Quaker Schisms
-
Chapter 8 — Indiana Yearly Meeting Schism Documents
Camping Out at the Borderland: Reflections on Life in a Liminal Time (Ruth 1: 1-14) By Stephanie Crumley-Effinger (Expanded from a message in Worship at West Richmond IN Friends Meeting, First Month 13, 2013) Read More
-
Moment of Truth: Wilmington Yearly Meeting Divides over a Familiar Set of Issues
By Stephen W. Angell Wilmington Yearly Meeting (WYM), assembled at the Friends Meeting in Maryville, Tennessee, on the last weekend of July, released five meetings (four monthly meetings and one preparatory meeting) that requested to sever connections with the yearly meeting. Wilmington Yearly Meeting includes Friends Churches in the states of Tennessee and Ohio, and…
-
The Separation Generation
By Chuck Fager; with material edited and adapted from previous issues of Quaker Theology. I – Background It’s not easy – in fact, impossible – to pick a starting date for what I call the “Separation Generation” in American Quakerism. My personal preference is July 1977, when the first major interbranch conference in decades, gathered in…
-
Back From The Brink: North Carolina Yearly Meeting Says No To A Split
Chuck Fager I North Carolina Yearly Meeting-FUM (NCYM) has ended the two-year effort to purge its “liberal meetings.” This seems to be the most definite outcome of its showdown annual session on August 13 and 14, 2016. It was a very close thing. The leadership wanted a purge disguised as a split, and the steamroller…
-
Thunder In Carolina, Part Two: North Carolina Yearly Meeting – FUM And “Unity” vs. Uniformity
Chuck Fager I We begin by looking back to August 30, 2014, at the annual session of NCYM-FUM. The Executive Committee has just made its report. Read More
-
06: AFSC and Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting & Association
An Exchange About Numbers; (SAYMA), 2011-2012 From SAYMA’s minutes, 2011: [SAYMA =] Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting & Association June 9-12, 2011[Below: SAYMA’s logo & Map of Meetings] Read More
-
Is There Life after Death in Quaker North Carolina?
Chuck Fager Demolishing a 320-Year-Old Meeting At 10:58 Eastern time, Seventh Day (Saturday), Eighth Month (August) 5, 2017, at Quaker Lake Camp near Liberty, NC, Clerk Michael Fulp asked, “Do you approve?” Read More
-
An Increasingly Familiar Story: Northwest Yearly Meeting Expulsions & Sequelae
Chuck Fager We’ve also been following the growing tensions in Northwest Yearly Meeting, out west (see Issue #24:, Issue #27 ; and Issue #28 ). Read More
-
Wilmington YM: Another Yearly Meeting Schism?
By Stephen W. Angell Read More
-
Attachments: NC Yearly Meeting Documents
Attachments to North Carolina Yearly Meeting Split debate
-
North Carolina & Northwest Yearly Meeting Updates: Ambushed, Sandbagged, and Kicked Down The Road
Chuck Fager I Have you seen moments like this in detective films, or in stories? When Sherlock, or whoever the sleuth is, hunches forward and shouts: “Good God, Watson! How could I be such a FOOL??” (Usually, it means things are about to get very interesting.) Read More
-
George Fox University and West Hills Friends:
Controversy and Conflict in NorthwestYearly Meeting By Stephen W. Angell [Editor’s Note: In Issue #24, we reported on a two-sided struggle that had appeared in Northwest Yearly Meeting (NWYM). On one side, there emerged a visible support group for LGBT students, staff and alumni at the Newberg. Oregon campus of NWYM’s academic offspring, George Fox…
-
Part II: Northwest Yearly Meeting Elders “Release” (i.e., Expel) West Hills Friends Meeting
Background On July 24, 2015, only hours after the annual NWYM sessions had adjourned, NWYM elders communicated to West Hills Friends Meeting (WHF) that they had been expelled, or, in the elders’ term, “released,” from the yearly meeting. Read More
-
Thunder In Carolina: North Carolina Yearly Meeting – FUM
Chuck Fager Read More
-
Letters From Meeting Demanding Disciplinary Action Against Meetings With Which They Differ – And Responses
[Note: The letters are reproduced here, and are also online at our website. Links are listed after the letters. The quality of reproduction is as good as we could make it from the available copies.] Read More
-
Links to NCYM-FUM letters online
Protesting Letters Poplar Ridge Letter: https://afriendlyletter.com/files/Poplar-Ridge-Friends-NCYMFUM.pdf Read More
-
Separation Accomplished: New Beginnings for a New Association of Friends and a “Reconfigured” Indiana Yearly Meeting
By Stephen W. Angell The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Read More
-
Northwest Yearly Meeting and “Shattering” Conflict: Chapter One
Chuck Fager with Jade Souza With the schism in Indiana Yearly Meeting over one meeting’s open welcome to LGBT persons now complete, one could have thought this journal would have a break from coverage of such events. Read More
-
Indiana Yearly Meeting Update & Documents
In This Section: Read More
-
“350 Years of the Society of Friends in North America: 1661-2011″*
The post reviews Geoffrey Kaiser’s detailed and provocative “Quaker Family Tree Chart,” which visually represents 350 years of Quaker history in North America, highlighting numerous schisms and theological tensions. Kaiser’s perspective emphasizes Robert Barclay’s theology, particularly the universality of the Inner Light, and contrasts the numerous evangelical splits with the more stable liberal Quaker tradition.…
-
The Proposed Split of Indiana Yearly Meeting: What Its Monthly Meetings Say
By Stephen W. Angell Read More
-
Editor’s Introduction: Divorce in Indiana – Quaker Style
Divorce is not as traumatic an experience as it once was. In fact, today most spouses resolve to part peaceably. No-fault laws and mediators can smooth the way to property and custody agreements. The results are still wrenching, but civilized, and much better for the children. Not only couples, but countries have managed this: in…
-
Two Current Conflicts in Midwestern Friends Meetings
Stephen W. Angell Read More
-
Postscript: Allen Jay on the Spirit of Separation
This post highlights Allen Jay’s role as a peacemaker among various Quaker divisions in the nineteenth century, emphasizing his view that separation and judgment among Friends impede the spirit of the Gospel and Christian love. Jay advocated for unity, recognizing the value in differing perspectives within Quakerism and warning against the bitterness caused by schisms.…
-
“Putting the Bible into Perspective: Hicksites and the Theological Treatment of the Bible in Progressive Reform”
Jody Cross-Hansen This article is part of one chapter of my doctoral dissertation–a work-in-progress in which I am examining the Nancy Hewitt hypothesis that perhaps the Hicksite schism was a positive event because it led to liberal reform among women. The jury is still very much out on this hypothesis. Read More
-
A Conservative Yearly Meeting is Born
This post recounts the history and reasons behind the 1904 formation of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative), a group that separated due to disagreements over evangelistic revivals, formal education for ministers, and changes in worship practice. Rich Square Monthly Meeting, opposing new evangelical methods and the Uniform Discipline, led the split to maintain traditional…