The most placeable Quaker in the man is n’t even a literal Quaker . In 1877 , the proprietor of the German Mills American Cereal Company trademarked the image of " a military personnel in Quaker dress " to make their rolled oat seem more wholesome and honorable . But await , is n’t he supposed to be William Penn , the Quaker who foundedPennsylvaniaasa Zion of spiritual tolerance and brotherly passion ? No , the Quaker Oats guy isnot an actual individual , says the brand , but rather an icon that reflects the Quaker economic value of " honesty , unity , purity and military strength . "
So who are the real Quakers , officially known as the Religious Society of Friends ? The first Quakers were a renegade Christian sect that break with the Church of England in the 17th - hundred . Modern - sidereal day Quakers live all over the existence , hail from all walks of life and espouse a wide diversity of beliefs . The central strong belief of Quakerism is that God ( or " the Divine " or " the Light Within " ) dwell in every humankind and woman , and that each mortal can receive direct revelation or inspiration from that same ghostly source .
Today , Quakers are comparatively few in number — 380,000 member worldwide , according to Friends Journalin 2017 — but strong in a faith that encourages actual - world natural process . trembler live out their core principles through " testimonies " that includepacifism , environmentalism and societal justice . To learn more about Quakerism past and present , we verbalise withRobynne Rogers Healey , a historiographer of Quaker Studies at Trinity Western University in Canada .
1. The First Quakers Were Radicals
Quakerism was birth in 17th - century England , " a prison term of vast social and political agitation , " say Healey , when the kingdom was rock by bloody polite wars , the execution of a king and autocratic crackdowns on spiritual agitators . George Fox was one of those agitators , a basal Christian reformer who saw lip service in the class - based pecking order of the Church of England and teach that every individual had equal entree to God ’s light .
Fox and his supportersnever set out to begin a new religion , but rather to purify Christianity by free it of paid clergy , sacraments like sacramental manduction and baptism , and even church buildings themselves . Since the Church of England was the official country faith of England , Parliament could drop dead Torah penalize religious dissenters . One such natural law was the Conventicle Act of 1664 , which prohibited unauthorized worship meetings ( called " conventicle " ) of more than five people , a direct onslaught on the Quakers .
2. ‘Quaker’ Was Originally an Insult
Many of the names we use today for Christian sects — Baptists , Methodists , Mormons — were originally used as vilification , include " Quaker . "
" ' Quaker ' was a taunting terminus that was contrive at George Fox one of the many times he was haul into motor lodge for breaking the law , " says Healey . " The magistrate made an insulting comment about the quaking , stir and other aroused manifestations of the spirit that accompanied Fox ’s meetings , which were extremely apocalyptic in nature . "
agree to one storey , Fox did n’t take kindly to the name and retorted thatit was the magistrate who should be quaking and tremblingfor breaking the word the Lord .
The name that Fox and the other early Quakers preferred to call each other was merely " ally , " taken from John 15:14 , in which Jesus said , " You are my acquaintance if you do what I require you . " As Quakers began to get more organized , they took on the name the Religious Society of Friends or just the Society of Friends . Today , the word Quaker has lost its derogative connotation and is used interchangeably with the Society of Friends .
verbalize of language , Quakers take on their own type of " unornamented speech " that distinguished them from other grouping , as well as a unmixed manner of dress . Until the 20th century , Quakers entirely used the pronouns " thee , " " thou , " " thy " and " thine " because " you " was reserved for the upper class and Quakers want to rub out such class distinction . Quakers also ditched the standards months and day of the week because they were named after pagan idol . Instead , they allege " First Month " and " Second Month " or " First Day " and " Second Day , " with Sunday being the first twenty-four hours of the week . Even today , some Quaker meetings will list their worship help as " First Day at 10 a.m. "
3. Modern Quakers Are Defined by Diversity of Belief
Centuries have lead since George Fox first break with the Church of England and Quakers have endured their mediocre plowshare of " painful separation " due to theological and doctrinal dispute , enounce Healey . The result is that mod Quakers play a broad spectrum of religious beliefs , from a Bible - centre , evangelical - style Christianity to a more spiritual and agnostic glide path .
" A Quaker is not a Quaker is not a Quaker , " says Healey . " Where a Quaker comes from actually matters . While a Quaker from London , England and another from Nairobi , Kenya would both deal themselves Quakers , they in all likelihood hold fairly dissimilar theological positions . "
If Quakers can be aver to havecore belief , chief among them is the judgment of conviction that God or the Divine is both within us and outside of us ; that every person is endowed with a measure of the Divine and has equal accession to revelation and stirring .
While there is no individual international organisation for all Quakers , there are two groups that correspond the two major school in modern Quakerism . TheFriends United Meeting(FUM ) is decidedly Christian in its stress and its mode of adoration look more like an evangelistic church . TheFriends General Conference(FGC ) , on the other helping hand , is more focused on spiritualism and social justice , and views Jesus not necessarily as the Son of God , but as " a good guy and a model for how to behave , " says Healey .
4. Quaker Worship Is Largely Silent
There are also two schools of adoration in modern Quakerism . " Programmed " meetings have a pastor , anthem and sermons and more closely resemble a stock spiritual worship table service . But in much of the Quaker world , peculiarly in the United States and the United Kingdom , Quakers keep back " unprogrammed " meetings that forgo most of the trappings of church and are for the most part held in silence .
