The Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)

Friends who meet to wait on the Spirit of Christ, with no priest and no set liturgy; most keep no outward baptism or Lord's Supper, and the silent meetings have no pastor: four families that differ sharply, from silent meetings to evangelical churches.

Britain Yearly Meeting, Quaker faith & practice (5th ed.), chapters 1–29

Britain Yearly Meeting, Tabular statement of membership, 2023 (figures at end of 2022)

Quakers in Britain, "Cumbria Quakers celebrate George Fox's 400th birthday" (10 June 2024)

Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity (first English edition 1678; Project Gutenberg #56487, the 1765 eighth edition)

Declaration of Faith issued by the Richmond Conference, 1887 (transcription at QuakerInfo.com)

A Declaration from the Harmless and Innocent People of God, called Quakers (presented to Charles II, 1660), Wikisource

Quakers Act 1662 (14 Cha. 2 c. 1), legislation.gov.uk

Friends General Conference, Quakerism

Friends General Conference, About

Friends General Conference, Branches of the Quaker Faith in North America

Friends General Conference, Death, the Afterlife, Funerals and Memorials

Friends United Meeting, About Friends

Friends United Meeting, Frequently asked questions

Friends United Meeting, About us

Friends United Meeting, Governance

Friends United Meeting, home page

Evangelical Friends Church International, Statement of Faith

Evangelical Friends Church International, home page

Evangelical Friends Church International, History

Evangelical Friends Church International, Latin America

Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative), The Book of Discipline (2022 printing)

Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative), Our Faith

Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative), Word of God – the Bible?

Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative), Newcomers (first visit)

Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends (Conservative), Faith and Practice (2011)

Friends World Committee for Consultation, Map – Finding Quakers Around the World

Friends World Committee for Consultation, Mission & History

Quakers (Wikipedia)

Conservative Friends (Wikipedia)

Friends United Meeting (Wikipedia)

Evangelical Friends Church International (Wikipedia)

Elias Hicks (Wikipedia)

Joseph John Gurney (Wikipedia)

John Wilbur (Wikipedia)

The Quakers began in the north of England in 1652, in the years after the civil wars, when many people left the parish churches to seek the Lord for themselves. Fox taught that Christ himself teaches his people, and the movement spread through preaching, through suffering for it, and through Margaret Fell's house at Swarthmoor. In America it divided three times: in 1827, in the 1840s and 1850s, and after 1877. Those divisions are why the Friends of today are four families and not one.

Pendle Hill

In 1652 George Fox climbed Pendle Hill in Lancashire. In his Journal he wrote: "there atop of the hill I was moved to sound the day of the Lord; and the Lord let me see atop of the hill in what places he had a great people to be gathered."

Fox on Firbank Fell

Britain Yearly Meeting's own account: "On 13 June 1652, George Fox spoke to 1,000 people for three hours from a rock three miles north-west of Sedbergh, which became known as Fox's Pulpit." Quakers in Britain still hold an outdoor meeting for worship there each year.

Swarthmoor Hall

Fox came to Swarthmoor Hall near Ulverston, the home of Thomas and Margaret Fell. Margaret Fell later wrote: "In the year 1652 it pleased the Lord to draw him [George Fox] toward us." Her house became the center of the early Friends.

The declaration against war

In 1660 Fox and others presented a declaration to Charles II "against all sedition, plotters, and fighters in the world." It opens, "Our principle is, and our practices have always been, to seek peace and ensue it." It is the base of the Friends' peace testimony. Some printings of its central sentence leave out the words "as to our own particulars," which stand in the Wikisource text of the original.

The Quakers Act

Parliament passed "An Act for preventing the Mischeifs and Dangers that may arise by certaine Persons called Quakers and others refusing to take lawfull Oaths." The Act's recital says the Quakers hold that taking an oath "in any case whatsoever although before a lawfull Magistrate is altogeather unlawfull and contrary to the word of God." Friends who would not swear, and who met in numbers, were fined and imprisoned.

Barclay's Apology

Robert Barclay's An Apology for the True Christian Divinity gave Friends their doctrine in fifteen propositions, among them the Spirit as the first rule, the Scriptures as "a Secondary Rule," baptism that is "a pure and spiritual Thing," and a communion that is "inward and spiritual." Quaker faith & practice credits the passage on the Scriptures to "Robert Barclay, 1678."

