by Peter Blood

This was originally offered as a course at Mt Toby Friends Meeting in 2016 and later at other meetings, as a retreat at Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center, and as a workshop at Friends General Conference summer gatherings.

Table of contents

  • Overview of course
  • Handout #1: The World Turned Upside Down (background & beginnings)
  • Handout #2: This I Knew Experimentally (ideas about God & the Bible)
  • Handout #3: The Silent Assemblies of God’s People (a whole new form of worship)
  • Handout #4: This Is Our Testimony to the World (the “testimonies” & sufferings)
  • Handout #5: Constructing “Gospel Order” (as a way of living with each other)

Course Overview

Purposes of course:

  • To enrich Friends’ knowledge and understanding of the first generation of Friends
  • To use this understanding to help Friends today enter a similarly radical living relationship with
    God as a faith community
  • To facilitate meetings using this understand as a springboard to talk about key issues in the life of the faith community including theology, worship, the testimonies, and radical witness

Leadership style: It is particularly helpful (although not essential) in this curriculum to have a teacher/retreat leader who has considerable knowledge of early Quakers. This being said it is important to keep in mind that the leader’s primary role should not be transferring information or a changing

Friends practice based on a preconceived agenda. She or he is seeking to provide an opportunity through this course or retreat to encourage Friends to reflect on their own faith journey today and to explore key issues in the corporate life of Friends today with each other.

How time is spent:
20-25% Presentation/communication of ideas/information
20-25% Work alone or in two’s or three’s (can be great prep for sharing in the group as a whole)
50-60% Various forms of sharing in the community as a whole – e.g. sharing response to a question
around the circle, worship/sharing in response to a brief quotation or query, open discussion

Setting the agenda: The facilitator explores with the group requesting the retreat or course (e.g. Ministry and Counsel Committee, Adult Religious Education Committee).

  • Find out some of the key reasons why the requesting group is interested in having this course
  • Learn the “lay of the land” in the meeting (theological language, places of brokenness, etc.)
  • Discern together which of the 6 possible topics listed below will be covered in this program

Format: This can be run as either a course taught over a number of weeks or months or as a one day or weekend retreat. Each module requires a minimum of 50 minutes (as a class session or section of a retreat — preferably 75-90 minutes. I would not recommend trying to cover more than 3 or 4 topics in a single day (i.e. morning and afternoon) retreat.

Modules (class or retreat sessions):

#1 The World Turned Upside Down (historical background & beginnings of new movement)

#2 This I Knew Experimentally (ideas about God)

#3 The Silent Assemblies of God’s People (a whole new form of worship). Note: This module on worship is designed for meetings with unprogrammed worship. There is a modification of this course called “The Birth of the Friends Church” is designed for use in programmed/pastoral Friends meetings.

#4a This Is Our Testimony to the World – Part 1: Integrity & Sufferings
#4b This Is Our Testimony to the World – Part 2: Simplicity, Peace, Equality, Unity with Nature [Note: #4a and #4b can be combined in a 5 session course or workshop, but there is often great interest in this topic so if there is space to break this into 2 classes it works great!]

#5 Constructing “Gospel Order” as a Way of Living with Each Other

Although the first 3 modules are particularly important in terms of understanding early Friends, the modules on integrity and simplicity can lead to particularly rich discussions as to how to live out some of these same principles in the present time. The module on faith/theology can also help sharing among participants about their own beliefs and ways of talking about them with others.

Creating a “a safe container” for the course or retreat: Many Friends meetings today encompass a wide range of beliefs and approaches to Quaker practice. It is critical that participants in this program approach these sessions with a deeply respectful attitude towards other participants. The goal of this program is to encourage participants to share openly with each other their heart-felt responses to what is being learned about early Friends and to explore ways it can impact our own shared life today.

In the first session the facilitator should take time to discuss how important this is and work to create an atmosphere of trust, vulnerability, and mutual respect going into this shared journey of exploration.