Attending an unprogrammed meeting might be confusing to a first - meter visitor . Members inscribe in secrecy , take a seat and begin a process described as " wait worship " or " expectant waiting . " The expectation at an unprogrammed Quaker meeting is that by quiet the mind and body , you ’ll be capable get word the spiritual promptings of God . at times , someone at a Quaker meeting might be prompted to speak , at which point they stand , apportion the " light " they receive while take heed to the heart , and then ride back down in silence .
Waiting worship sounds like meditation , but it ’s different in two of import ways . For one , quieting the mind is not the close goal or waiting worship , but an entrance point for having a divine meeting or conversation with God . second , hold back adoration is not done in closing off on a passel top , but within a community . Whether spoken or in silence , the understanding is that God is send substantive truths to the whole community of interests , not entirely to you .
A peculiarly phantasmal confluence , in Quaker idiom , is call a " gathered meeting , " even if it ’s silent the entire time . The encounter is over when people get going to shake hand with their neighbour . Worship services are often followed by fellowship and socialise over coffee tree and snacks .
5. Quakers Believe in ‘Letting Your Life Speak’
mum adoration on Sunday ( sorry , First Day ) daybreak is only one little part of being a Quaker . There ’s an expectation to take the light and truth invite from God and put it to work in the world . harmonise toan old Quaker saying , you should " let your life speak " as a live testimony of God .
Pacifism , for example , is one case of Quaker testimony . Since way back in the seventeenth century , Quakers have called for an remnant to all war and violence , and modern Quakers have played influential roles as painstaking objectors and " ban the bomb " activists .
Other Quaker testimony admit par ( including , historically , the abolition of slavery ) , integrity , simplicity , community of interests and worry for the Earth and the surroundings . One prominent representative of Quaker testimonies in activity is theQuaker United Nations Office(QUNO ) , an governing body that date back to the original 1945 UN Charter and works to promote Quaker values of peacemaking and environmental stewardship across the man .
6. Quaker ‘Meetings’ Have Multiple Meanings
Early on , George Fox realized that because Quakers do n’t conceive in oaths , creeds or clergy , there needed to be an organisational structure that kept the congregation on the same spiritual page , more or less .
" Fox may not have been a great theologizer , but in modern terms he was a fabulous administrative official , " says Healey . " He really knew how to unionise . "
Quakers worldwide are organized into tiered groups call " meetings . " There are local , regional and national meeting , but they do n’t go by those name . or else , a local Quaker meeting — the hoi polloi with whom you worship every Sunday — is called a " Monthly Meeting " or a " Preparative Meeting . " Within a geographic realm , there is also a " Quarterly Meeting " which meets , yes , quarterly , to talk over the needs of the several Monthly Meetings in the sphere . The " Yearly Meeting " is the largest of the umbrella organisation and can encompass an entire state or a big geographic area like theSoutheastern Yearly Meetingin the U.S.
Quakers might identify themselves by any or all of these subgroups . For case , one might say , " I ’m a member of the Harrisburg Monthly Meeting of the Caln Quarterly Meeting of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting . " Healey contends that Fox ’s " meeting " structure is what has kept Quakerism relevant and alive over the centuries .
" [ The coming together structure ] is n’t only for the role of attempt to determine what ’s happening in dissimilar places , but to well be able-bodied to like for all of the member , " say Healey .
Quaker meetings follow to decisions by a consensus , but not by voting . The affair is talk over among the chemical group until a desirable decision is made and memorialise by a clerk .
7. Quakers Made It Big in Chocolate, Not Oats
Some of the biggest names in the British confectionary businesswere founded by Quakers , include Cadbury , Fry ’s and Rowntree ’s .
For centuries , only members of the Church of England could pay heed university , say Healey , so many Quakers pursue a " hard-nosed teaching " in the trades and became successful businessmen . In the other nineteenth hundred , Quakers were hard supporters of the moderation apparent movement and some Quaker tradesmen commence promote drinking chocolate as a tasty yet tame beverage pick . Next came deep brown bars .
Quaker - owned chocolate companies earned a reputation for fair dealing and high - caliber goods free of contamination . Firms like Cadbury go the extra mile for its workers , building them an full village in Bournville with schools and parks and an employee swimming pool .
Some other hugely successful Quaker - owned business organisation were the British banking monster Barclay ’s and Lloyd ’s of London .
8. The Future of Quakerism Is … Kenya
While the issue of Quakers in Europe and the U.S. shrinks every twelvemonth , there ’s been an explosion of Quaker converts in Africa , particularly Kenya . Bysome estimations , more than half of today ’s Quakers last in Africa , and as many as a third of all Quakers dwell in Kenya .
Christian Quaker missionaries arrived in Kenya in 1902 andfound a receptive audienceamong peace - loving tribes in place like Kaimosi . Because of their evangelical antecedent , Kenyan Quakers are far more likely to identify as Christian than Quakers in the West . Kenyan Quakers also have programmed worship services with charismatic pastor , big choirs and worship bands , a far cry from the silence of unprogrammed meetinghouses in New England .
The growth of Quakerism in Kenya and Latin America has n’t been without controversy . There are consummate ideological differences between the subdued old - schooltime Quakers and the youthful , so - called " noisy Quakers " in Kenya . division over same - sex activity marriagebetween liberal and button-down Quakers , for deterrent example , almost canceled a Quaker gathering in Kenya in 2012 .
