ([[George Fox|Fox]], 1671),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fox |first=George |title=Letter to the Governor of Barbadoes |url=http://www.quakerinfo.com/barbados.shtml|date=1671}}</ref> ''An Apology for the True Christian Divinity'' ([[Robert Barclay|Barclay]], 1678),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barclay |first=Robert |title=An Apology for the True Christian Divinity |year=1678 |url=http://www.qhpress.org/texts/barclay/apology/}}</ref> ''A Catechism and Confession of Faith'' ([[Robert Barclay|Barclay]], 1690),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barclay |first=Robert |title=A Catechism and Confession of Faith |year=1690 |url=http://www.qhpress.org/texts/barclay/catechism/index.html}}</ref> ''The Testimony of the Society of Friends on the Continent of America'' (adopted jointly by all [[Friends United Meeting|Orthodox yearly meetings]] in the United States, 1830),<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Testimony of the Society of Friends on the Continent of America |year=1830 |publisher=Richard and George S Wood |___location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CtctAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> the ''[[Richmond Declaration|Richmond Declaration of Faith]]'' (adopted by [[Friends United Meeting|Five Years Meeting]], 1887),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Richmond Declaration of Faith |url=http://www.quakerinfo.com/rdf.shtml|publisher=QuakerInfo.com}}</ref> and ''Essential Truths'' ([[Rufus Jones (writer)|Jones]] and Wood, adopted by [[Friends United Meeting|Five Years Meeting]], 1922).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Essential Truths |url=http://www.quakerinfo.com/esstruth.shtml |publisher=QuakerInfo.com}}</ref> Most yearly meetings make a public statement of faith in their own [[Book of Discipline (Quaker)|Book of Discipline]], expressing Christian discipleship within the experience of Friends in that yearly meeting.
===Conservatives===
[[File:Microcosm of London Plate 064 - Quakers' Meeting (tone).jpg|thumb|alt=|Conservative Friends worshipping in London in 1809. Friends are in traditional [[plain dress]]. At the front of the meeting house, the [[Recorded Minister]]s sit on a raised ''ministers' gallery'' facing the rest of the meeting, with the elders sitting on the bench in front of them, also facing the meeting. Men and women are segregated, but both are able to minister.]]
{{Main|Conservative Friends}}
[[Conservative Friends]] (also known as "Wilburites" after their founder, [[John Wilbur (Quaker minister)|John Wilbur]]), share some of the beliefs of Fox and the Early Friends. Many Wilburites see themselves as the Quakers whose beliefs are truest to original Quaker doctrine, arguing that the majority of Friends "broke away" from the Wilburites in the 19th and 20th centuries (rather than vice versa). Conservative Friends place their trust in the immediate guidance of God.<ref name=quakerfinder/> They reject all forms of [[religious symbolism]] and outward [[sacraments]], such as the [[Eucharist]] and [[water baptism]]. Conservative Friends do not rely on the practice of outward rites and sacraments in their living relationship with God through Christ, believing that holiness can exist in all of the activities of one's daily life – and that all of life is sacred in God. Many believe that a meal held with others can become a form of [[Communion (Christianity)|communion]] with God and with one another.
Conservative Friends in the United States are part of three small Quaker Yearly Meetings in Ohio, North Carolina, and Iowa. Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) is generally considered the most Bible-centred of the three, retaining Christian Quakers who use plain language, wear plain dress, and are more likely to live in villages or rural areas than the Conservative Friends from their other two Yearly Meetings.<ref name=Wilburite-Gurneyite/>
In 2007, total membership of such Yearly Meetings was around 1,642,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://fwccamericas.org/find_friends/stats_by_country.shtml |title=FWCC Section of the Americas |website=fwccamericas.org |access-date=25 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419003049/http://fwccamericas.org/find_friends/stats_by_country.shtml |archive-date=19 April 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> making them around 0.4% of the world family of Quakers.
===Evangelical===
{{See also|Evangelical Friends Church International}}
[[File:Old Camara 038.JPG|thumb|Sign at entrance of [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] Friends Church]]
Evangelical Friends regard Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour,<ref name=quakerfinder/> and have similar religious beliefs to other [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] Christians. They believe in and hold high regard for [[penal substitution]] of the [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]] of Christ on the Cross at Calvary, [[biblical infallibility]], and the need for all to experience a relationship with God personally.<ref name="Friends Beliefs">{{Cite web |last=Evangelical Friends Church International |title=Friends Beliefs |url=http://www.evangelicalfriends.org/6 |access-date=10 December 2011 |archive-date=21 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121120603/http://www.evangelicalfriends.org/6 |url-status=dead }}</ref> They believe that the Evangelical Friends Church is intended to evangelise the unsaved of the world, to transform them spiritually through God's love and through social service to others.<ref name="Friends Beliefs"/> They regard the Bible as God's infallible, self-authenticating Word. The statement of faith of [[Evangelical Friends International]] is comparable to that of other Evangelical churches. Those who are members of Evangelical Friends International are mainly located in the United States, Central America, and Asia.
Beginning in the 1880s, some Friends began using outward sacraments in their Sunday services, first in Evangelical Friends Church–Eastern Region (then known as Ohio Yearly Meeting [Damascus]). Friends Church–Southwest Region also approved such a practice. In places where Evangelical Friends engage in missionary work, such as Africa, Latin America, and Asia, adult baptism by immersion in water occurs. They differ from most other branches of the Religious Society of Friends. EFCI in 2014 was claiming to represent more than 140,000 Friends,<ref name=EFCI>{{Cite web |title=Evangelical Friends Church International |url=http://www.evangelicalfriends.org/ |access-date=10 December 2011 |archive-date=9 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109032249/http://evangelicalfriends.org/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> some 39% of the total number of Friends worldwide.
===Gurneyites===
{{See also|Friends United Meeting}}
Gurneyite Friends (also known as Friends United Meeting Friends) are modern followers of the Evangelical Quaker theology specified by [[Joseph John Gurney]], a 19th-century British Friend. They make up 49% of the total number of Quakers worldwide.<ref name=QWRC-intro/> They see Jesus Christ as their Teacher and Lord<ref name=quakerfinder/> and favour close work with other Protestant Christian churches. Gurneyite Friends balance the Bible's authority as inspired words of God with personal, direct experience of God in their lives. Both children and adults participate in religious education, which emphasises orthodox Christian teaching from the Bible in relation to both orthodox Christian Quaker history and Quaker testimonies. Gurneyite Friends subscribe to a set of orthodox Christian doctrines, such as those found in the [[Richmond Declaration]] of faith. In later years, conflict arose among Gurneyite Friends over the Richmond Declaration of Faith, but after a while, it was adopted by nearly all of Gurneyite's yearly meetings. The Five Years Meeting of Friends reaffirmed its loyalty to the Richmond Declaration of Faith in 1912 but specified that it was not to constitute a Christian creed. Although Gurneyism was the main form of Quakerism in 19th-century Britain, Gurneyite Friends today are also found in America, Ireland, Africa, and India. Many Gurneyite Friends combine "waiting" (unprogrammed) worship with practices commonly found in other Protestant Christian churches, such as readings from the Bible and singing hymns. A small minority of Gurneyite Friends practice wholly unprogrammed worship.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://fum.org/quaker-life-local-meeting-directory/ |title=Quaker Life – Local Meeting Directory |publisher=Friends United Meeting |access-date=25 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141112213838/http://fum.org/quaker-life-local-meeting-directory/ |archive-date=12 November 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
===Holiness===
{{See also|Central Yearly Meeting of Friends}}
Holiness Friends are Quakers of the Gurneyite branch who are heavily influenced by the [[Holiness movement]], in particular, the doctrine of [[Christian perfection]], also called "entire sanctification". This states that loving God and humanity totally, as exemplified by Christ, enables believers to rid themselves of voluntary sin. This dominant view within Quakerism in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 19th century influenced other branches of Quakerism. Holiness Friends argue, leaning on writings that include [[George Fox]]'s message of ''[[Christian perfection#Quaker teaching|perfection]]'', that the early Friends had this understanding of holiness.<ref name="central">{{Cite web |last=Central Yearly Meeting of Friends |title=About Us |url=http://www.centralyearlymeetingoffriends.org/AboutUs.dsp |access-date=6 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205212906/http://www.centralyearlymeetingoffriends.org/AboutUs.dsp |archive-date=5 February 2012 |url-status=usurped}}</ref>
Today, many Friends hold holiness beliefs within most yearly meetings, but it is the predominant theological view of [[Central Yearly Meeting of Friends]], (founded in 1926 specifically to promote holiness theology) and the Holiness Mission of the Bolivian Evangelical Friends Church (founded by missionaries from that meeting in 1919, the largest group of Friends in Bolivia).<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Margery Post Abbott |display-authors=etal |title=Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) |date=December 2011 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |___location=Lanham, MD |isbn=978-0-8108-7088-8 |pages=327–328 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WlTnzA6kHYwC&q=Bolivian+Holiness+Mission+Evangelical+Friends+Church&pg=PA328 |edition=2nd}}</ref>
===Liberal===
{{See also|Friends General Conference|Britain Yearly Meeting|Beanite Quakerism|}}
Liberal Quakerism generally refers to Friends who take ideas from [[liberal Christianity]], often sharing a similar mix of ideas, such as more critical Biblical [[hermeneutics]], often with a focus on the [[social gospel]]. The ideas of ''that of God in everyone'' and the ''[[inner light]]'' were popularised by the American Friend [[Rufus Jones (writer)|Rufus Jones]] in the early 20th century, he and [[John Wilhelm Rowntree]] originating the movement. Liberal Friends predominated in Britain in the 20th century, among US meetings affiliated to [[Friends General Conference]], and some meetings in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Southern Africa.
