Evolution of Quaker Theology

By Evans Lugusa

The book, Evolution of the Quaker Theology, is an attempt to consolidate the vast literature available on Quakerism into one volume. The Book delves into the deep history of the early period of Quakerism and the gradual evolution of the Quaker Theology into what it is today. Evolution of Quaker Theology is a significant and much needed addition to the African Theology and World Christianity at large, told from an African Perspective. In an easy to read way, one is able to see the global history of the Quaker Movement with simplicity and critical objectivity. The Book is written with enviable simplicity and honesty about complex historical developments and makes it easy for the reader to visualize events spanning almost four centuries as one complete story.
The book provides a comprehensive account of the early Quakers and enumerates the men and women who shaped the Quaker theology across the globe, especially in Europe and America. Key among them is the founder of the Quaker Movement George Fox and his early converts including Margaret Fell, William Penn, Elizabeth Fry, John Joseph Gurney and Elias Hikes among many other notable Quakers of the early days. Apart from the overview of the Quaker history, the book gives an account of Quaker Theology. It captures different traditions of Quakers in the World family of Friends. The book delves into questions like why we have such diverse traditions among the same denomination of the Quaker Church and why the theology of one tradition is so different from that of another.
The book documents the Quaker Faith and Practice. The writer unravels some of the Quaker Traditions and etiquette and captures the core Quaker values or testimonies. The book also gives insights into topical issues such as Water Baptism, Speaking in tongues, Sacrament and the Gift of the Holy Spirit. More contemporary topics such as the Role of Women among Quakers, Same Sex Relationship, Cremation, Death, Organ Donation, and Euthanasia are also highlighted. The book is a good resource for Theology Students or for the general reader who is interested in the broad brush of Quakerism. As Quakerism continues to evolve, adopting to the ever-changing world, important to note is that the book is anchored in what Quaker Faith holds dear as encapsulated in - Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Service - to all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9789966005250

Book preview

Introduction

I sincerely appreciate the great work and ministry that Servants of God in the Quaker Church dedicated their lives to be where we are today. They have fought spiritual battles to make the world a better place to live in and to see the Quaker Church in her rightful place among the true Bible-believing churches.

The founder of the movement George Fox and his initial converts, commonly referred to as the Friends of Jesus or the People of the Way or the People of Light, meant well, and their intention was right. They intended to see a corruption-free, true, and Bible-believing church that worships God in truth and Spirit, as was seen from the spiritual journeys they made. They gave us the foundation and basis for the Quaker way of worship. However, persecution and other challenges like wars emerged, and some of them were killed, some were imprisoned, and others fled their country, Great Britain, and settled in other lands like Europe Mainland and the New Lands of the Americas. They boldly and fearlessly preached the Gospel wherever they went. Their hearts were to do the will of God. They hated corruption, injustices, hypocrisy, and all manner of sin that they witnessed in the Church of England.

Although the Church was intertwined with the political government (there was no separation between Church and State), they started a movement that would be different from the rest of the churches whose leaders engaged in sin and the excesses of the double lives they lived. Sadly, however, those who came after the initial group led by George Fox had gone. Another crop of leaders came on stage and corrupted the established doctrines laid for them, introducing other traditions that started distorting the foundation laid by George Fox and his initial group of friends. Fox himself may not have been a theologian, as we shall see, and may have made a number of mistakes along the way, but he had a sincere call and was well-meaning for the Quaker Church, which initially started as a pressure group/movement.

The second-generation Quakers took advantage of the lapses they noted in the Quaker Faith and Practice or the Quaker doctrine and entrenched controversial beliefs in the name of traditions. Finding the freedom of expression, they decided to entrench doctrines that were either contradictory or outrightly different from the original thinking of George Fox and his initial group. Many Quakers have agonized over the state of the Church through the years and desired to do something to amend the errors. We have had differences in our-way of doing business in the Church and how we worship God our Creator.

Quakers have done exceptionally well in many areas of engagement, notably, education, advocacy for peace, and political freedoms. In broad terms, I have given special mention to Quakers who positively impacted the growth of this Church and those whose influence on the Church brought about a counter-productive or negative effect.

It may sound a bit funny to admit that I am publishing a second book before the first one. When I started writing my second book (which was the first one to be written), it became apparent that I was struggling with explaining the reason for writing the book, and the reason was not a simple paragraph or phrase that I could give as a preamble in the book. So I decided first to write a book that would give us an overview of who we are and remind us of where we have come from and how we have evolved to where we are before embarking on the main book. I sought to address the issue of how we approach Outreach and Evangelism in our Church.

This book ‘The Evolution of Quaker Theology’ is a prelude to my second book – Back to the Basics, a 180 degree turnaround for Quakers, which should have been published first but had to be shelved to give way for this one. This book should therefore not be taken as a piece designed to re-write the history of the Quaker Church or the genesis of the Quaker Movement, but as a tool that basically looks at the facts, taking a keen interest on the ‘Faith and Practice’ of the Quaker church as a foundational basis for the next book which shall address the current challenges the Quaker Church is facing.

I am simply taking a long look back at the journey Quakers have taken over a period of time, spanning over 370 years. Tracing the history of the Quaker Church from 1648 to date, 2019, I will be re-examining the rich past we have had as a Church. For the last five years or so, I have taken time to research by reading Quaker books, searching the internet, conducting interviews, and simply observing the dynamics in our church and documenting every aspect I felt was helpful to the work I was undertaking. This was the main reason why I set out to write this book.

My idea was to at least get my reader to understand, to some extent, where we have come from as a church and where we are headed.; keenly observing the dynamics and schisms that formed along the way.