Sample session (class or retreat segment – timing will vary depending on the length of each session):

  • Opening prayer / waiting worship (5 mins.)
  • Introduction of the subject by leader (5-20 mins.) — It is best of the leader knows the material well enough to talk extemporaneously. Using a flip chart or dry erase board to outline key points can be help people absorb what’s being talked about — e.g. key dates and names on history session, drawing the different forms of revelation on the theology session.
  • You may want to leave some time for answering questions. (Others in group may know the answer better than the leader!)
  • Hearing voice of early Friends. Choose several readings from handout to be read out loud (5 mins.)
  • Response to readings. Can be done individually via reflection/journaling on queries, sharing in pairs or threes, and/or reflective worship-sharing around the circle. (5-15 mins.)
  • A skit or 2 on topic. Breaks up the flow and uses a different part of the brain/heart. (10 mins.)
  • Exploring what this means to Friends today. A period of worship sharing and/or open discussion on the implications early Friends’ experience, belief, and practice has for key issues facing us in our local
    and yearly meetings in the 21st century. Try to simply ask evoking questions and then just listen! (15-30 mins.)
  • Closing prayer / worship (5-10 mins.)

Early Quakers quiz: This is something fun to do in first session. Although some of the multiple choice options are humorous, the correct answers are all accurate. Have people take the quiz and then go through answers together as a group.

Skits: This curriculum includes skits for several of the sessions. These can break up the flow of the session and capture a bit of the feel of the 17th century.

Get 2 or 3 volunteers to play the parts and give them each their own script. The 21st century skit on simplicity helps to bring the issues around this to the present day.

You are welcome to utilize or edit these materials freely but please note that the materials were originally developed by Peter Blood-Patterson. You can contact me at inwardlight1@gmail.com.

Handout #1 The World Turned Upside Down (background & beginnings)

Quakerism was born in the mid-17th century in England. This was a period of enormous political and religious turmoil. This period has been compared to the late 1960’s in the U.S. The country was wracked by 3 civil wars between 1642 and 1651. After King Charles I was tried and executed in 1649, England entered its only period as a republic, rather than a monarchy.

There were many different small religious sects that sprang up at that time. A few of these survived (as Friends did) but most disappeared. Son of a weaver, George Fox was born in 1624 in a strongly Puritan village about a hundred miles north of London. He was apprenticed to a sheep owner and carpenter. He went through a period of seeking and spiritual turmoil at age 18. He began public preaching at age 23 and gathered a handful of followers. An older woman, Elizabeth Hooten, is often considered Fox’s first collaborator in building a new religious movement. She was older and more experienced so she probably served as a kind of mentor for Fox.

There was an informal movement in the late 1640’s and early 1650’s in Northern England known as the Westmorland Seekers. They rejected many of the structures of the church at the time and were looking for a rebirth of a more vital spirituality. In 1652, Fox had a vision looking northward from the top of a steep hill called Pendle Hill of a “great people to be gathered.” He continued traveling northward to the area where the Seekers held their gatherings.

On June 13, 1652, he preached extemporaneously for three hours to an outdoor gathering of a thousand members of this group in a windy open field called Firbank Fell. Many leaders of the Seekers became “convinced” by the spiritual power of Fox’s message, and the Quaker movement was born.

Quakers sent out preachers known as “The Valiant Sixty,” throughout the British Isles, the Continent, and the American colonies. About 3000 Friends suffered imprisonment, with hundreds dying due to very unsanitary conditions, including several of the movement’s leaders including Edward Burroughs and James Parnell. Four were executed in Puritan-led Massachusetts Bay Colony. The movement grew rapidly from 1652 through the Act of Toleration in 1689, when Friends in England numbered roughly 1% of the population (roughly 50,000 people).

Characteristics of the early Quaker movement: They…

  • Were “evangelical” – i.e., they actively recruited others into their movement, interrupting church services, preaching in market places, etc. (and were very critical of most other Christian groups at the time)
  • Considered themselves to be Christians as practiced in the age of the apostles (the time of James, Paul, Phoebe, etc. during the 1st century after Jesus’ birth).William Penn wrote a book describing the Friends movement as Primitive Christianity Revived.
  • Rejected programmed worship, outward sacraments, and paid clergy
  • Insisted that women, farmers, people who worked with their hands and had little education had equal access to God as well-educated men. They rejected arguments that it was wrong for women to preach or participate in church decision-making. Roughly 12 of the “Valiant Sixty” were women. Many of these women wrote tracts.
  • They also rejected the idea that you had to be trained in a university or ordained to preach the gospel..

Reflection questions:

  1. How would you respond if a passionate early Quaker leader such as Hooton or Fox preached to you today?
  2. Do you find the writings of early Friends exciting? Strange? Moving? Disturbing?
  3. Why do you think Friends grew so quickly and won so many adherents, in spite of terrible persecution?
  4. Why do you think established church leaders (both Puritans and Anglicans) were so enraged and threatened by the Quaker message?
  5. How do you see Friends today practicing (or not!) the same kind of religion as first generation Quakers?