These ideas remain important in Liberal Friends' understanding of God. They highlight the importance of good works, particularly living a life that upholds the virtues preached by Jesus. They often emphasise pacifism, treating others equally, living simply, and telling the truth.<ref name=QWRC-intro/>
Like Conservative Friends, Liberal Friends reject [[religious symbolism]] and sacraments such as water baptism and the Eucharist. While Liberal Friends recognise the potential of these outward forms for awakening experiences of the Inward [[Light of the World|Light]] of Christ, they are not part of their worship and are thought unnecessary to authentic Christian spirituality.
The Bible remains central to most Liberal Friends' worship. Almost all meetings make it available in the [[Friends Meeting House|meeting house]],{{according to whom|date=December 2024}} often on a table in the centre of the room, which attendees may read privately or publicly during worship. But Liberal Friends decided that the Scriptures should give way to God's lead if God leads them in a way contrary to the Bible. Many Friends are also influenced by liberal Christian theologians and modern [[Biblical criticism]]. They often adopt non-propositional Biblical hermeneutics, such as believing that the Bible is an anthology of human authors' beliefs and feelings about God rather than the Holy Writ and that multiple interpretations of the Scriptures are acceptable.
Liberal Friends believe that a corporate confession of faith would be an obstacle to authentic listening and new insight. As a non-creed form of Christianity, Liberal Quakerism is receptive to a wide range of understandings of religion. Most Liberal Quaker Yearly Meetings publish a [[Book of Discipline (Quaker)|Faith and Practice]] containing a range of religious experiences of what it means to be a Friend in that Yearly Meeting.
===Universalist===
{{main| Quaker Universalist Fellowship}}
Universalist Friends affirm [[religious pluralism]]: there are many different paths to God and understandings of the divine reached through non-Christian religious experiences, which are as valid as Christian understandings. The group was founded in the late 1970s by John Linton, who had worshipped with the Delhi Worship Group in India (an independent meeting unaffiliated to any yearly meeting or wider Quaker group) with Christians, Muslims, and Hindus worshipping together.<ref name="Universalist History">{{Cite journal |last=Rickermann |first=Sally |title=Quaker Universalist Fellowship: Its History |journal=Journal of the Quaker Universalist Fellowship |year=2007 |issue=46 |url=http://www.universalistfriends.org/uf046.html#Rickerman}}</ref>
After moving to Britain, Linton founded the [[Quaker Universalist Fellowship]] in 1978. Later, his views spread to the United States, where the Quaker Universalist Fellowship was founded in 1983.<ref name="Universalist History"/> Most of the Friends who joined these two fellowships were Liberal Friends from the Britain Yearly Meeting in the United Kingdom and Friends General Conference in the United States. Interest in Quaker Universalism is low among Friends from other Yearly meetings. The views of the Universalists provoked controversy in the 1980s{{Citation needed|date=September 2018}} among themselves and Christian Quakers within the Britain Yearly Meeting and within the Friends General Conference. Despite the label, Quaker Universalists are not necessarily [[Christian Universalism|Christian Universalists]], embracing the doctrine of [[universal reconciliation]].
===Non-theists===
{{main|Nontheist Quakers}}
A minority of Friends have views similar to post-Christian non-theists in other churches, such as the [[Sea of Faith]], which emerged from the [[Anglican]] church. They are predominantly atheists, agnostics, and humanists who still value membership in a religious organization. The first organisation for non-theist Friends was the ''Humanistic Society of Friends'', founded in Los Angeles in 1939. This remained small and was absorbed into the [[American Humanist Association]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cresson |first=Os |title=Roots and Flowers of Quaker Nontheism |url=http://www.nontheistfriends.org/article/roots-and-flowers-of-quaker-nontheism-2/ |access-date=6 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209104940/http://www.nontheistfriends.org/article/roots-and-flowers-of-quaker-nontheism-2/ |archive-date=9 February 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Interest in non-theism resurfaced, particularly under the British Friend David Boulton, who founded the 40-member Nontheist Friends Network in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Nontheist Friends Network in Britain |url=http://www.nontheistfriends.org/article/new-nontheist-friends-network-in-britain/ |publisher=nontheistfriends.org}}</ref> Non-theism is controversial, leading some Christian Quakers from within Britain Yearly Meeting to call for non-theists to be denied membership.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heathfield |first=D |title=Non-theist Friends Network |journal=The Friend |date=27 May 2011 |volume=169 |issue=21 |url=http://thefriend.org/article/letters-27-may-2011/}}</ref>
In one study of Friends in the [[Britain Yearly Meeting]], some 30% of Quakers had views described as [[non-theism|non-theistic]], [[agnostic]], or [[atheist]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dandelion |first=Pink |title=A Sociological Analysis of the Theology of Quakers: The Silent Revolution |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |___location=[[Lewiston, New York]] |year=1996}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Heron |first=Alistair |title=Caring, Conviction, Commitment: Dilemmas of Quaker Membership Today |publisher=Quaker Home Service |___location=London |year=1992}}</ref> Another study found that 75.1% of the 727 members of the Religious Society of Friends who completed the survey said that they consider themselves to be Christian and 17.6% that they did not, while 7.3% either did not answer or circled both answers.<ref name=Mellor/>{{rp |p.41}} A further 22% of Quakers did not consider themselves Christian but fulfilled a definition of being a Christian in that they said that they devoutly followed the teachings and example of Jesus Christ.<ref name=Mellor/>{{rp |p.52}} In the same survey, 86.9% said they believed in God.<ref name=Mellor>{{Cite thesis |last=Mellor |first=Katherine |title=Christian Belief in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers): a Response to the Claim That British Friends Are Post-Christian |type=M.Phil. |year=2009 |publisher=University of Birmingham |url=http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/682/1/Mellor10MPhil.pdf |pages=39–40}}</ref>
==Practical theology==
[[File:1688 germantown petition table.jpg|alt=|thumb|In 1688, at this table in [[Germantown, Philadelphia]], Quakers and [[Mennonites]] signed a common declaration denouncing slavery.]]
Quakers bear witness or "[[religious testimony|testify]]" to their religious beliefs in their spiritual lives,<ref name=QuakerTestimonies2005/> drawing on the [[Epistle of James]] exhortation that "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead".<ref name=James>{{bibleverse|James|2:17|NIV}}</ref> This religious witness is rooted in their immediate experience of God and verified by the Bible, especially in Jesus Christ's life and teachings. They may bear witness in many ways, according to how they believe God is leading them. Although Quakers share how they relate to God and the world, mirroring Christian ethical codes, for example the [[Sermon on the Mount]] or the [[Sermon on the Plain]], Friends argue that they feel personally moved by God rather than following an ethical code.
Some theologians classify Friends' religious witness into categories, known by some Friends as "testimonies." These Friends believe these principles and practices testify to, witness to, or provide evidence for God's truth. No categorisation is universally accepted.<ref name=testimonies/>
In the United Kingdom, the acronym STEPS is sometimes used (simplicity, truth, equality, peace, and sustainability) to help remember the testimonies, although most Quakers just use the full words.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} In his book ''Quaker Speak'', British Friend [[Alastair Heron]], lists the following testimonies of common practical values in Quaker belief:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heron |first=Alastair |url=http://www.s113871194.websitehome.co.uk/qsol/main.htm |title=Quaker Speak |year=2008 |access-date=11 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005150245/http://www.s113871194.websitehome.co.uk/qsol/main.htm |archive-date=5 October 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Testimony of integrity|integrity]] (or truth), [[Testimony of peace|peace]], penal reform, plain language, relief of suffering, [[Testimony of simplicity|simplicity]], social order, Sunday observance, [[sustainability]], temperance and moderation; and opposition to the following: betting and gambling, [[religion and capital punishment|capital punishment]], conscription, hat-honour (the largely historical practice of dipping one's hat toward social superiors), [[Testimony of Integrity#Oaths and fair-dealing|oaths]], [[History of the Religious Society of Friends#Abolition of Slavery|slavery]], [[#Calendar and church holidays|times and seasons]], and [[tithe|tithing]].
