What is a Quaker?
This is a condensed description of the pre-divison beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends as they have been conserved through the Friends of Ohio Yearly Meeting and the work of New Foundation Fellowship. More information can be found on their websites. I find much value in the conservation of the faith taken up and preached by the earliest of the society. Their words and experiences continue to offer a plain pathway to salvation.
Friends belief is rooted firmly in the message of the everlasting gospel. We hold the understanding that God maintains an indwelling immediate presence within every human being through his Spirit, often called inward light, and that following in faithful obediance of what God directly teaches to us will lead us to grow in knowledge of him. Christ himself is the only way to drive us from our sins.
“There is One, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.” — Words of Christ Jesus to George Fox, Journal of George Fox
For the Quaker, our lives are organized around the understanding of the immediate communion with Christ and the fact that growth in obediance to Christ will lead us from our sins even into possible perfection. This was the message that propelled Quaker faith and resulted in the radical inward transformation of those men and women from before.
“That which the people called Quakers lay down, as a main fundamental in religion, is this, That God, through Christ, hath placed his Spirit in every man. to inform him of his duty, and to enable him to do it; and that those who live up to this, are the people of God, and those that live in disobedience to it, are not God’s people, whatever name they may bear or profession they may make of religion. This is their ancient, first and standing testimony. With this they began, and this they bore, and do bear to the world.” — William Penn, Primitive Christianity Revived
Friends hold that The Holy Scriptures were written by people who were moved by the Spirit and that they are profitable for instruction and correction of our experiences with the inward experience of Christ. The Holy Scriptures provide an accurate description of the record of man, how man has experienced God, and the plan for salvation through Christ Jesus. Friends do not promote scripture to the title of “The Word of God” considering that the Word is Christ himself, evident and seen plainly in the first chapter of John. The Conservative Quaker understanding is that scripute will not contradict the immediate revelation given by the Spirit since the scriptures themselves proceed from the movement of the Spirit.
Since Christ is the immediate teacher of the Church (body of believers) we do not have pastoral worship. Christ is there in our midst, there is no need to come with a prepared sermon since Christ is the sole authority who instructs us in religious matters. Our worship instead is founded on the practice of waiting upon the Lord in communal worship. This is achieved by a gathered outward silence together in a circle of seating, where each person centers themselves into an inner stillness and state of contemplation. This is an exepectant waiting for a message from the Lord, this inner stillness allows us to hear, with our spiritual ears, the voice of the Lord.
If Christ desires to have verbal ministry spoken, he will call upon a person at the meeting to speak his message. Verbal ministry is not a free-for-all of whoever wants to give ministry, it is a calling from the Lord. When one is receiving a message from Christ and they understand that they are being told to share it, they are expected to stand and verbally speak that message.
Not all meetings result in verbal ministry, this does not mean that the meeting has failed in worship. Christ internally ministers to us messages that do not need to be shared with the broader group of Friends. The silence itself may also serve as a solemn reverance which is in itself, acceptable spiritual worship.
“We are in the presence of the infinite, the unbounded, the unfathomable. We are face to face with the unspeakable, the transcendent, the eternal. How ireverent to voice whatever platitudes come into our minds! How unbecoming to start religious chatter. Nay, better far to be reverentially silent.” — Max Reich, Congregational Silence
Quakers have historically been counted as a “peace church” meaning that Quakers maintain a commitment to non-violent reconciliation and will not take up arms against another person for any reason, being prepared to suffer the cost of discipleship and to be a peacemaker until the very end. We do not see it to be possible that Christ will permit his people to bring harm to another human being. Christians are called to love their enemies and to pray for them, we can hardly do this while causing them strife. Quakers instead understand that the root of all wars is spiritual desolation and disobediance to God, for this reason they fight in “The Lamb’s War” for the salvation of all who will draw near to the Lamb.
“The lamb’s war is not against the creation, for then should his weapons be carnal, as the weapons of the worldly spirits are, for we war not with flesh and blood, nor against the creation of God, that we love, but we fight against the spiritual powers of wickedness, which wars against God in the creation, and captivates the creation into the lust which wars against the soul, and that the creature may be delivered into its liberty, prepared for the sons of God. And this is not against love, nor everlasting peace, but that without which there can be no true love, nor lasting peace.” — James Nayler, The Lamb’s War
Since the beginning, Quakers understood that a Christian is to be called into a full pursuit of righteousness and to be moved by the Spirit of Christ that makes this transformation possible. A sense of self-denial and eagerness to lay aside all that gets in the way of obediance to God is fostered amongst friends. All that draws us away from listening and acting on the instructions of the Lord must be put away.
Part of this self-denial manifested in biblical separation through clothing choice and manner of speaking, Quakers favoring “thee”, “thy”, “thou”, “thine” to keep to the plainness and reverent words of scripture. Today, conservative friends may use these words with other conservative friends. Some conservative friends continue to observe biblical separation in manner of dress that may loosely resemble the amish and plain mennonite groups. Broad brim hats, oxford shirts, broadfall pants, vests/suspenders for men and prayer coverings, plain dresses/skirts for women.
“We do not believe that religion consists in a garb of peculiar shape; but we do believe that the man of solid principles will not adopt that dress of the fop. He will dress in a plain and simple manner. But in addition to this, the style of Friends points them out as members of a body, believing as very few other Religious Societies do, in the peaceable nature of Christ’s Kingdom, and its incompatibility with every species of injustice and oppression; and thus the plain coat and plain speech become real though silent testimonies against oppression and war.” — North Carolina Yearly Meeting Session, 1861
It is important to note that while Quakers have participated in plainness for the sake of separation, they have always acknowledged a necessity to being exposed to those who are in the world for sake of evangelism or the practice of good-will to all people, irregardless of religious profession.
“Christians should keep the helm, and guide the vessel to its port; not meanly steal out at the stern of the world, and leave those that are in it without a pilot, to be driven by the fury of evil times, upon the rock or sand of ruin.” — William Penn, No Cross No Crown
There exist three groups of Friends today,
Evangelical Friends (Gurneyites) historically have placed less emphasis on the inward communion with Christ, in its replacement is found methodist low-church influence. They are most likely to have programmed worship with a pastor and church ordinances. There is sometimes a brief period of waiting worship before or after service. The largest groups of Evangelical Friends today are Evangelical Friends Church International and Friends United Meeting There also exist a small distinct group of Friends churches called Holiness Friends in Central Yearly Meeting Camp blending Quaker roots with the distinct Holiness revival camp meetings. Central Yearly Meeting
Liberal Friends (Hicksites) no longer see the Quaker faith as intrinsically tied to Christ. They oftentimes incorporate other religious frameworks and omnism is prevalent. Liberal Friends do make waiting worship the center of their meetings, but the ministry given at waiting worship is often spoken from a deeply personal lens “I feel, I believe, &c”. I find it important to state that although Liberal Friends are commonly associated with Hicksites as a blanket label, I would fit them more into “Post-Hicksite” as their beliefs proceed from the Hicksite tradition but have overtime become much more Liberal in theology. Liberal friends today are unified under Friends General Conference
Conservative Friends (Wilburites) represent the pre-division beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends. They maintain the stance that the Christian foundations are necessary as well as the inward obediance to the Spirit which is itself a Christian teaching. Wilburites find The Holy Scriptures to confirm their faith experienced inwardly. The most conservative yearly meeting is currently Ohio Yearly Meeting