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George Fox was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and war. He rebelled against the religious and political authorities by proposing an unusual, uncompromising approach to the Christian faith. He travelled throughout Britain as a dissenting preacher, performed hundreds of healings, and was often persecuted by the disapproving authorities. In 1669, he married Margaret Fell, widow of a wealthy supporter, Thomas Fell; she was a leading Friend. His ministry expanded and he made tours of North America and the Low Countries. He was arrested and jailed numerous times for his beliefs. He spent his final decade working in London to organise the expanding Quaker movement. Despite disdain from some Anglicans and Puritans, he was viewed with respect by the Quaker convert William Penn and the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell.
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The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain, also known as Britain Yearly Meeting, is a Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is the national organisation of Quakers living in Britain. Britain Yearly Meeting refers to both the religious gathering and the organisation. "Yearly Meeting", or "Yearly Meeting Gathering" are usually the names given to the annual gathering of British Quakers. Quakers in Britain is the name the organisation is commonly known by.
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Yearly Meeting is an organization composed of constituent meetings or churches of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, within a geographical area. The constituent meetings are called Monthly Meetings in most of the world; in England, local congregations are now called Area Meetings, in Australia Monthly Meetings are called Regional Meetings. "Monthly" and "Yearly" refer to how often the body meets to make decisions. Monthly Meetings may be local congregations that hold regular Meetings for Worship, or may comprise a number of Worship Groups. Depending on the Yearly Meeting organization, there may also be Quarterly Meetings, Half-Yearly Meetings, or Regional Meetings, where a number of local Monthly Meetings come together within a Yearly Meeting.
In the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), a monthly meeting or area meeting is the basic governing body, a congregation which holds regular meetings for business for Quakers in a given area. The monthly meeting is responsible for the administration of its congregants, including membership and marriages, and for the meeting's property. A monthly meeting can be a grouping of multiple smaller meetings, usually called preparative meetings, coming together for administrative purposes, while for others it is a single institution. In most countries, multiple monthly meetings form a quarterly meeting, which in turn form yearly meetings. Programmed Quakers may refer to their congregation as a church.
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European and Middle East Young Friends (EMEYF) is a Quaker organisation based in Europe for young Quaker adults. Its aims are to fostering communication amongst, and spread information about, young Friends communities in different parts of Europe and the Middle East.
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The Progressive Friends, also known as the Congregational Friends and the Friends of Human Progress, was a loose-knit group of dissidents who left the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in the mid-nineteenth century. The separation was caused by the determination of some Quakers to participate in the social reform movements of the day despite efforts by leading Quaker bodies to dissuade them from mixing with non-Quakers. These reformers were drawn especially to organizations that opposed slavery, but also to those that campaigned for women's rights. The new organizations were structured according to congregationalist polity, a type of organization that gives a large degree of autonomy to local congregations. They were organized on a local and regional basis without the presence of a national organization. They did not see themselves as creators of a new religious sect but of a reform movement that was open to people of all religious beliefs.
References
- ↑ Kennedy, Thomas Cummings British Quakerism 1860-1920: the transformation of a religious community Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-827035-6 pp.285ff.
- ↑ Responsible investment : a challenge to Friends was published by Young Friends Central Committee in 1980. See Ethical Investment and the Challenge of Corporate Reform- A critical assessment of the procedures and purposes of UK ethical unit trusts. Submitted by Craig Mackenzie for the degree of PhD of the University of Bath, 1997, Page 61.
- ↑ Quaker Faith & Practice (1994) Paragraph 10.25
- ↑ Who do we think we are? Young Friends' Commitment and Belonging: Swarthmore Lecture 1998, Quaker Home Service, 1998. ISBN 0-85245-299-3.
- ↑ "Enjoyable Sufferings? Laura Wirtz of Young Friends General Meeting reflects on how Meeting for Sufferings works": The Friend, 8 June 2007.
- ↑ Young Friends General Meeting. "October 2008 Minutes" (PDF). www.yfgm.quaker.org.uk/. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
- ↑ Brooker, Charlie (16 June 2014). "No wonder Cameron wants to celebrate the Magna Carta - back then plebs had the same human rights as a parsnip". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
I was raised a Quaker, … sent a copy of The Young Quaker magazine for a few months … the magazine itself was disappointingly lacking in sinister religious propaganda. It largely consisted of poetry and people wearing sensible hand-knitted jumpers.