I intend to address some difficult questions which include: ‘Why do we have such diverse traditions among the same denomination of the Quaker Church?’ ‘Why is it that some of these traditions are so apart from the others than, even from those of other denominations?’ ‘Why is the theology of one tradition of the Quakers so different from that of another Quaker tradition even on Biblical doctrines?’ For example ‘Why is it that in some traditions of the Quakers, symbolism and ordinances like Water Baptism, Sacraments, including the Eucharist seem an abomination while in other traditions of the same church, this is taken as a doctrinal obligation?’

I decided to contribute and try to address the issue though some may consider it thorny and sensitive. And you shall know the truth and truth will set you free John 8:32. I was able to unravel, at least in brief, some of the Quaker traditions and etiquettes that we observe. As a person, I have a bias towards the theology of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross at Calvary. I am a true believer in the reliance of the Holy Spirit as a Helper for mankind unto salvation. I hold that the historical description of Scripture as inspired means not that it is inspiring (though it is) but that it is ‘God-breathed’ – Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work, (2 Timothy 3:16), a product of the Creator-Spirit’s work, always to be viewed the preaching and the teaching of God Himself through the words of the worshipping human witness through whom the Spirit gave it. The Holy Scripture is God’s word uttered by the prophets as moved by the power of the Holy Spirit - 2Peter 1:20-21; Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God (1 Kings 22:8-18; Rom. 3:2). All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness. (2 Tim. 3:16)

Chapter One

A Brief History of the Quakers

Background of the Quakers

The Friends Quakers Church was founded by a young Briton called George Fox. He founded the movement with no intention of starting a Church. However, as the Ministry expanded, the doctrines that emerged from it caused it to become a religious sect which became the Friends Church, commonly known as the Quakers.

During and after the English Civil War (1642–1651), many dissenting Christian groups emerged, including the Holiness Movement, the Seekers, and others. A young member of the Church of England (An- Anglican) named George Fox got dissatisfied with the integrity and the teaching of the Church. He was a non-conformist believer. He started a movement as a pressure group in protest of the Church of England (Anglican) and the mainstream Churches’ excesses. Fox’s personal religious experience made him hostile to church conventions and established his reliance on what he saw as inward light or God-given inspiration over scriptural authority or creeds. Quakerism arose as a splinter movement from the Anglican Church (Church of England) in about 1652. To be precise, the movement started in 1646 when Fox, aged 21 years, started his spiritual journey searching for the true way of worship. His journey as a seeker took about three years, and he was able to gather a few friends together as his first converts. They dedicated themselves to living by the Inward-Light or Direct Inward Apprehension or Fear of God, without creeds, clergy, or other ecclesiastical forms originally.

This initial understanding has since evolved with some traditions of the Quaker Church embracing creed forms; thus, they now acknowledge the clergy’s services. He had 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. He had a vision on Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England, in which he stated 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, and Barbados preaching and teaching with the aim of converting new adherents to his faith. His first convert was a lady called Elizabeth Hooton also from England. The central theme of his Gospel message was that Christ has come to teach His people himself. His followers considered themselves to be the restoration of the true Christian church, after centuries of apostasy in England’s churches, thus joining the puritan group.

In 1650, Fox was brought before the Magistrates Gervase Bennet and Nathaniel Barton, on a religious blasphemy charge. According to George Fox’s autobiography, Bennet was the first that called us Quakers, because I bade them tremble at the word of the Lord. It is thought that George Fox was referring to Isaiah 66:2 "My hand made them; that is how they came to be, says the LORD. I show special favor to the humble and contrite, who respect what I have to say. Thus, the name ‘Quaker’ began as a way of ridiculing George Fox’s admonition but became widely accepted and is used by the Quakers to date.

Quakers also described themselves using terms such as true Christianity, Saints, Children of the Light, and Friends of the Truth, reflecting terms used in the New Testament by members of the early Christian church. James Naylor, a prominent Quaker leader, being pilloried and whipped, made Quakerism gain a considerable following. The numbers increased to a peak of 60,000 in England and Wales by 1680 (1.15% of the population of England and Wales).

However, the dominant discourse of Protestantism viewed the Quakers as a blasphemous challenge to social and political order, leading to official persecution in England and Wales under the Quaker Act 1662 and the Conventicle Act 1664. This 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 relationship with Christ was encouraged through spiritualization of human relations, and the redefinition of the Quakers as a holy tribe, ‘the family and household of God.

Together with Margaret Fell, the wife of Thomas Fell, who was the vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a pre-eminent judge, Fox developed new conceptions of family and community that emphasized holy conversation: speech and behavior that reflected piety, faith, and love. 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 behavior.

Persecution in Europe led to the mass migration to the New Found land in the United States of America. As settlers came in from different parts of Europe, so increased the saturation of different denominations found in Europe. As the settlers came in large numbers, some forced their way in the land of the red Indians, while others, with the help of their government they had come from, settled in on treaties and agreements. Whereas others came in as Missionaries, persecution of Quakers in North America began in 1656 when two English Quaker missionaries, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, began preaching in Boston. They were considered heretics because of their insistence on individual obedience to the Inner Light. They were imprisoned and banished by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their books were burned, and most of their property was confiscated. They were imprisoned in terrible conditions and then deported.

In 1660, an English Quaker, Mary Dyer, was hanged in Boston for repeatedly defying a Puritan law imposed to ban Quakers from the colony. 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. 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. Some Friends immigrated to what is now the Northeastern region of the United States in the early 1680s in search of economic opportunities and a more tolerant environment in which to build communities of holy conversation. They established 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, and other treaties followed between Quakers and Native Americans. This peace endured almost a century until the Penn’s Creek Massacre of 1755.

Early colonial Quakers also established communities and meeting houses in North Carolina and Maryland, after fleeing persecution by the Anglican Church in Virginia. In a 2007 interview, author David Young (How the Quakers Invented America) stated that Quakers first introduced many ideas which 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. Even the Liberty Bell itself was cast by Quakers.

