Quakers

{{Main|History of the Quakers}}

{{see also|Britain Yearly Meeting#History}}

File:Fox by Lely 2.jpg

Religious strife in the Kingdom of England had existed for centuries, with proto-Protestant groups (mainly the Lollards) popping up before the English Reformation brought radical ideas to the mainstream. During and after the English Civil War (1642–1651) many 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 nonconformists. He claimed to have received a revelation that "there is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition", 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 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". Following this he travelled around England, the 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}} and 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.]}} 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. Fox considered himself to be restoring a true, "pure" Christian church.

In 1650, Fox was brought before the 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".{{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.{{Cite book |author=Margery Post Abbott |title=Historical dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) |year=2003 |page=xxxi|display-authors=etal}} 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, 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 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".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. The overall number of Quakers increased to a peak of 60,000 in England and Wales by 1680{{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}} (1.15% of the population of England and Wales). But the dominant discourse of Protestantism viewed the Quakers as a blasphemous challenge to social and political order,{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=6}} 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 (1687–1688) 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}}.{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=13}} 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.{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=53, 130}} 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. Quaker women were also responsible for the spirituality of the larger community, coming together in "meetings" that regulated marriage and domestic behaviour.{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=78}}

{{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 and Ann Austin began preaching in Boston.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Friends, Society of |volume=11 |page=227 |first=Alfred |last=Brayshaw}} 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.Edward Digby Baltzell, Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia (1996) p. 86. Their books were burned, and most of their property confiscated.

File:Mary dyer being led.jpg

In 1660, English Quaker Mary Dyer was hanged near{{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}} Boston Common for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony.{{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}} She was one of the four executed Quakers known as the Boston martyrs. In 1661, King Charles II forbade Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism.{{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}} In 1684, England revoked the Massachusetts charter, sent over a royal governor to enforce English laws in 1686 and, in 1689, passed a broad Toleration Act.

File:William Penn at 22 1666.jpg

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".{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=113}} In 1665 Quakers established a meeting in Shrewsbury, New Jersey (now Monmouth County), and built a meeting house in 1672 that was visited by George Fox in the same year.{{Cite web |url=http://www.shrewsburyquakers.org/article/history |title=History of Shrewsbury Quakers|date=11 August 2014}} 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, Rhode Island, and 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 Tammany, leader of the Delaware tribe,{{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}} and other treaties followed between Quakers and Native Americans.{{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}} This peace endured almost a century, until the Penn's Creek Massacre of 1755.{{Cite web|url=http://www.penntreatymuseum.org/treaty.php|title=Penn Treaty Museum|website=www.penntreatymuseum.org}} Early colonial Quakers also established communities and meeting houses in North Carolina and Maryland, after fleeing persecution by the Anglican Church in Virginia.[https://www.dailypress.com/1989/01/15/quakers-often-fled-virginia/ "Quakers Often Fled Virginia"], Rowlings, Virginia, Daily Press, 15 January 1989

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 Bill of Rights to the 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.[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.

{{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.{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=58}} 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), and 13,859 by 1860 (0.07% of population). 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".{{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}}

{{cladogram|title=Divisions of the Religious Society of Friends

|caption=The divisions of Quakers 1800-1900s. Orthodox adopt "mainstream Protestant orthodoxy". Liberals value the Inner Light over the Bible. Conservatives want to conserve the Inner Light over outward evangelicalism. Late 1800s many meetings became programmed (pastoral) with splits by unprogrammed meetings. 2019 Beanite - 2 Yearly Meetings joined FGC, 1 YM remained unaffiliated. (US and world membership K=1,000. 49% in Africa)
WWI 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.Pink Dandelion (2007). An Introduction to Quakerism ({{ISBN|0521841119}}), p. 78. 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.

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".{{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}} 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.{{Cite book |last=Crothers |first=Glenn |title=Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth |pages=145}}

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.

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 by the atonement of Christ.{{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}}{{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.

File:Joseph John Gurney.jpg

Orthodox Friends became more evangelical during the 19th century{{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 }} and were influenced by the Second Great Awakening. This movement was led by British Quaker Joseph John Gurney. Christian Friends held Revival meetings 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.{{rp|page=157}} British Friends became involved with the Higher Life movement, with Robert Wilson from the Cockermouth meeting founding the Keswick Convention.{{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.{{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.

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, 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 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}}

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".Kennedy, Thomas Cummings British Quakerism 1860-1920: the transformation of a religious community Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 117. {{ISBN|0-19-827035-6}} This statement of faith was agreed to by 95 of the representatives at a meeting of Five Years Meeting Friends, but unexpectedly the Richmond Declaration was not adopted by London Yearly Meeting because a vocal minority, including Edward Grubb, opposed it.{{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}}

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.

