Friends Uniting

All members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) believe that God's "Inner Light" is in their souls. When they meet together they keep silent, knowing that the Spirit will move them to say what is necessary when it is necessary. (If no one is moved after an hour of quiet, the meeting is over.) Quakers have little ritual, no priesthood. Their societies are organized simply: in Monthly Meetings (one congregation), Quarterly Meetings (representatives from several Monthly Meetings), Yearly Meetings (representatives from several Quarterly Meetings), General Conferences (numerous Yearly Meetings). Last week two important Yearly Meetings gathered in Philadelphia, citadel of Quakerdom, where some Orthodox Monthly Meetings still object to hymns with music and hired preachers.

When the sense of the two Yearly Meetings, Orthodox and Hicksite, had been taken by their respective clerks, these two largest U. S. Quaker societies (91,326 and 16,105 members) were well on the way toward healing a schism, that had parted them for 108 years.

Hicksite Friends came into being when Elias Hicks, a Long Island farmer and itinerant preacher, presumed to dabble in Unitarianism, question the divinity of Christ. He was ousted from the Society of Friends, founded one of his own, gave his name to Hicksville, L. I. which still is a Quaker centre. Though for a time an Orthodox Quaker hastened to cross the street when he saw a Hicksite coming, the sharp distinction between conservative and liberal dulled with time. Only an expert eye can detect the small religious difference between Herbert Hoover and Haverford College, both Orthodox, and onetime Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and Swarthmore College, both Hicksite. Even in hidebound Philadelphia, for friendship as well as economy, Hicksite and Orthodox Monthly Meetings have been worshipping together during the past few years. Last week the Yearly Meetings of the two sects in Philadelphia officially legalized this unity. Final step in the merger of the two societies, possible next year, will be to set up a united Yearly Meeting.

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