Quietism

Early Quakerism tolerated boisterous behavior that challenged conventional etiquette, but by 1700, they continued to encourage spontaneity of expression, but they no longer supported disruptive and unruly behavior. During the 18th century, Quakers entered the Quietist period in the history of their church, and they became more inward-looking spiritually and less active in converting others. The most commonly known group for quietism was the Wilburite Conservatives, also known as the ‘Silent Meeting.’ Marrying outside the Society was outlawed. 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 the 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 the Truth. Several traditions emerged from this understanding. Schisms have always happened throughout Church history, and schisms or splits in the church either be healthy or unhealthy depending on the reason and the circumstances or the process. However, we have traditions of groups like the Orthodox beaconites and the Wilburites Gurneyite commonly known by the term Friends United Meeting (FUM), the Evangelicals, and the Hicksites Friends General Conference (FGC).

In the 19th century, there was a diversification of theological beliefs in the Religious Society of Friends, and this resulted in several large splits within the Quaker movement, further leading to the birth of the traditions that we now have. These splits came as a result of a theological conflict. When Quaker leaders of the day could not agree on some aspects of worship or faith and practice, and tradition of worship and conduct. Some Quakers decided to go their way and formed other traditions. These schisms gave rise to the Orthodox beaconites, Wilburite conservatives, Wilburites Granites, FUM, Evangelical Quakers, the Hicksites FGC, and the Independent, among other smaller traditions. Hicksites–Orthodox split. The Hicksites - Orthodox split arose out of both ideological and socio-economic 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. Though they held a variety of views, Hicksites 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. With Gurneyite Quakers shifting towards the Protestant principles and away from the spiritualization of human relations. Women’s role as promoters of holy conversation started to decrease. Conversely, within the Hicksites movement, the rejection of the market economy and the continuing focus on community and family bonds encouraged women to retain their role as powerful arbiters.

Elias Hicks’ religious views were claimed to be Universalist and contradicted Quakers’ historical orthodox Christian beliefs and practices. Elias 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 their opponents as Hicksites and others, and sometimes themselves, as orthodox. Quakers in Great Britain were only recognized as the Orthodox Quakers, and they refused to correspond with the Hicksites.

The Beaconites controversy. Isaac Crewdson was a Recorded Minister in Manchester, UK. He published a book titled A Beacon to the Society of Friends in 1835, which strongly argued that the inward light could not exist alongside a religious belief in salvation by the atonement of Christ. This Christian controversy led to Isaac Crewdson’s resignation from the Religious Society of Friends, along with 48 fellow members of the Manchester Meeting and about 250 other British Quakers in 1836–1837. Some of these Quakers joined the Plymouth Brethren Church and brought about the Rise of Gurneyite Quakerism and the Conservative split. Joseph John Gurney was a prominent 19th century British Friend and a strong proponent of evangelical views.

Orthodox Friends became more evangelical during the 19th century 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 Conference speakers in the religious movement and introduced Quaker phrases and practices that shaped the emergence of Evangelicalism among Quakers. British Friends became involved with the Higher Life movement, with Robert Wilson from Cocker-mouth Meeting founding the Keswick Convention. From the 1870s, it became commonplace in Great Britain to have home mission meetings on a Sunday evening with Christian hymns and a Bible-based sermon alongside the silent meetings for worship on Sunday morning.

The Quaker Yearly Meetings supporting Joseph John Gurney’s religious beliefs were known as Gurneyite Yearly Meetings. Five Yearly Meetings eventually collectively came together and formed the Five Years Meeting and then later on the Friends United Meeting in 1902. Although the London Yearly Meeting, which had been strongly Gurneyite in the nineteenth century, did not join either of these groups, it was until now referred to as the Mother Yearly Meeting because, technically, all the Yearly Meetings came from the London Yearly Meeting. These Quaker Yearly Meetings make up the largest proportion of Quakers in the world today. Some orthodox Quakers in America disliked the move towards Evangelical Christianity and saw it as a dilution of the Friends’ traditional orthodox Christian belief in being inwardly led by the Holy Spirit. These Friends were led by John Wilbur, who was expelled from his Yearly Meeting in 1842. He and his supporters formed their own Conservative Friends Yearly Meeting. In the UK, in 1868, some Friends broke away from London Yearly Meeting for the same reason. They formed a separate body of Friends called Fritchley General Meeting, which remained distinct and separate from the London Yearly Meeting until 1968. Similar Christian splits took place in Canada. The Yearly Meetings that supported John Wilbur’s religious beliefs were known as Conservative Friends.

In 1887, a Gurneyite Quaker of British descent, Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, proposed to Friends a statement of faith known as the Richmond Declaration. This statement of faith was agreed to by 95 of the representatives at a meeting of Five Years Meeting Friends Still unexpectedly, the Richmond Declaration was not adopted by London Yearly Meeting because a vocal minority, including Edward Grubb, opposed it.

