Quakers, or Friends, include both silent meetings and churches with pastors, singing and sermons, and have a longstanding peace testimony.
Reformed1652arose within Congregational (Puritan)
George Fox and other early Friends emphasised direct experience of Christ and worship guided by the Spirit. Quakers faced persecution and helped establish Pennsylvania as a refuge. Some became influential opponents of slavery, although Quaker communities also had a history of slaveholding. Later branches developed different approaches to worship and ministry; some gather in silence and others have pastors.
Quakers, who call themselves Friends, hold that God speaks directly to every person, so they need no priest and no ceremony to reach him. They began in England in the 1650s, worship largely in silence in much of the world, and have refused to fight for nearly four centuries.
George Fox spent his twenties walking England looking for someone who could help him, and found nobody until, as he wrote, he heard a voice saying there is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition 9,8. He began preaching in 1652 in the north of England, where whole groups of Seekers joined him at once, and Margaret Fell's home at Swarthmoor Hall became the movement's centre and its post office 10,9,8. The name Quaker began as a jibe about trembling at the word of God, and Friends took it 8,9.
Persecution followed immediately. Friends refused oaths, refused to remove their hats to social superiors, and held meetings that the law forbade, and thousands were imprisoned in England, with hundreds dying in gaol before toleration came in 1689 8,15. Some went to America and were hanged in Boston for returning after banishment 8,11. In 1681 William Penn received a colony as payment of a debt to his father and made it a place where his own people and others could live unmolested, dealing with the Lenape by treaty rather than by force 11,8. In 1688 four Friends at Germantown signed the first collective protest against slavery in the American colonies, though their own Society took nearly a century to act on it 14,12,8.
It took until the 1770s for meetings to disown slaveholders, so Friends held people as property for nearly a century while professing that of God in everyone 14,12,8. In the nineteenth century the movement split repeatedly, first between the followers of Elias Hicks and their opponents in 1827 and then further, and the divisions have never been fully healed 16,17,8.
Friends hold that there is that of God in everyone, and that Christ teaches his people himself, directly, without needing a minister to mediate. From this follow their testimonies: peace, equality, truthfulness, simplicity and community.
The inner light is the movement's central conviction, drawn from John's description of the true light that lights everyone coming into the world, and it means both that anyone may be given something to say in worship and that everyone must be treated as bearing it 20,8,3. There are no outward sacraments in the older Quaker practice: baptism and communion are understood as inward and continual rather than as rites, so Friends neither baptise with water nor break bread 8,3,4.
The testimonies are not rules but ways of living that Friends have found follow from that conviction. The peace testimony was stated to Charles II in 1660, that Friends utterly deny all outward wars and strife for any end whatever, and it has been kept through every war since, at the cost of prison for many 15,8,6. Equality meant refusing titles and hat honour from the beginning, and it meant women preaching and leading from the first years, which Margaret Fell defended in print in 1666 10,8. Truthfulness meant refusing oaths, since a Christian's word should not need one, and simplicity meant plain dress, plain speech and plain dealing in business, which is how Quaker firms won their reputation 8,3.
Worship and practice
In much of Britain, North America and Australia a Quaker meeting is an hour of silence in a plain room, with people speaking only when they feel moved to. In Kenya, Bolivia and much of the world it has a pastor, hymns and a sermon.
Unprogrammed worship, the older form, has no leader, no order of service and no music: the meeting waits together, and anyone may rise to speak briefly if they are given something to say 3,4,8. Business is done the same way, without voting: the meeting seeks the sense of the meeting, and a clerk records what has been discerned, an approach many organisations have since borrowed 3,4. Programmed worship developed in nineteenth-century America under revival influence and is now the majority practice worldwide, with pastors, singing and preaching, usually with a period of open worship kept inside it 5,19,18. Meeting houses are plain in both forms, and there is no altar, no pulpit in the unprogrammed meeting, and traditionally no cross 8,3.
Scripture and Bible translations
Friends read the Bible seriously and do not treat it as the final authority in the way most Protestants do. Fox held that Scripture is a record of what the Spirit gave to others, and that the same Spirit which gave it must open it to the reader.
The classic Quaker position is that the Spirit is prior to the text: Scripture is not the fountain of truth but a declaration of it, so a reading that contradicts the Spirit's leading is wrong 8,9,3. That has never meant neglect, and early Friends quoted the Bible constantly, but it is why unprogrammed meetings have no reading and no lectionary 3,8. Evangelical Friends take a higher view: the Richmond Declaration of 1887 states Scripture as the authoritative rule of faith and practice, and pastoral meetings preach from it weekly 17,19,5. Read here: the King James Version, the Bible of Fox, Penn and Woolman, and the Berean Standard Bible in modern English. The versions guide sets out what Friends read today.
In meeting
Friends have no prescribed version and no common lectionary. In unprogrammed worship, a participant may read Scripture as led; programmed and Evangelical Friends churches include preaching and scheduled readings. The cited institutional sources do not establish a representative translation preference.
