Thought for the Week: A simple message

Chris Newsam reflects on Quakerism in times of tumult and uncertainty

by Chris Newsam 23rd September 2016

Quakers were born and began in times of much greater crisis than we are experiencing right now.

When George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, preached in Malton in North Yorkshire in 1651, resulting in what could be argued was the first organised Quaker group, it was just two years after Charles 1 had been beheaded and very shortly after the English civil war, in which 3.6 per cent of the population were killed. Yes, one in twenty-five died in the conflict, not to mention the countless numbers injured. The monarchy, and the divine right of kings, had come to an abrupt and bloody end and people were living through our own version of the French Revolution, which was to follow over one hundred years later.