In East Africa, Friends teach peace and [[nonviolence]], simplicity, honesty, equality, humility, marriage and sexual ethics (defining marriage as lifelong between one man and one woman), sanctity of life (opposition to abortion), cultural conflicts and Christian life.<ref>Friends United Meeting in East Africa (2002) "[http://www.quakerinfo.com/eastafricafandp.pdf Christian Faith and Practice in the Friends Church]".</ref>
In the United States, the acronym SPICES is often used in many yearly meetings (simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship). Stewardship is not recognised as a testimony in all yearly meetings. Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting Friends put their faith in action through living their lives by the following principles: prayer, personal integrity, stewardship (which includes giving away minimum of 10% income and refraining from lotteries), marriage and family (lifelong commitment), regard for mind and body (refraining from certain amusements, propriety and modesty of dress, abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and drugs), peace and nonviolence (including refusing to participate in war), abortion (opposition to abortion, practical ministry to women with unwanted pregnancy and promotion of adoption), human sexuality, the Christian and state (look to God for authority, not the government), capital punishment (find alternatives), human equality, women in ministry (recognising women and men have an equal part to play in ministry).<ref>Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting of the Friends Church (1997) "[http://www.rmym.org/Faith_And_Practice_Print.php The Faith and Practice] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627173003/http://www.rmym.org/Faith_And_Practice_Print.php |date=27 June 2012 }}"</ref> The Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association lists as testimonies integrity, peace, simplicity, equality, and community; areas of witness include children, education, government, sexuality, and harmony with nature.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://sayma.org/online_documents/faith_and_practice/F&P2012final.pdf |title=Testifying to the Life of the SPIRIT |author=Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association |year=2012}}</ref>
[[File:L1110854Coanwood Friends Meeting House.jpg|thumb|Former Friends Meeting House, Coanwood, Northumberland, England, dating from 1720]]
===Calendar and church holidays===
Quakers traditionally use numbers for referencing the months and days of the week, something they call the plain calendar. This does not use names of calendar units derived from the names of pagan deities. The week begins with First Day (Sunday) and ends with Seventh Day (Saturday).<ref name="Lapsansky2003">{{Cite book |last1=Lapsansky |first1=Emma Jones |title=Quaker Aesthetics: Reflections on a Quaker Ethic in American Design and Consumption, 1720–1920 |date=26 January 2003 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-3692-7 |page=65 |language=English}}</ref> Months run from First (January) to Twelfth (December). This rests on the terms used in the Bible, e.g. that Jesus Christ's followers went to the tomb early on the First Day.<ref>{{bibleverse|Mark|16:2|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|Luke|24:1|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|John|20:1|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|John|20:19|NIV}}</ref> The plain calendar emerged in the 17th century in England in the [[Puritans|Puritan]] movement, but became closely identified with Friends by the end of the 1650s, and was commonly employed into the 20th century. It is less commonly found today. The term "First Day school" is commonly used for what is referred to by other churches as "Sunday school."{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}
From 1155 to 1751, the English calendar (and that of Wales, Ireland and the British colonies overseas) marked March 25 as the first day of the year. For this reason, Quaker records of the 17th and early 18th centuries usually referred to March as First Month and February as Twelfth Month.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.swarthmore.edu/friends-historical-library/quaker-calendar|title = The Quaker Calendar|date = 8 July 2014}}</ref>
Like other Christian denominations derived from 16th-century [[Puritans|Puritanism]], many Friends eschew religious festivals (e.g. [[Christmas]], [[Lent]], or [[Easter]]), and believe that Christ's birth, [[crucifixion]] and [[resurrection]], should be marked every day of the year. For example, many Quakers feel that [[fasting]] in [[Lent]], but then eating in excess at other times of the year is [[hypocrisy]]. Many Quakers, rather than observing Lent, live a simple lifestyle all the year round (see ''[[Testimony of simplicity]]''). Such practices are called the ''testimony against times and seasons''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=27.42 {{!}} Quaker faith & practice |url=https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/27-42/ |access-date=2024-11-21 |website=qfp.quaker.org.uk}}</ref>
The [[Richmond Declaration]], affirmed by the Orthodox branch of Quakerism, teaches the importance of the observance of the [[Lord's Day]] consistent with [[Sabbatarianism|First-day Sabbatarian]] principles, though some Friends are non-Sabbatarians, holding that "every day is the Lord's day", and that what should be done on a First Day should be done every day of the week, although Meeting for Worship is usually held on a First Day, after the advice first issued by the elders of [[Balby]] in 1656.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Dewsbury |first1=William |last2=Farnworth |first2=Richard |title=The Epistle from the Elders at Balby, 1656 |url=http://www.qhpress.org/texts/balby.html|access-date=5 October 2023}}</ref>
==Worship==
{{See also|Meeting for worship}}
Most groups of Quakers meet for regular worship. There are two main types of worship worldwide: programmed worship and waiting worship.
===Programmed worship===
{{See also|Friends United Meeting|Evangelical Friends Church International|Central Yearly Meeting of Friends|}}
[[File:West Mansfield Friends Church.jpg|alt=|thumb|right|West Mansfield Friends Church, Ohio, affiliated with the [[Evangelical Friends Church International]]]]
In ''programmed worship'' there is often a prepared Biblical message, which may be delivered by an individual with theological training from a Bible College. There may be hymns, a sermon, Bible readings, joint prayers and a period of silent worship. The worship resembles the [[church service]]s of other [[Protestant]] denominations, although in most cases does not include the Eucharist. A paid pastor may be responsible for [[pastoral care]]. Worship of this kind is celebrated by about 89% of Friends worldwide.<ref name=QWRC-intro/>{{rp |page=5–6}} It is found in many Yearly Meetings in Africa, Asia and parts of the US (central and southern), and is common in programmed meetings affiliated to [[Friends United Meeting]] (who make up around 49% of worldwide membership<ref name=QWRC-intro/>{{rp |page=5}}), and evangelical meetings, including those affiliated to [[Evangelical Friends International]] (who make up at least 40% of Friends worldwide<ref name=QWRC-intro/>{{rp |page=5–6}}). The religious event is sometimes called a Quaker [[meeting for worship]] or sometimes a Friends church service. This tradition arose among Friends in the United States in the 19th century, and in response to many converts to Christian Quakerism during the national [[Great awakening|spiritual revival]] of the time. Friends meetings in Africa and Latin America were generally started by Orthodox Friends from programmed elements of the Society, so that most African and Latin American Friends worship in a programmed style.
Some Friends hold Semi-Programmed Worship, which brings programmed elements such as hymns and readings into an otherwise unprogrammed service of worship.
===Unprogrammed worship===
{{See also|Conservative Friends|Friends General Conference|Britain Yearly Meeting|Beanite Quakerism|}}
{{external media |float=right |headerimage=[[File:Race Street Friends Meeting House, Race Street west of Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA HABS PA-6687-13.jpg |frameless]] |video1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxjH4sa2RFI What to Expect in Quaker Meeting for Worship], QuakerSpeak<ref name="qs">{{Cite web |title=What to Expect in Quaker Meeting for Worship |work=QuakerSpeak |date=20 November 2014 |url=http://quakerspeak.com/what-to-expect-quaker-meeting-worship/ |access-date=25 April 2016}}</ref>}}
''Unprogrammed worship'' (also known as ''waiting worship'', ''silent worship'', or ''holy communion in the manner of Friends'') rests on the practices of George Fox and early Friends, who based their beliefs and practices on their interpretation of how early Christians worshipped God their Heavenly Father. Friends gather together in "expectant waiting upon God" to experience his still small voice leading them from within. There is no plan on how the meeting will proceed, and practice varies widely between Meetings and individual worship services. Friends believe that God plans what will happen, with his spirit leading people to speak. A participant who feels led to speak will stand and share a spoken ministry in front of others. When this happens, Quakers believe that the spirit of God is speaking through the speaker. After someone has spoken, it is customary to allow a few minutes to pass in silence for reflection on what was said, before further vocal ministry is given. Sometimes a meeting is quite silent, sometimes many speak. These meetings lasted for several hours in George Fox's day.
Modern meetings are often limited to an hour, ending when two people (usually the [[Elder (Christianity)#Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)|elders]]) exchange the [[sign of peace]] by a [[handshake]]. This handshake is often shared by the others. This style of worship is the norm in Britain, Ireland, the continent of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa, Canada, and parts of the United States (particularly yearly meetings associated with [[Friends General Conference]] and [[Beanite Quakerism]])—constituting about 11%<ref name=QWRC-intro/>{{rp|5}} of Quakers. Those who worship in this way hold each person to be equal before God and capable of knowing [[Light of the World|the light]] of God directly. Anyone present may speak if feeling led to do so. Traditionally, [[Recorded Minister]]s were recognised for their particular gift in vocal ministry. This practice continues among ''Conservative'' Friends and ''Liberal Friends'' (e.g. [[New York Yearly Meeting]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=New York Yearly Meeting |title=Formal Guidelines from New York Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practice |url=http://www.nyym.org/index.php?q=node/252}}</ref>), but many meetings where Liberal Friends predominate abolished this practice. [[London Yearly Meeting]] of Friends abolished the acknowledging and recording of [[Recorded Minister]]s in 1924.
==Governance and organisation==
===Organisational government and polity===
<!-- [[Meeting for Business]] redirects to this section -->
{{Main|Quaker decision-making}}
[[File:Meeting in York.JPG|alt=|thumb|Quaker business meeting in [[York]]]]
[[Ecclesiastical polity|Governance]] and decision-making are conducted at a special meeting for worship – often called a ''meeting for worship with a concern for business'' or ''meeting for worship for church affairs'', where all members can attend, as in a [[Congregationalist polity|Congregational]] church. Quakers consider this a form of worship, conducted in the manner of meeting for worship. They believe it is a gathering of believers who ''wait upon the Lord'' to discover God's will, believing they are not making their own decisions. They seek to understand God's will for the religious community, via the actions of the Holy Spirit within the meeting.<ref name=QuakersinScotland/>
As in a meeting for worship, each member is expected to listen to God, and if led by Him, stand up and contribute. In some business meetings, Friends wait for the [[Clerk (Quaker)|clerk]] to acknowledge them before speaking. Direct replies to someone's contribution are not permitted, with an aim of seeking truth rather than debate. A decision is reached when the meeting as a whole feels that the "way forward" has been discerned (also called "coming to unity"). There is no voting. On some occasions Friends may delay a decision because they feel the meeting is not following God's will. Others (especially non-Friends) may describe this as [[consensus decision-making]]; however, Friends in general continue to seek God's will. It is assumed that if everyone is attuned to God's spirit, the way forward becomes clear.
===International organization===
{{Main|Friends World Committee for Consultation}}
[[Friends World Committee for Consultation]] (FWCC) is the international Quaker organization that loosely unifies the different religious traditions of Quakers; FWCC brings together the largest variety of Friends in the world. Friends World Committee for Consultation is divided into four sections to represent different regions of the world: Africa, Asia West Pacific, Europe and Middle East, and the Americas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Friends World Committee for Consultation/About |url=http://fwcc.world/about-fwcc |website=Friends World Committee for Consultation, World Office. |access-date=26 May 2020}}</ref>
Various organizations associated with Friends include a United States' lobbying organization based in [[Washington, D.C.]] called the [[Friends Committee on National Legislation]] (FCNL); service organizations such as the [[American Friends Service Committee]] (AFSC), the [[Quaker United Nations Office]]s, [[Quaker Peace and Social Witness]], Friends Committee on Scouting, the Quaker Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, and the [[Alternatives to Violence Project]].