The Hicksite separation

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting divided in 1827–1828, the first schism in Quakerism. Those who left are named for the New York minister Elias Hicks, though he "was not present" when the meeting houses divided. Other yearly meetings, including New York, Baltimore, Ohio and Indiana, split along the same lines.

Gurney and Wilbur

A Conservative yearly meeting's own history: John Wilbur "taught that Gurney's evangelical teachings led to putting worship and interpretation of the Bible under human control instead of submitting to the will of the Spirit." The separation began in New England in 1845 and "caused a major schism in Ohio in 1854," when Ohio Yearly Meeting divided into Gurneyite and Wilburite branches.

The Conservative yearly meetings

After the Civil War many Gurneyite meetings "adopted a programmed form of worship with paid pastoral leadership." Iowa and Western yearly meetings formed Conservative bodies in 1877, Kansas in 1879, and North Carolina in 1904. They were "bound together, not by a formal organization, but by an exchange of epistles and intervisitation."

The Richmond Declaration

Gurneyite Friends met at Richmond, Indiana, in 1887 and issued a Declaration of Faith. On the Scriptures it says "there can be no appeal from them to any other authority whatsoever." It is the statement that the evangelical and pastoral Friends of the Gurneyite line inherit; the Conservative Friends, who had already separated, are not bound by it.

The Five Years Meeting

In 1902, fifteen years after Richmond, a collection of Orthodox yearly meetings formed the Five Years Meeting. In the 1960s it was renamed Friends United Meeting; Wikipedia's articles give 1963 in one place and 1965 in another.

The evangelical Friends

EFCI's own history: "The Association of Evangelical Friends was founded in 1947." It "changed its name to Evangelical Friends Alliance in 1963 when its founding members adopted a constitution and by-laws," became Evangelical Friends International in 1989, and "took on its current identity as Evangelical Friends Church International in 2008." EFCI says it "does not organizationally affiliate" with FGC, FUM or the Friends World Committee for Consultation.

George Fox

The founding preacher. "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition" are his best-known words, according to the Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Faith and Practice. He taught that the love and power of God were available "without the help of priests, ministers, or outward sacraments."

Margaret Fell

The wife of Thomas Fell, a judge of assize. She heard Fox speak at Ulverston in 1652 and said, "I saw it was the truth, and I could not deny it." Her house at Swarthmoor was "a place open to entertain ministers and religious people."

Robert Barclay

A Friend whose Apology is the historic doctrine of the Quakers. Quaker faith & practice credits him with the statement that the Scriptures are "a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit."

Elias Hicks

A New York Quaker preacher whose ministry stands behind the first great separation; the Hicksites are named for him. He was not present when the division came.

Joseph John Gurney

A British banker and Quaker minister, the leader of the evangelical strand that gives the Gurneyite Friends (now FUM and the evangelical bodies) their name.

John Wilbur

A New England minister who objected to Gurney's teaching and whose followers became the Wilburite, or Conservative, Friends.

The bodies today. Friends General Conference was "Founded in 1900" as an association of local and regional Quaker organizations (FGC). The Friends World Committee for Consultation was formed in 1937 "to help bring Quakers together across theological and cultural diversity" (FWCC). Nearly all yearly meetings are affiliated to it, and it is not an authority over any of them. Evangelical Friends say all their churches and yearly meetings "exist under a unified Constitution and Statement of Faith" (EFCI). FUM's 2026 home page names Sarah Lookabill as its presiding clerk (FUM).

The Spirit of Christ within is the first rule. For unprogrammed and Conservative Friends Scripture is a witness to it; Evangelical Friends hold Scripture beyond appeal.

