Who and What are Friends?
- Northampton Friends Meeting is a member of New England Yearly Meeting, founded in 1660, whose Web site has a brief description of The Quaker Message and The Meeting for Worship , as well as a directory of meetings in New England and other information.
- Friends General Conference Facts about Quakers answers a number of questions about Friends.
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has an attractively illustrated exhibit on Quakers and the Political Process, Living Our Faith Into Action, which is an on-line reproduction of an exhibit in Philadelphia.
- Facts About Friends is a brief summary written by Ted Hoare, a member of Australia Yearly Meeting
as part of a project to provide impartial descriptions of many (about 250 at the time this is written) religious groups. Many members of Northampton Friends Meeting are perhaps more liberal (less Christocentric) in their theology than is described there, but it is otherwise an excellent description.
- Friends are one of the three "historic Peace Churches" (the other two are the Brethren and the Mennonites). The Quaker Information Center in Philadelpha has a number of statements of Friends Peace Testimonty..
Curiously, none of these has much to say about one of Friends most significant practices: our mode of governance, which is non-heirarchical and based on the principle that God speaks to each person directly. Decisions are made in a spirit of worship, believing that God's guidance will be provided, and that the group is seeking to discern God's will. Thus the assent of every person present is sought, although not invariably reached. In some cases an individual will declare that his/her objection is not weighty enough to stop the group from proceeding; in other (rare) cases, the group will make a similar discernment about an objection.
This method of governance is used at all levels from the local to the national. It is one thing which unites all Friends despite very diverse theologies. I believe that this, rather than any particular virtue, is responsible for Friends remarkable impact upon history.