The Five Years Meeting under the guidance of the American Friends Board of Foreign Mission; to Asia and Africa. The Quaker Missions to African and Asia started around the mid-19th century. The Missionaries worked hand in hand with the European explorers. For instance, the Friends’ Syrian Mission was established way back in the 1870s, and they built their mission house in Ramallah in 1874. Following the Christian Revivals in the mid-19th century, Friends in Great Britain wanted 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 Mid-India Yearly Meeting; later to Madagascar from 1867, China from 1896, Sri Lanka from 1896, and Pemba Island from 1897. The Friends Syrian Mission was established in 1874, which among other institutions, ran the Ramallah Friends Schools, which still exist today. Swiss missionary Theophilus Wald Meier founded Brummana High School in Lebanon in 1873. Evangelical Friends Churches from Ohio Yearly Meeting sent missionaries to India in 1896, forming what is now Bundelkhand Yearly Meeting. Cleveland Friends went to Mombasa, Kenya, and started the most successful Friends’ Mission outpost anywhere, at Kaimosi Mission Station, which later became a Yearly Meeting. They named it the East Africa Yearly Meeting of Friends, after it was established in 1947. Christian Quakerism spread within Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda, and even to some parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Quakers seek religious truth in inner experience and place great reliance on conscience as the basis of morality. They emphasize the direct experience of God rather than ritual and ceremony. They believe that priests and rituals are an unnecessary obstruction between the believer and God. These testimonies are for integrity, equality, simplicity, community, stewardship of the Earth, and peace that arise from an inner conviction and challenge our normal ways of living. They exist in spiritually-led actions rather than in rigid written forms. Quakers rejected elaborate religious ceremonies, didn’t have official clergy, and believed in spiritual equality for men and women.

Quaker missionaries first arrived in America in the mid-1650s. Quakers, who practice pacifism, played a crucial role in both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. These testimonies paramount to Quaker values which are centred on our integrity, equality, simplicity, community, stewardship of the Earth, and peace. They arise from an inner conviction and challenge our typical ways of living. They exist in spiritually-led actions rather than in rigid written forms. The four founding principles of Quakerism are:

i. They value silence and stillness.

ii. They appreciate community.

iii. They stick to simplicity.

iv. and they emphasize equality.

Are Quakers celibate?

One may want to ask since this group of people are a queer lot. Some traditional Quakers practice a celibate and communal lifestyle, pacifism, uniform charismatic worship, and their equality model of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, technological innovation, and furniture.

Quaker

A member of the Religious Society of Friends. The Quakers are a group of Christians (see also Christian) who use no scripture and believe in great simplicity in daily life and worship. Quakers were among the first white people to denounce slavery in the American colonies and Europe. The Society of Friends became the first organization to take a collective stand against both slavery and the slave trade, later spearheading the international and ecumenical campaigns against slavery. Continuing Revelation: Most Friends hold the religious belief that truth is continuously revealed to individuals directly from God as they are led. Quakers taught that Christ comes to teach the people Himself. Friends often focus on trying to hear from God rather than make an effort to seek God through the Bible and other means. Are the Quakers non-violent? Quakers believe that a non-violent approach to evil and peaceful reconciliation is always superior to violent confrontations. Peace testimony does not mean that Quakers engage only in passive resignation; they often practice passionate activism through pressure goups, petitions, and picketing where necessary.

Are Quakers progressive?

Quakers also describe themselves using terms such as true Christianity, Saints, Children of the Light, and Friends of the Truth, reflecting terms used in the New Testament by members of the early Christian church. However, this needs to be put more into practice as the Church is identified more as a laid-back sect that does not emphasize or prioritize evangelism and public outreach missions. This is reflective of the kind of budgets that are put into such programs.

The Quaker Renaissance

The Quaker movement is where it is today because of the intense re-organization that has been taking place for a good part of the last two hundred years or so. The Church has been involved in a reinventing of sorts. Since the late 19th century and early 20th century, a religious movement known as the Quaker Renaissance movement began within the London Yearly Meeting. Young Friends in the London Yearly Meeting at this time moved away from Evangelicalism towards Liberal Christianity. This Quaker Renaissance movement was particularly influenced by John Wilhelm Rowntree, Edward Grubb, and Rufus Jones – (please note that Rufus Jones was a Buddhist Quaker who never fully renounced his Buddhism). Building on Elias Hikes’ theology, these Liberal Friends promoted the theory of evolution, modern biblical criticism, and the social meaning of Jesus Christ’s teaching, encouraging Friends to follow the New Testament example of Christ by performing good works. These conservative Quakers 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, the liberal Quaker thought gradually increased within the London Yearly Meeting. During World War I and World War II, Friends’ opposition to the war was put to the test. Many Friends became conscientious objectors, and some formed the Friends Ambulance Unit with the aim of co-operating with others to build up a new world rather than fighting to destroy the old under the American Friends Service Committee. There was a strong group of Community Quakers opposed to the war at Birmingham, UK, who also had a robust Quaker voice during the war. Many British Quakers were conscripted into the Non-Combatant Corps during both the 1st and 2nd world wars.

The Quakers initially referred to as The Religious Society of Friends, is a Christian Movement/Church which professes the priesthood of all believers; a doctrine that derives from the book of 1 Peter 2:9. The Quakers comprise several associations/traditions, which include the Evangelical, Holiness, Liberal, and Conservative leanings of Christianity. The Religious Society of Friends, especially the Conservatives and the FGC traditions, avoids creeds and leadership hierarchical structures at all costs. The Friends Church stresses on the guidance of the Holy Spirit but rejects outward rites and initially had rejected an Ordained Ministry, though currently, the different traditions are divided on opinion on that idea. Quakers are known to have had a long tradition of actively working for peace and opposing war. George Fox, the founder of the society in England, recorded that in 1650 Justice Bennet of Derby first called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God. It was likely from this account that the name Quakers, although initially derisive, was used to identify early Friends. Like other religious enthusiasts, they themselves trembled at the power of the Holy Ghost in their religious meetings and showed other physical manifestations of religious emotion. Despite its early derisive use, Friends used the term themselves in such phrases as the people of God in scorn called Quakers. No embarrassment is caused by using the term to or of Friends today. The movement of Friends, or Seekers, people of the way, people of light, and people of truth as they initially used to refer to themselves was started by George Fox and later joined by a band of friends who wanted to know the truth of the Love of Christ. His movement, which later became a Church, first evolved into a Christian movement and then became a Church organization known as the Religious Society of Friends. It is still known by this name in some traditions though today we know it as the Friends Quakers Church.