Britain Yearly Meeting and Friends General Conference put the Spirit first. Britain Yearly Meeting's book of discipline calls the Scriptures "a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit," and it reads the Bible as "a record arising from" Friends' struggle to understand God. FGC says, "we have no creed." Conservative Friends speak as Christians and keep a high view of the Bible, with the same order. Ohio Yearly Meeting says the Spirit "which inspired what is written in scripture, is able to interpret it to us," and that this experience "will not conflict with the truths of Scripture." Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) says "Truth is revealed continuously if gradually," and that Friends' understanding "may change through careful attention to the leading of the Holy Spirit." Friends United Meeting says "The Scriptures are a reliable guide and must be interpreted by the Holy Spirit within the community of God." Evangelical Friends go further: no appeal from the Scriptures to any other authority, and "any professed guidance that is contrary to these Scriptures must be counted as a delusion."

they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and certainty

Though the Bible includes words of God, it is not the entire Word of God.

there can be no appeal from these Scriptures to any other authority whatsoever

Barclay's statement is the root of the unprogrammed and Conservative position. In his second proposition the Scriptures are "a Secondary Rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their Excellency and Certainty." The Richmond Declaration of 1887, which the Gurneyite line (FUM and the evangelical bodies) inherits, reverses the order: "there can be no appeal from them to any other authority whatsoever." The Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) page on the Bible warns Friends not "to hold up the physical book, the written words, as an idol in themselves." The Quaker objection to creeds, in the words of Quaker faith & practice, "is not to beliefs as such but to the use of an officially sanctioned selection of them to impose a uniformity" (27.25).

Baptism is the inward baptism of the Spirit. Unprogrammed and Conservative Friends keep no water baptism; Evangelical Friends leave it to conscience.

Friends do not baptize with water in unprogrammed and Conservative meetings. Britain Yearly Meeting says that "Our understanding of baptism is that it is not a single act of initiation but a continuing growth in the Holy Spirit," and that however valid outward sacraments are for others, "they are not, in our experience, necessary for the operation of God's grace." Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) teaches: "We believe that true baptism is the experience of being filled with Divine love which cleanses from all unrighteousness." Friends United Meeting says, "Quakers do not argue that water baptism is in any way wrong—it is simply insufficient." Evangelical Friends teach that people are recovered from their fallen state "by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the direct and immediate agency of the Holy Spirit," and that Christ was "crucified as a substitutionary atonement." Their Statement calls baptism and communion "spiritual realities which are not dependent upon physical and outward ordinances," and their churches leave water baptism to the believer's conscience.

Our understanding of baptism is that it is not a single act of initiation but a continuing growth in the Holy Spirit and a commitment which must continually be renewed.

It is the change and purification within, the spiritual fact rather than the outward symbol, which is indeed the true baptism.

baptism is an inward receiving of the Holy Spirit in which He becomes Lord over all

Barclay's twelfth proposition is the historic statement: "this Baptism is a pure and spiritual Thing, to wit, the Baptism of the Spirit and Fire." The baptism of John "was a Figure, which was commanded for a Time, and not to continue for ever." The Richmond Declaration of 1887 says of the same baptism, "This is not an outward baptism with water, but a spiritual experience." Barclay also denies baptism to infants: "it is a mere human Tradition, for which neither Precept nor Practice is to be found in all the Scripture." On infant baptism he is right. No Quaker body baptizes infants. The salvation question is then answered as a whole: Friends do not make the water the point, and each body speaks of a work of the Spirit in the heart.

The communion is inward and spiritual. Unprogrammed and Conservative Friends keep no bread and cup; Evangelical Friends hold the same view and leave the rite to conscience.

Unprogrammed and Conservative meetings keep no Lord's Supper of bread and cup, FUM's own pages describe no outward rite, and every branch speaks of an inward communion instead. Britain Yearly Meeting says, "In silence, without rite or symbol, we have known the Spirit of Christ so convincingly present in our quiet meetings," and calls this "our Eucharist and our Communion." One Friend's account in its book of discipline: "Neither in the refusal to baptise nor to take the supper do Friends set forth a negation. They assert, on the contrary, the positive truth that the religious life is the inward life of the spirit." Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) teaches that "The absence of outward rites and sacraments in Friends' worship reflects an emphasis on the reality of the inward experience." Friends United Meeting says Friends "focused on what it means to live in ongoing communion with the Holy Spirit." Evangelical Friends say "communion is the daily receiving and realization of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord," and tie it to Calvary; their churches leave the outward rite to conscience.

This is our Eucharist and our Communion.

It is this inward and spiritual partaking that is the true supper of the Lord.

communion is the daily receiving and realization of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord

Barclay's thirteenth proposition: "The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is inward and spiritual, which is the Participation of his Flesh and Blood, by which the inward Man is daily nourished in the Hearts of those in whom Christ dwells." He holds that "the breaking of Bread by Christ with his Disciples was a Figure, which they even used in the Church for a Time, who had received the Substance, for the Cause of the Weak." Friends United Meeting adds that "most Quakers do not practice the outward rite" of water baptism, and Evangelical Friends leave both to the conscience of the believer.

