Quaker Religion

It is 1969 and Glasgow is in the grip of the worst winter in decades, yet it is something else that has Glaswegians on edge: a serial killer whose name alone is enough to make them tremble with fear. The Quaker has killed another victim, snatching a young woman from a nightclub and dumping her body like trash in the back of a cold-water tenement. He leaves no clues, and the investigation has led police down one blind alley after another.

Towards the 17th century, the Puritan-raised George Fox became increasingly discouraged by the worsening moral conditions of society. George was unable to fill the spiritual void inside of him, until one day, he discovered his inner "Light". Next came the godly visions. George began to preach about the "true" Word of God, and soon, amassed a following - the Religious Society of Friends, later known as the "Quakers".

For more than sixty years, Friends have used A Guide to Quaker Practice to demystify Friends’ activities. Howard Brinton wrote the guide assuming that somebody would improve on his work as the Religious Society of Friends grew and changed in the second half of the twentieth century. His guide proved more durable than he anticipated. It saw three printings during the 1940s. Following a thorough revision in 1950, it was reprinted ten times before its next revision in 1993. One explanation for its durability can be found in Brinton’s own writing.

Many other mainline Christians viewed the Quakers as a dangerous sect, so much so that they pressured the British Parliament to pass the Quaker Act of 1662. This act set forth in law the “prescribed form” of prayer and worship as designated by the state. It was a formula that specifically left the traditions of the Quakers out. Unable to gain acceptance in England, the Quakers would soon leave the place of their origin altogether and try their luck in a brave new world on another continent.

An invitation to experience more fully the life-changing power of sacred silence. For over a decade, J. Brent Bill's Holy Silence has been regarded as a contemporary classic on sacred silence. With warmth, wisdom, and gentle humor, Bill presents the Quaker practice of silence and expectant listening to a wider Christian audience.

Daily we are asked to move toward bravery, to stretch in the direction of goodness, kindness, forgiveness, patience, and vulnerability. Yet life's tender fragility, fear, anxiety, and our own practiced self-sabotage can derail us from growing and thriving, leaving us fractured and afraid.

William Penn was a very early Quaker in England. He knew George Fox (the founder of Quakerism) and was with the movement from the beginning.

An intimate account of the American Revolution as seen through the eyes of a Quaker pacifist couple living in Philadelphia. Spanning a half-century before, during, and after the war, this gripping narrative illuminates the Revolution’s darker side as patriots vilified, threatened, and in some cases killed pacifist Quakers as alleged enemies of the revolutionary cause. Amid chaos and danger, the Drinkers tried as best they could to keep their family and faith intact. A master storyteller takes his listeners on a moving journey they will never forget.

This essay concentrates on the communal and societal aspects of gospel order as the foundation of meeting – or church – community life. “Gospel” refers to the actual relationship with God. “Order” refers to the patterns of daily living which flow from God. PHP 297

What interests the author is not so much the formal process of clearness for membership (important as that is), but rather the underlying spiritual movement by which individuals come to find their identity in the meeting community, how they come to a full sense of belonging; in short, how we come to be “members one of another.” It is clear that this is almost always a gradual process and not a single event, As Patricia Loring has written, we need a vision of membership as “a life-long process . . . of spiritual maturing or transformation.”