File:BrummanaMissionHouse.jpg.]]

Following the Christian revivals 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.

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.{{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}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/team-member/rania-maayeh|title=Rania Maayeh|website=www.friendsunitedmeeting.org}} The Swiss missionary Theophilus Waldmeier founded Brummana High School in Lebanon in 1873.{{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 }}

Evangelical Friends Churches from Ohio Yearly Meeting sent missionaries to India in 1896,{{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}} 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.

{{Main|Quakers in science}}

The theory of evolution as described in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) was opposed by many Quakers in the 19th century,{{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}} 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.{{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 }} The influential Quaker scientist Edward Newman{{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}} 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 supported Darwin's theories, using the doctrine of progressive revelation. In the United States, Joseph Moore taught the theory of evolution at the Quaker Earlham College as early as 1861.{{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}} This made him one of the first teachers to do so in the Midwest.{{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}} Acceptance of the theory of evolution became more widespread in Yearly Meetings who moved toward liberal Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries.{{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}} However, creationism predominates within evangelical Friends Churches, particularly in East Africa and parts of the United States.

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.{{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}} This movement was particularly influenced by Rowntree, Grubb, and 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 of Christ on the Cross at Calvary. 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.{{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}}

File:Friends Ambulance Unit ambulance driver, with his vehicle in Wolfsburg, Germany.jpg

During World War I and World War II, Friends' opposition to war was put to the test. Many Friends became conscientious objectors and some 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.{{Cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Sian |title=Birmingham Remembering 1914–18}} Many British Quakers were conscripted into the Non-Combatant Corps during both world wars.

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.

A growing desire for a more fundamentalist approach among some Friends after the First World War began a split among Five Years Meetings. In 1924, the Central Yearly Meeting of Friends was started by some Friends who left the Five Years Meeting.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

File:SugarGroveFriendsDivision.jpg, 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.{{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}} Moreover, Quakerism initially was propelled by the nonconformist behaviours of its followers, especially women who broke from social norms.{{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}} By the 1660s, the movement had gained a more structured organisation, which led to separate women's meetings.{{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}} Through the women's meetings, women oversaw domestic and community life, including marriage. From the beginning, Quaker women, notably Margaret Fell, played an important role in defining Quakerism.{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=69, 221}}{{Cite book |last=Bacon |first=Margaret |title=Mothers of Feminism |pages=24}} 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.{{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 }} Quaker women published at least 220 texts during the 17th century.{{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}} 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.{{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}} 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.{{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]}} 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."{{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}}

{{See also|List of Quaker businesses, organizations and charities|List of Friends schools}}File:John Cadbury.jpg 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.{{Cite book |last1=King |first1=Mike |title=Quakernomics: An Ethical Capitalism |date=2014 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=9780857281128 |page=51}} Two notable examples were Abraham Darby I and Edward Pease. Darby and his family played an important role in the British Industrial Revolution with their innovations in ironmaking.{{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}}{{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}} 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. Other industries with prominent Quaker businesses included banking (Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays PLC), pharmaceuticals (Allen & Hanburys), chocolate (Cadbury and Fry's), confectionery (Rowntree), shoe manufacturing (Clarks), and biscuit manufacturing (Huntley & Palmers).{{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}} 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.{{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}}

Quakers have a long history of establishing educational institutions. Initially, Quakers had no ordained clergy, and therefore needed no seminaries for theological training. In England, Quaker schools sprang up soon after the movement emerged, with Friends School Saffron Walden being the most prominent.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]. Quaker schools in the UK and Ireland are supported by The Friends' Schools' Council.{{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}} 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 levels. In Kenya, Quakers founded several primary and secondary schools in the first half of the 20th century before the country's independence in 1963.{{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}}

International volunteering organisations such as Service Civil International and International Voluntary Service were founded by leading Quakers. Eric Baker, a prominent Quaker, was one of the founders of Amnesty International and of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.{{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 }}

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.{{Cite book |last1=Black |first1=Maggie |title=A Cause for Our Times: Oxfam – The First Fifty Years |date=1992 |publisher=Oxfam |page=9}} Irving and Dorothy Stowe co-founded Greenpeace with many other environmental activists in 1971, shortly after becoming Quakers.{{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 }}

{{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, e.g. in Pennsylvania. 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:{{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}} 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 Sr (1738–1812); James Phillips (1745–1799); and Richard Phillips.{{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}} 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.

