Early Quaker education in PennsylvaniaWoody, Thomas
History
Early Quaker education in Pennsylvania
Woody, Thomas
Education -- Pennsylvania -- History; Society of Friends -- Education -- History; Thesis (Ph. D.)
The smaller meetings for worship were, of course, the first established.
Aside from the question of worship, however, the development of the
organization was from the larger unit to the smaller. We have noted
above the beginning of the general or yearly meeting. As the sect grew
in numbers, and the labor of caring for these, sometimes in a physical
sense and again in the religious, increased, it became necessary to have
a finer organization, the smaller units of which would reach the smallest
communities. By 1665 there were established (1) the _yearly_ and (2) the
_quarterly_ meetings, and in 1666 Fox recommended the establishment of a
smaller unit, the _monthly_ meeting, saying:
Then I was moved of the Lord to recommend the setting up of
five monthly meetings of men and women in the City of London
(besides the women’s meetings and the quarterly meetings) to
take care of God’s glory, and to admonish and exhort such as
walked disorderly or carelessly, and not according to the
truth. For whereas Friends had had only quarterly meetings,
now truth was spread, and Friends were grown more numerous,
I was moved to recommend the setting up of monthly meetings
throughout the nation. And the Lord opened to me what I must
do, and how the men’s and the women’s monthly and quarterly
meetings should be ordered and established in this and other
nations; and that I should write to those where I did not come,
to do the same.[44]
[Sidenote: Number of monthly meetings set up]
Immediately after this, there is mentioned the establishment of monthly
meetings in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, Huntingdonshire, Nottinghamshire,
Leicestershire and Warwickshire and many others.[45] Three years later
(1669) he reports fourteen monthly meetings in the county of York.[46]
The rapid increase in the number of meetings and the extent of territory
covered by them is a fair indication of the phenomenal growth of the
society.
Following his resolve and subsequent exertions toward setting up of
monthly meetings, during which he made very extensive campaigns, there
came the great step which was taken to organize all under the general
leadership of a yearly meeting, that of London. This was accomplished
in 1672.[47] This general meeting of ministers drew up a resolution or
minute to this effect:
[Sidenote: London Yearly Meeting established]
It is concluded agreed and assented to by Friends present
that for the better ordering, managing and regulating of the
public affairs of Friends relating to the Truth and the service
thereof, there be a general meeting of Friends held at London
once a year, in the week called Whitsun-week, to consist of six
Friends for the City of London, three for the city of Bristol,
two for the city of Colchester and one or two from each of the
counties of England and Wales respectively.[48]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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