The founders of the movement initially sought to understand the way of true religion following failure by the established Anglican Church in setting a good example. The latter displayed a lot of secrecy and hypocrisy. This band of preachers, mainly from the north of England, proclaimed the powers of direct contact with God, and although they widely read the Bible, they did not give it much regard. Most eminent among these group of believers were George Fox and James Naylor, but they were in the company of Edward Burrough, William Dewsbury, and Richard Farnworth, who were also actively involved though to a lesser degree. The cradle of the movement was Swarthmore (Swarthmore Hall) in North-western Lancashire, which after 1652 became the centre of an Evangelistic campaign by traveling ministers. Within a short period of time, between 40,000 and 60,000 people had been converted from all social classes except the aristocracy and totally unskilled labourers into Quakerism.

The largest concentrations were in the north, Bristol, the counties around London, and London itself. Traveling Friends and Cromwellian soldiers brought Quakerism to the new English settlements in Ireland. Wales and especially Scotland were less affected. The Puritan clergy in England and New England were hostile to the rise of Quakerism. Friends’ religious style was impulsive and non-ideological; Quakers seemed to ignore the orthodox views of the Puritans and perverted their heterodox ones. Though most Friends had passed through varieties of Puritanism, they carried the emphasis on a direct relationship between the believer and God far beyond what Puritans deemed tolerable.

The Restoration of Charles II in 1660 was only a change of persecutors for the Quakers, with their former tormentors now sharing some of their sufferings. From the Quaker Act of 1662 until the de facto toleration of James II in 1686 (de jure toleration came in the Toleration Act of 1689), Friends were hounded by penal laws for not swearing oaths, for not going to the services of the Church of England, (which was official state church), for going to Quaker Meetings, and for refusing to pay tithes. Some 15,000 Quakers suffered under these laws, and almost 500 of them died in or shortly after being in prison. However, due to the outreach and evangelism strategies used, they continued to grow in numbers until the turn of the century. At the same time, Quakers were converting people in America. In 1656, Quaker women preachers led by Mary Fisher and Anne Austin began work in Maryland and in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Maryland was named in honour of Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I, by a grateful Cecilius (Cecil) Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, who was granted a charter for the land in 1632. Annapolis, the state capital, lies on Chesapeake Bay, roughly equidistant from Baltimore (north) and Washington, D.C. (west). Geography has provided Maryland a role in U.S. history as a pivot between the North and the South. Its northern border with Pennsylvania is the famous Mason and Dixon Line, drawn in the 1760s to settle disputes between the Penn and Calvert families and traditionally regarded as the boundary between the North and the South.

The magistrates of Boston savagely persecuted the visitors and, in 1659 and 1661, put four of them to death. Despite this, Quakerism took root in Massachusetts and flourished in Rhode Island, where Friends for a long time were in the majority. There were also many Friends in North Carolina as well as New Jersey, where English Quakers had earlier secured a patent for settlement. Yearly Meetings were established for New England (1661), Maryland (1672), Virginia (1673), Philadelphia (1681), New York (1695), and North Carolina (1698). The most famous Quaker colony was Pennsylvania, for which Charles II issued a charter to William Penn in 1681. Penn’s Holy Experiment tested how far a state could be governed consistently using the ‘Friends’ principles, especially pacifism and religious toleration. Toleration would allow colonists of other faiths to settle freely and perhaps become a majority; consistent pacifism would leave the colony without military defenses against enemies who might have been provoked by the other settlers.

Penn, entangled in English affairs, spent little time in Pennsylvania and showed erratic judgment in selecting his non-Quaker deputies, who were almost always at odds with the Quaker-dominated legislature. Penn also went bankrupt through mismanagement; (Penn’s profile comes in the next chapter), but the Quaker influence in Pennsylvania politics remained paramount until 1756 when legislators who were Friends could no longer find a saving formula allowing them to vote support for military operations against the French and Indians fighting settlers in western Pennsylvania. Voltaire’s description of Penn’s agreements with the Indians as the only treaties never sworn to and never violated was exaggerated, but Friends’ relations with the Indians were more peaceful than those of other settlers. The emergence of religious toleration in the 1690s coincided with a quietist phase in Quakerism that lasted until the 19th century. Quietism is synonymous within Quakerism and emerges whenever trust in the Inward Light is stressed to exclude everything else. Quietism suits a time when little outward activity is demanded and when the peculiar traditions of a group seem particularly worth emphasizing. These to the Quakers at that time was very untimely in many ways. That was also a period when the British were engaged in war with the French under Charles I.

In the 18th century, Friends had gained most of their political objectives. Their unique language and dress, originally justified as a witness for honesty, simplicity, and equality, became the password and uniform of a group now 75 to 90 per cent composed of second-and third-generation Quakers. Strict enforcement of rules prohibiting marriage without parents’ consent or non-members led to many being disowned. According to one estimate, of a third of the English Friends who got married in the latter half of the 18th century, more were disowned than converted, and since most members were the children of members, it is not surprising that Friends eventually came to recognize a category of birth-right membership, which seemed to relax the expectation of conversion. This is the single most reason for the dwindling numbers of the Quaker population in the world. When the adherents started emphasizing his birth-right issue, they lost it. The spirit of Evangelism was quenched, and members focused on birth-right membership.

