The present organization of the Quaker church is essentially
democratic; every person born of Quaker parents is a member, and,
together with those who have been admitted on their own request, is
entitled to take part in the business assemblies of any meeting of
which he or she is a member. The Society is organized as a series of
subordinated meetings which recall to the mind the Presbyterian model.
The "Preparative Meeting" usually consists of a single congregation;
next in order comes the "Monthly Meeting," the executive body, usually
embracing several Preparative Meetings called together, as its name
indicates, monthly (in some cases less often); then the "Quarterly
Meeting," embracing several Monthly Meetings; and lastly the "Yearly
Meeting," embracing the whole of Great Britain (but not Ireland).
After several yearly or "general" meetings had been held in different
places at irregular intervals as need arose, the first of an
uninterrupted series met in 1668. From that date until 1904 it was
held in London. In 1905 it met in Leeds, and in 1908 in Birmingham.
Its official title is "London Yearly Meeting." It is the legislative
body of Friends in Great Britain. It considers questions of policy,
and some of its sittings are conferences for the consideration of
reports on religious, philanthropic, educational and social work which
is carried on. Its sessions occupy a week in May of each year.
Representatives are sent from each inferior to each superior meeting,
but they have no precedence over others, and all Friends may attend
any meeting and take part in any of which they are members. Formerly
the system was double, the men and women meeting separately for their
own appointed business. Of late years the meetings have been, for the
most part, held jointly, with equal liberty for all men and women to
state their opinions, and to serve on all committees and other
appointments. The mode of conducting these meetings is noteworthy. A
secretary or "clerk," as he is called, acts as chairman or president;
there are no formal resolutions; and there is no voting or applause.
The clerk ascertains what he considers to be the judgment of the
assembly, and records it in a minute. The permanent standing committee
of the Society is known as the "Meeting for Sufferings" (established
in 1675), which took its rise in the days when the persecution of many
Friends demanded the Christian care and material help of those who
were able to give it. It is composed of representatives (men and
women) sent by the quarterly meetings, and of all recorded Ministers
and Elders. Its work is not confined to the interests of Friends; it
is sensitive to the call of oppression and distress (e.g. a famine) in
all parts of the world, it frequently raises large sums of money to
alleviate the same, and intervenes, often successfully, and mostly
without publicity, with those in authority who have the power to bring
about an amelioration.
The offices known to the Quaker body are: (1) that of _minister_ (the
term "office" is not strictly applicable, see above as to
"recording"); (2) of _elder_, whose duty it is "to encourage and help
young ministers, and advise others as they, in the wisdom of God, see
occasion"; (3) of _overseer_, to whom is especially entrusted that
duty of Christian care for and interest in one another which Quakers
recognize as obligatory in all the members of a church. In most
Monthly Meetings the care of the poor is committed to the overseers.
These officers hold, from time to time, meetings separate from the
general assemblies of the members, but the special organization for
many years known as the Meeting of Ministers and Elders, reconstituted
in 1876 as the Meeting on Ministry and Oversight, came to an end in
1906-1907.
This present form both of organization and of discipline has been
reached only by a process of development. As early as 1652-1654 there
is evidence of some slight organization for dealing with marriages,
poor relief, "disorderly walkers," matters of arbitration, &c. The
Quarterly or "General" meetings of the different counties seem to have
been the first unions of separate congregations. In 1666 Fox
established Monthly Meetings; in 1727 elders were first appointed; in
1752 overseers were added; and in 1737 the right of children of
Quakers to be considered as members was fully recognized. Concerning
the 18th century in general, see above.
Of late years the stringency of the Quaker discipline has been
relaxed: the peculiarities of dress and language have been abandoned;
marriage with a non-member or between two non-members is now possible
at a Quaker meeting-house; and marriage elsewhere has ceased to
involve exclusion from the body. Above all, many of its members have
come to "the conviction, which is not new, but old, that the virtues
which can be rewarded and the vices which can be punished by external
discipline are not as a rule the virtues and the vices that make or
mar the soul" (Hatch, _Bampton Lectures_, 81).
Philanthropic interests.
A genuine vein of philanthropy has always existed in the Quaker body.
In nothing has this been more conspicuous than in the matter of
slavery. George Fox and William Penn laboured to secure the religious
teaching of slaves. As early as 1676 the assembly of Barbados passed
"An Act to prevent the people called Quakers from bringing negroes to
their meetings." On the attitude of Friends in America to slavery, see
the section "Quakerism in America" (above). In 1783 the first petition
to the House of Commons for the abolition of the slave trade and
slavery went up from the Quakers; and in the long agitation which
ensued the Society took a prominent part.
In 1798 Joseph Lancaster, himself a Friend, opened his first school
for the education of the poor; and the cause of unsectarian religious
education found in the Quakers steady support. They also took an
active part in Sir Samuel Romilly's efforts to ameliorate the penal
code, in prison reform, with which the name of Elizabeth Fry (a
Friend) is especially connected, and in the efforts to ameliorate the
condition of lunatics in England (the Friends' Retreat at York,
founded in 1792, was the earliest example in England of kindly
treatment of the insane). It is noteworthy that Quaker efforts for the
education of the poor and philanthropy in general, though they have
always been Christian in character, have not been undertaken primarily
for the purpose of bringing proselytes within the body, and have not
done so to any great extent.
Education.