===Yearly meetings===
{{Main|Yearly Meeting}}
Quakers today are organised into independent and regional, national bodies called [[Yearly Meetings]], which have often split from one another over [[doctrinal]] differences. Several of such unite Quakers who share similar religious beliefs – for example [[Evangelical Friends Church International]] unites [[evangelicalism|evangelical Christian Friends]];<ref>{{Cite web |title=Friends Beliefs |url=http://www.evangelicalfriends.org/6 |publisher=Evangelical Friends Church International |access-date=10 December 2011 |archive-date=21 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121120603/http://www.evangelicalfriends.org/6 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Friends United Meeting]] unites Friends into "fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved and obeyed as Teacher and Lord;"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Friends United Meeting – About Us |url=http://fum.org:80/about-us/ |publisher=Friends United Meeting |access-date=5 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228204503/http://fum.org/about-us/ |archive-date=28 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Friends General Conference]] links Quakers with non-creed, liberal religious beliefs. Many Quaker [[Yearly Meeting]]s also belong to the [[Friends World Committee for Consultation]], an international fellowship of Yearly Meetings from different Quaker traditions.
===Membership===
A Friend is a member of a Yearly Meeting, usually beginning with membership in a local monthly meeting. Means of acquiring membership vary. For example, in most Kenyan yearly meetings, attenders who wish to become members must take part in some two years' adult education, memorising key Bible passages, and learning about the history of orthodox Christianity and of Christian Quakerism. Within the Britain Yearly Meeting, membership is acquired through a process of [[peer review]], where a potential member is visited by several members, who report to the other members before a decision is reached.
Within some Friends Churches in the Evangelical Friends Church – in particular in Rwanda, Burundi, and parts of the United States – an adult believer's baptism by immersion in water is optional. Within Liberal Friends, Conservative Friends, and Pastoral Friends Churches, Friends do not practise [[baptism|water baptism]], [[infant baptism|Christening]], or other initiation ceremonies to admit a new member or a newborn baby. Children are often welcomed into the meeting at their first attendance. Formerly, children born to Quaker parents automatically became members (sometimes called birthright membership), but this no longer applies in many areas. Some parents apply for membership on behalf of their children, while others allow children to decide whether to be a member when they are ready and older in age. Some meetings adopt a policy that children, some time after becoming young adults, must apply independently for membership.
==Worship for specific tasks==
===Memorial services===
[[File:George Fox marker Bunhill Fields.jpg|alt=|thumb|The Quaker testimony of simplicity extends to memorialisation. Founder [[George Fox]] is remembered with a simple grave marker at [[Quaker Gardens, Islington]], London.]]
Traditional Quaker memorial services are held as a form of worship and known as memorial meetings. Friends gather for worship and offer remembrances of the deceased. In some Quaker traditions, the coffin or ashes are not present. Memorial meetings may be held many weeks after the death, which can enable wider attendance, replacement of grief with spiritual reflection, and celebration of life to dominate. Memorial meetings can last over an hour, particularly if many people attend. Memorial services give all a chance to remember the lost individual in their own way, comforting those present and re-affirming the love of the people in the wider community.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}
===Marriage===
{{Main|Quaker wedding}}
A meeting for worship for the solemnisation of marriage in an unprogrammed Friends meeting is similar to any other unprogrammed meeting for worship.<ref name=QinGB/> The pair exchange declarations before God and gathered witnesses, and the meeting returns to open worship. (Declarations are used as typically Friends do not swear oaths or make vows). At the rise of meeting, the witnesses, including the youngest children, are asked to sign the wedding certificate as a record. In Britain, Quakers keep a separate record of the union and notify the [[General Register Office for England and Wales|General Register Office]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Handbook for registering officers for marriage in Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) |url=https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/2022-06-registering-officer-handbook |access-date=14 May 2023 |website=Quakers.org}}</ref>
In the early days of the United States, there was doubt whether a marriage solemnised in that way was entitled to legal recognition. Over the years, each state has set rules for the procedure. Most states expect the marriage document to be signed by a single officiant (a priest, rabbi, minister, Justice of the Peace, etc.) Quakers routinely modify the document to allow three or four Friends to sign as officiant. Often these are the members of a committee of ministry and oversight, who have helped the couple to plan their marriage. Usually, a separate document containing the vows and signatures of all present is kept by the couple and often displayed prominently in their home.
In many Friends meetings, the couple meet with a [[clearness committee]] before the wedding. Its purpose is to discuss with the couple the many aspects of marriage and life as a couple. If the couple seem ready, the marriage is recommended to the meeting.
As in wider society, there is a diversity of views among Friends on the issue of [[same-sex marriage]]. Various Friends meetings around the world have voiced support for and recognised same-sex marriages. In 1986, Hartford Friends Meeting in Connecticut reached a decision that "the Meeting recognised a committed union in a celebration of marriage, under the care of the Meeting. The same loving care and consideration should be given to both homosexual and heterosexual applicants as outlined in Faith and Practice."<ref name="religioustolerance.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_quak.htm |title=The Society of Friends (Quakers) and Homosexuality |access-date=5 May 2015}}</ref> Since then, other meetings of liberal and progressive Friends from Australia, Britain, New Zealand, parts of North America, and other countries have recognised marriage between partners of the same sex. In jurisdictions where same-sex marriage is not recognised by civil authorities, some meetings follow the practice of early Quakers in overseeing the union without reference to the state. There are also Friends who do not support same-sex marriage. Some Evangelical and Pastoral yearly meetings in the United States have issued public statements stating that homosexuality is a sin.<ref name="religioustolerance.org"/>
==National and international divisions and organisation==
===By country===
[[File:Quaker-Distribution-World.svg|thumb|upright=2|Worldwide distribution of Quakers by country in 2017 according to the [[Friends World Committee for Consultation]]: {{Legend|#C0C0C0|No data}}
{{Legend|#FFE5E5|1–99}}
{{Legend|#FFA9A9|100–999}}
{{Legend|#FF6565|1,000–3,999}}
{{Legend|#FF2B2B|4,000–9,999}}
{{Legend|#CE0000|10,000–119,285}}]]
Like many religious movements, the Religious Society of Friends has evolved, changed, and split into sub-groups.
Quakerism started in England and Wales, and quickly spread to Ireland, the Netherlands,<ref name=Netherlands/> Barbados<ref name=Barbados/> and North America. In 2017, there were 119,200 Quakers in Kenya, 80,000 in the United States, 47,600 in Burundi and 28,500 in Bolivia. Other countries with over 5,000 Quakers were Guatemala, the United Kingdom, Nepal, Taiwan and Uganda.<ref name="FWCC2012">{{Cite web |date=July 2017 |title=Finding Quakers Around the World - 2017 |url=https://fwccawps.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/fwccworldmap2017.pdf |access-date=August 11, 2024 |publisher=Friends World Committee for Consultation}}</ref>
Although the total number of Quakers is around 377,500 worldwide,<ref name="FWCC2012" /> Quaker influence is concentrated in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]; [[Kaimosi]], Kenya; [[Newberg, Oregon]]; [[Greenleaf, Idaho]]; [[Whittier, California]]; [[Richmond, Indiana]]; [[Friendswood, Texas]]; [[Birmingham]], England; [[Ramallah]], Palestine, and [[Greensboro, North Carolina]].
===
{{Main|Religious Society of Friends in Africa}}
The highest concentration of Quakers is in Africa.<ref name="Qworldstats">– 43 per cent of Quakers worldwide are found in Africa, versus 30 per cent in North America, 17 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, 6 per cent in Europe, and 4 per cent in Asia/West Pacific. See [http://www.quakerinfo.org/resources/worldstats.html ''Quaker Information Center''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429211156/http://www.quakerinfo.org/resources/worldstats.html |date=29 April 2008 }}.</ref> The Friends of East Africa were at one time part of a single East Africa Yearly Meeting, then the world's largest. Today, the region is served by several distinct yearly meetings. Most are affiliated with the [[Friends United Meeting]], practice programmed worship and employ pastors. Friends meet in Rwanda and Burundi; new work is beginning in North Africa. Small unprogrammed meetings exist also in Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
In 2017, there were around 181,000 adult Quakers in Africa.<ref name="FWCC2012"/>
===
Friends in Australia and New Zealand follow the unprogrammed tradition, similar to that of the [[Britain Yearly Meeting]].
Considerable distances between the colonies and small numbers of Quakers meant that Australia Friends were dependent on London until the 20th century. The Society remained unprogrammed and is named Australia Yearly Meeting, with local organizations around seven Regional Meetings: Canberra (which extends into southern New South Wales), New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia (which extends into Northern Territory), Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.quakers.org.au/ |title=Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia Inc. |access-date=5 May 2015}}</ref> [[The Friends' School, Hobart|The Friends' School]] is found in [[Hobart]]. An annual meeting each January, is hosted by a different Regional Meeting over a seven-year cycle, with a Standing Committee each July or August. The Australia Yearly Meeting published ''This We Can Say: Australian Quaker Life, Faith and Thought'' in 2003.
Meetings for worship in New Zealand started in [[Nelson, New Zealand|Nelson]] in 1842 and in [[Auckland]] in 1885. In 1889 it was estimated that there were about 30 Quakers in Auckland.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18890417.2.17?query=Ellerslie%20Racecourse%20platform |access-date=10 May 2017 |title=Auckland Star |date=17 April 1889 |publisher=Auckland Star}}</ref> The New Zealand Yearly Meeting, today consists of nine monthly meetings.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://quaker.org.nz/structure-of-the-society-of-friends |title=Structure of the Society of Friends |access-date=5 May 2015 |archive-date=7 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507210959/http://quaker.org.nz/structure-of-the-society-of-friends |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Yearly Meeting published Quaker Faith and Practice in Aotearoa New Zealand, in 2003.
