Quakers - The Religious Society of Friends
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Quakers are members of a group with Christian roots that began in England in the 1650s.

The formal title of the movement is "The Society of Friends" or "The Religious Society of Friends".

There were about 210,000 Quakers across the world in 2009.

In Britain there are 17,000 Quakers, and 400 Quaker meetings for worship each week. 
9,000 people in Britain regularly take part in Quaker worship without being members of the 
Religious Society of Friends.

Quakers believe that there is something of God in everybody and that each human being is of 
unique worth. This is why Quakers value all people equally, and oppose anything that may harm 
or threaten them.

Quakers seek religious truth in inner experience, and place great reliance on conscience as 
the basis of morality. They emphasise direct experience of God rather than ritual and ceremony. 
They believe that priests and rituals are an unnecessary obstruction between the believer and God.

Quakers integrate religion and everyday life. They believe God can be found in the middle of 
everyday life and human relationships, as much as during a meeting for worship.

A brief History of the Quakers
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George Fox (1624-1691), began a four year journey throughout England in the mid 1600s, 
seeking answers to his spiritual questions. Disappointed with the answers he received 
from religious leaders, he felt an inner call to become an itinerant preacher. Fox's 
meetings were radically different from orthodox Christianity: silent meditation, with 
no music, rituals, or creeds.

Fox's movement ran afoul of Oliver Cromwell's Puritan government, as well as that of 
Charles II, when the monarchy was restored. Fox's followers, called Friends, refused 
to pay tithes to the state church, would not take oaths in court, declined to doff their 
hats to those in power, and refused to serve in combat during war. Further, Fox and his 
followers fought for the end of slavery and more humane treatment of criminals, both 
unpopular stands.

Once, when hauled before a judge, Fox chided the jurist to "tremble before the word of 
the Lord." The judge mocked Fox, calling him a "Quaker," and the nickname stuck. Quakers 
were persecuted across England, and hundreds died in jail. Their insistence on holding 
banned religious meetings in public led to over 6,000 Quakers being imprisoned or executed 
between 1662 and 1670.

Quakers in the New World
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Quakers fared no better in the American colonies. Colonists who worshipped in the established 
Christian denominations considered Quakers heretics. Friends were deported, imprisoned, and 
hanged as witches.

Eventually they found a haven in Rhode Island, which decreed religious tolerance. 
William Penn (1644-1718), a prominent Quaker, received a large land grant in payment for a debt 
the crown owed his family. Penn founded Pennsylvania colony and worked Quaker beliefs into its 
government. Quakerism flourished there.

Over the years, Quakers became more accepted, and were actually admired for their honesty and 
simple living. That changed during the American Revolution, when Quakers refused to pay military 
taxes or fight in the war. Some Quakers were exiled because of that position.

In the early 19th century, Quakers rallied against the social abuses of the day: slavery, poverty, 
horrible prison conditions, and mistreatment of Native Americans. Quakers were instrumental in 
the Underground Railroad, a secret organisation that helped escaped slaves find freedom before 
the American Civil War.

Divisions in the Quaker Religion
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Elias Hicks (1748-1830), a Long Island Quaker, preached the "Christ within" and downplayed 
traditional biblical beliefs. That led to a split, with Hicksites on one side and Orthodox 
Quakers on the other. Then in the 1840s, the Orthodox faction split.

By the early 1900s, Quakerism was divided into four basic groups:

"Hicksites" - This Eastern U.S., liberal branch stressed social reform.

"Gurneyites" - Progressive, evangelical, Bible-centred followers of Joseph John Gurney had 
pastors to lead meetings.

"Wilburites" - Mostly rural traditionalists who believed in individual spiritual inspiration, 
they were followers of John Wilbur. They also kept the traditional Quaker speech (thee and thou) 
and the plain way of dressing.

"Orthodox" - The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was a Christ-centred group.

Modern Quakers History
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During World War I and World War II, many Quaker men enlisted in the military, in non-combative 
positions. In the First World War, hundreds served in a civilian ambulance corps, an especially 
dangerous assignment which allowed them to relieve suffering while still avoiding military service.

Following World War II, Quakers became involved in the civil rights movement in the United States. 
Bayard Rustin, who worked behind the scenes, was a Quaker who organised the March on Washington for 
Jobs and Freedom in 1963, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. 
Quakers also demonstrated against the Vietnam War, and donated medical supplies to South Vietnam.

Some of the Friends divisions have been healed, but worship services vary widely today, from liberal 
to conservative. Quaker missionary efforts took their message to South and Latin America and to 
east Africa. Currently, the largest concentration of Quakers is in Kenya, where the faith is 
125,000 members strong.

(Sources: QuakerInfo.org, Quaker.org, the BBC and ReligiousTolerance.org.)

Some notable Quakers
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    George Fox (1624-1691)		founder of Quakerism
    William Penn (1621-1670)		friend of George Fox, founder of Pennsylvania
    John Woolman (1720-1772)		an American Quaker involved in the abolition of slavery
    John Dalton (1766-1844)		British scientist who invented the atomic theory of matter
    Edward Pease (1767-1858)		first Quaker member of Parliament
    Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845)		British prison reformer
    John Bright (1811-1889)		British politician
    Joseph Rowntree (1837-1925)		Chocolate manufacturer
    George Cadbury (1839-1922)		Chocolate manufacturer
    Arthur Eddington (1882-1944)	physicist
    Paul Eddington (1927-1995)		actor
    James Dean (1931-1955)		actor
    Jocelyn Bell Burnell (born 1943)	astronomer, discoverer of pulsars
    Bonnie Raitt (born 1949)		popular musician
    Tom Robinson (born 1950)		popular musician