British Quakers: Mission and message - Quaker community

Stuart Masters, in the fifth article of the series, considers the experience of early Quakers

The rapid initial expansion and significant impact of the early Quaker movement was based on the clarity and relevance of its message and the vigour with which it was communicated and promoted by the itinerant ministers. However, ongoing growth and the long-term survival of the movement owed much to the nature and character of the communities established by early Friends. So, what was it that made early Quaker communities so robust, attractive and successful?

Charismatic communities

To begin with, it is important to recognise that, first and foremost, early Quaker communities were charismatic communities. They were formed in the crucible of a life-changing Pentecostal experience – in which the pouring out of the Holy Spirit transformed people and drew them into a new life together. The community felt invincible because it was empowered by a Spirit that could reconcile, unify and overcome all hatred and division. We get a glimpse of this in the famous words of Francis Howgill:

The Kingdom of Heaven did gather us and catch us all, as in a net, and his heavenly power at one time drew many hundreds to land. We came to know a place to stand in and what to wait in; and the Lord appeared daily to us, to our astonishment, amazement and great admiration…We met together in the unity of the Spirit, and of the bond of peace, treading down under our feet all reasoning about religion. And holy resolutions were kindled in our hearts as a fire which the Life kindled in us to serve the Lord while we had a being, and mightily did the Word of God grow amongst us, and the desires of many were after the Name of the Lord. O happy day! O blessed day! the memorial of which can never pass out of my mind. And thus the Lord, in short, did form us to be a people for his praise in our generation.

One true church revived

Secondly, because early Friends felt that they were the one true church revived, this engendered a sense of loyalty that transcended all other calls on the allegiance of its members. There were no competing roles or identities; being a Quaker encompassed the whole of life. We have already seen, in the previous article on Quaker boundaries, that the experience of persecution at the hands of the world was regarded as a vindication of this early Quaker claim.

When a community finds itself in conflict, facing a common foe that it regards as evil and corrupt, then close bonds of solidarity and mutual support are inevitably forged, particularly so in the context of persecution. This also meant that early Friends chose to dedicate a significant proportion (if not all) of their time to the activities of the community and their life together.

Mutual aid and support

Linked to this is a third key feature of early Quaker community: the development of effective systems of mutual aid and support. Although the movement did not adopt the common purse of the apostolic church, it did organise assistance that ‘was distributed to each as any had need’ (Acts 4:35) to ensure that ‘there was not a needy person among them’ (Acts 4:34).

This included the collection and management of funds to support itinerant ministers and their families and those falling on hard times, both within and beyond the Quaker community.

The Kingdom of Heaven

Early Friends saw themselves as God’s people, called to carry out God’s work in the world. In particular, they believed that their life together should offer a glimpse of the coming Kingdom of Heaven. The Quaker community, as the true church, was to be the body of Christ in an almost literal sense, continuing his work within the world. This was a body of many parts but whose head was Christ alone.

Each member had the Spirit of Christ within them in part, but this could only be realised in fullness within community. Each member was a building block that together formed a temple of living stones in which God could dwell on earth. Within the infant Quaker movement, elders nurtured the spiritual life of Meetings as ‘midwives of the Spirit’ and travelling ministers acted as the life blood circulating through the body of the community.

Praying one for another

The degree of cohesion that was established enabled the development of effective systems of mutual accountability and admonishment that were rigorous, but also tender and loving. This is reflected in the words of Isaac Pennington written in an epistle to Friends in Amersham in 1667:

Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand, if there has been any slip or fall; and waiting till the Lord gives sense and repentance, if sense and repentance in any be wanting… So watch your hearts and ways; and watch one over another, in that which is gentle and tender, and knows it can neither preserve itself, nor help another out of the snare; but the Lord must be waited upon, to do this in and for us all. So mind Truth, the service, enjoyment, and possession of it in your hearts; and so to walk, as ye may bring no disgrace upon it, but may be a good saviour in the places where ye live, the meek, innocent, tender, righteous life reigning in you, governing over you, and shining through you, in the eyes of all with whom ye converse.

Stuart is a senior programme leader at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre.

This eight part series, British Quakers: mission and message, is devised and written by Stuart Masters and Simon Best.

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