===Asia===
Quaker meetings occur in India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Philippines, Japan, Bhutan and Nepal. There are also Quaker worship houses in other Asian nations such as Myanmar and Singapore as of 2017.
India has four yearly meetings: the unprogrammed [[Mid-India Yearly Meeting]], programmed Bhopal Yearly Meeting, and the Mahoba Yearly Meeting. [[Bundelkhand Yearly Meeting]] is an evangelical Friends Church affiliated to Evangelical Friends International. Other programmed and unprogrammed worship groups are not affiliated to any yearly meeting.
Evangelical Friends Churches exist in the Philippines and Nepal and are affiliated to [[Evangelical Friends Church International]].
===Europe===
{{main|Quakers in Europe}}
In the United Kingdom, the predominantly liberal and unprogrammed [[Britain Yearly Meeting|Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain]], has 478 local meetings, and 14,260 adult members, with an additional 8,560 non-member adults who attend worship and 2,251 children.<ref name="Tabular statement 2010">{{Cite web |author=Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain |title=Tabular Statement as at 31 xii 2010 |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/Tab%20Stat%202011%20v_lo%20res.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115151223/http://www.quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/Tab%20Stat%202011%20v_lo%20res.pdf |archive-date=15 January 2016}}</ref> The number has declined steadily since the mid-20th century.<ref name="Tabular statement 2010"/> Programmed meetings occur, including in [[Wem]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meeting Style – Wem Quaker Meeting |url=http://www.wemquakers.org.uk/index.php/meeting-style |author=Wem Quaker Meeting |access-date=21 January 2012 |archive-date=16 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130416064516/http://www.wemquakers.org.uk/index.php/meeting-style |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[London]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nwlondonquakers.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=35|title=NW London Quakers – Friends House Meeting|access-date=21 January 2012|archive-date=24 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624071254/http://www.nwlondonquakers.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=35|url-status=dead}}</ref> Small groups of Conservative Friends meet in Ripley and Greenwich in England, and Arbroath in Scotland,<ref name="RipleyAndArboarth">{{Cite web|url=http://www.rcquakers.lomaxes.me.uk/|title=IIS Windows Server|website=www.rcquakers.lomaxes.me.uk}}</ref> who follow the [[Ohio Yearly Meeting]]'s [[Book of Discipline (Quaker)|Book of Discipline]].<ref name=rcquakers>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rcquakers.lomaxes.me.uk/events/news.htm |title=News and Events |publisher=Ripley Christian Quakers |access-date=2 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218092051/http://www.rcquakers.lomaxes.me.uk/events/news.htm |archive-date=18 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
Evangelical Friends Central Europe Yearly Meeting has 4,306 members<ref name="FWCC2012"/> across six nations,<ref>{{Citation |title=Europe|author=Evangelical Friends Church International}}</ref> including Albania, Hungary and Romania.<ref name="FWCC2012"/>
[[Ireland Yearly Meeting]] is unprogrammed and more conservative than Britain Yearly Meeting. It has 1,591 members<ref name="FWCC2012"/> in 28 meetings<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quakers in Ireland |url=http://www.quakers-in-ireland.ie/ |author=Ireland Yearly Meeting}}</ref> across the Republic of Ireland, and in Northern Ireland.
German Yearly Meeting is unprogrammed and liberal and has 453 members,<ref name="FWCC2012"/> worshiping in 31 meetings in Germany and Austria.
Small groups of Friends in Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, and Ukraine attend meetings for worship there.<ref name="FWCC2012"/>
===
Middle East Yearly Meeting has meetings in [[Lebanon]] (Brummana Monthly Meeting) and [[Palestine]] (Ramallah Monthly Meeting).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Europe & Middle East Section |url=https://www.fwcc.directory/emes/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=FWCC Directory}}</ref>
The Ramallah Friends Meeting is in association with the [[Friends World Committee for Consultation]] and is affiliated with the [[Friends United Meeting]].<ref name="Friends United Meeting">{{Cite web |title=Middle East |url=https://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/where-we-work/middle-east |website=Friends United Meeting}}</ref>
There has been an active and vibrant Palestinian Quaker community in [[Ramallah]] since the late 1800s. In 1910 this community built the Ramallah Friends Meetinghouse and later added another building that was used for community outreach. The Ramallah Friends Meeting has always played a vital role in the community. In 1948 the buildings and grounds became home to many Palestinian refugees. Throughout the years, the members of the Ramallah Friends Meeting organised numerous community programs such as the Children's Play Centre, the First Day School, and women's activities.
By the early 1990s the Meetinghouse and Annex, which housed meeting rooms and bathroom facilities, fell into disrepair as a result of damage inflicted by time and the impact of conflict. So serious was the deterioration of the meetinghouse that by the middle 1990s it was impossible to use the building at all. A further blow to the Friends and the wider Palestinian community was the high level of emigration brought on by the economic situation and the hardships arising from continuing Israeli military occupation. The Meetinghouse, which had served as a place of worship for the Friends in Ramallah could no longer be used as such and the Annex could no longer be used for community outreach.
In 2002 a committee consisting of members of the Religious Society of Friends in the US and the Clerk of the Ramallah Meeting began to raise funds for the renovations of the buildings and grounds of the Meetinghouse. By November 2004 the renovations were complete, and on 6 March 2005, exactly 95 years to the day after the dedication, the Meetinghouse and Annex were rededicated as a Quaker and community resource. Friends meet every Sunday for unprogrammed Meeting for Worship. The meeting is open to Quakers and non-Quakers, including Muslims.
The Brummana Monthly meeting in Lebanon was founded in 1868. It is closely associated with the Brummana High School, which was founded by Quakers in 1873. Conflict and economic conditions have caused the meeting to drop in membership. There are presently around 35 attendees which meet every Sunday.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meetings in Europe & the Middle East |url=https://www.fwcc.directory/emesmeetings/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=FWCC Directory}}</ref>
===North and South America===
{{see also|Quakers in North America|Quakers in Latin America}}
Quakers can be found throughout the Americas. Friends in the United States in particular have diverse worship styles and differences of theology, vocabulary, and practice.
A local [[wikt:congregation|congregation]] in the unprogrammed tradition is called a ''meeting'', or a ''monthly meeting'' (e.g., ''Smalltown Meeting'' or ''Smalltown Monthly Meeting''). The reference to "monthly" is because the meeting meets monthly to conduct the group's business. Most "monthly meetings" meet for worship at least once a week; some meetings have several worship meetings during the week. In programmed traditions, local congregations are often referred to as "Friends Churches" or "Meetings".
Monthly meetings are often part of a regional group called a ''quarterly meeting'', which is usually part of an even larger group called a ''yearly meeting;'' with the adjectives "quarterly" and "yearly" referring specifically to the frequency of ''meetings for worship with a concern for business''.
Some yearly meetings, like Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, belong to larger organisations to help maintain order and communication within the Society. The three chief ones are [[Friends General Conference]] (FGC), [[Friends United Meeting]] (FUM), and [[Evangelical Friends Church International]] (EFCI). In all three groups, most member organisations, though not necessarily members, are from the United States. FGC is theologically the most liberal of the three groups, while EFCI is the most evangelical. FUM is the largest; it was originally known as "Five Years Meeting". Some monthly meetings belong to more than one larger organisation, while others are fully independent.
===Service organisations===
[[File:Quaker star-T.svg|thumb|upright|Star symbol used by many service organisations of the Religious Society of Friends]]
There are many Quaker service organizations dedicated to peace and humanitarian activities overseas. The first, the British [[Friends Service Council]] (FSC), was founded in Great Britain in 1927 and shared the 1947 [[Nobel Prize for Peace]] with the [[American Friends Service Committee]] (AFSC).<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/Friends-Service-Council|title= Friends Service Council|last=|first=|date= January 2017|website= Britannica|publisher= Encyclopædia Britantica|access-date= 16 July 2021 |quote= }}</ref>
The Quaker star is used by many Quaker service organizations, such as The American Friends Service Committee, Canadian Friends Service Committee and [[Quaker Peace and Social Witness]] (previously Friends Service Council). It was originally used by British Quakers performing [[Humanitarian aid|war relief]] efforts during the [[Franco-Prussian War]] to distinguish themselves from the [[Red Cross]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gill |first=Rebecca |date=2009 |title=The Rational Administration of Compassion?: The Origins of British Relief in War |url=http://www.cairn.info/revue-le-mouvement-social-2009-2-page-9.htm |journal=Le Mouvement Social |language=fr |volume=227 |issue=2 |pages=9 |doi=10.3917/lms.227.0009 |s2cid=144568446 |issn=0027-2671|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Today the star is used by multiple Quaker organizations as their symbol to represent "a common commitment to service and the spirit in which it is provided."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-03-30 |title=The Red and Black Star |url=https://www.afsc.org/story/red-and-black-star |access-date=2021-07-14 |website=American Friends Service Committee |language=en |archive-date=14 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714190704/https://www.afsc.org/story/red-and-black-star |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Relations with other churches and faiths==
===Ecumenical relations===
Prior to the 20th century Quakers considered the Religious Society of Friends to be a Christian movement, but many did not feel that their religious faith fit within the categories of [[Catholicism|Catholic]], [[Eastern Orthodox Christianity|Orthodox]], or [[Protestantism|Protestant]].<ref name="BBC Overview" /> Many Conservative Friends, while fully seeing themselves as orthodox Christians, choose to remain separate from other Christian groups.