No set-apart clergy in the unprogrammed and Conservative meetings; the ministry of any member. FUM and Evangelical Friends have pastors.

Britain Yearly Meeting says, "The priesthood of all believers is a foundation of our understanding of the church," and "There is no need for any specific person to be designated prophet, priest, or church leader." Its meetings are cared for by elders and by those it long called overseers; in 2022 Meeting for Sufferings asked area meetings to use another word. FGC says, "Rather than employing a pastor, Quaker meetings function by appointing members to offices and committees." Conservative Friends keep a recorded and unpaid ministry: Ohio Yearly Meeting says "Conservative Friends do not have clergy" and no paid staff, and its Discipline says gospel ministry is to be "freely and faithfully discharged without any view of reward from man." Friends United Meeting says "Many local Friends communities do have pastors." Evangelical Friends are governed by "an international council comprising our director … and the Regional directors," under one Constitution and Statement of Faith.

The priesthood of all believers is a foundation of our understanding of the church.

Conservative Friends do not have clergy or other “staff”

Many local Friends communities do have pastors.

The yearly meeting is the highest body of unprogrammed and Conservative Friends, and it is made of the monthly meetings. It does not rule them as a bishop rules. FGC says it "does not tell meetings what they must believe." FUM describes itself as "embracing thirty-seven Yearly Meetings and Associations." Evangelical Friends are tighter: every church and yearly meeting exists under one Constitution.

Silent waiting worship, with any member free to speak as led. FUM's programmed meetings and Evangelical Friends have hymns, a sermon and a pastor.

Unprogrammed meetings (Britain Yearly Meeting, FGC, the Conservatives) meet in silence. Quaker faith & practice says "silence is one of the best preparations for communion [with God] and for the reception of inspiration and guidance." Ohio Yearly Meeting's Discipline says worship is "a personal communion with God and a yielding of our wills to the Divine will, for which no form or aid of clergy is necessary," and that the Yearly Meeting wants "a form of worship which is simple, pure, and spiritual." No one sings in an unprogrammed meeting. Friends United Meeting names three forms, unprogrammed, "semi-programmed" and programmed; the last "will often look like a more typical protestant-evangelical worship service." Evangelical Friends worship in a programmed service.

silence is one of the best preparations for communion [with God] and for the reception of inspiration and guidance.

worship is a personal communion with God and a yielding of our wills to the Divine will, for which no form or aid of clergy is necessary

The third form of Quaker worship is referred to as “programmed worship,” and will often look like a more typical protestant-evangelical worship service.

The Spirit leads each person directly and still reveals truth. Evangelical Friends test every leading by Scripture.

Friends hold that the Spirit of Christ speaks to every person now. Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) says "Truth is revealed continuously if gradually through the living link with God in a person's heart," and that Friends are "led, inspired, enlightened, or chastened as they come into the Light in prayer." Friends United Meeting says, "Through inward revelation and instruction, God offers the necessary guidance," and that all are called to ministry "with no distinct or priority based on age, culture economic status, particular role or gender." The Richmond Declaration says, "He confers spiritual gifts upon women as well as upon men." Evangelical Friends teach that the Spirit "convicts the world of sin, imparts life to the penitent believer, sanctifies the child of God, empowers the disciple for service to others," and that guidance contrary to Scripture is a delusion.

Truth is revealed continuously if gradually through the living link with God in a person's heart.

Through inward revelation and instruction, God offers the necessary guidance

He confers spiritual gifts upon women as well as upon men

No set doctrine among unprogrammed Friends; resurrection and judgment among Evangelical Friends and in the Richmond Declaration.

Friends General Conference says that "Historically and at present, Quakers have not placed much emphasis on theological constructs or corporate beliefs of what an afterlife might look like," and its page speaks for liberal Friends. Quaker faith & practice contains no corporate statement of the last things. The Richmond Declaration of 1887, which the Gurneyite line inherits, says "there shall be a resurrection from the dead, both of the just and of the unjust." Evangelical Friends say that "at His coming the dead shall be resurrected, some to everlasting glory and others to everlasting condemnation." The Ohio Discipline and the Iowa Faith and Practice of the Conservative Friends, read for this chart, contain no statement of the last things.

