Charles Braithwaite undertook a history of early Quakerism, while Jones similarly looked at early American Quakerism. Jones also wrote extensively on Quaker mysticism. At about this time orthodox yearly meetings created a uniform discipline and associated in 1902 under the Five Year Meeting, which in 1965 After the passing of the first generation of Friends, Quakerism entered a became known as Friends United Meeting (FUM). Likewise, the Hicksite period known as the “Quietist” period. Seeing their earlier expectations yearly meetings (more commonly known as Liberal Friends today) of the imminent “Day of the Lord” unfulfilled, Friends withdrew into associated in a General Conference, which in 1951 became known as themselves. Friends became known as a “peculiar people”, dressing in Friends General Conference (FGC). In 1970, evangelical yearly meetings plain clothing, using plain speech, and avoiding “wordly” activities such associated as Evangelical Friends International (EFI). as sports, music, theatre, etc. Because of their reputation for honesty and Gradually, the breach caused by the Great Separation healed to some through the network of Friends, many of whom were family, Friends were degree and Friends from various backgrounds began to work together. successful in business and, unlike in the earlier period, came to be viewed The American Friends Service Committee, founded during World War I, as respectable. helped bring Orthodox and Hicksite Friends together in common work During the Quietist period, Friends focused on maintaining discipline. around peace and humanitarian aid. Friends were expected to marry only other Friends and “marrying out” This increased cooperation was followed up in 1955, when the separate would lead to disownment. Friends could also be disowned for behaviour Philadelphia Yearly Meetings - Orthodox and Hicksite - reunited. Other which brought disrepute to Friends, such as bankruptcy, fraud, or yearly meetings followed suite. Previously, in 1945 the Orthodox and drunkenness. There was little recruitment and the numbers of Friends fell Conservative New England Yearly Meetings had also reunited. A number off as a result of disownment. of yearly meetings chose to jointly affiliate with both FUM and FGC. A Despite their withdrawal inward and the lack of recruitment, Friends number of yearly and monthly meetings, have maintained their exerted considerable influence on the question of slavery and the slave independence and are not formally associated with FUM, FGC or EFI. trade. As early as 1686, Germantown Friends, spoke out against All three associations co-operate through Friends World Committee on acceptability of Friends owning slaves. A number of committed Friends Consultation (FWCC), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and including Benjamin Lay, Anthony Benezet, John Woolman and Warner Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). FUM and EFI also Mifflin kept the issue in the forefront of their meetings, urging Friends to have conducted significant missionary work in Africa and South America. free their slaves. Yearly meetings eventually made it a disownable Kenya, today, has the largest number of Friends of any country. offence for any Friend to own a slave. English Friends were successful in Cleveland Monthly Meeting, which was first organized in 1925, has its 1807 in their campaign to have Parliament abolish the English slave trade. roots in the various branches of modern Quakerism. The first Cleveland Friends’ experiences learnt during their persecution and their network of Meeting was composed of Orthodox, Conservative and Hicksite Friends. contacts provided the structure for the petition campaigns and the It remained an independent meeting until 1965 when Cleveland Friends education of the British public as to the nature of slavery and the suffering Meeting jointly affiliated with Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) and of the slaves was instrumental in this success. Lake Erie Yearly Meeting (LEYM), which is affiliated to FGC. In 1994, The Quietist period came to an end as a result of the influence of the however, Cleveland Meeting was expelled from OYM over the issue of Wesleyan revival movement on some Friends. These Friends became same-sex marriage. Today, Cleveland Meeting continues to be affiliated drawn to the vitality of the revival movement in contrast to the closed in with LEYM. character of Quietist Friends. Increasingly, they put forward the Prepared by the Ministry & Care Committee, Cleveland Meeting, Religious traditional protestant view of the authority of the Bible as the “word of Society of Friends (2019) God” over the Light and were critical of Friends longstanding doctrinal Both Hicksite and Orthodox Friends were active in the movement for differences with orthodox Christianty. abolition. The approach taken to opposing