Westtown Monthly Meeting “Faith & Practice: Planting Seeds, Growing Leadership” Session 1: A Brief History of Quakerism and Westtown Monthly Meeting ~11:45 Participants get lunch ~12:00 Start Program Introduction 1) Session Objective: Explore key aspects of Quaker history in order to deepen our understanding of Friends testimonies – how we practice them today and our aspirations for the future. 2) Concerns, Leadings and Testimonies Throughout our history Friends have understood that we are not meant to conform to the ways of the world, but to live in obedience to the Light Within and through this witness to transform the world. An individual or group may feel a direct intimation of God’s will, a tender sense of a need or difficulty either within the meeting or in the larger community. Initially, such a concern may not be linked to any specific action, but may simply be a troubled sense that something is awry. When the concern gains clarity and focus, Friends refer to it as a “leading,” a sense of being called by God to undertake a particular course of action. The leading may be short-term or it may involve an ongoing transformation of the person’s life, the community, and even the world. When a leading to act in a public way arises, the Friend may seek to initiate a process of discernment and testing within the meeting. This testing process is a form of spiritual discipline for both the Friend with a leading and for the meeting community. It is intended to result in clearness for both regarding what is to be done. For more than 350 years, Friends have adopted practices that reflect deeply held, historically rooted attitudes towards living in the world. The collective experience of “concerns” and “leadings” over time has led to what Friends refer to as “testimonies.” The testimonies are outward expressions that reflect the inward experience of transformation through divine leading. Contemporary Friends may identify our testimonies as simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship using the acronym SPICES. However, in the past, the testimonies referenced specific acts of Friends responding to truth as they understood it. For instance, the testimony against taking oaths grew out of the intention to speak truth always and not only when one’s hand was on the Bible. Even today we say that our “testimony” is a demonstration in our outward lives of Spirit’s movement within us. PYM Faith & Practice, 2018 3) Sharing a name of a “weighty” Friend and/or memorable moment in Quaker history Early Quakerism in England Howard Brinton: “heroic or apostolic period”/PYM: “beginnings” ~1650-1700 • George Fox on Pendle Hill 1652 • Modeling equality in leadership: George Fox and Margaret Fell • Peace testimony: 1660 Declaration to King Charles II in the midst of civil war • Migration to North America: William Penn & The Holy Experiment • Quakers in New England: Mary Dyer & freedom of religion; Quaker merchants and… Quakerism in North America Brinton: “period of cultural creativeness”/PYM: “consolidation & withdrawal” ~1700-1800 • Westward expansion: relationship with Native Americans – treaties, Quaker Indian schools • Friends and slavery: George Fox, John Woolman • Pennsylvania: From governance to withdrawal from public life • Differing approaches to American Independence: Free Quakers “the fighting Quakers” • Founding of Westtown School “guarded education” Brinton: “the period of conflict and decline”/PYM: “schism and reform” ~1800-1900 • Hicksite-Orthodox and Wilburite-Guerneyite splits • Women’s rights and suffrage: Lucretia Coffin Mott, Susan B. Anthony Brinton: “the period of modernism”/PYM: “reconciliation” from 1900-1955 • Formation of Westtown Monthly Meeting • Quakers in the world: AFSC, FCNL, FWCC, FUM, Pendle Hill • PYM’s “unity in diversity” ~1955-2000 • Quaker Testimonies Today: SPICES = simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship Closing Questions and Discussion 1) What topics energized you? 2) What history did we leave out that you would have included? 3) What areas merit further exploration, and how? Resources on Quaker history – see below 1:00pm Close 2 Some Suggested Resources for Further Exploration Abbot, Margery Post, et. al., editors. 2003. Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers). Scarecrow Press. Bacon, Margaret Hope. 1986. Mothers of Feminism: The Story of Quaker Women in America. Bacon, Margaret Hope. 1990. Valiant Friend: The Life of Lucretia Mott. Walker & Co. Barbour, Hugh and Roberts, Arthur, editors. 1973. Early Quaker Writings, 1650-1700. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Bratis, Dean C. T. 2001. Quakers: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives. Glenmoore Corporation. Brinton, Howard H. 1952, 1964, 1980. Friends for 300 Years: The history and beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox started the Quaker Movement. Pendle Hill Publications and PYM. Bronner, Edwin B., editor. 1966. American Quakers Today. Philadelphia: Friends World Committee, American Section and Fellowship Council. Cadbury, Henry J. 1972. Friendly Heritage: Letters from the Quaker Past. A Friends Journal Book. Norwalk, CT: Silvermine Publishers. Comfort, William Wistar. 1956. The Quaker Persuasion: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow; A Handbook for Friends and Friends of the Friends. Philadelphia: Frederick H. Gloeckner. Comfort, William Wistar. 1944. William Penn, 1644-1718: A Tercentenary Estimate. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press de Hartog, Jan. 1972. The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga. New York: Athenium. de Hartog, Jan. 1980. The Lamb’s War: New York: Harper & Row/Athenium. Durham, Geoffrey. 2010. The Spirit of the Quakers. New Haven: Yale University Press. Gray, Elizabeth Janet. 1941. Penn. New York: The Viking Press. Hall, Francis B., editor. 1976. Friends in the Americas. Philadelphia: Friends World Committee, Section of the Americas and Dublin, IN: Prinit Press. Hamm, Thomas D. 1988. The Transformation of American Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800- 1907. Indiana University Press. Hamm, Thomas D. 2003. The Quakers in America. Columbia University Press. Hamm, Thomas D. 2013. "Hicksite, Orthodox, and Evangelical Quakerism, 1805-1887," in Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies. Oxford University Press. Hole, Helen G. 1942. Westtown Through the Years, 1799-1942. Westtown: Westtown Alumni Association. Jones, Rufus M. 1963. Quakerism: A Spiritual Movement. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Letchworth, Rachel K. 1975. Westtown in Trust. Westtown: Westtown School. 3 Marsh, Dawn G. 2014. A Lenape among the Quakers: The Life of Hannah Freeman. Mather, Eleanore Price. 1980. Pendle Hill: A Quaker Experiment in Education & Community. Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill. McDaniel, Donna McDaniel and Julye, Vanessa. 2009. Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans, and the Myth of Racial Justice. Philadelphia: Quaker Press of Friends General Conference. Newman, Daisy. 1972. A Procession of Friends: Quakers in America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. 2018. Faith & Practice. Proud, James. 2019. William Penn’s “Holy Experiment”: Quaker Truth in Pennsylvania, 1682-1781. Inner Light Books (Reviewed by Tom Hamm in Friends Journal, August 2020 Schutt, Amy C. 2007. Peoples of the River Valleys. Silver, Peter. 2008. Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. Soderlund, Jean R. 2014. Quakers and Slavery: A Divided Spirit. Princeton: Princeton University Press. The William Penn Tercentenary Committee. 1946. Tributes to William Penn: A Tercentenary Record, 1644-1944, A Collection of William Penn Tercentenary Addresses. Harrisburg: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The William Penn Tercentenary Committee. 1945. Remember William Penn: 1644-1944, A Tercentenary Memorial. Harrisburg: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Vining, Elizabeth Gray. 1955. The Virginia Exiles. Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, Vining, Elizabeth Gray. Windows for the Crown Prince. Vipont, Elfrida. 1954. The Story of Quakerism: Through Three Centuries. Richmond: Friends United Press Wilson, Robert H. 1981. Philadelphia Quakers, 1681-1981. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. 4 .