Further reading:

Early Quaker History Timeline (some key dates)

1439 – Gutenberg creates 1st printing press in Europe – making Bibles widely available
1517 – Martin Luther posts his “95 Theses” on a church door – launching Protestant Reformation
1533 – Henry VIII breaks with Rome – launching Reformation in England
1535 – Tyndale Bible published (first mass printed Bible in English)
1600 – Elizabeth Hooton born
1611 – “King James Bible” is completed and printed
1614 – Margaret Fell born
1616 – James Naylor born
1624 – George Fox born
1642-51 – English Civil War
1643 – George Fox leaves home to search for spiritual answers
1648 – Hooten & Fox begin gathering converts & forming first local Friends meetings
1649 – King Charles I is convicted of treason, sentenced to death by Parliament, and beheaded
1652 – Fox has a vision of a “great people to be gathered” from atop Pendle hill, preaches to around 1000 Seekers on Firbank Fell. Many Seekers at Firbank Fell join the Quaker movement. Another Seeker, Edward Burrough, joins Friends at age 19 and becomes a leading preacher. Fox meets Margaret Fell and her family.
1656 – James Naylor arrested and convicted of blasphemy, barely escapes execution.
First organized gathering of Friends from across Britain held at Balby in Yorkshire.
1659-60 – Four Quakers (including Mary Dyer) hung on Boston Common after violating banishment. Charles II forbids further executions of Friends.
1660 – Restoration of monarchy (Charles II), Fifth Monarchists abortive uprising
Declaration to Charles II (first Quaker public statement of “Peace Testimony”)
James Naylor is beaten by robbers and dies.
1661 – first annual session of New England YM (first “yearly meeting” in the world)
1662 – Parliament passes Quakers Act, which requires Quakers to swear allegiance to king and bans their meetings for worship—leading to imprisonment of many Friends.
1664 – Conventicle Act bans worship of 5 or more unrelated individuals besides services of the Church of England (many dissenters, but not Quakers, worship in secret).
1676 – Apology for the True Christian Divinity by Robert Barclay published
1682 – William Penn founds Pennsylvania as a Quaker colony
1688 – Glorious Revolution (James II out, William & Mary in)
Parliament passes Toleration Act allowing free worship by dissenters including Quakers
Germantown Quakers Petition against Slavery (rejected by their mtg & Phila. YM)
1691 – George Fox dies
1702 – Margaret Fell dies

Session #2 This I Knew Experimentally (ideas about God & the Bible)

There is significant controversy today and in early periods about what early Friends believed. They wrote thousands of tracts and their ideas were not systematic. It is possible to read a number of different interpretations into their writings. It seems clear to me, however, that early Friends held the following beliefs:

Direct revelation. Each person has active revelation directly from God (Christ, Spirit) in the present time.

“The testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed.” – Robert Barclay from Apology for the True Christian Divinity, Proposition 11 on Worship (fuller excerpt)

Quotations from George Fox’s Journal:

“…I declared Truth amongst them, and directed them to the light of Christ in them; testifying unto them that God was come to teach His people Himself, whether they would hear or forbear.”

“I directed the people to their inward Teacher, Christ Jesus, who would turn them from darkness to the light.”

“Therefore I exhorted the people to come off all these things, and directed them to the spirit and grace of God in themselves, and to the light of Jesus in their own hearts, that they might come to know Christ, their free Teacher, to bring them salvation, and to open the Scriptures to them.”

“And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, Oh then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,” and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory; for all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have pre-eminence, who enlightens, and gives grace, faith, and power. Thus, when God doth work who shall let [prevent] it? And this I knew experimentally.”

“I told them the gospel was the power of God, which was preached before Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or any of them were printed or written; and it was preached to every creature (of which a great part might never see or hear of those four books), so that every creature was to obey the power of God; for Christ, the spiritual Man, would judge the world according to the gospel, that is, according to His invisible power. When they heard this, they could not gainsay, for the truth came over them. I directed them to their teacher, the Grace of God, and shewed them the sufficiency of it, which would teach them how to live, and what to deny; and being obeyed, would bring them salvation. So to that grace I recommended them, and left them.”