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.{{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}}

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.{{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}} 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.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]", IIP Digital, 12 November 2008 Black Quaker Paul Cuffe, a sea captain and businessman, was active in the abolitionist and resettlement movement in the early part of that century.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

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".{{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/}}

{{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. Most Friends believe in continuing revelation: that God continuously reveals truth directly to individuals. George Fox, an "early Friend", said, "Christ has come to teach His people Himself". Friends often focus on trying to feel the presence of God. As 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..." Quakers reject the idea of priests, 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".{{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}}

Diverse theological beliefs, understandings of the "leading of the Holy Spirit," and statements of "faith and practice" have always existed among Friends.{{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}} 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 (Fox, 1671),{{Cite web |last=Fox |first=George |title=Letter to the Governor of Barbadoes |url=http://www.quakerinfo.com/barbados.shtml}} An Apology for the True Christian Divinity (Barclay, 1678),{{Cite book |last=Barclay |first=Robert |title=An Apology for the True Christian Divinity |year=1678 |url=http://www.qhpress.org/texts/barclay/apology/}} A Catechism and Confession of Faith (Barclay, 1690),{{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}} The Testimony of the Society of Friends on the Continent of America (adopted jointly by all Orthodox yearly meetings in the United States, 1830),{{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}} the Richmond Declaration of Faith (adopted by Five Years Meeting, 1887),{{Cite web|title=Richmond Declaration of Faith |url=http://www.quakerinfo.com/rdf.shtml|publisher=QuakerInfo.com}} and Essential Truths (Jones and Wood, adopted by Five Years Meeting, 1922).{{Cite web |title=Essential Truths |url=http://www.quakerinfo.com/esstruth.shtml |publisher=QuakerInfo.com}} Most yearly meetings make a public statement of faith in their own Book of Discipline, expressing Christian discipleship within the experience of Friends in that yearly meeting.

File:Microcosm of London Plate 064 - Quakers' Meeting (tone).jpg. At the front of the meeting house, the Recorded Ministers 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), 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. 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 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.

In 2007, total membership of such Yearly Meetings was around 1,642,{{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}} making them around 0.4% of the world family of Quakers.

{{See also|Evangelical Friends Church International}}

File:Old Camara 038.JPG Friends Church]]

Evangelical Friends regard Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, and have similar religious beliefs to other evangelical Christians. They believe in and hold high regard for penal substitution of the atonement of Christ on the Cross at Calvary, biblical infallibility, and the need for all to experience a relationship with God personally.{{Cite web |last=Evangelical Friends Church International |title=Friends Beliefs |url=http://www.evangelicalfriends.org/6}} 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. 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,{{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 }} some 39% of the total number of Friends worldwide.

{{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. They see Jesus Christ as their Teacher and Lord 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.{{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}}

{{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 perfection, that the early Friends had this understanding of holiness.{{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}}

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).{{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}}

{{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 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.

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 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 meeting house,{{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 Faith and Practice containing a range of religious experiences of what it means to be a Friend in that Yearly Meeting.

{{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.{{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}}

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. 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 Universalists, embracing the doctrine of universal reconciliation.

{{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.{{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}} Interest in non-theism resurfaced, particularly under the British Friend David Boulton, who founded the 40-member Nontheist Friends Network in 2011.{{Cite web |title=New Nontheist Friends Network in Britain |url=http://www.nontheistfriends.org/article/new-nontheist-friends-network-in-britain/ |publisher=nontheistfriends.org}} Non-theism is controversial, leading some Christian Quakers from within Britain Yearly Meeting to call for non-theists to be denied membership.{{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/}}

In one study of Friends in the Britain Yearly Meeting, some 30% of Quakers had views described as non-theistic, agnostic, or atheist.{{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}}{{Cite book |last=Heron |first=Alistair |title=Caring, Conviction, Commitment: Dilemmas of Quaker Membership Today |publisher=Quaker Home Service |location=London |year=1992}} 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.{{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.{{rp |p.52}} In the same survey, 86.9% said they believed in God.{{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}}

File:1688 germantown petition table.jpg, Quakers and Mennonites signed a common declaration denouncing slavery.]]

Quakers bear witness or "testify" to their religious beliefs in their spiritual lives, drawing on the Epistle of James exhortation that "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead".{{bibleverse|James|2:17|NIV}} 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.

