History of Quakerism

Jamestown Friends Meeting

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1649 - 1660	The Interregnum, a period of Civil War in England beginning with the beheading of King Charles I, ending with the accession of his son Charles II, a time dominated by Oliver Cromwell, a virtual dictator, and the Puritan faction of the English protestant movement. During this time many dissident religious groups formed and dissolved. Adherents to various of these groups came to join the early Quakers, then calling themselves simply "Children of the Light" or "Publishers of Truth".
1652	Quaker founder George Fox (1624-1691) has a vision while on Pendle Hill in northwest England of "a great people to be gathered" and sets about preaching and attracting a following. People are drawn to Fox's straighforward exposition of a message drawn from his extensive biblical recollection and intense personal experience of the presence of God in his life.
1660	Charles II a Roman Catholic returns as king to England, tired of the religious wars and exacting standards of the Puritan church. The uneasy relations between Quakers and other religious groups during the interregnum does not improve, as the new government suspects all religious dissenters of political intrigue. Parliament passes several laws banning gatherings and religious activity not held under the auspices of the state church. During this time many Quakers spent months and even years locked away in prisons for activities protected today in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
1681	William Penn acquires a huge tract of land in the American Colonies as payment of a debt King Charles II owed Penn's father, and Penn leads an effort to set up a Quaker colony called Pennsylvania, guaranteeing religious liberty and extending friendly relations with the native Americans.
1689	"The Glorious Revolution" in England transfers power without bloodshed, setting the country on the course toward its current constitutional monarchy and democratic government. The restrictions that led to religious persecutions loosen and Quakerism comes to enjoy liberty and even respect.
1756	Quakers face a crisis in politics. After acquiring political majority status in most of the American colonies, the European wars spread to the colonies as Great Britain and France battle for control of what is today the eastern United States and Canada. The French ally with the native Americans who attack British colonists. Quakers in government choose to abdicate political power rather than to govern over war-making.
1756 - 1827	Having retreated into the private sector, Quakers develop businesses and philanthropic efforts. Over the years, though, differences develop between the rural Quakers and urban Quakers engaging in commerce with people from a variety of religious backgrounds. The burgeoning "Great Awakening" brings new religious ideas to the Society of Friends through these contacts, but unevenly, as the rural Quakers have markedly less contact with them than do the urban Quakers.
1827-1828	Traveling ministers from both the rural and urban groupings of Quakers chase each other, denouncing each other's messages, one of traditional Quaker ideas and language handed down in isolation from the outside world, and the other a blending of Quaker ideas with the attractive messages of developing religious groups such as the Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians. The Religious Society of Friends splits painfully and bitterly, largely along family and socio-economic lines. The more rural and traditional Friends, largely in Pennsylvania, New York, and New England take the name "Hicksite" after Elias Hicks, the lightning rod of debate among the traveling ministers. The more urban and evangelical Friends, largely in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana take the name "Orthodox". Except on the east coast of the United States and in Canada this split continues today across the continent.
1828-1887	Continuing feuds over the ministry of various people, most notably John Wilbur of New England and Joseph John Gurney of Great Britain bring about small splits among Orthodox Friends. Wilburite and Conservative Friends groups develop as guardians of Quaker tradition. Gurneyite groups develop as the "Second Great Awakening," the Holiness Revival, carries the religious ferment west with the growth of the United States.
1837	During the years after the Hicksite-Orthodox Split, somewhat on theory that education issues fueled that split, several Friends Yearly Meetings established boarding schools, many of which became 4 year colleges. In North Carolina Guilford College developed in this way, beginning full undergraduate education in 1837.
1869	Quakers traveling in the Middle East respond to a request for education and begin the Ramallah Friends Girls School to teach Palestinian girls, who otherwise would be denied education and opportunities as adults. This school continues today, teaching both boys and girls, sending graduates to some of the best colleges and universities in the world. Many return to prominence on the West Bank.
1887	Diversity among Orthodox Friends reaches a crisis point. Some Friends who experienced religious conversions under the ministry of non-Quaker revivalists begin preaching of the necessity of outward sacraments of water baptism and bread and wine communion, long abandoned activities regarded since the earliest days of Quakerism as being outmoded institutions of pre-Christian religion. Orthodox Friends send representatives to Richmond, Indiana to draw up a unified statement excluding the Friends who "tolerate" the "ordinances." Gurneyite Tolerationists form an independent body.
