Table Of Content

The Friends have their origins in the spiritual insights of George Fox during the English Civil War. Since then they have been variously identified as unquenchable heretics, as peculiar people clinging to their peculiarities, as prosperous (if generally high- minded) business dynasts. But throughout, and more particularly in recent times, they have been distinguished by their community service. In this Pelican Geoffrey Hubbard, a ‘Quaker by convincement’, examines Quakerism and its history, and discusses the religious convictions and attitudes to contemporary moral problems of its members. Because of the diversity of belief held within the sect, Quaker doctrines have never been easy to define. But, the author argues, it is this freedom, in contrast to more formalized religions, which provides its supporters with their inner spiritual strength. 'Every Quaker,’ Geoffrey Hubbard concludes, ‘defines his position frilly and clearly by his life.’ Clearly a society which relies on the responsibility and inner conviction of individuals has much to offer to the restless and materialistic twentieth century. The cover shows a detail of a sculpture by Peter Peri United Kingdom 45p PELICAN BOOKS QUAKER BY CONVINCEMENT Geoffrey Hubbard trained as a physicist and worked for some years in a large industrial research labora tory before joining the administrative Civil Service and embarking simultaneously on his career as a writer. He has written scripts for television series for young children and his plays for sound radio have been transmitted by the B.B.C. and by various overseas broadcasting organizations. In 1965 he pub lished a study of Cooke and Wheatstone and the invention of the electric telegraph. Geoffrey Hubbard is currently Director of the National Council for Educational Technology. He has been a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) since the nineteen-sixties, having been, for all his previous adult life, a fairly humanist agnostic. QUAKER BY CONVINCEMENT GEOFFREY HUBBARD PENGUIN BOOKS Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books Inc., 7110 Ambassador Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21207, U.S.A. Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 41 Steelcase Road West, Markham, Ontario, Canada First published 1974 Copyright © Geoffrey Hubbard, it Made and printed in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, London, Reading and Fakenham Set in Linotype Georgian This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser Contents Preface 7 PART I A Brief History 1. The Beginnings of Quakerism 15 2. Great Days and Great Trials 25 3. Consolidation 40 4. The Effects of Evangelism 55 PART II Fundamental Beliefs 1. God and Man 67 2. The Quakers as Christians 75 3. The Necessary Minimum 85 4. Problems that Remain 98 5. Quakers and Other Churches 105 6. The Spiritual Experiment 113 PART III Belief and Behaviour 1. The Moral Law 121 2. Quakers as Peacemakers 127 3. Materialism 135 4. Towards a Quaker View of Sex 144 A Note on Race and Colour 152 5. Crime and Punishment 155 6. Religion and Social Order 164 PART IV Organization and Practices 1. The Organization of the Religious Society of Friends 177 2. Meeting for Worship 187 3. Other Meetings, Other Worship 203 4. Entrances and Exits 213 5. Debits and Credits 229 Suggested Additional Reading 245 Index 247 Preface The purpose of this book is to give the non-Quaker reader an outline of what Quakerism is today ; of the religious beliefs that inspire and motivate Quakers, and of how they are moved to behave. Although the book starts with a brief history, this is only a background to the understanding of what Quakerism is; for the history of the Society of Friends is only important if the Society itself is still a living influence. I have throughout been more concerned to convey the feel ing of being a Friend than to represent all shades of belief, all aspects of Quaker activity. For anyone who tries to be scrupulous in attending to all varieties of Quaker experience attempts an impossible task. The Quakers do not have a defined creed; they are diverse in their beliefs, and in their way of carrying them into the world. Yet something binds them together, and makes them declare themselves Friends. But what are they - Quakers or Friends? I have used both terms indifferently, as Quakers do among themselves. (We have already met our first example of Quaker peculiarity; capital ‘F’ Friends are Quakers!) We are concerned with 200,000 inhabitants of many countries, members of the con stituent elements which form the Religious Society of Friends, and with an undefined number of people who are not formal members of the Society but do associate with Friends in their worship and other activities. I write as a member of London Yearly Meeting, the original element in the Quaker world family, and I write therefore