Intro to Quakerism

office or attend universities, as they continued to refuse to swear oaths. This led many Friends to turn to business for their livelihood. Becoming known for their integrity, many Friends became successful. Quaker merchants established a practice of charging a single, fair price for their products or services, as opposed to the customary practice of bargaining over price. This Quaker practice became widely accepted. The Quaker movement arose in England in the mid 17th Century during the period of political and religious ferment of the English Civil War. The The growth of the Quaker movement required the establishment of conflict between the authority of the King and of his established church structures to sustain it. Meetings sprang up across England, Wales, Ireland and the authority of Parliament, supported by dissenting puritans, and the American colonies. These led to regional meetings, usually known opened the door to a radical rethinking of both political forms of as quarterly meetings because they met quarterly, and eventually to a government and of religious views and practices. national or Yearly Meeting based in London. Additional yearly meetings eventually sprang up in New England, Philadelphia and elsewhere. From George Fox was one of many religious “seekers” alienated by the hollow the Meeting for Sufferings grew the national leadership. rituals of the church and the mechanistic use of scripture by the “priests” and by the calvinist teachings of predestination that condemned all but From the very beginning of the Quaker movement, women played an the elect to eternal damnation regardless of the lives they led. After years active and important role. Unlike in other Christian bodies, Quakers of spiritual struggle, unable to find anyone who could “speak to my recognized the spiritual equality of women to receive and preach the condition,” Fox had an “opening” in 1647 in which he realised “that there gospel. Many women were among the first Quaker missionaries. Many is one, even Christ Jesus that can speak to thy condition and when I heard suffered imprisonment, whippings and death. Mary Dyer was among four it my heart did leap for joy.” It was in the insight that “Christ has come to Quakers hanged in Boston in 1660. Margaret Fell played a key role in teach his people himself” that he found his message. He soon found other building the Quaker movement by establishing the Kendal Fund that like-minded “seekers” and the Quaker movement was born. supported Friends travelling in the ministry and helped coordinate their work . The Quaker movement was a revolutionary rejection of the man-made structures, doctrines and dogmas that had accumulated over the history During this early period, disagreements arose among Friends as the of the organised church. The Quaker goal was to regain the spirit that movement evolved from a loose gathering of individuals united in their had been present in the time of the Apostles. As in other revolutionary faith into an organisation faced with surviving persecution and clarifying periods, there was a sense, that a new world was in the making. For its practices and message. Most of these disagreements reflected a Quakers, it was the anticipation of the coming “Day of the Lord” when tension between the soundness of individual revelation against the the Kingdom of God would come to earth – not by a physical second authority of the meeting. The “hat controversy” around John Perrot’s coming of Christ, but by the acceptance of Christ speaking to the heart insistence that whether or not a Friend removed his hat during prayer of every man and woman. For this to happen, the corruption of the church was up to the individual, was an example. Another, known as the had to be swept away by the “Lambs War.”Quakers used the imagery of Wilkinson-Story controversy revolved around the question about whether the Book of Revelations to describe the Lambs War. The dragon regular scheduling meetings for worship was acceptable or whether represented the forces of evil in the world, Babylon the church, and the meetings should only be held when led by the Spirit. Out of these false prophets, both the priests of the established church and the puritan controversies evolved the Quaker process under which individual leadings divines. are tested by the Meeting to discern whether or not they are true leadings of the Spirit. Central to the Quaker message was the Light of Christ that shines into the soul of each man and woman “that cometh into the world,” which Prepared by the Ministry & Care Committee, Cleveland Meeting, Religious uncovers their sins and shows them how to walk obediently in the way of Society of Friends (2019) God. By obeying the Light, men and women could be restored to wholeness and unity with God – to the nature of Adam and Eve of before as well as the rapid growth of their movement which seemed to threaten the fall. The Kingdom of God is within. It is not something in the future the political establishment, resulted in attacks by the state and or after death. It is present now to anyone who obeys the Light. The persecution, both during the periods of the Commonwealth and the Quaker message was that we are not condemned to be sinners in this life. Protectorate, following the execution of the King in 1649, and the Christ died not to forgive us from our sins after death, but to deliver us restored monarchy after 1660. The Quaker Peace Testimony was first from sinning and be reconciled to God in this life. issued in 1661 in which Friends declared that their struggle was spiritual Between 1647 and 1652, George Fox recruited like-minded seekers in the and not “carnal” and “that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, English Midlands and Yorkshire such as Elizabeth Hooton, James Nayler, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward Francis Howgill, Richard Farnworth and William Dewsbury. A thousand weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this people were “convinced” at a large outdoor meeting at Firbank Fells in world.” 1652, before Fox travelled into Lancashire. On his way there he climbed Quakers were routinely attacked by mobs, meetings were broken up by to the top of Pendle Hill, where he had a vision of “a people to be gathered.” soldiers, property was confiscated. Thousands were imprisoned for One of his first stops was at the home of Margaret Fell who was known refusing to take oaths, pay tithes or take off their hats before judges. for giving hospitality to itinerant preachers at here home at Swarthmore Hundreds died in prison. Unlike other dissenting religious groups, Hall. Fell became convinced when she accompanied Fox to the local however, Quakers refused to go underground. One of their harshest church where he challenged the local minister’s sermoning. As recorded critics, Puritan divine Richard Baxter, observed that “Yea, many turned by Fell, he asked Quakers because the Quakers kept their meetings openly and went to prison for it cheerfully.” There were cases, such as at Reading in 1664, You will say, Christ saith this, and the apostles say this; but what canst thou say? Art where all the adults were imprisoned and the Meeting was maintained thou a child of Light and hast walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?’ by the children. “We are all thieves” she realised, “we have taken the Scriptures in words Active persecution lasted some 40 years and shaped the structure and and know nothing of them in ourselves.” character of the Religious Society of Friends, as it came to be known. Persecution taught Quakers how to organise and respond to difficult Unlike the puritans for whom the Bible was the “word of God,” Quakers situations. They learnt to publicise their persecution by keeping detailed held that the Bible could only be understood in the spirit in which it had records in a Book of Sufferings of every Friend persecuted. They originally been written and not “in the letter” “formed and imagined in organized help for the families of imprisoned Friends. They petitioned thy mind.” The true source of authority was the Spirit of Christ that spoke for the release of prisoners. They learned to use the law to defend victims. directly to the heart. The trial of William Penn and William Mead in 1671, for refusing to pay a Fox continued his travelling ministry into Northwest England, where fine for attending Quaker worship, established for the first time the thousands more joined him including Edward Burrough, Richard authority of a jury to disregard the instructions of a judge. These lessons Hubberthorne, John Camm, John & Mary Audland. Beginning in 1654, learnt during the persecutions were years later put to use in Quaker work these and other Quaker missionaries spread their message into the South in social movements such as the abolition of slavery, prison reform, of England while others travelled to the American colonies and to the women’s right to vote, and resistance to war. Continent. Quaker missionaries even travelled to bring their message to Some Quakers sought to escape persecution by leaving for the American the Turkish sultan and the Pope. Quakers learnt to effectively use printed colonies, especially to Rhode Island, New Jersey, and after 1682, to books and pamphlets to spread and defend their message. Pennsylvania where William Penn tried to establish a “peaceable The Quaker message of the Light of Christ ,their rejection of biblicism, kingdom” based on Quaker values. It was not until the Act of Toleration their belief in perfectibility, their bold challenges to the religious of 1689 that the persecution began to taper off, although not completely.

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