Many Friends in Liberal Friends' meetings are actively involved in the [[ecumenism|ecumenical movement]], often working closely with other [[Mainline Protestant]] and liberal Christian churches, with whom they share common religious ground. A concern for peace and social justice often brings Friends together with other Christian churches and other Christian groups. Some Liberal Quaker yearly meetings are members of ecumenical pan-Christian organisations, which include Protestant and Orthodox churches—for example [[Philadelphia Yearly Meeting]] is a member of the [[National Council of Churches]].<ref name="ncccusa1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ncccusa.org/members/index.html |title=Members of the National Council of Churches |publisher=Ncccusa.org |access-date=14 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111125143317/http://www.ncccusa.org/members/index.html |archive-date=25 November 2011}}</ref> The [[Britain Yearly Meeting]] is a member of [[Churches Together in Britain and Ireland]], and [[Friends General Conference]] is a member of the [[World Council of Churches]].<ref name="oikoumene1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/church-families/friends-quakers.html |title=Friends (Quakers) |publisher=Oikoumene.org |access-date=14 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104180955/http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/church-families/friends-quakers.html |archive-date=4 November 2011}}</ref>
Guerneyite Friends would typically see themselves as part of an orthodox Christian movement and work closely with other Christian denominations. [[Friends United Meeting]] (the international organisation of Gurneyite yearly meetings) is a member of the [[National Council of Churches]]<ref name="ncccusa1"/> and the [[World Council of Churches]],<ref name="oikoumene1"/> which are pan-Christian organisations that include Lutheran, Orthodox, Reformed, Anglican and Baptist Churches, among others.<ref name="Harmon2010">{{Cite book |last1=Harmon |first1=Steven R. |title=Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity |date=15 March 2010 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-62189-277-9 |page=97 |language=en|quote=Since its creation, it has also established a cordial cooperation with the World Council of Churches and regularly names Catholic observers at various ecumenical gatherings and invites observers of "fraternal delegates" of other churches or ecclesial communities to major events of the Catholic Church. The PCPCU publishes a journal called ''Information Service'' four times a year, in English and French. The WCC is the broadest and most inclusive among the many organized expressions of the modern ecumenical movement. It brings together 349 churches, denominations and church fellowships in more than 100 countries and territories throughout the world, representing over 560 million Christians and including most of the world's Orthodox churches, scores of Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed churches, as well as many United and Independent churches. ... It describes itself as a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the Scriptures and therefore seek to fulfill together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the goal of visible unity in one faith and one Eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and in common life in Christ.}}</ref><ref name="Roberson1995">{{Cite book |last1=Roberson |first1=Ronald G. |title=Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Interchurch Marriages: And Other Pastoral Relationships |date=1995 |publisher=USCCB Publishing |isbn=978-1-55586-097-4 |page=81 |language=en |quote=These Churches are the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church, and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in India. In addition, an independent Orthodox Church of Eritrea was established following that country's independence from Ethiopia in 1993. All are members of the World Council of Churches and have committed themselves to the contemporary ecumenical movement. In total, there are probably about thirty million Oriental Orthodox faithful in the world today.}}</ref>
Evangelical Friends work closely with other [[evangelism|evangelical churches]] from other Christian traditions. The North American branch of [[Evangelical Friends Church International]] is a member church of the [[National Association of Evangelicals]]. Evangelical Friends tend to be less involved with non-evangelical churches and are not members of the [[World Council of Churches]] or [[National Council of Churches]].
The majority of other Christian groups recognise Friends among their fellow-Christians.<ref name="BBC Overview" /> Some people who attend Quaker Meetings assume that Quakers are not Christians, when they do not hear overtly Christian language during the meeting for worship.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/18/quaker-religion-jesus-christianity |title=If Quakers were more Christian |work=The Guardian |date=16 July 2008 |access-date=14 November 2011}}</ref>
===Relations with other faiths===
Relationships between Quakers and non-Christians vary considerably, according to sect, geography, and history.
Early Quakers distanced themselves from practices that they saw as [[Paganism|pagan]]. For instance, they refused to use the usual names of the days of the week, since they were derived from the names of pagan deities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yount |first=David |title=How the Quakers invented America |year=2007 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc |isbn=978-0-7425-5833-5 |page=11}}</ref> They refused to celebrate [[Christmas]] because they believed it was based on pagan festivities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frost |first=Jerry William |title=The Quaker family in colonial America: a social history of the Society of Friends, Volume 2 |year=1968 |publisher=University of Wisconsin |___location=Madison, Wisconsin |page=436}}</ref>
Early Friends called on adherents of other world religions to turn to the 'Light of Christ within' that they believed was present in all people born into the world.<ref>For example, George Fox, ''Turcae, et omnibus sub ejus ditione, ut hoc perlegant quod ad salvationem eorum spectat'' (1660), pp. 10, 11, 13; cf. John 1:9)</ref> For example, George Fox wrote a number of open letters to [[Jew]]s and [[Muslim]]s, in which he encouraged them to turn to Jesus Christ as the only path to salvation (e.g., ''A Visitation to the Jews'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fox |first=George |title=A Visitation to the Jews. From Them Whom The Lord Hath Visited From on High, Among Whom He Hath Performed His Promise Made To Abraham, Isaac, And Jacob. The Mighty Day of the Lord Is Come, And Coming, Who Dwells Not in Temples Made With Hands, Nor Is He Worshipped With Men's Hands, But in the Spirit, From Whom The Scripture Was Given Forth |url=http://dqc.esr.earlham.edu:8080/xmlmm/docButtonB?XMLMMWhat=builtPageCorpusToc&XMLMMWhere=E12877488D-005&XMLMMBeanName=docBean&XMLMMNextPage=/tocPrintBuiltPageBrowse.jsp |work=Works of George Fox}}</ref> ''To the Great Turk and King of Algiers in Algeria, and all that are under his authority, to read this over, which concerns their salvation''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fox |first=George |title=The Works of George Fox: Gospel truth demonstrated, in a collection of doctrinal books, given forth by that faithful minister of Jesus Christ, George Fox: containing principles essential to Christianity and salvation, held among the people called Quakers |year=1821 |publisher=Marcus T. C. Gould |pages=216–221 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wuEYAAAAYAAJ |chapter=To the Great Turk and King of Algiers in Algeria, and all that are under his Authority, to read this over, which concerns their Salvation}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Fox |first=George |title=To the Great Turk and King of Algiers in Algeria, And All That Are Under His Authority, To Read This Over, Which Concerns Their Salvation (in: "Works of George Fox" (volume 4) |url=http://dqc.esr.earlham.edu:8080/xmlmm/docButtonB?XMLMMWhat=builtPage&XMLMMWhere=E12877488D-023.P00000215-UN&XMLMMBeanName=docBean&XMLMMNextPage=/printBuiltPageBrowse.jsp}}</ref> and ''To the Great Turk and King of Algiers in Algeria'').<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fox |first=George |title=To The Great Turk And King at Algiers in Algeria |url=http://dqc.esr.earlham.edu:8080/xmlmm/docButtonB?XMLMMWhat=builtPageCorpusToc&XMLMMWhere=E12877488F-003&XMLMMBeanName=docBean&XMLMMNextPage=/tocPrintBuiltPageBrowse.jsp|work=Works of George Fox (volume 6)}}</ref> In the letters to Muslim readers, Fox is exceptional for his time in his sympathetic and wide-ranging use of the [[Qur'an]], and his belief that its contents were consistent with Christian scripture.<ref>Matar, Nabil. 1989. 'Some Notes on George Fox and Islam'. ''Journal of the Friends' Historical Society'' 55: 271–76</ref><ref>Meggitt, Justin J. 2016. 'Islam and Christianity in the Works of George Fox'. In ''Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 8. Northern and Eastern Europe (1600–1700)'', edited by David Thomas and John Chesworth, 527–34. Leiden: Brill.</ref>
[[Mary Fisher (missionary)|Mary Fisher]] probably preached the same message when she appeared before the Muslim [[Mehmed IV]] (the Sultan of the [[Ottoman Empire]]) in 1658.<ref>{{cite book|last = Meggitt|first= Justin J.|date=2016|chapter=Mary Fisher|title =Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History|volume =8. Northern and Eastern Europe (1600–1700)|editor1-first=David|editor1-last= Thomas |editor2-first= John|editor2-last= Chesworth|pages= 367–74|___location= Leiden|publisher = Brill|isbn=9789004326637}}</ref>
In 1870, Richard Price Hallowell argued that the logical extension of Christian Quakerism is a universal Church, which "demands a religion which embraces Jew, Pagan and Christian, and which cannot be limited by the dogmas of one or the other".<ref name=Hollowell1870/>
Since the late 20th century, in part due to the allowance of [[Religious pluralism]] & [[Universalism]], some attenders at Liberal Quaker Meetings have actively identified with world faiths other than Christianity, such as [[Judaism]], [[Islam]],<ref name=makingmuslimquaker/> [[Buddhism]]<ref name=mindfulquaker/> and [[Paganism (contemporary)|Paganism]]. This occurrence evolved from the idea in Liberal Quaker circles that the Inward light is found in Christians and non-Christians alike and influenced the Holy Writ of other faiths.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}