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.{{cn|date=December 2024}} In his book Quaker Speak, British Friend Alastair Heron, lists the following testimonies of common practical values in Quaker belief:{{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}} integrity (or truth), peace, penal reform, plain language, relief of suffering, simplicity, social order, Sunday observance, sustainability, temperance and moderation; and opposition to the following: betting and gambling, capital punishment, conscription, hat-honour (the largely historical practice of dipping one's hat toward social superiors), oaths, slavery, times and seasons, and 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.Friends United Meeting in East Africa (2002) "[http://www.quakerinfo.com/eastafricafandp.pdf Christian Faith and Practice in the Friends Church]".

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).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 }}" 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.{{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}}

File:L1110854Coanwood Friends Meeting House.jpg

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).{{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}} 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.{{bibleverse|Mark|16:2|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|Luke|24:1|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|John|20:1|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|John|20:19|NIV}} The plain calendar emerged in the 17th century in England in the 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."{{cn|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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.swarthmore.edu/friends-historical-library/quaker-calendar|title = The Quaker Calendar|date = 8 July 2014}}

Like other Christian denominations derived from 16th-century 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.{{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}}

The Richmond Declaration, affirmed by the Orthodox branch of Quakerism, teaches the importance of the observance of the Lord's Day consistent with 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.{{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}}

{{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.

{{See also|Friends United Meeting|Evangelical Friends Church International|Central Yearly Meeting of Friends|}}

File:West Mansfield Friends Church.jpg]]

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 services 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.{{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{{rp |page=5}}), and evangelical meetings, including those affiliated to Evangelical Friends International, (who make up at least 40% of Friends worldwide.{{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 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.

{{See also|Conservative Friends|Friends General Conference|Britain Yearly Meeting|Beanite Quakerism|}}

{{external media |float=right |headerimage=frameless |video1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxjH4sa2RFI What to Expect in Quaker Meeting for Worship], QuakerSpeak{{Cite web |title=What to Expect in Quaker Meeting for Worship |publisher=QuakerSpeak |date=20 November 2014 |url=http://quakerspeak.com/what-to-expect-quaker-meeting-worship/ |access-date=25 April 2016}}}}

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 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%{{rp|5}} of Quakers. Those who worship in this way hold each person to be equal before God and capable of knowing the light of God directly. Anyone present may speak if feeling led to do so. Traditionally, Recorded Ministers were recognised for their particular gift in vocal ministry. This practice continues among Conservative Friends and Liberal Friends (e.g. New York Yearly Meeting,{{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}}), but many meetings where Liberal Friends predominate abolished this practice. London Yearly Meeting of Friends abolished the acknowledging and recording of Recorded Ministers in 1924.

{{Main|Quaker decision-making}}

File:Meeting in York.JPG]]

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 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.

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 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.

{{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.{{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}}

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 Offices, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Friends Committee on Scouting, the Quaker Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, and the Alternatives to Violence Project.

{{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 evangelical Christian Friends;{{Cite web |title=Friends Beliefs |url=http://www.evangelicalfriends.org/6 |publisher=Evangelical Friends Church International}} Friends United Meeting unites Friends into "fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved and obeyed as Teacher and Lord;"{{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}} and Friends General Conference links Quakers with non-creed, liberal religious beliefs. Many Quaker Yearly Meetings also belong to the Friends World Committee for Consultation, an international fellowship of Yearly Meetings from different Quaker traditions.

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 water 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.

File:George Fox marker Bunhill Fields.jpg 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}}

{{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. The pair exchange promises before God and gathered witnesses, and the meeting returns to open worship. 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.{{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}}

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."{{Cite web |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_quak.htm |title=The Society of Friends (Quakers) and Homosexuality |access-date=5 May 2015}} 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.

File:Quaker-Distribution-World.svg: {{Legend|#C0C0C0|No data}}

{{Legend|#FFE5E5|1–99}}

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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, 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.{{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}}

Although the total number of Quakers is around 377,500 worldwide, 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.– 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 }}. 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.

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.quakers.org.au/ |title=Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia Inc. |access-date=5 May 2015}} 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 in 1842 and in Auckland in 1885. In 1889 it was estimated that there were about 30 Quakers in Auckland.{{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}} The New Zealand Yearly Meeting, today consists of nine monthly meetings.{{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}} The Yearly Meeting published Quaker Faith and Practice in Aotearoa New Zealand, in 2003.

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.

{{main|Quakers in Europe}}

In the United Kingdom, the predominantly liberal and unprogrammed 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.{{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}} The number has declined steadily since the mid-20th century. Programmed meetings occur, including in Wem{{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 }} and London.{{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}} Small groups of Conservative Friends meet in Ripley and Greenwich in England, and Arbroath in Scotland,{{Cite web|url=http://www.rcquakers.lomaxes.me.uk/|title=IIS Windows Server|website=www.rcquakers.lomaxes.me.uk}} who follow the Ohio Yearly Meeting's Book of Discipline.{{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}}

Evangelical Friends Central Europe Yearly Meeting has 4,306 members across six nations,{{Citation |title=Europe|author=Evangelical Friends Church International}} including Albania, Hungary and Romania.