slavery, however, brought The first signs of dissension between these “orthodox” (from the about further divisions. Among Orthodox Friends, Indiana Yearly Meeting protestant viewpoint) Friends and traditional Friends appeared in 1799 of Anti-Slavery Friends led by Levi Coffin split from Indiana Yearly with the disownment of Hannah Barnard and Abraham Shackleton. Meeting. Among Hicksite Friends, Progressive Friends broke away. Barnard an American Friend and Shackleton an Irish Friend both Among the Hickites there was a concern about being involved with questioned the biblical descriptions of God commanding the Israelites to persons of other religious backgrounds. However, Hicksite Friends such exterminate their enemies. Both asked how a loving God could require as Lucretia Mott and Thomas Garrett continued to play important roles this and pointing out that this conflicts with Friends’ Peace Testimony. in the abolition movement. They were condemned by Ireland and London Yearly meetings and As the population moved westward, Orthodox Friends came under the disowned by their individual meetings for holding unscriptural views. influence of camp revivals and the Wesleyan holiness movement. Among While the transition to an evangelical “orthodox” viewpoint occurred the leading revivalist Friends were David Updegraff, Dougan Clark Jr., within London Yearly Meeting without significant division, that was not Esther Frame. Leaders like Updegraff in Ohio and John Henry Douglas in the case in America. The “Great Separation” between “orthodox” Friends Indiana came to accept water baptism. Gradually, Orthodox meetings and traditional Friends came to centre around the figure of Elias Hicks, became programmed with the use of regular paid ministers. Preaching an elderly Long island minister. His sermons were attacked as heretical became much more central to worship than silent expectant waiting. by a number of visiting British Friends including Joseph John Gurney, Worship among Orthodox Friends increasingly became indistinguishable Hannah Braithwaite and Thomas Shillitoe as well as American Friends from that of evangelical protestantism. In a further departure from Stephen Grellett and Elisha Bates. Many of the charges directed at the traditional Quaker opposition to creeds, many Orthodox yearly meetings Hicksites were similar to those directed at early Friends. “Orthodox” accepted the Richmond Declaration of 1887 as a “common document of Friends placed primary authority on scripture over revelation of the Light. fundamental doctrine.” London Yearly Meeting, however, rejected the The divisions broke into the open at the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in Richmond Declaration. 1828 where the “Hicksites” walked out and formed their separate yearly Following the split with Orthodox Friends, Hicksite Friends also evolved. meeting. Similar bitter separations occurred in many other American Part of the conflict which had led to the split in 1828, was around the yearly meetings. These separations frequently divided families. Both the authority of elders over individual Friends and of the yearly meeting over “orthodox” and the “Hicksite” meetings claimed to represent true the monthly meeting. This sentiment led over time to a gradual Quakerism. London Yearly Meeting only recognized the “orthodox” weakening of the authority of the meeting over the individual, similar in yearly meetings. some ways to the tension that had existed among early Friends, and more For the next 80 years, Hicksite and Orthodox Friends evolved separately. diversity in beliefs. After an initial reluctance to open up to the world, by It has been suggested that their differences were further exacerbated by the end of the century there was a desire among many Hicksite Friends their desire to differentiate themselves from each other. to find relevance in the modern world. Unlike Orthodox Friends, Hicksite, as well as Conservative, Friends, continued to hold unprogrammed silent In the 1840s a further split occurred among the Orthodox, or “Gurneyite” meetings for worship. Friends. John Wilbur, a prominent Rhode island Friend objected to what he saw as the Gurneyite rejection of the Quaker concept of the Light and By the beginning of the 20th Century, “modernist” views had developed the drift of Orthodox Friends towards mainstream protestantism. Wilbur within both Hicksite and some Orthodox meetings. Similar changes were was disowned by New England Yearly Meeting and he and his supporters occurring in Britain following the Manchester Conference in 1895. British established yearly meetings which came to be known as “Conservative” Friend John Wilhelm Rowntree and American Orthodox Friend Rufus or “Wilburites” Friends. Jones became the leaders of the modernist movement which was open to examining new biblical scholarship and scientific discovery. William.