==See also==
* ''[[The Light upon the Candlestick]]'' – a 17th-century tract which was popular among English Quakers
* [[List of Christian denominations#Quaker|List of Christian denominations]]
* {{annotated link|Peace Testimony}}
* {{annotated link|Testimony of equality}}
* {{annotated link|Testimony of integrity}}
* {{annotated link|Testimony of simplicity}}
* [[Shakers]]
==References==
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal>{{Cite book |title=George Fox: An Autobiography (George Fox's Journal) |year=1694 |author=George Fox |url=http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/title.html |access-date=7 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926224431/http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/title.html |archive-date=26 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
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<ref name=Abramson1994>{{Cite book |title=We, The Jury |last=Abramson |first=Jeffrey |year=1994 |publisher=Harvard University Press |___location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-674-00430-2 |pages=68–72}}</ref>
<ref name=AISecretariatArchives>{{Cite web |url=http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/a/10739035full.php |title=Amnesty International Secretariat Archives |publisher=International Institute of Social History}}</ref>
<ref name=Voltaire>{{Cite book |url=http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Html/12/04ess140.html |title=Essai sur les moeurs (in French) |author=Voltaire |chapter=Chapter 136: Suite de la religion d'Angleterre |year=1756}}</ref>
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<ref name="Claridge1838"> {{Cite book |chapter=Selections from the Memoirs of Richard Claridge |title=including His Reasons for refusing to pay Steeple-House and Warden's Rates and Tithes. Addressed to his Neighbours |url=https://archive.org/details/selectionsfromm00clargoog |author=Richard Claridge |author2=Posthumous publication |author3=anonymous editor |year=1838| publisher=John Harrison|___location=Manchester| page=n6 in electronic page field |access-date=3 January 2010}} Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)</ref>
<ref name=Fager>{{Cite web|url=http://www.quaker.org/quest/ministers-1.htm|title=The Trouble with 'Ministers'|author=[[Chuck Fager]]}}</ref>
<ref name=FloridaStatutes741.07>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nationalnotary.org/userimages/florida.pdf |title=Florida Statutes: 741.07 Persons authorized to solemnize matrimony) |date=20 October 2006}}</ref>
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<ref name=Hollowell1870>{{Cite book |title=The Quakers in New England: An Essay |year=1870 |first=Richard Price |last=Hollowell |page=26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6IOQcwb7xTYC |publisher=Merrihew & Son, Printers}}</ref>
<ref name="makingmuslimquaker">{{cite magazine|first =Brett|last= Miller-White |date=2004|url=http://www.quaker.org/quest/issue-10-muslim-white-01.htm |title=The Journeyman – The Making of a Muslim Quaker|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070718131342/http://www.quaker.org/quest/issue-10-muslim-white-01.htm |archive-date=18 July 2007 |magazine=Quaker Theology|volume= 10}}</ref>
<ref name="mindfulquaker">Brown, Valerie (2006), ''The Mindful Quaker''.</ref>
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<ref name="Penn&Claridge1817"> {{Cite book |title=Extracts from The Writings of William Penn & Richard Claridge, on the Death and Sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ |url=https://archive.org/details/extractsfromwri00clargoog |author=William Penn & Richard Claridge|author2=Posthumous publication |author3=anonymous editor |year=1817| publisher=William and Samuel Graves |___location=London| page=n6 in electronic page field |access-date=3 January 2010}} Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)</ref>
<ref name="PH377">#377, Pendle Hill, 2005</ref>
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<ref name="PeningtonLetter">{{Cite web |url=http://www.qhpress.org/texts/penington/letter40.html |title=Isaac Penington to Thomas Walmsley (1670) |publisher=Quaker Heritage Press |access-date=2 May 2010}}</ref>
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<ref name="praise2009">{{Cite news |author=Editorial |title=In praise of... the Quakers |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=31 July 2000 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/aug/01/in-praise-of-the-quakers |access-date=12 November 2014}}</ref>
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<ref name="QinGB">{{Cite book |title=Quaker faith & practice |edition=3rd |author=Britain Yearly Meeting |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/qfp |isbn=0-85245-306-X |year=1999 |publisher=Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain |___location=London}}</ref>
<ref name="quakerfinder">{{Cite web |url=http://www.quakerfinder.org/ |title=Quaker Finder |publisher=Friends General Conference |access-date=26 July 2009}}</ref>
<ref name=QuakerTestimonies2005>{{Cite book |title=Living What We Believe: Quaker Testimonies: a way of living faithfully (leaflet) |author=Testimonies Committee of [[Quaker Peace and Social Witness]] |year=2005}}</ref>
<!--<ref name=BYMSubjectGuides>{{Cite web |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/subject-guides |title=Library of the Society of Friends Subject Guides |publisher=[[Britain Yearly Meeting]]}}</ref> -->
<ref name=QuakersinScotland>{{Cite web |url=http://www.quakerscotland.org/businessmeetings |title=Guide to Quaker Business Meetings |date=5 March 2007 |publisher=Quakers in Scotland}}</ref>
<ref name="QWRC-intro">{{Cite report |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/files/ymg-2009-epistles-and-testimonies.pdf |title=Epistles & testimonies: compiled for Yearly Meeting Gathering to be held 25 July–1 August 2009 at the University of York |page=5 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726194444/http://www.quaker.org.uk/files/ymg-2009-epistles-and-testimonies.pdf |archive-date=26 July 2011 |contribution=Introduction from Quaker World Relations Committee}}</ref>
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<ref name="Rush2002">David Rush (2002) [http://www.universalistfriends.org/rush.html They Too Are Quakers: A Survey of 199 Nontheist Friends] ''The Woodbrooke Journal'', 11 (Winter)</ref>
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<ref name="testimonies">{{Cite web |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/Quaker%20Testimonies%20leaflet.pdf |title=Quaker Testimonies leaflet |publisher=[[Britain Yearly Meeting]] |access-date=19 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115151224/http://www.quaker.org.uk/sites/default/files/Quaker%20Testimonies%20leaflet.pdf |archive-date=15 January 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="Wilburite-Gurneyite">{{Cite web |url=http://www.snowcamp.org/shocf/ |title=A short history of Conservative Friends |author=anonymous}}</ref>
*[www.maison-quaker-congenies.org/]
*[http://congenies.canalblog.com]
}}
==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
*{{Cite book |title=Historical Dictionary of The Friends (Quakers) |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-4483-4 |editor1=Abbott, Margery |editor2=Chijioke, Mary Ellen |editor3=Dandelion, Pink |editor4=Oliver, John William |date=June 2003 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Anderson|first=Verily |author-link=Verily Anderson |title=Friends and Relations: Three Centuries of Quaker Families |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |date=1980}}
*{{Cite book |last=Bacon|first=Margaret Hope |title=The Quiet Rebels: The Story of the Quakers in America |date=April 2000 |publisher=Pendle Hill Publications |isbn=978-0-87574-935-8 |page=249 }}
*Margaret Hope Bacon, "Quakers and Colonization" ''Quaker History''. 95 (Spring 2006), 26–43
*Hugh Barbour and J. William Frost, ''The Quakers''. (1988), 412 pp.; historical survey, including many capsule biographies [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98470032 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627174456/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98470032 |date=27 June 2012 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Barbour|first=Hugh |title=The Quakers in Puritan England |date=October 1985 |publisher=Friends United Press |isbn=978-0-913408-87-2 |page=272}}
*Philip Benjamin, ''Philadelphia Quakers in an Age of Industrialism, 1870–1920'' (1976)
*J. Brent Bill, ''Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality'' (2005), {{ISBN|1-55725-420-6}}
*David Boulton, ed., 2006, ''Godless for God's Sake: Nontheism in Contemporary Quakerism.'' Dales Historical Monographs. {{ISBN|0-9511578-6-8}}
*Michael L. Birkel, ''Silence and Witness: The Quaker Tradition'' (2004), {{ISBN|1-57075-518-3}} (in the UK, {{ISBN|0-232-52448-3}})
*William C. Braithwaite, ''The Beginnings of Quakerism''. (1912); revised by Henry J. Cadbury (1955) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=62095557 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721190623/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=62095557 |date=21 July 2012 }}
*William C. Braithwaite, ''Second Period of Quakerism''. (1919); revised by Henry Cadbury (1961), covers 1660 to 1720s in Britain
*Howard H. Brinton, ''Friends for 350 Years'' (1965), {{ISBN|0-87574-903-8}}
*Peter Brock, ''Pioneers of the Peaceable Kingdom''. (1968) on Peace Testimony from the 1650s to 1900
*Edwin B. Bronner, ''William Penn's Holy Experiment'' (1962)
*G. B. Burnet, ''Story of Quakerism in Scotland''. The Lutterworth Press (2007), Cambridge, {{ISBN|978-0-7188-9176-3}}
*Jennifer Connerley, ''Friendly Americans: Representing Quakers in the United States, 1850–1920'' PhD dissertation University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2006). 277 pp. Citation: DAI 2006 67(2): 600-A. DA3207363 online at [[ProQuest Dissertations & Theses]]
*Wilmer A. Cooper, ''A Living Faith: An Historical and Comparative Study of Quaker Beliefs'' 2nd ed. (2000), {{ISBN|0-944350-53-4}}
*A. Glenn Crothers, ''Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth: The Society of Friends in Northern Virginia, 1730–1865''. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2012
*Pink Dandelion, ''A Sociological Analysis of the Theology of the Quakers: The Silent Revolution'' ([[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 1996), {{ISBN|0-7734-8807-3}}
*Pink Dandelion, ''The Quakers: A Very Short Introduction'' (2008), {{ISBN|978-0-19-920679-7}}
*Adrian Davies, ''The Quakers in English Society, 1655–1725'' (2000) 261 pp.