“Immediately it arose in my mind, that if I would know whether that was truth [the Quakers] had spoken or not, I must know what I knew to be the Lord’s will. What was contrary to it was now set before me, as to be removed: and I must come into a state of entire obedience, before I could be in a capacity to perceive or discover what they laid down for their principles.” —Mary Penington

“After…I was invited to hear one of them [Friends]… I felt the presence and power of the Most High among them, and words of Truth from the Spirit of Truth reaching to my heart and conscience, opening my state as in the presence of the Lord. Yea, I did not only feel words and demonstrations from without, but I felt the dead quickened, the seed raised; insomuch as my heart (in the certainty of light, and clearness of true sense) said, ‘This is he whom I have waited for and sought after from my childhood; who was always near me, and had often begotten life in my heart; but I knew him not distinctly, nor how to receive him, or dwell with him.’ ” —Isaac Penington (1667) See fuller original text: “I have met the seed”

Role of the Bible. Although the Bible is a very important source of religious truth, it is not the highest source – but was secondary to the kind of inward knowledge described above. In fact they believed it was impossible to understand the meaning of biblical passages unless one was living in the “life and power” in which the scriptures were given forth. (They believed, as a result, that their religious opponents misunderstood many parts of the Bible because they were not living in this same direct, living relationship with God.)

See: Jack Smith (of Ohio YM)’s talk on The Scripture as Understood & Used by Conservative Friends, at Quaker Spring in 2007.

Universal Priesthood and Universalism. Everyone has access to this experience. It is not restricted to an ordained priesthood or to those who receive formal religious training. They believed that the Christ that had been alive and at work from the very beginning of creation enlightens every person that comes into the world (John 1:9)

Although early Friends themselves were firmly rooted in a new form of Christianity drawing heavily on the Bible, they believed that the “Seed” (inward presence of God) is just as actively present and at work in the lives of those like Muslims, Native Americans and others who are not Christian.

See the account of Mary Fisher’s trip to Sultan and Samuel Caldwell’s article on The Inward Light: How Quakerism Unites Universalism & Christianity.

Active relationship with God. They experienced God as touching and shaping their lives in many, many different ways. They had a rather strange-sounding term for referring to the way in which God touched their lives in their own time, their own meetings as the “offices of Christ”. These “offices” (or roles) included prophet, counselor, comforter, shepherd, redeemer, mediator, reconciler, teacher, etc. These are all ways of talking about how God worked in their lives in their own time, not just via a great saving act sixteen centuries years earlier related to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

The point was that they believe that God spoke to them, guided them, led them, upheld them, healed them, lifted them up when they were discouraged, reproved them when they were on the wrong path.

Early Friends referred to this direct experiential relationship with God using many different terms: Inward Christ, Inward Light (though not “Inner Light”), The Seed, and as “leadings” from God.

Christ. The word Christ is the Greek for “messiah” or savior. Early Quakers believed that the living Christ was one with God from the beginning of time and still present in their midst in the present—teaching, healing, transforming, liberating, and leading the Quaker community. Although many Friends today use the word Christ to refer to God’s spirit at work in their lives similar to what other Christians call the Holy Spirit but do not see this as identical with historical Jesus, First Friends clearly made no such distinction between their present-time inward relationship with Christ and the man Jesus who lived and preached in Palestine and was executed by the Romans.

Friends found these concepts in the Bible, especially the Gospel of John (often called the “Quaker Gospel”). “ In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it…The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1)

The Comforter or Holy Spirit that God promised to send after Jesus’ death. “I shall always be with you, even to the end of time.”
Other words used to refer to Christ in the Bible include:“Emmanuel” meaning “God-with-us” (Matt. 1:23), as “the Light of all people” (John 1:1-9), as a bearer of “living water” (John 4:1-14), as “true vine” (John 15:1-5).

Reflection questions:

  1. When (if ever) have you experienced God touching you or speaking to you directly? Was this a comforting experience or a disturbing one
  2. What verbs would you use to describe your experience of God/The Spirit touching or influencing your life?
  3. In your experience of other faith communities besides Friends, do you feel this idea of the Inward Christ is similar to or different from the ideas about God at the heart of those other faiths?
  4. If this immediate relationship with God is at the heart of all Quaker practice (e.g. Mtg for Worship, Mtg for Business, Testimonies), do you see this as being true in your experience of Quaker practice in your local meeting? In your yearly meeting?

