Quakers Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Splits=== Around the time of the [[American Revolutionary War]], some American Quakers split from the main Society of Friends over issues such as support for the war, forming groups such as the [[Free Quakers]] and the [[Universal Friends]].<ref>Pink Dandelion (2007). ''An Introduction to Quakerism'' ({{ISBN|0521841119}}), p. 78.</ref> Later, in the 19th century, there was a diversification of theological beliefs in the Religious Society of Friends, and this led to several larger splits within the movement. ====Hicksite–Orthodox split==== The Hicksite–Orthodox split arose out of both ideological and socioeconomic tensions. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Hicksites tended to be agrarian and poorer than the more urban, wealthier, Orthodox Quakers. With increasing financial success, Orthodox Quakers wanted to "make the Society a more respectable body – to transform their sect into a church – by adopting mainstream Protestant orthodoxy".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crothers |first=Glenn |title=Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth: The Society of Friends in Northern Virginia, 1730–1865 |year=2012 |publisher=University Press of Florida |location=Gainesville |pages=145}}</ref> Hicksites, though they held a variety of views, generally saw the market economy as corrupting, and believed Orthodox Quakers had sacrificed their orthodox Christian spirituality for material success. Hicksites viewed the Bible as secondary to the individual cultivation of God's light within.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crothers |first=Glenn |title=Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth |pages=145}}</ref> With Gurneyite Quakers' shift toward Protestant principles and away from the spiritualisation of human relations, women's role as promoters of "holy conversation" started to decrease. Conversely, within the Hicksite movement the rejection of the market economy and the continuing focus on community and family bonds tended to encourage women to retain their role as powerful arbiters. [[Elias Hicks]]'s religious views were claimed to be [[universalist]] and to contradict Quakers' historical orthodox Christian beliefs and practices. Hicks' Gospel preaching and teaching precipitated the ''Great Separation'' of 1827, which resulted in a parallel system of Yearly Meetings in America, joined by Friends from Philadelphia, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Baltimore. They were referred to by opponents as Hicksites and by others and sometimes themselves as Orthodox. Quakers in Britain recognised only the Orthodox Quakers and refused to correspond with the Hicksites. ====Beaconite controversy==== [[Isaac Crewdson]] was a [[Recorded Minister]] in [[Manchester]]. His 1835 book ''A Beacon to the Society of Friends'' insisted that the inner light was at odds with a religious belief in [[Salvation (Christianity)|salvation]] by the [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]] of Christ.<ref name=Bebbington>{{Cite book |last=Bebbington |first=David William |title=Evangelicalism in modern Britain: a history from the 1730s to the 1980s |url=https://archive.org/details/evangelicalismin0000bebb |url-access=registration |year=1989 |publisher=Unwin Hyman Ltd |location=London |isbn=0-415-10464-5}}</ref>{{rp|page=155}} This Christian controversy led to Crewdson's resignation from the Religious Society of Friends, along with 48 fellow members of Manchester Meeting and about 250 other British Quakers in 1836–1837. Some of these joined the [[Plymouth Brethren]]. ====Rise of Gurneyite Quakerism, and the Gurneyite–Conservative split==== [[File:Joseph John Gurney.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Joseph John Gurney was a prominent 19th-century British Friend and a strong proponent of evangelical views.]] ''Orthodox'' Friends became more [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] during the 19th century<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bronner |first=Edwin B. |title=Moderates in London Yearly Meeting, 1857–1873: Precursors of Quaker Liberals |journal=Church History |year=1990 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=356–371 |doi=10.2307/3167744 |jstor=3167744|s2cid=163077764 }}</ref> and were influenced by the [[Second Great Awakening]]. This movement was led by British Quaker [[Joseph John Gurney]]. Christian Friends held [[Revival meeting]]s in America and became involved in the [[Holiness movement]] of churches. Quakers such as [[Hannah Whitall Smith]] and [[Robert Pearsall Smith]] became speakers in the religious movement and introduced Quaker phrases and practices to it.<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=157}} British Friends became involved with the [[Higher Life movement]], with Robert Wilson from [[Cockermouth]] meeting founding the [[Keswick Convention]].<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=157}} From the 1870s it became common in Britain to have "home mission meetings" on Sunday evening with Christian hymns and a Bible-based sermon, alongside the silent meetings for worship on Sunday morning.<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=155}} The Quaker Yearly Meetings supporting the religious beliefs of Joseph John Gurney were known as ''Gurneyite'' yearly meetings. Many eventually collectively became the Five Years Meeting and then the [[Friends United Meeting]], although [[London Yearly Meeting]], which had been strongly Gurneyite in the 19th century, did not join either of these. Such Quaker yearly meetings make up the largest proportion of Quakers in the world today. Some Orthodox Quakers in America disliked the move towards evangelical Christianity and saw it as a dilution of Friends' traditional orthodox Christian belief in being inwardly led by the [[Holy Spirit]]. These Friends were headed by [[John Wilbur (Quaker minister)|John Wilbur]], who was expelled from his yearly meeting in 1842. He and his supporters formed their own Conservative Friends Yearly Meeting. Some UK Friends broke away from the [[London Yearly Meeting]] for the same reason in 1865. They formed a separate body of Friends called [[Britain Yearly Meeting#Fritchley General Meeting|Fritchley General Meeting]], which remained distinct and separate from London Yearly Meeting until 1968. Similar splits took place in Canada. The Yearly Meetings that supported John Wilbur's religious beliefs were known there as Conservative Friends. 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