Seemingly self-absorbed in other ways, Friends in the age of Quietism intensified their social concerns. English Friends were active in the campaign to end the slave trade, and American Friends, urged on by John Woolman and others, voluntarily emancipated all their slaves between 1758 and 1800. Though slow to adopt this concern, meetings thoroughly pursued it; in Rhode Island, for instance, Stephen Hopkins, who was governor nine times, was disowned because he would not free his one slave. Initially, the movement did not have creeds or documented doctrines, and they did not even approve of full-time paid clergy; instead, they emphasized on the equality of all. However, later on, the Church, through some established personalities like John Woolman, William Barclay, William Penn, and John Joseph Gurney, who were well-learned professionals, established doctrines or faith and practice documents that guided the way members would worship in later years. Much of the current Faith and Practice materials that we now use were developed either by William Penn or John Woolman.

Traditional Quakers believe that true religion involves an immediate, inward, personal encounter with God, that is, rather than having a ritual and ceremony-based form of worship. It is what men and women experience to obtain salvation. Quakers also emphasize that; each individual has worth, dignity, freedom, and responsibility before God, as given in the book of (John 1:9). That worship is a personal, positive act of seeking, rather than merely a performance, and communion is an inner spiritual renewal or an outward observance. With these, therefore, Quakers emphasize that moral purity, integrity, honesty, simplicity, humility, and love are essential to the Christian life. Quakers believe in Christian love and goodwill as a way of life which makes hatred and violence impossible. That, Christ-like love and concern for suffering and the unfortunate people must find expression in humanitarian service and social justice of the society at large. Last but not least, Quakers believe in the continuing revelation of the Holy Spirit of God, who grants us new openings, insights, and revelations of the spiritual truth. Initially, the founders did not intend to have a Church, but as the movement grew in strength and their vision became clearer, they began holding open-air crusades and formed fellowship groups. These fellowship groups later became structured, and although they were met with a lot of resistance and hostilities from both the authorities and the established Church, Quakers faced horrible persecutions, and some were imprisoned or excommunicated from some countries, and others were killed. These, however, did not deter the movement from spreading even further into other countries initially.

Those who remained at home devised ways to minimize arrests and still keep faith in the newfound movement. They started retreating to quiet fellowship cells in homes which they called Meeting Houses. Two factors favored this kind of strategy: they found the quiet inward listening to the Holy Spirit in worship a most reassuring and satisfying thing and; the persecution they faced was too much to bear and therefore retreating to quiet small groups in homes was the ideal solution to the posterity of the movement and for personal safety. These two scenarios, the idea of silent worship derived from the inward light and quiet listening to the Holy Spirit, were good ground to feed on. Do not forget that the Church started as a radical, rebellious movement splitting from the Anglican then (the Church of England) before evolving into a Church itself. But due to persecution, the Church spread into many parts of the world, including the newfound land of America. However, with time because of a lack of proper theological direction, the Church started embracing different ideologies and forms of worship; thus, it developed some strange theologies out of it, without knowing.

Today, we have two main categories of worship in the Quaker Church: Programmed worship and un-programmed worship. These two categories have born several traditions of worship among them, Friends United Meeting (FUM), Evangelical Friends Quakers (EQ), Conservative Quakers (Silent), Friends General Conference (FGC), Independent Friends (IQ/F), and a form of Congregation of Quakers from South America, which is similar to but slightly different from the East African FUM (a blend of Pentecostal/independent and Evangelical). However, much of the 20th century Quaker traditions seem to have been saturated into secular forms. The ideals of the founders appear to have been watered down, and the Church is clearly headed in the wrong direction, generally.

Today, it is common to find Quakers, among many other believers, who have no problem with gayism and lesbianism to the extent that certain clergy in some church quarters have no problem officiating same-sex marriages. They have no problem seeking positions in Church even if they are in polygamous marriages. They have no problem stealing Church monies or even secretly selling Church property for personal gain. These, among others, are some of the reasons that prompted me to write this book. My goal is to contribute and assist in bringing the change that we are yearning, which will see the Church back on track through the initiation of positive change.

Today the Church’s focus seems to be directed at systems and causes, instead of being directed at saving souls and living and growing in obedience to the Word of God. We seem to have lost much of our identity and embraced the ways of the world. That is why the Church that was so opposed to hypocrisy in forms and worship can today accommodate everyone who agrees with the Quaker values and tenets without pledging allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ and the infallible Word of truth and the faith and practice of the Quakers. We now have people who claim to be Quakers but are not Christians! That disturbs me a lot, and I ask, Who are the Quakers? or "Are we a Church or merely another organization that exists to push the agenda of some form of systems and courses? Why do we emphasize and put so much value in the founder of the Quakers and the tenets he gave us but reject his God? Are Quakers merely a social action organization or society or an NGO that takes care of the welfare of those in pain or are we a Church that preaches Christ and Him crucified? The Friends Quakers Church’s focus today is more like that of any other organization than that of a church. How can we correct some of these mistakes? We call ourselves Quakers and claim to belong to one family, yet not all Quakers agree in principle to some very pertinent biblical, ideological, and even some theological doctrines.

The different Quaker traditions have very diverse doctrines from those of others that it is very difficult to know that they are part of the same family. Some Quaker traditions don’t even see eye to eye in terms of their theological and ideological inclinations. For instance, the Quaker Church in Africa has had serious doctrinal differences with those from the west on the issue of same-sex marriage. We read the same Bible and worship the same God and are given the same Commands and promises, but some of us have chosen to interpret the Bible from our biases and comforts. This is what is termed in theological terms as ‘Isogenic’/‘Isogesis.’ We read into the Bible what we would like to hear the Bible say to us and not what the Bible says concerning certain issues. The difference is the interpretations and the exegesis of the passages as we read them. Why is it that our doctrinal differences are as sure as day and night, yet we belong to the same family? Why don’t we have interaction with other traditions and dialogue to harmonize our differences and work together as one family of God brought together by the Quaker Faith and Practice values if we indeed are one?