Further reading:

Handout #3: The Silent Assemblies of God’s People
(a whole new form of worship)

There is a fair amount of controversy today as to what early Friends worship services were actually like. It appears clear to me several things:

  • Many of their worship gatherings involved a lot of silent waiting
  • They believed strongly that any spoken messages delivered should be spontaneous and guided by God’s spirit rather than being prepared in advance
  • They rejected outward rituals like communion, water baptism, and the singing of psalms, seeing communion and baptism as inward spiritual experiences rather than ceremonies. (Some have suggested, however, that there was spontaneous singing by individuals during worship.)
  • The ability to deliver spirit-vocal ministry was based on inward teaching rather than formal religious training at a university or being formally ordained by ecclesiastical authority.

The early Quaker theologian Robert Barclay says that he was won over to the Friends movement primarily by the power of its worship. He writes:

I myself… who not by strength of arguments, or by a particular disquisition of each doctrine, and convincement of my understanding thereby, came to receive and bear witness of the truth, but by being secretly reached by this life; for when I came into the silent assemblies of God’s people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart, and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up, and so I became thus knit and united unto them, hungering more and more after the increase of this power and life, whereby I might feel myself perfectly redeemed.

The first that enters into the place of your meeting…turn in thy mind to the light, and wait upon God singly, as if none were present but the Lord; and here thou art strong. Then the next that comes in, let them in simplicity of heart sit down and turn in to the same light, and wait in the spirit; and so all the rest coming in, in the fear of the Lord, sit down in pure stillness and silence of all flesh, and wait in the light…. Those who are brought to a pure still waiting upon God in the spirit, are come nearer to the Lord than words are; for God is a spirit, and in the spirit is he worshiped…. In such a meeting there will be an unwillingness to part asunder, being ready to say in yourselves, it is good to be here; and this is the end of all words and writings—to bring people to the eternal living Word. —Alexander Parker, 1660

And this is the manner of their worship. They are to wait upon the Lord, to meet in the silence of the flesh, and to watch for the stirring of his life, and the breakings forth of his power amongst them. And in the breakings forth of that power they may pray, speak, exhort, rebuke, sing, or mourn, and so on, according as the spirit teaches, requires, and gives utterance. —Isaac Penington 1681

The Lord of Heaven and earth we found to be near at hand, and, as we waited upon him in pure silence, our minds out of all things, his heavenly presence appeared in our assemblies, when there was no language, tongue nor speech from any creature. The Kingdom of Heaven did gather us and catch us all, as in a net, and his heavenly power at one time drew many hundreds to land. We came to know a place to stand in and what to wait in; and the Lord appeared daily to us, to our astonishment, amazement and great admiration, insomuch that we often said one unto another with great joy of heart: ‘What, is the Kingdom of God come to be with men? And will he take up his tabernacle among the sons of men, as he did of old? Shall we…have this honour of glory communicated amongst us, which were but men of small parts and of little abilities?’ And from that day forward, our hearts were knit unto the Lord and one unto another in true and fervent love, in the covenant of Life with God; and that was a strong obligation or bond upon all our spirits, which united us one unto another. We met together in the unity of the Spirit, and of the bond of peace, treading down under our feet all reasoning about religion. And holy resolutions were kindled in our hearts as a fire which the Life kindled in us to serve the Lord…and mightily did the Word of God grow amongst us.
—Francis Howgill (one of the Westmoreland Seekers), 1663

Early Friends seemed to have made a distinction between two forms of worship:

  1. Threshing Meetings. These consisted in public preaching, often at great length, by Friends who were recognized as having a special gift of prophetic vocal ministry. These sermons (which could last an hour or more) were often delivered in public places such as fairs or markets. They delivered entirely spontaneously without pre-planning, believing that God (or the inward motion of Christ) would provide the words needed. Although the person delivering such a spoken message would usually be accompanied by other Friends, the purpose of this kind of worship was largely to carry the truth that Friends had discovered to those not yet part of the Quaker movement.
  2. Retired Meetings. These gatherings were primarily (although not exclusively) for those who had already become “convinced” of the truth of the Quaker message. They might be held in homes or barns in public buildings such as pubs. It seems likely from quotes such as Parker above that Friends gathered in silence and took some period of time to allow the meeting to become “gathered” before anyone felt moved to speak. Messages still may have been considerably longer than what we are accustomed to today. There is abundant evidence, however, that Friends felt it was important that messages be limited in simplicity to what the leading of the Spirit, and that there was a danger of “running beyond one’s Guide” – i.e. speaking one’s own thoughts or ideas rather than what the Inward Teacher required to be spoken.