Heritage
George Fox's contemporaries said that if the Bible were lost it could be recovered from his memory; the early Friends knew the King James Version by heart.
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the King James (Authorized) Version and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
The true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Fourteen words, and the whole Quaker conviction about God and people rests on them.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares. The peace testimony in a sentence, and the reason Quakers have refused to fight since 1660.
Quench not the Spirit. Four words that explain why nobody in an unprogrammed meeting decides in advance who will speak.
People
George Fox1624 to 1691 Walked England looking for someone who could speak to his condition, found the answer within, and spent forty years preaching it and being imprisoned for it.9
Margaret Fell1614 to 1702 Turned her home into the movement's centre, organised its funds and correspondence, spent four years in prison, and argued in print in 1666 that women may preach.10
William Penn1644 to 1718 Admiral's son who joined the Friends and was jailed for it, then founded Pennsylvania as a colony without an established church and dealt with the Lenape by treaty.11
John Woolman1720 to 1772 New Jersey tailor who travelled among Friends for twenty years persuading them one household at a time to free the people they held as slaves; his Journal is a classic.12
Lucretia Mott1793 to 1880 Quaker minister and abolitionist who, barred with other women from the floor of an anti-slavery convention, helped call the Seneca Falls convention of 1848.13
Elias Hicks1748 to 1830 Long Island farmer and travelling minister whose emphasis on the inner light over doctrine divided American Friends in 1827 into parties still named after him and his opponents.16
Today
There are roughly four hundred thousand Quakers, and most of them are African. Kenya has more Friends than any other country, and they worship with pastors, hymns and sermons rather than in silence.
The pattern most people picture, an hour of silence in a plain room, is the practice of a minority: Britain, most of the eastern United States, Australia and New Zealand 3,4,8. Kenya alone has well over a hundred thousand Friends, and there are large bodies in Burundi, Bolivia, Guatemala and Taiwan, nearly all of them programmed and evangelical in theology 18,19,8. The main groupings are Friends General Conference and the Britain and Ireland yearly meetings on the unprogrammed side, Friends United Meeting spanning both, and Evangelical Friends Church International, with Conservative Friends keeping older ways 4,5,19,1. The Friends World Committee for Consultation exists to hold that range together and is the one body all of them belong to 1,2. Quaker service organisations have outlived the numbers: the American Friends Service Committee and the Friends Service Council shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for relief work in both world wars 7,6.
Words to know
congregational government
Church government in which the members of each local congregation decide their own affairs, including choosing their own minister, with no bishop or presbytery above them. Congregations may join associations for fellowship and shared work, but those bodies advise rather than rule.
ordinance
In Baptist and many other free churches, the word used for baptism and the Lord’ Supper: acts Christ commanded his people to keep, understood as obedience and remembrance. Churches that call them sacraments understand them as means through which God gives grace.
sacrament
A sacred act Christians believe carries God's grace, such as baptism and communion. Traditions count and understand them differently.
covenant
A solemn agreement that binds two parties. In the Bible, God's covenant with Israel at Sinai, and later covenants, shape the whole story.
martyr
Someone killed for refusing to give up their faith. The word means witness. The early Church honoured its martyrs and kept the days of their deaths.
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
confession
In the Reformation churches, a written statement of what a church believes, such as the Augsburg Confession. In Catholic and Orthodox use, also the sacrament of telling one's sins to a priest.
canon
The list of books a community counts as Scripture. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox canons overlap almost entirely and differ at the edges.
Questions people ask
What happens in a Quaker meeting?
In unprogrammed meetings, people sit in silence together, usually for an hour, and anyone may speak briefly if they feel moved to. There is no minister, no order of service and no music. In programmed meetings, the majority worldwide, there is a pastor, hymns and a sermon, generally with a period of open worship kept within it 3,4,5.
Do Quakers baptise or take communion?
Unprogrammed Friends do neither as outward rites, holding that baptism and communion are inward and continual: the whole of life is sacramental, so no ceremony marks off part of it. Some programmed and evangelical meetings do practise them. It is one of the sharpest differences inside the Society 8,3,19.
Are Quakers Christian?
Historically and by origin, yes, and most Friends worldwide are explicitly Christian, particularly in Africa and Latin America. In parts of Britain and North America many members now describe themselves in other terms, or as universalist, and meetings there hold a range. Friends generally state this about themselves rather than resolving it 3,8,18.
Why do Quakers refuse to fight?
Because of the peace testimony, declared to Charles II in 1660: Friends utterly deny all outward wars and strife with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatever. It has been kept through every war since, at the cost of imprisonment, and Quaker relief work in both world wars was recognised with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 15,6,7.
What is the sense of the meeting?
How Friends make decisions. Rather than debating and voting, a meeting waits, listens and seeks a common discernment, which a clerk then records. It can be slow and it does not proceed while someone stands genuinely in the way. Many organisations outside the Society have borrowed the method 3,4.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Quakers (Friends): where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-07, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/quaker/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-07; last changed 2026-09-07. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
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