Ireland Yearly Meeting is unprogrammed and more conservative than Britain Yearly Meeting. It has 1,591 members in 28 meetings{{Cite web |title=Quakers in Ireland |url=http://www.quakers-in-ireland.ie/ |author=Ireland Yearly Meeting}} across the Republic of Ireland, and in Northern Ireland.

German Yearly Meeting is unprogrammed and liberal and has 453 members, 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.

Middle East Yearly Meeting has meetings in Lebanon (Brummana Monthly Meeting) and Palestine (Ramallah Monthly Meeting).{{Cite web |title=Europe & Middle East Section |url=https://www.fwcc.directory/emes/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=FWCC Directory}}

The Ramallah Friends Meeting is in association with the Friends World Committee for Consultation and is affiliated with the Friends United Meeting.{{Cite web |title=Middle East |url=https://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/where-we-work/middle-east |website=Friends United Meeting}}

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.{{Cite web |title=Meetings in Europe & the Middle East |url=https://www.fwcc.directory/emesmeetings/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=FWCC Directory}}

{{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 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.

File:Quaker star-T.svg

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).{{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= }}

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 war relief efforts during the Franco-Prussian War to distinguish themselves from the Red Cross.{{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}} 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."{{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 }}

Quakers prior to the 20th century 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 Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. 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 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.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

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 and the World Council of Churches, which are pan-Christian organisations that include Lutheran, Orthodox, Reformed, Anglican and Baptist Churches, among others.{{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.}}{{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.}}

Evangelical Friends work closely with other 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. 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.{{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}}

Relationships between Quakers and non-Christians vary considerably, according to sect, geography, and history.

Early Quakers distanced themselves from practices that they saw as 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.{{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}} They refused to celebrate Christmas because they believed it was based on pagan festivities.{{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}}

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.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) For example, George Fox wrote a number of open letters to Jews and Muslims, in which he encouraged them to turn to Jesus Christ as the only path to salvation (e.g., A Visitation to the Jews,{{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}} 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{{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}}{{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}} and To the Great Turk and King of Algiers in Algeria).{{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)}} 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.Matar, Nabil. 1989. 'Some Notes on George Fox and Islam'. Journal of the Friends' Historical Society 55: 271–76Meggitt, 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.

Mary Fisher probably preached the same message when she appeared before the Muslim Mehmed IV (the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire) in 1658.{{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}}

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".

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, Buddhism and 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}}

• The Light upon the Candlestick – a 17th-century tract which was popular among English Quakers
• List of Christian denominations
• {{annotated link|Peace Testimony}}
• {{annotated link|Testimony of equality}}
• {{annotated link|Testimony of integrity}}
• {{annotated link|Testimony of simplicity}}
• Shakers

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{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 }}

{{Cite book |title=The Quakers in New England: An Essay |year=1870 |author=Richard Price Hollowell |page=26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6IOQcwb7xTYC |publisher=Merrihew & Son, Printers}}

{{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}}

Valerie Brown (2006) The Mindful Quaker

{{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}}

{{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}}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.quakerfinder.org/ |title=Quaker Finder |publisher=Friends General Conference |access-date=26 July 2009}}

{{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}}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.quakerscotland.org/businessmeetings |title=Guide to Quaker Business Meetings |date=5 March 2007 |publisher=Quakers in Scotland}}

{{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}}

{{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}}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.snowcamp.org/shocf/ |title=A short history of Conservative Friends |author=anonymous}}

• [www.maison-quaker-congenies.org/]
• [http://congenies.canalblog.com]

}}

{{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 }} (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 U. 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: U. 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}}

{{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, ed. The Quaker Reader (1962) {{ISBN|0-87574-916-X}} collection of essays by Fox, Penn and other notable Quakers

{{Refend}}

{{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}}

• [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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{{Subject bar|Christianity|Religion|Philadelphia|Pennsylvania

|commons = Quaker

|d = Q170208

|n = Category:Quakers

|q = Quakers

|s = Portal:Quakers

|wikt = Quaker}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1652 establishments in England

Category:Christian groups with universalist beliefs

Category:Christian mysticism

Category:Peace churches

Category:Protestant denominations established in the 17th century

Category:Religious organizations established in the 1650s

Category:Silence