One of the things that I will be looking at in the book is to find whether the purported traditions that we have are truly integrated and are operating on the same wavelength with each other and with the Word of God. When you compare the Church in Africa to that in the West, the Quaker Church in Kenya, for instance, is by and large of the tradition leaning towards the FUM, save for a few congregations that are aligned to Evangelical and one Conservative (silent) congregation that exists in the Nairobi Yearly Meeting at Friends International, Ngong Road that has approximately 20 members currently (2019). The rest of the Quakers in Kenya purportedly belong to the FUM tradition; however, there seems to exist a world of differences between the FUM America and FUM Kenya/Africa inform, practice and worship.

The Friends Church in Kenya, which has the largest Quaker population globally seems not to agree with her counterparts in the West on many doctrinal issues. At some point, there are apparent differences that play out in public at various meetings or gatherings. A good example is when the FUM International had a Triennial Conference at Mabanga Training Centre in Bungoma County, Kenya, in 2009. The issue of same-sex marriage was sneaked into the agenda without proper communication. Again, it was sneaked in at another meeting at Mumias, these offended the Kenyan Quakers and they demanded to know why. The issue of same-sex marriage in the African context is more like abuse, and to the Quakers from the West, it was like, why are we discriminating on our brothers and sisters who have chosen to go that direction?

On many occasions, these differences have led to a standoff between the Evangelical Quakers in America in cohort with the Kenyan Quakers and the rest of Africa, to seriously clash with the view of the majority of the Quakers from the rest of the Quaker traditions in the world on the issue of same-sex marriage/homosexuality and lesbianism or whatever you may want to call it. The Bible is very clear on some of these contentious issues, to me, these are not contentious issues but contentious people who have chosen to disobey the Word of God and follow their passions. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another – (Gal. 5:13). I wonder whether the FUM tradition in Kenya is truly part of the family that constitutes FUM in terms of values, traditions, and mode of worship.

The Quaker Church in Kenya now seems to lean more on the Evangelical tradition than FUM. However, it is distinctly different from the Evangelical Tradition in form of faith and practice. We see a blend of almost all traditions that constitute the Friends Church. The Friends Church of the ’80s and before was more conservative though programmed than the Friends Church we have today. The Friends Church (Quakers) was founded by George Fox first as a movement or pressure group in protest of the Church of England (Anglican) and the mainstream Churches’ excesses. Fox’s personal religious experience made him hostile to church conventions and established his reliance on what he saw as inward light or God-given inspiration over scriptural authority or creeds. Quakerism arose as a splinter movement from the Anglican Church (Church of England) in about 1652. To be precise, the movement started in 1646 by Fox as the founder when he started his spiritual journey as a seeker, who was a young man only aged 21 years at the time. He, together with his first converts dedicated to living by the Inward-Light or Direct Inward Apprehension or Fear of God, without creeds, clergy, or other ecclesiastical forms originally, but has since evolved, and some traditions of the Quaker Church have embraced some form of creeds and now acknowledges the services of the clergy.

The birth of the Quaker movement is recorded in his (George Fox’s) Journals. He was born the son of a Church Warden and Weaver called Christopher Fox in the English village of Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. According to William Penn, Fox was born of Honest and sufficient parents (Vipont 1975). His father, Christopher, was both a Church warden and weaver by trade. Fox may also have tended sheep in his father’s farm. However, there is little evidence of any adult business occupation or of much formal education but was very successful in his calling. His mother Mary Lago also worked with her husband at the Church but superior in position and was a great inspiration to many. She greatly influenced her son George in his values and standards of his living. William Penn describes Mary Lago as Being of the stock of the Martyrs, meaning an assertive person who would push her agenda to the limits or to the point of dying for it. Christopher was a highly respected man in his community that they nicknamed him ‘Righteous Christer.’ George Fox had initially apprenticed for a while to a cobbler, and despite these, he always seemed to have a modest amount of money. He read extensively and wrote legibly. His religious background was Puritan rather than strict Anglican, but he reacted even further than the Puritans from the formalism and traditionalism of the established church. His negative attitude towards ecclesiastical customs was matched by a similar attitude toward some political and economic conventions (e.g., Oaths, he taught his followers not to subscribe to oaths and vows, encouraging Quakers to be truthful and so later on after passing the test of time, Quakers were trusted for their word. A Quakers’ word for ‘YES’ was taken for ‘YES’ and ‘NO’ for NO. They were trusted, and honest people, characters which were borrowed from Jesus Christ Himself as expressed in the book of (Mathew 5:33-37). Fox powerfully expressed this idea in his journals.

Friends (Quakers) felt that their experimental discovery of God would lead to the purification of all of Christendom. It did not, however, Friends founded one American colony and were dominant for a time in Pennsylvania and several others, and although their numbers dwindled and are now comparatively small. However, they continue to make disproportionate contributions to peace initiatives, science, industry, and especially to the Christian effort for social reform globally and in general to date. In 1669 Fox made a missionary visit to Ireland, and on his return, he married one of his early converts, Margaret Fell, the widow of Judge Thomas Fell of Swarthmore Hall, Ulverston, and Lancashire, where Fox spent parts of his subsequent years. In the years, 1671 to 1673, he travelled to the British colonies in the Caribbean and the North American mainland, strengthening and organizing the existing Quaker communities, especially in Maryland and Rhode Island. Shorter journeys in 1677 and 1684 took him to The Netherlands and a few other parts of northern Europe. About 1675, he dictated a running summary of his life that, with supplementary material, was posthumously edited and published as his Journal. For most of the last 15 years of his life, he lived as a boarder or visitor among friends in or about London, attending consultations and committees on practical questions, preaching at meetings for worship, and engaging in a vast correspondence with individual Friends or with congregations to whom he was known.