*Robert Doherty, ''The Hicksite Separation''. (1967), uses the new social history to inquire who joined which side
*Mary Maples Dunn, ''William Penn: Politics and Conscience'' (1967)
*J. William Frost, ''The Quaker Family in Colonial America: A Portrait of the Society of Friends''. (1973), emphasis on social structure and family life
*J. William Frost, "The Origins of the Quaker Crusade against Slavery: A Review of Recent Literature", ''Quaker History'' 67 (1978): 42–58. {{JSTOR|41946850}}
*Jonathan Fryer, ed., ''George Fox and the Children of the Light'' (London: Kyle Cathie, 1991), {{ISBN|1-85626-024-0}}
*Harvey Gillman, ''A Light that is Shining: Introduction to the Quakers'' (1988), {{ISBN|0-85245-213-6}}
*George H. Gorman, ''Introducing Quakers'' (3rd revised reprint) (London: Quaker Home Service, 1981), {{ISBN|0-85245-005-2}}
*Gerard Guiton, ''The Growth and Development of Quaker Testimony'' (2005), {{ISBN|0-7734-6002-0}}
*Thomas Hamm, ''The Quakers in America''. (2003). 293 pp., strong analysis of current situation, with brief history
*Thomas Hamm, ''The Transformation of American Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800–1907''. (1988), looks at the impact of the Holiness movement on the Orthodox faction
*Thomas D. Hamm, ''Earlham College: A History, 1847–1997''. (1997) 448 pp.
*Jean Hatton, ''Betsy: The Dramatic Biography of Prison Reformer Elizabeth Fry'' (2005), {{ISBN|1-85424-705-0}} and {{ISBN|0-8254-6092-1}}
*Jean Hatton, ''George Fox: Founder of the Quakers'' (2007), {{ISBN|1854247530}} and {{ISBN|978-0-8254-6106-4}}
*Hubbard, Geoffrey, ''Quaker by Convincement''. (1985), {{ISBN|0-85245-189-X}} and (1974), {{ISBN|0-14-021663-4}}
*Joseph E. Illick, ''Colonial Pennsylvania: A History'' (1976). [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=4151675# online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529074305/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=4151675 |date=29 May 2012 }}
*H. Larry Ingle, ''First Among Friends: George Fox and the Creation of Quakerism'' (1994), {{ISBN|0-19-507803-9}} and (1996), {{ISBN|0-19-510117-0}}
*H. Larry Ingle, ''Nixon's First Cover-up: The Religious Life of a Quaker President'' (2015), {{ISBN|978-0-8262-2042-4}}
*H. Larry Ingle, ''Quakers in Conflict: The Hicksite Reformation'' (1998), {{ISBN|0-87574-926-7}}
*Sydney James, ''A People among Peoples: Quaker Benevolence in Eighteenth-Century America''. (1963), broad-ranging study that remains the best history in America before 1800
*Rufus M. Jones, Amelia M. Gummere and Isaac Sharpless. ''Quakers in the American Colonies'' (1911), history to 1775 [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6633084 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626172047/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6633084 |date=26 June 2012 }}
*Rufus M. Jones, ''Later Periods of Quakerism''. 2 vols. (1921), covers England and America until World War I.
*Rufus M. Jones, ''The Story of George Fox''. (1919) 169 pp. [https://archive.org/details/storygeorgefox00jonegoog online edition]
*Rufus M. Jones, ''A Service of Love in War Time: American Friends Relief Work in Europe, 1917–1919'' (1922) [https://archive.org/details/aserviceloveinw01jonegoog online edition]
*Ryan Jordan, "The Dilemma of Quaker Pacifism in a Slaveholding Republic, 1833–1865", ''Civil War History'' Vol. 53, (2007) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5020095133 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729212133/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5020095133 |date=29 July 2012 }}
*Ryan Jordan, ''Slavery and the Meetinghouse: The Quakers and the Abolitionist Dilemma, 1820–1865''. (2007) 191 pp.
*Thomas C. Kennedy, ''British Quakerism, 1860–1920: The Transformation of a Religious Community''. (2001). 477 pp.
*Rebecca Larson, ''[[Daughters of Light]]: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad, 1700–1775'' (1999) 399 pp.
*James David LeShana, {{"'}}Heavenly Plantations': Quakers in Colonial North Carolina." PhD dissertation: University of California, Riverside 1998. 362 pp. DAI 2000 61(5): 2005-A. DA9974014 Fulltext: [[ProQuest Dissertations & Theses]]
*Mark Minear, ''Richmond, 1887: A Quaker Drama Unfolds'' (1987), {{ISBN|9780913408988}}
*Rosemary Moore, ''The Light in Their Consciences: The Early Quakers in Britain 1646–1666'' (2000) 314 pp. {{ISBN|0-271-01989-1}}
*John A. Moretta, ''William Penn and the Quaker Legacy'' (2007), {{ISBN|0-321-16392-3}}
*Michael Mullet, ed., ''New Light on George Fox (1624 to 1691)'' (1994), {{ISBN|1-85072-142-4}}
*Gary Nash, ''Quakers and Politis: Pennsylvania, 1680–1726'' (1968)
*John Punshon, ''Portrait in Grey : A Short History of the Quakers'' (2nd ed.) (London: Quaker Books, 2006), {{ISBN|0-85245-399-X}}
*Ane Marie Bak Rasmussen, ''A History of the Quaker Movement in Africa'' (1994) 168 pp.
*Elbert Russell, ''The History of Quakerism'' (1942) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=72364552 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110915215144/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=72364552 |date=15 September 2011 }}
*Harold Smuck, ''Friends in East Africa'' (Richmond, Indiana: 1987)
*Douglas Steere, (1967) [http://pamphlets.quaker.org/phd/php151_jr.html On Being Present Where You Are] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214144038/http://pamphlets.quaker.org/phd/php151_jr.html |date=14 December 2007 }} Wallingford, Pa: Pendle Hill Pamphlet No. 151
*Frederick B. Tolles, ''Meeting House and Counting House'' (1948), on Quaker businessmen in colonial Philadelphia
*Frederick B. Tolles, ''Quakers and the Atlantic Culture'' (1960)
*[[D. Elton Trueblood]] ''The People Called Quakers'' (1966)
*John Michael Vlach, "Quaker Tradition and the Paintings of Edward Hicks: A Strategy for the Study of Folk Art", ''Journal of American Folklore'' Vol. 94 (1981) {{doi|10.2307/540122}} {{JSTOR|540122}}
*Karen Anna Vogel, ''Christmas Union: Quaker Abolitionists of Chester County, PA'' (2014) ,Murray Pura's Cry of Freedom Series, Volume 5
*James Walvin, ''The Quakers: Money and Morals'' (1997) 243 pp.
*Clarence H. Yarrow, ''The Quaker Experience in International Conciliation'' (1979) for post-1945
{{refend}}
===Primary sources===
{{refbegin}}
*J. Brent Bill, ''Imagination and Spirit: A Contemporary Quaker Reader'' (2002) {{ISBN|0-944350-61-5}}
*Amelia Gummere, ed. ''The Journal and Essays of John Woolman'' (1922) [https://archive.org/details/journalandessay01woolgoog online edition]
*Rufus M. Jones, ed. ''The Journal of George Fox: An Autobiography'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926224431/http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/title.html#contents online edition]
*Lucretia Coffin Mott, ed. Beverly Wilson Palmer, ''Selected Letters of Lucretia Coffin Mott'', U. of Illinois Press, (2002) 580 pp.
*Robert Lawrence Smith, ''A Quaker Book of Wisdom'' (1999) {{ISBN|0-688-17233-4}}
*[[Jessamyn West (writer)|Jessamyn West]], ed. ''The Quaker Reader'' (1962) {{ISBN|0-87574-916-X}} collection of essays by Fox, Penn and other notable Quakers
{{Refend}}
===Children's books===
{{Refbegin}}
* Marguerite De Angeli, ''Thee, Hannah!'' {{ISBN|0-8361-9106-4}}
* [[Katherine Milhous]]
** ''[[The Egg Tree]]'' {{ISBN|978-0-689-71568-6}}
** ''Appolonia's Valentine'' {{ISBN|978-0-684-92306-2}}
* Brinton Turkle
** ''The Adventures of Obadiah'' {{ISBN|0-670-10614-3}}
** ''Obadiah the Bold'' {{ISBN|1-893103-19-6}}
** ''Rachel and Obadiah'' {{ISBN|1-893103-18-8}}
** ''Thy Friend, Obadiah'' {{ISBN|0-14-050393-5}}
{{Refend}}
==External links==
* [https://www.efcer.org/ Evangelical Friends Church], the largest Quaker association
* [https://www.centralfriendscamp.org/the-friends-evangel The Friends Evangel], Quaker publication
* [https://friendsmission.com/ Evangelical Friends Mission], international Quaker mission work
* [https://www.quakerinfo.com/rdf.shtml Richmond Declaration of Faith of the Religious Society of Friends (1887)]
* [https://nwfriends.org/ Northwestern Yearly Meeting], Friends congregations in the western US
* [https://friendsofthelight.org.uk/ Friends of the Light in England]
* [https://www.plainquakers.org/ Friends in Christ in Scotland]
* [http://dqc.esr.earlham.edu:8080/xmlmm/login.html Digital Quaker Collection: – a list of Christian Quaker literature]
* [http://www.prdl.org/authors.php?a_in=ALL&era=Early%20Modern&tradition=Quaker Post Reformation Digital Library: a library of early modern Quaker texts]
* [https://www.fgcquaker.org/quakerism/ Online resource for information from the Friends General Conference], a Liberal Quaker association
* [http://www.qhpress.org/index.html Quaker Heritage Press] publishes etexts of rare and out-of-print Quaker documents.
* [https://quakernews.org/ Quaker News] collects and combines news from various Quaker Meetings and organizations into a single chronological “newsfeed”.
* {{Gutenberg author|id=31896}}
* {{Internet Archive author|name=Society of Friends}}
* [https://archives.isl.lib.in.us/repositories/2/resources/299 Society of Friends Church history collection], Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library
{{Religious Society of Friends|state=expanded}}
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