Reflection questions:
1. Do Alexander Parker’s words (“sit down in pure stillness…”) resonate with your own experience of turning into a deeper place during the beginning of worship and helping it to become “gathered”?
2. How often do you feel you have experienced deeply “gathered worship” in your meeting? In meetings elsewhere?
3. Have you experienced a similar sense of the tangible presence of God in settings other than Meeting for Worship such as during personal prayer, in nature, a cathedral, a concert, a wedding or funeral?
4. To what extent do you experience vocal ministry in your meeting as being led or directed by the Living Spirit?
5. Do you ever feel powerfully “called by the Spirit” to speak? How did you respond?

Readings from Early Friends:

Modern writings on this subject

Class Handout #4 This Is Our Testimony to the World (the “testimonies” & sufferings)

Early Friends did not divide up testimonies as is often done today. Nonetheless, all early Friends lived a way of life that was radically separated from non-Friends around them, leading initially to severe persecution.

Integrity. The most radical differences between Friends’ lifestyle and non-Friends – and what led them to being persecuted – primarily falls under what we refer to today as the Testimony on Integrity. John 12:35-6

“Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you.” – George Fox (cf. Romans 12:1-2 “Be not conformed to the patterns of this world…”)

Friends strongly emphasized the necessity of living in a manner that was radically in keeping with their beliefs.

Speaking truth was extremely important. Jesus’s admonitions to not use oaths (Matthew 5:33-37) got them in trouble when they were asked to either swear that they did not support the king or (later) to support the king. Friends like Fox were often administered such loyalty oaths at their release from prison, landing them right back in prison again. Early Friends to James 3 very strictly, seeking to limit what they said to what is truly essential.

Other applications:

  • They believed it was wrong to use “plural address” to refer to persons of higher social status (i.e. addressing people with “ye” or “you” rather than “thou” and “thee”. They considered this a form of lying.
  • They insisted on holding their worship services in public rather than in secret (as some dissenting groups did), which often led to imprisonment.
  • They felt it was wrong to pay tithes to support hired clergy they rejected.
  • Their property was often seized.
  • Charging fixed prices for goods rather than reaching a price via bargaining
  • Friends (and also often Puritans) felt it was wrong to use the names of pagan gods that they didn’t believe in to refer to days of the week and of the month.
  • They also shared with Puritans a rejection of church holidays such as Christmas and Easter which were not specifically mentioned in scripture. They did, however, honor the Sabbath as a day off for rest.

Simplicity. Friends believed it was important to discern if clothing, other possessions or recreation get in the way of being able to hear God’s voice. See Jesus’ teaching about the lilies of the field in Matthew 6:19-34
Mary Penington struggled for years with her reluctance to give up worldly fashions and fear of being ridiculed by her wealthy friends and relatives for taking up Quaker plainness of speech and dress.

I never had peace or quiet from a sore exercise for many months, till I was, by the stroke of judgment, brought off from all those things, …and I was given up to be a fool and a reproach, and to take up the cross to my honor and reputation in the world. The contemplation of those things cost me many tears, doleful nights and days; not now disputing against the doctrine preached by the Friends, but exercised against taking up the cross to the language, fashions, customs, titles, honor and esteem in the world. —from her Life of Mary Penington

Once the leap had been made and she was “brought off from all those things,” Mary found herself at last content. She and other wealthy Friends had much of their property taken from them for their beliefs and practices.
Margaret Fell Fox took issue with strict guidelines in plain dress:

Christ Jesus saith that we must take no thought what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or what we shall put on: bids us consider the lilies, how they grow in more royalty than Solomon. But, contrary to this, [some Friends say that] we must look at no colours, nor make anything that is changeable colours as the hills are, nor sell them, nor wear them: but we must be all in one dress and one colour. This is silly poor gospel!…We have God’s holy Spirit, to lead us and guide us, and we have the blessed truth, that we are made partakers of, to be our practice.
—Margaret Fell, The Clothing that God Puts upon Us, 1700

Friends & Puritans rejected use of musical instruments, plays, dancing, and holidays such as Christmas and Easter.