Historically and at present, Quakers have not placed much emphasis on theological constructs or corporate beliefs of what an afterlife might look like.

there shall be a resurrection from the dead, both of the just and of the unjust

that at His coming the dead shall be resurrected, some to everlasting glory and others to everlasting condemnation

The Inward Light

Christ enlightens every person directly; there is "that of God" in everyone.

The Inward Light is the center of Friends' faith. Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) writes of "that of God" in all persons, a presence "experienced variously as the Inner Light, the Holy Spirit, the Inward Christ, and the Divine Center." Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) says, "We believe that a seed of this spirit is in every man." The unprogrammed Friends read it widely; the Conservatives and the pastoral and evangelical Friends read it as the Christ of the New Testament.

Most fundamentally, Friends perceive “that of God” in all persons.

We believe that a seed of this spirit is in every man.

There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

Friends rest this on a real text: Christ is "the light which lighteth every man" (John 1:9), and God's grace "hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men" (Titus 2:11). Every person has a conscience and some knowledge of God. The text does not say that this light saves apart from the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and "how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14). The Holy Spirit is given "to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32), not to all by birth. A seed in every person, led by an inward voice, is not the apostles' teaching about how the Spirit comes. Nor does the Light need to add to the book: the Scriptures make the man of God "complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), and the faith was "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3). Barclay's text, "ye need not that any one teach you" (1 John 2:27), is written in a letter that is teaching them, and in the same letter John says, "let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning" (1 John 2:24), which is the apostles' word. The promise "he shall guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13) was given to the apostles, and what they were guided into is written. Conservative, pastoral and evangelical Friends keep nearer the text than the liberal Friends, who sometimes let the Light float free of Christ.

The peace testimony

Friends will not take up outward weapons, for any end.

The base of the testimony is the 1660 declaration to Charles II. Quaker faith & practice prints its words: "All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever." The Ohio Discipline tells Friends to be "faithful in maintaining your testimony against all war." FGC says whether a Friend serves in the military "is left to the individual as conscience dictates." FUM says "We are called to peace and peacemaking."

All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever

Be faithful in maintaining your testimony against all war as inconsistent with the Spirit and teaching of Christ.

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.

for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil.

Friends stand near the text where the text is plain. A servant of Christ does not fight to advance his kingdom, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36), and he does not take his own revenge, "Avenge not yourselves" (Romans 12:19). Early Friends suffered for this and did not strike back. The text also says the ruler "beareth not the sword in vain" (Romans 13:4), so the sword is given to the government, and the New Testament nowhere tells a convert soldier to leave his post. The binding of every believer to refuse every form of public force goes further than the apostles. FGC's leaving the matter to conscience leaves no testimony at all.

No oaths, and plain speech

Friends will not swear an oath; their word is a plain yes or no.

Early Friends suffered under the Quakers Act of 1662 for this. Ohio Yearly Meeting's Discipline tells Friends to "Regard the taking of oaths as contrary to the teachings of Christ, and setting up a double standard of truthfulness." FUM says, "As people committed to the Truth, we avoid making oaths and seek to practice plain and honest speech." Britain Yearly Meeting says "Friends believe that their word should be accepted at any time among all persons." Iowa's Conservative Friends say that some Friends "feel they cannot accept a substitute offered in legal situations."

Regard the taking of oaths as contrary to the teachings of Christ, and setting up a double standard of truthfulness

As people committed to the Truth, we avoid making oaths and seek to practice plain and honest speech.

but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by the heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one.

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath: but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; that ye fall not under judgment.

But I call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you I forbare to come unto Corinth.

Here Friends stand on the plain word of the Lord and of James when most churches do not, and they paid for it in prison. Christ says, "Swear not at all" (Matthew 5:34), and James says, "above all things, my brethren, swear not" (James 5:12). The command is that a disciple's "Yea" be "yea" and his "Nay," "nay," so that his word needs no oath behind it. Friends are right, and the churches that swear in court, and that bind their members by oath, have the text against them. Paul's words "I call God for a witness upon my soul" (2 Corinthians 1:23) are not a legal oath, and the text is silent on a bare affirmation in court, which is the same plain yes; those Friends who refuse even that go a step past the verse.

