Quakerism as an International Movement

INTERNATIONAL QUAKERISM11 Burlington. The other two costumes date from about 1840. There are a number of pictures, including a fine collection of photographs of meeting houses. Swarthmore Hall, home of Margaret Fell, the widow of Judge Fell, who afterward married George Fox, is shown in pictures of the very interesting interior as well as exterior. The present display includes only a small part of the entire collection of the Friends' Historical Association, but it will be changed from time to time in the hope that the public may find interest in this exhibition. QUAKERISM AS AN INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT* By Leslie D. Shaffer THE Religious Society of Friends today has a total membership of 158,267. The Society is divided into forty-two Yearly Meetings. Two of these Yearly Meetings are in Great Britain, three in Canada, twenty-four in the United States, thirteen in as many other countries. Besides these regular Yearly Meetings, there are general meetings and conference groups in more than twenty different countries where Friends are living and working. There are meetings in Alaska, Austria, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Ceylon, China, Czechoslovakia, Fritchley (England), Greece, Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras, Hungary, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mexico, Mid-India, New Guinea, New Zealand, Pemba, Poland, Russia, Sakalava, South and East Africa, and Switzerland. London and Dublin Yearly Meetings in Great Britain, which are the mother meetings, comprise not only meetings in England, Dublin, Scotland, and Wales, but also the general meetings of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The total member__________ (Continued on page 13) * The map facing page 12, which shows the world distribution of Friends' Yearly Meetings, schools, and individual meetings, is reprinted with permission from Hand Book of the Religious Society of Friends, issued by the American Friends Service Committee, 20 South Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, Pa., under date of July, 1935. The statistical table of information, on page 12, is adapted from the same source. INTERNATIONAL QUAKERISM13 ship of this section of the Society of Friends is 22,561. Through the international activities of London Yearly Meeting, two Australian Friends' Schools are maintained. One school is located at Hobart, Tasmania, and the other at Wanganui, New Zealand. The Meeting for Sufferings has a Committee on Slavery and the Protection of Native Races which deals principally with Africa but watches legislation affecting native races throughout the world. The main international activities of London Yearly Meeting are under the control of the Friends Service Council, which is also a committee of Dublin Yearly Meeting and is responsible to both bodies. The Friends Service Council was formed by amalgamating the Friends Foreign Mission Association (1868) and the Council for International Service (1869). The union of these two bodies occurred in 1927. The council has a joint responsibility for carrying on the older missionary work in China, India, Madagascar, Pemba, and Syria, as well as the newer service work in the four centers in Berlin, Paris, Geneva, and Vienna. The American Friends Service Committee cooperates with the Friends Service Council in this latter field of activity. The Friends Service Council produces Quaker literature in 23 foreign languages, assists in the direction of the Quaker School at Ommen, Holland, which has recently been opened. In an effort to link up the smaller Yearly Meetings and more isolated groups of Friends, particularly in Europe, a series of international conferences have been conducted. The first of these met at Elsinore, Denmark, in 1931 and six others have been held. The conferences are arranged by an International Committee composed of representatives of the main groups participating . The subjects which have been considered at the seven conferences held have been as follows : Quakerism and Modern Life and Thought, Elsinore 1931. Problems of the World Crisis, Paris 1931. Spiritual Values of Quakerism and their Application in the World Today, Amsterdam 1932. The Life of the Spirit and Modern Human Difficulties, Geneva, 1933. From Vision to Action, Prague 1934. Christ and Present-day Quaker Experiences, Paris 1935. Quaker Pacifism, Jordans, England, 1936. 14 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION THE twenty-seven Yearly Meetings in the United States and Canada have a membership of 110,536. Twelve of these Yearly Meetings belong to the Five Years Meeting of Friends in America...