Throughout his life, Fox shared the contemporary practice of writing controversial pamphlets, scores of which were published. They dealt with social as well as theological questions but lacked stylistic attraction. Although he was quite familiar with the English Bible, he sometimes displayed a taste for subjects like history and grammar, in which he had little competence. He borrowed information occasionally from his learned friends. As Thomas Carlyle says, Fox was evidently a man of enormous self-confidence, one who attracted rather than repelled. A magnetic, charismatic personality, who was widely respected and admired by such men as William Penn, left in writing an appreciation of Fox that is still the best summary of his character. Fox’s own Journal is naturally not entirely objective, but with its many details, it forms the fullest account of the rise of Quakerism, as well as of Fox himself. It is partly due to Fox’s sense of the historical importance of the Quaker movement that much other early written material was recorded and preserved. Probably, it was through his parents’ influence that George Fox was charged out of his box to become a seeker of the truth of God.

One may want to know who then the Friends or Quakers are, and what are their aspirations and significance in the modern Christian Church today? Are some forms of the Quaker way of worship still relevant in the 21st century? Are Quakers true Christians? These and many more are questions that we face today as Quakers leaders. Whenever we interact with people who know a little about the Quakers but are perplexed by our way of doing things, they would want to understand them better or rather would want to see change happening to those who are insiders. Some of those who ask are just individuals in the neighbourhood who genuinely have no idea who Quakers are and would want to know who we are and how we conduct our business and worship. Quakers are a group of people initially called ‘Seekers,’ ‘the people of light’ or ‘the people of the way.’ They are members of the Religious Society of Friends. In short, Quakers are a Christian Religious sect, but not separated from the rest of the Protestant Christian family. The Friends (Quakers) are members of a Christian group (the Society of Friends, or Friends Church) who stresses the guidance of the Holy Spirit. With distinct and diverse traditions, some rejecting outward rites and an ordained ministry, and others have now embraced the ordained Ministry and the office of the clergy. They are associated with a tradition that has a long history of actively working for peace and opposing war. George Fox himself recorded in his journals of 1650 that Justice Bennet of Derby first called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God. It is likely that the name, originally derisive, was also used because many early Friends, like other religious enthusiasts, themselves trembled in their religious meetings and showed other physical manifestations of religious emotions or evinced by the power of the Holy Spirit. In simple terms, most of the early Quakers were spirit-filled and would tremble in prayer meetings and worship sessions.

Despite the early derisive use of the term Quakers, Friends used the term for themselves in such phrases as the people of God in scorn called Quakers. No embarrassment is caused by using the term to or of Friends today. Quakers did not initially have tenets that have guided them throughout the three and a half centuries they have in existence. The Quaker argument is that there is that of God in every human being. A deposit that makes us human beings unique and superior in essence to animals. This probably becomes the point of departure with many other Christian denominations who may ininterpret that of God as a mark of eternity that can only exist in a believer, a born again Christian, And who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (1 Cor. 1:22) He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (1 Cor. 5:5). However, it would be prudent to point out that when God created man He gave him a soul; man’s soul is the difference between human beings and animals. It is the soul of man that qualifies rationale for man either as righteous or sinful by the decisions and actions he makes. All human beings were created by God but have not acquired sonship to become children of God. Although human beings were created by God, they have not been made children yet, until they accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour - (John 1:12). This thought is made clearer with the understanding that, although there is that of God in every person, peace is preferable to all. This is in reference to the soul of man at which they underscore the fact that no one has a right to take away the life of another.

Early Quakers were not even permitted to enlist in the military or police because of the very same reason of the risk of placing oneself in a situation where one was most likely to take the life of another. That scenario affected all departments of the armed forces, especially the military. Since Quakers initially did not have formal creed, ritual, dogma, or liturgy, they were required to follow the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit. They spoke both individually and corporately, searching queries and striving to trust and to love, rather than react to fear. The first converts did not only go out and about in England to share their newfound truth, but they went out of their way to continental Europe, and some even went as far as America. The adherence of Quakerism went to places as far as Constantinople and Jerusalem to share the good news. The first Quaker Missionaries to travel all the way to the United States of America were two British women Mary Fisher and Anne Austin (A. M. Rasmussen 1995). Mary and Ann were by and large very successful in their mission to the New Found Land. However, those that went to continental Europe did not succeed much initially.

Quakers work towards peace because they believe it is the only way they are led to implement their concerns for the equal rights of all. Many people have been drawn to Quakerism because of its dual commitment to spiritual awareness and social action. I have interacted with many friends who have sought to know whether Quakers are true Christians or something else. I don’t blame them; some may have experienced our culture or how we do things around us and got confused. Others may have had prior knowledge or an understanding of expectations of every ‘Christianity.’ When they come to meet with the Quaker way of doing things, naturally, questions are bound to come. This now then is what brings me to my questions, some of which have been expressed by other Friends, ‘Do we as ‘Quakers’ have a future or merely a famous past’? Are Quakers true Christians? What do we exist for? Why are we so different from other Christian denominations? Why do we seem to emphasize more on Quakerism than Christianity? These are the many questions that concern Quakers and much more. We have this famous phrase ‘That of God’ that we believe in, is that which sets man higher and apart from animals, and this - That of God in my view is what theologians would call the image of God" in man. It is probably wrongly taken to represent a distorted representation of the imagery of explaining God’s image in man.

This image is that which makes man a rational being, able to thinks and make decisions – that Image of God is qualified by the understanding of the theology of the breath of God (Gen. 2:7). It sets man apart from animals and elevates him as one created in the image and likeness of God; possessing a soul, able to make independent decisions and make choices fully aware of the consequences that would follow. This ‘that of God’ can then be equated to the position God has freely accorded man to enable him to make a choice to become a son or not. That would be the soul, for the Bible says that the soul that sins is the one that dies. The soul