Speaking only words that are really necessary and helpful was also considered a form of simplicity & plain speech.

Peace. A number of leading Quaker men including James Nayler fought on the side of Parliament and Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War. However, George Fox writes in his Journal about being asked to take a captaincy in this army, he declined.

I told them I knew from whence all wars come, even from the lusts, according to James’s doctrine, and that I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars. I told them I was come into the covenant of peace which was before wars and strifes were.

After King Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, a group called the Fifth Monarchists, which apparently included a handful of Friends, attempted using violence to overthrow him for religious reasons. As one of a number of small sects at the time out of the established church, Friends found themselves suspected of supporting violence to obtain spiritual ends. As a result, a group of leading Friends made a public declaration saying:

We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever; and this is our testimony to the whole world. The spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world. (See the full 1660 Declaration to King Charles II. See also: Barclay on Jesus’ teachings re violence.)

John Woolman’s famous statement challenging Friends to “try whether the seeds of war can be found in our possessions” links together Quaker witness on simplicity and on peace. (Paulette Meier has created a song The Seeds of War from Woolman’s words.)

Equality / Justice. Friends were extremely ahead of their time in encouraging women to take active leadership in the faith community. They not only allowed women to preach but wrote many tracts justifying this. In one such tract Margaret Fell quotes Paul in 1 Cor. 1:26-29:

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things…to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (From Margaret Fell, Women’s Speaking Justified)

Many Friends in the American colonies were enslavers, including William Penn. These practices were particularly brutal in Barbados, which had many Quaker plantation owners. It is extremely distressing and puzzling to modern Quakers how Friends could apply their basic beliefs about God’s work in all people to gender and class but not to the treatment of enslaved Africans. There were voices being raised among Friends against slavery even at the end of the 17th century. See the 1688 Germantown Statement

Reflection Questions:

  • Do you think Friends still have a public reputation for honesty?
  • Is being scrupulously honest as important today as it was in the 17th century?
  • Does your meeting discuss issues of personal ethics together?
  • Do you at times push the limits at times of what is really honest on your income taxes?
  • Would you ever tell a friend that you disagree with something she or he has done that is dishonest or unethical?
  • Where might you not be strictly committed to truth-telling (e.g. hiding runaway slaves, Anne Frank)?
  • Can you think of modern day relevant ways we might learn from 17th century Friends’ concerns about Christmas? Plays? Music-making? Plain dress?
  • How is early Friends’ statement that wars were caused by “lust for things” similar to John Woolman’s statement cautioning us about the “seeds of war in our possessions”?

Handout #5: Constructing “Gospel Order” as a Way of Living with Each Other

“Gospel Order” is an old-fashioned Quaker term for the radical transformation and re-ordering of lives and relationships that results from the relationship between the Quaker community and the Living God. Consistent with Matthew 18, gospel order attempts to preserve loving relationships within the faith community while moving towards a shared understanding of God’s will.

  • “Order” refers to the many concrete changes that are made in lives and relationships – not just an inward feeling but a way of life expressed in virtually every area of living.
  • “Gospel” refers not to a creed or dogma, but to a real living relationship with God. The central focus is not right beliefs or right actions but life and power in God.

As Fox says:

Many have had the letter but lost the life, the notion but lost the possession, the profession but lost the substance, Christ Jesus.” This is the “true sap” which Jesus describes so vividly in John 15 (which, significantly, is also the chapter from which “Friends” took their name for themselves.) Fox: “Therefore take heed of the world’s fashions, lest ye be moulded up into their spirit, and that will bring you to slight truth, and lift up the wrong eye, and wrong mind, and wrong spirit, and hurt and blind the pure eye, and pure mind, and quench the holy spirit.

Further reading:

In the 1660’s George Fox began devoting much time to setting up monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings across Britain, on the Continent, and in the American colonies. There were a number of reasons he felt called to do this:

Sufferings. Friends experienced imprisonment for following their faith up until the late 1680’s when King James II began to end religious persecution (presumably to protect his fellow Catholics). In some cases an entire meeting might be in prison. Others lost property because of refusal to pay tithes to support the “hireling priesthood”.

There was no formal membership in the 17th century. Meetings drew up lists of those needing support and this evolved much later into formal membership. The representative meeting of London Yearly Meeting is still known as “Meeting for Sufferings”.