By means of the Adult Schools, Friends have been able to exercise a
religious influence beyond the borders of their own Society. The
movement began in Birmingham in 1845, in an attempt to help the
loungers at street corners; reading and writing were the chief
inducements offered. The schools are unsectarian in character and
mainly democratic in government: the aim is to draw out what is best
in men and to induce them to act for the help of their fellows. Whilst
the work is essentially religious in character, a well-equipped school
also caters for the social, intellectual and physical parts of a man's
nature. Bible teaching is the central part of the school session: the
lessons are mainly concerned with life's practical problems. The
spirit of brotherliness which prevails is largely the secret of the
success of the movement. At the end of 1909 there were in connexion
with the "National Council of Adult-School Associations" 1818
"schools" for men with a membership of about 113,789; and 402 for
women with a membership of about 27,000. The movement, which is no
longer exclusively under the control of Friends, is rapidly becoming
one of the chief means of bringing about a religious fellowship among
a class which the organized churches have largely failed to reach. The
effect of the work upon the Society itself may be summarized thus:
some addition to membership; the creation of a sphere of usefulness
for the younger and more active members; a general stirring of
interest in social questions.[4]
A strong interest in Sunday schools for children preceded the Adult
School movement. The earliest schools which are still existing were
formed at Bristol, for boys in 1810 and for girls in the following
year. Several isolated efforts were made earlier than this; it is
evident that there was a school at Lothersdale near Skipton in 1800
"for the preservation of the youth of both sexes, and for their
instruction in useful learning"; and another at Nottingham. Even
earlier still were the Sunday and day schools in Rossendale,
Lancashire, dating from 1793. At the end of 1909 there were in
connexion with the Friends' First-Day School Association 240 schools
with 2722 teachers and 25,215 scholars, very few of whom were the
children of Friends. Not included in these figures are classes for
children of members and "attenders," which are usually held before or
during a portion of the time of the morning meeting for worship; in
these distinctly denominational teaching is given. Monthly organ,
_Teachers and Taught_.
Foreign missions.
A "provisional committee" of members of the Society of Friends was
formed in 1865 to deal with offers of service in foreign lands. In
1868 this developed into the Friends' Foreign Mission Association,
which now undertakes Missionary work in India (begun 1866), Madagascar
(1867), Syria (1869), China (1886), Ceylon (1896). In 1909 the number
of missionaries (including wives) was 113; organized churches, 194;
members and adherents, 21,085; schools, 135; pupils, 7042; hospitals
and dispensaries, 17; patients treated, 6865; subscriptions raised
from Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, L26,689, besides L3245
received in the fields of work. Quarterly organ, _Our Missions_.
_Statistics of Quakerism._--At the close of 1909 there were 18,686
Quakers (the number includes children) in Great Britain; and
"associates" and habitual "attenders" not in membership, 8586; number
of congregations regularly meeting, 390. Ireland--members, 2528;
habitual attenders not in membership, 402.
The central offices and reference library of the Society of Friends
are situate at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate Without, London.
_Bibliography._--The writings of the early Friends are very numerous:
the most noteworthy are the _Journals_ of George Fox and of Thomas
Ellwood, both autobiographies, the _Apology_ and other works of Robert
Barclay, and the works of Penn and Penington. Early in the 18th
century William Sewel, a Dutch Quaker, wrote a history of the Society
and published an English translation; modern (small) histories have
been written by T. Edmund Harvey (_The Rise of the Quakers_) and by
Mrs Emmott (_The Story of Quakerism_). _The Sufferings of the Quakers_
by Joseph Besse (1753) gives a detailed account of the persecution of
the early Friends in England and America. An excellent portraiture of
early Quakerism is given in William Tanner's _Lectures on Friends in
Bristol and Somersetshire_. _The Book of Discipline_ in its successive
printed editions from 1783 to 1906 contains the working rules of the
organization, and also a compilation of testimonies borne by the
Society at different periods, to important points of Christian truth,
and often called forth by the special circumstances of the time. _The
Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth_ (London,
1876) by Robert Barclay, a descendant of the Apologist, contains much
curious information about the Quakers. See also "Quaker" in the index
to Masson's _Life of Milton_. Joseph Smith's _Descriptive Catalogue of
Friends' Books_ (London, 1867) gives the information which its title
promises; the same author has also published a catalogue of works
hostile to Quakerism. For an exposition of Quakerism on its spiritual
side many of the poems by Whittier may be referred to, also _Quaker
Strongholds_ and _Light Arising_ by Caroline E. Stephen; _The Society
of Friends, its Faith and Practice_, and other works by John
Stephenson Rowntree, _A Dynamic Faith_ and other works by Rufus M.
Jones; _Authority and the Light Within_ and other works by Edw. Grubb,
and the series of "Swarthmore Lectures" as well as the histories above
mentioned. Much valuable information will be found in _John Stephenson
Rowntree: His Life and Work_ (1908). The history of the modern forward
movement may be studied in _Essays and Addresses_ by John Wilhelm
Rowntree, and in _Present Day Papers_ edited by him. The social life
of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th is portrayed in
_Records of a Quaker Family, the Richardsons of Cleveland_, by Mrs
Boyce, and _The Diaries of Edward Pease, the Father of English
Railways_, edited by Sir A. E. Pease. Other works which may usefully
be consulted are the Journals of John Woolman, Stephen Grellet and
Elizabeth Fry; also _The First Publishers of Truth_, a reprint of
contemporary accounts of the rise of Quakerism in various districts.
The periodicals issued (not officially) in connexion with the Quaker
body are _The Friend_ (weekly), _The British Friend_ (monthly), _The
Friends' Witness_, _The Friendly Messenger_, _The Friends' Fellowship
Papers_, _The Friends' Quarterly Examiner_, _Journal of the Friends'
Historical Society_. Officially issued: _The Book of Meetings_ and
_The Friends' Year Book_. See also works mentioned at the close of
sections on Adult Schools and on Quakerism in America, Scotland and
Ireland, and elsewhere in this article; also FOX, GEORGE. (A. N. B.)