Women in ministry

Women have spoken in meeting and been recorded as ministers since 1652.

Early Friends let women speak in meeting and travel as ministers, and Margaret Fell defended it in writing. The Ohio Discipline says "From the beginning of our Society, Friends have held that men and women are equally qualified for vocal ministry, whether in our meetings or elsewhere." The Richmond Declaration applies Acts 2:17 to women, "He confers spiritual gifts upon women as well as upon men." FUM says all are called to ministry "with no distinct or priority based on ... gender."

From the beginning of our Society, Friends have held that men and women are equally qualified for vocal ministry, whether in our meetings or elsewhere.

And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams: Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.

let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home: for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church.

Friends have the better of the argument on one point. The Spirit was poured on "your daughters" and "handmaidens," and "they shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17-18), and Philip's four daughters "prophesied" (Acts 21:9). Women prayed and prophesied in the New Testament churches (1 Corinthians 11:5), and Priscilla helped to teach Apollos "the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26). Nothing in the New Testament makes a woman less filled with the Spirit. The same apostle forbids her the public teaching of the assembled church: "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man" (1 Timothy 2:12), and "let the women keep silence in the churches" (1 Corinthians 14:34). He rests the rule on creation, "For Adam was first formed, then Eve" (1 Timothy 2:13), not on the custom of one city, so it was not a rule for Ephesus alone. Friends set both aside by the claim of an immediate leading, and a leading cannot overrule an apostolic command (1 Corinthians 14:37).

Decisions without a vote

Meetings for business wait for unity, the "sense of the meeting," and do not vote.

FGC says, "Decisions are made without voting." Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) says "Questions are not decided by voting. The Holy Spirit may call even a lone dissenter to lay before the meeting a glimpse of Truth which a parliamentary majority might overlook." Business is done in a meeting for worship with attention to business, with a clerk to draw out the sense of the meeting.

Decisions are made without voting.

Questions are not decided by voting.

Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:

For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things:

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

The seeking of the Spirit and of unity in decisions is near the pattern of Acts 15, where the church came to a common mind: "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us" (Acts 15:28). The New Testament does not forbid a vote and does not require waiting for unanimity; "the whole church" took part in the choice (Acts 15:22). What Acts 15 does not do is leave the decision to an inward sense. The apostles and elders weighed the matter by what God had done and by what the Scriptures said. A sense of the meeting that is not tied to the written word has no test, and the Bereans' way of "examining the Scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11) is the test it lacks.

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it, and the wall below shows how far each one stands from it. Choose a course to read the Scripture and the reason. The Friends began as people who wanted Christ himself to teach them, and they paid for it in prison. Where they stand nearer the pattern than most, they are credited plainly. Where they stand further, that is said too. Because the Friends are four families, each verdict names the body it speaks of, and the Evangelical Friends, who stand nearer the line on several courses, are named where they differ.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

The Scriptures make "the man of God" complete, "furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), and the faith was "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3). Unprogrammed and Conservative Friends set the inward leading first and Scripture second, "subordinate to the Spirit," so that a leading can carry where no text would be asked for. The apostle's test runs the other way: "prove the spirits" (1 John 4:1), as the Bereans did, "examining the Scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11). Friends are right to refuse any creed laid beside the Bible, and they were right that a man cannot be saved by a book without the Spirit. Evangelical Friends stand much nearer the line, for their Statement allows no appeal from the Scriptures and calls contrary guidance a delusion, and Friends United Meeting stands between.

The promise Friends lean on, "he shall guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13), was made to the apostles in the upper room, and what they were guided into is what they wrote. A Spirit that guides anyone into something the apostles did not teach is answered in plain words: "any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema" (Galatians 1:8). Barclay's argument is that the Scriptures came from the Spirit and so cannot outrank it. The answer is that the Spirit did not leave two voices. What he spoke through the apostles is his word, and it is kept in the book. Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) itself says the experience of Christ "will not conflict with the truths of Scripture"; that is the right principle, and it makes the Scripture the judge.

Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ;

Christ commanded his apostles to make disciples, "baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19), and Peter told the crowd to "be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38). At Cornelius' house the Spirit had already fallen, and Peter still asked, "Can any man forbid the water" (Acts 10:47), and "commanded them to be baptized" (Acts 10:48), so the Spirit's baptism and the water are two things and neither replaces the other. Unprogrammed and Conservative Friends keep no baptism in water, so its mode, its subjects and its administrator have no answer in their meetings, and the placement rests on what baptism is for: the act the Lord tied to the remission of sins, they teach, has passed away, so it has no place in entering Christ at all. Evangelical Friends leave water baptism to conscience, one step nearer, though their Statement still calls baptism "an inward receiving of the Holy Spirit." Friends are right that water without a good conscience saves no one, and right to refuse the baptism of infants.

Barclay's answers deserve a straight reply, and each one fails on the text. He grants Matthew 28:19 and says "the Text is silent" about water. The commission was given to the apostles, and they carried it out in water at every turn: three thousand "were baptized" the day Peter preached (Acts 2:41); the eunuch said, "Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:36); Ananias told Saul, "arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins" (Acts 22:16). The ones who heard the commission are the best witnesses to what it meant. He reads "one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5) as the Spirit's alone. Yet the Spirit's baptism is something the Lord promised (Acts 1:5; Acts 11:15-16), and at Cornelius' house water was commanded after the Spirit fell. The two cannot be one thing if one follows the other. He says Peter's command at Cornelius' house is matter of fact, not of right, like circumcision. Circumcision was never commanded by Christ to the nations. Baptism was, and the commission runs "even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20), not for a season. He cites 1 Corinthians 1:17. "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" does not end baptism: Paul baptized Crispus, Gaius and the household of Stephanas (1 Corinthians 1:14-16), and he thanks God he baptized few so that no one would say he baptized into his own name. He rests on 1 Peter 3:21. Peter says baptism "doth now save you" (1 Peter 3:21), and then guards it: "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God" (1 Peter 3:21). The clause removes a magical view of water. It does not remove the water. And Paul says we were "buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4), and a burial is shown in water.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Paul wrote, "I received of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:23) that the Lord took bread and the cup and said, "this do in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24), and he adds that "ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26). The Supper is therefore for the whole time before the Lord returns, and it cannot be a shadow that has already ceased. The first church "continued stedfastly" in "the breaking of bread" (Acts 2:42), and at Troas the disciples met "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7). Friends keep no bread and no cup, so how often and who may partake have no answer among them. The placement scores only what they teach the Supper is: an inward partaking of Christ's flesh and blood with no bread and no cup, which puts something else in place of the memorial Paul delivered. The omission itself is charged once, on the lineage chart, as an ordinance of Christ left out, so it is not counted twice here. Evangelical Friends define communion as inward in the same way and leave the rite to conscience. Friends are right that fellowship with Christ is real, inward and daily, and that bread and cup eaten without it are empty.

Barclay's arguments, set out in his thirteenth proposition, are three. The words "Do this" refer to the whole ceremony, including the manner: Christ broke bread "at Supper, while they were eating," and no church, he says, does it just so. Paul himself shows the church's practice: he delivers the bread and the cup to a Gentile church and corrects the Corinthians' meal, telling them to eat at home (1 Corinthians 11:33-34), and he leaves the bread and cup standing. A change in the setting does not cancel the command. The purpose of the Supper, to remember the Lord's death, can be served without it. That shows that remembrance is possible otherwise. It does not show that the Lord's own act may be dropped: he asked for this act, and "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death" (1 Corinthians 11:26). The breaking of bread was used "for the Cause of the Weak," like abstaining from blood and the washing of feet, shadows that cease. The abstaining from blood was a rule for Jewish and Gentile believers living together (Acts 15). The Supper was given to a Gentile church by a revelation to Paul, years after the cross, with "till he come" written into it. John Wilhelm Rowntree's line, "the positive truth that the religious life is the inward life of the spirit," is true, and it is not in conflict with the outward bread and cup; the first church had both.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge; if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly. For the bishop must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre;

Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching.

Unprogrammed and Conservative Friends are nearer the New Testament than most on this course. They have no priesthood over the people, no bishop over the meeting and no paid clergy. Every believer is "a holy priesthood" (1 Peter 2:5), and Friends refused the tithe and the paid priestly caste when it cost them dearly. Peter's elders are told not to be "lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:3). The apostles "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), and Titus was to "appoint elders in every city" (Titus 1:5), men who were "blameless" (Titus 1:6), men who "labor in the word and in teaching" (1 Timothy 5:17). Britain Yearly Meeting appoints elders and overseers for pastoral care and the recording of ministers, but the office is not tied to those qualifications or to the work of teaching, and it has asked meetings to drop the word "overseer." In the pastoral bodies a single pastor leads the congregation, which is not the plural eldership of Acts 14. Evangelical Friends' international council stands above their churches, the one level of authority above the congregation.