Helping Each Other to Be Faithful. Friends strongly emphasized inward leading (“experimental” knowledge). Many argued that no one else should judge others’ leadings. But some leadings endangered the safety of the entire Quaker community, or at the minimum risked confusing others’ about the Quaker message.

Several events led many Friends to see a strong need for corporate testing of individual Friends’ leadings:

  • In 1656 a leading Friend, James Naylor, entered Bristol re-enacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He narrowly escaped the death sentence in his blasphemy trial before Parliament.
  • A number of Friends took part in the abortive Fifth Monarchist uprising against King Charles II in 1661.
  • Hat Controversy (John Perrot & others) 1661-early 1670s
  • The Wilkinson-Story Conflict (the first small schism among Friends)

A major impetus for setting up monthly meetings was to provide away that individual leadings could be tested by the larger faith community. In essence Quakerism is not based on individual revelation from God, but on communal discernment of God’s guidance. This is a sharp contrast to the individualism of modern U.S. society (“Don’t tell me how to live my life!”) It takes trust and a kind way of bringing truth to others for this to work!

Further reading:

Corporate Discernment. Fox wanted a form of durable structure for the passionate movement that he helped launch to help it endure over the long run. Traditionally decision-making has been made in one of two ways:

  • Hierarchical (e.g. Catholic Church: pope, archbishop, bishop, parish priest)
  • Democratic – votes taken within the local congregation, where autonomy largely rests (Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, etc.)

Our form of “church government” as embodied especially in the practice we call “meeting for business” represents a radical departure from the above two methods of reaching decisions. It represents the 2nd great innovation of 17th century Quakerism along with unprogrammed “waiting” worship. Meeting for worship provides a practical methodology facilitating God’s direct immediate guidance over a gathering for worship. Discernment of God’s will for the meeting body through a clerk who discerns the sense of the meeting arising from a gathered meeting for business is a practical way that God can provide similar direct guidance over church decisions via inward leading in the hearts of Friends.

See: Matt Rosen, Order of the Day: On Quaker Decison-making.

Women’s & Men’s Meetings. Separate meetings for business were set up in each meeting for women and men. This was at least as revolutionary as allowing women to preach openly. Women were “recorded” (officially recognized) as having a gift of vocal ministry and also served as elders of the meeting.

There was controversy over the fact that women’s meetings had a primary role in discerning the rightness of couples marrying. Women’s meetings probably did not consider all the same items as the men’s meetings, but they provided huge opportunities for women to develop and exercise leadership skills which led them women Quakers to play active roles in many social movements in the 19th century.

Further reading: The Wikipedia article on the Quaker View of Women describes the significance of holding separate women’s meetings for business for the first 250 years of Quakerism.

Support for Ministers. There was a need to provide spiritual oversight and support for those carrying out public ministry, including providing elders to accompany those called to journey to spread the Friends message and provision for spouses or families who stayed behind.

Second Day Morning Meeting: This group probably begun as an informal gathering of those who felt a special calling or gift to vocal ministry on Second Day (i.e. Monday) in London to share with each other their experiences of worship the previous day or week, presumably including many of those seen as part of the Valiant Sixty. It later came to play a much more institutional role including pproving or censoring proposed publications by Friends. It was roundly criticized by some Friends who felt this was a usurpation of power by some Friends over others.

Eventually, those who had a recognized gift of vocal ministry began to meet regularly in each meeting with those who were recognized as having a gift for nurturing spiritual gifts (“elders”). Meetings of Ministers & Elders were held on the monthly, quarterly & YM level. These are the predecessor of today’s Ministry & Worship Committees.

Many resources on this subject are available in the section of this library on Eldership: Nurturing Others’ Spiritual Gifts

Reflection questions:
1. To what extent have you experienced Quaker business or committee meetings as a form of worshipful waiting upon Divine Guidance in your monthly? In your yearly meeting?
2. What do you see as some of the major roadblocks to this form of decision-making working as it is intended? What do see as possible barriers in yourself to your own fruitful and prayerful participation in this process?
3. Are good clerks born or made? If they are made, what do or could our meetings do to help nurture the skill of clerking as a key form of spiritual leadership?
4. What are the pros and cons of officially recognizing gifts by the meeting?
5. Friends in the 20th century emphasized an individualistic vision of faith as opposed to a communal or “corporate” vision. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? How much was it the result of Friends being influenced by “the world” (i.e., values permeating the surrounding culture)

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