1887-1905	Gurneyite Orthodox Friends begin to split over their attempts to write a unified statement. East coast Friends begin to withdraw from the Orthodox branch, citing uneasiness with what they regard as credalism among the midwestern Friends who are more influenced by the non-Quaker Holiness Revival.
1895	In Manchester, England British Friends gather to confer on making Quakerism more relevant to modern times. British Quakerism abandons the Orthodox branch of Quakers in America and begins a leftward move in theology and politics.
1900-1902	Hicksite Friends come together to form Friends General Conference or FGC.
1902-1965	Orthodox Friends establish a Five Years Meeting to coordinate efforts among Orthodox Quakers, especially missionary efforts. The developing division between the Eastern Friends who are more traditionalist and left-leaning in theology and practice, and the Midwestern Friends who are more evangelical and right-leaning in theology and practice brings about periodic crises.
1902	Friends establish missionary efforts in East Africa. Today there are more Quakers in East Africa than in the United States.
1917-1947	Responding to the needs created by the Great War in Europe, Friends establish Service Committees, one sponsored by British Friends, and an American Friends Service Committee, to bring relief to war-torn Europe, food to the starving Russian victims of Josef Stalin's policies, and then again to war-torn Europe after World War II. The American Friends Service Committee, or AFSC for short, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for these efforts.
1926-1957	Several bodies of Friends withdraw from the Five Years Meeting over a variety of issues, almost all unifed by the left-right division developing both within the Society of Friends and in the country and world at large.
1941-1945	World War II in the United States brings significant change to the Society of Friends. Conscientious Objectors who during the war came together in the alternative service program re-enter society invigorated and lead a revival in education, especially in Quaker colleges. Friends who participated in the military service, as combatants or non-combatants come to stand alongside the Conscientious Objectors to highlight the diversity among Friends.
1955	East coast Friends of the Orthodox branch reunite with their Hicksite neighbors, forming "United" Yearly Meetings in New England, New York, Philadephia, and Baltimore. All except Philadephia Yearly Meeting belong to Five Years Meeting as well as FGC.
1956	Evangelical Friends groups form an association, which attracts Yearly Meetings of the Five Years Meeting that are increasingly uncomfortable with the leftward-leaning Unified Yearly Meetings. Today these Friends Yearly Meetings have an organization for coordination of missions work and other cooperative efforts called Evangelical Friends International, or EFI.
1960	Earlham College, a Quaker school in Richmond, Indiana establishes a graduate seminary, Earlham School of Religion, for the training and equipping of ministers, marking a break with Friends' traditional disdain for specialized religious education. Today there are 5 graduate schools affiliated with Friends groups, as evangelical Friends groups established ties with existing colleges and seminaries. Only the Earlham School of Religion remains as a serminary founded as a Quaker school.
1965	Five Years Meeting reorganizes under the name Friends United Meeting, or FUM, as it establishes a triennial meeting schedule
1968-1975	As the Vietnam War becomes increasingly unpopular Friends divide over the role of the United States in the conflict. Friends on the left and on the right generally follow the trend in the wider world's division between left and right. In the future many Friends on the left, mainly Friends General Conference and a large portion of Friends United Meeting, come to see pacifism almost as the primary defining characteristic of Quakerism, while Friends on the right, mainly evangelical Friends both in Evangelical Friends International and Friends United Meeting come to regard pacifism in a secondary position at best, in favor of spiritual conversion along evangelical lines of biblical authority and missionary work.
1987-present	Friends United Meeting faces continual pressure from within and without to expel the left-leaning Yearly Meetings or to disband entirely, as evangelical Yearly Meetings feel increasing enmity over foundation issues like biblical authority and the exclusivity of Christian faith and increasing affinity with the style and success of the more theologically similar Evangelical Friends International.
2002	Friends United Meeting celebrates 100 years of presence in East Africa by holding triennial sessions in Kenya, the first Triennials held outside of the United States.