The Friends' principle, that every member has a part and the ministry is not one man's office, is the New Testament's: "each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching" (1 Corinthians 14:26). Where Friends fall short is not in having too much structure but in having none of the appointed eldership the apostles left: elders named for their character, who watch for the flock.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Friends hold to the Lord's own word that "they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24), and an unprogrammed meeting stands nearer the open gathering of Corinth than most: "each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching" (1 Corinthians 14:26). There is no clergy performance, no ritual and no entertainment. The command to sing is plain: "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and "singing with grace in your hearts unto God" (Colossians 3:16). An unprogrammed meeting sings nothing at all. Friends United Meeting's semi-programmed and programmed meetings sing, but they add the prepared sermon of a pastor, and neither form breaks bread when the church is gathered (Acts 20:7).

The silence is not the fault. A church may wait on God. The fault is leaving out what Christ and the apostles set in the gathering: the songs, the teaching, the prayers, the bread. Where Friends open the meeting to every member to speak, they keep what was common in the New Testament church; where they leave out the singing and the Supper, they leave out what was commanded.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come.

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

Friends honor the Spirit as few churches do, and they are right that he is given to believers who obey, "whom God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32), and that women and men alike may be filled with him. Evangelical Friends teach that the Spirit enables each believer "to love God supremely," and they test every leading by Scripture. But unprogrammed and Conservative Friends take his guidance as continuing revelation, "Truth is revealed continuously," which can put a leading above the written word. The promise of being guided "into all the truth" (John 16:13) was spoken to the apostles. The miraculous word-confirming gifts, "signs and wonders" (Hebrews 2:4), accompanied the apostles who heard the Lord and ceased with them. The apostle's rule for every inward voice is "prove the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). The belief that there is "that of God" in everyone also goes past the text, which gives the Spirit to the penitent and obedient.

Friends United Meeting and Evangelical Friends are nearer the line here than the other bodies, since both join the Spirit's guidance to Scripture as its interpreter. The Evangelical Friends' wording, that "the Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures must ever be its true interpreter," is the right order, and FUM's "must be interpreted by the Holy Spirit within the community of God" is near it. The liberal Friends, who sometimes read the Light apart from Christ, are furthest.

Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

The Lord teaches a resurrection of all the dead, "unto the resurrection of life" or "unto the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:29), and God "hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:31). Evangelical Friends say this almost in the words of the text, and so does the 1887 Richmond Declaration for the Gurneyite line. Unprogrammed Friends hold no corporate doctrine of the afterlife at all. FGC says Quakers "have not placed much emphasis" on it. Where Scripture states plainly that all will "be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:10), silence leaves out what the Lord and the apostles taught and lets each member decide. The Conservative Friends' books read here say nothing on it.

Friends hold much that Scripture holds. They refuse oaths on the plain word of Christ and James, and they have been fined and jailed for it. They will not take up outward weapons for the Lord's kingdom or take their own revenge. They have no priestly caste, no bishop over the meeting and no hired clergy in their silent meetings. They baptize no infants. They teach that the Spirit works in the heart, that outward forms are empty without a good conscience, that men and women may be filled with the Spirit, and that a disciple's word should be plain. Evangelical Friends hold the Scriptures beyond appeal and teach the resurrection and the judgment, and Conservative Friends speak in Christian terms of Christ within and of the daily cross.

Friends asked to be led by Christ himself, and they were right that Christ has not left his people. The question is where he speaks with authority now. He spoke through the apostles, and what they taught is written. They commanded baptism in water for the remission of sins, the Supper until he comes, singing, and elders appointed in every church. Those who say the Spirit has put these away have to explain why the Spirit who moved the apostles to command them would move anyone to lay them down.

The line is not that the Spirit is silent. The line is that he does not contradict himself. Friends who wait on him in silence have a good thing and should wait on him in the book he gave, and take up the water, the bread and the cup that the book commands.

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