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Even more significant was the Quakers’ involvement in the fight for the abolition of slavery. Once many of them slaveholders as well, Quakers took a stand against the institution of slavery after 1750. The majority of their meetings decided that all their members who possessed slaves were required to emancipate them or face expulsion from the Church. Therefore, Quakers were the first significant group of people in America who actively campaigned against slavery and for the emancipation of slaves. Even though the Friends’ efforts in the abolition movement cannot be doubted, racial equality was not on the Quaker agenda; black people were only received into the congregations of Quakers in the beginning of the nineteenth century and even then, racial segregation was implemented in many meetings (35-36).
Quakers in the 20th century
By the twentieth century, the Friends became divided on theological issues which resulted in the separation of several branches and meetings. One of the significant branches that split from traditional Quakerism is called the Hicksite Friends. Others are the Gurneyites, the Orthodox Friends, the Evangelical Friends, or the Wilburite Conservative Friends. Glenn Crothers in Quakers Living in the Lion’s Mouth connects these splits to the resulting decrease in the number of Quaker worshippers, as well as the general decline in population of rural areas that led agricultural workers off the land in the twentieth century (145).
QUAKERS TODAY
The end of the twentieth century was a period of great decline in the numbers of Quaker worshippers. Meetings are scattered and only the urban local congregations have a stable number of worshippers, which poses problems concerning the future of the Quaker faith. Today there are around 100,000 Quakers in America, which is proportionally small compared to the population of the country. Church organization did not change since the establishment of the Religious Society of Friends, as the local congregations are still structured into meetings, monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, and yearly meetings. Monthly meetings mean that the congregation meets once a month to conduct church business and it is presided over by a so-called clerk. Meetings for worship are usually held every week. Quarterly meetings are the cluster of many regional meetings and members usually meet every three months to conduct church business. Several quarterly meetings form the so-called yearly meetings (Hamm 11-12).
According to Hamm, there are two main types of worship the Quakers perform during their meetings. The first is the so-called unprogrammed worship which roots back to the early days of Quakerism and to the teachings of the founder, George Fox (86). During unprogrammed worship there is no minister and no designated liturgy worshippers need to follow. Worship consists of a considerable period of silence, usually an hour, when the members of the congregation silently converse with God. Silence can be broken by members who wish to share experiences in connection with God. As one worshipper says “this breaks the silence for a moment but does not interrupt it” (Quaker.org). The other type of Quaker worship is called programmed meeting where the congregations have ministers and there is some kind of a liturgy apart from the period of silence.