primarily of Quakerism in Britain and in countries where it has followed the British model. I write, too, with the role in mind that it is capable of playing in the disturbed world of my time. If Quakerism were only a historical survival, a relic of the pro liferating sects of seventeenth-century nonconformity, it might be better left in the decent obscurity of academic his torical studies. But I see it as an insight, derived from but Preface not constrained within the Christian tradition, about the re lationship at the deepest level between man and his total environment, between man and man, between man and society, and between man and that intangible element which he has called God. Now this matter of relationship, in this broad sense, is at the heart of the malaise of our civi lization. We are told that the trouble is materialism, or the collapse of traditional moral and religious beliefs. Perhaps so, but we cannot attain to a state of belief by an effort of will; our creed can only be the credible. Quakerism, as it seems to me, has the capacity to help direct modern man towards beliefs about himself and his relationship to the world, tangible and intangible, in which he lives. One is not required to suspend one’s critical faculties on entering a Meeting House. But what is required of one on entering a Meeting House? What typifies the Quakers; how do they differ from other nonconformists; how far are their generally known charac teristics (their concern with social welfare, their non violence) distinguishing features or merely subsidiary? Much of this book explores such questions in detail. It may help meanwhile, to give some broad indications of what Quakers are, even if these indications must be accompanied by warnings, caveats and reservations to the effect that Friends are not a homogeneous body; their beliefs, prac tices and attitudes vary greatly. Quakers are the inheritors of a line of development in re ligious attitudes and practices which started in seventeenth- century England, but had roots and parallels much earlier within and without Christianity. The starting point of Qua kerism was the concept that God was directly accessible to all men, an idea which recurs continually in the history of re ligion. In Quakerism this led to, or became associated with: The priesthood of all believers - they recognized no priestly caste, no individual or group set apart as the pre ferred channel of communication between God and man. Rejection of the concept of a defined creed or statement of belief to which all members must subscribe. Preface 9 Unprograramed, silent worship, interrupted only by the ministry of anyone present who may find himself or herself moved to speak. This deserves a word more of explanation, since it is so very distinctive. Quakers meet for worship, usually on Sunday mornings, sometimes on other days, and this is one of the main activities, though not the only one,1 in their Meeting Houses. Meeting for Worship (more fully described in Part IV, Chapter 2) is open to all; there is no form of service. Those present sit in silence, unless some one of their number is moved to speak. Most Meetings for Wor ship consist of more silence than talk; perhaps three or four people may speak, for a few minutes each, in the course of an hour’s meeting. Rejection of all formalized sacraments, such as baptism, confirmation or communion, in favour of an acceptance of the whole of life as sacramental. This is a list of negatives - no priest, no creeds, no sacra ments, no service - yet at the same time each negative rejects a limitation; no one priest, for all are open to the word of God; no defined creed, for each must find his own way of expressing his own experience; no sacramental rites, for all of life is sacramental; no prearranged service, so that our Meeting is open to God’s message however it is expressed. It is this openness, shown in these more obvious and easily identified aspects of Quakerism, that give it a particular significance in our time,, an ability perhaps to speak to those whom other, more formalized religions cannot reach. Perhaps the title I have chosen deserves a word of explana tion. Quakers have long given up their distinguishing cos tume, in fact the unmodified dress of an earlier generation, 1. Meeting Houses are not sanctified and set apart like churches; to the Quaker no day, no place is more sacred than any other. All places, all days, all actions are equally opportunities to find and follow the will of God. A Meeting for Worship can take place in a private house, a rented room or a consecrated church as well as in a Meeting House; equally Meeting Houses are used for a variety of purposes including non-Quaker meetings and conferences. I know of one which accommo dated sessions of a juvenile court. Everyone seen going into a Meeting House is not necessarily a Quaker, therefore.