Faith and Practice: Quaker Discipline 1665 to Present

Join the Barnegat (NJ) Friends and our guest Bill Smith in person or by Zoom on Sunday, November 20, at 1 pm Eastern US time.
See ourinvitation for details. Light refreshments will be served.Registerwhether you plan to come in person or Zoom with us.
During the 17th century individual leaders of the Friends movement wrote epistles to advise fellow Friends on way of life. Then groups of elders who wrote at Balby (Northern) and later London created sets of Testimonies for Friends. After the formation of Yearly Meetings, manuscript sets of minutes from the yearly meeting were sent out to subordinate meetings.
In the 18th century, starting with New England and then London, these advices were published. These were called "Books of Discipline" or "Books of Extracts" and were made up of minutes from the Yearly Meeting. By the 19th century every Yearly Meeting had their own Book of Discipline.
In the 20th century, especially in "Hicksite" yearly meetings, the word Discipline became an unacceptable concept and the Books were called "Faith and Practice". Many yearly meetings still have books of discipline.
The 2018 revision of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's Faith and practice will be discussed as well as those of Conservative, Guerneyite, Yearly Meeting of Quakers in Britain.