Silence, until the Light speaks.
The Friends: worship as expectant silence, that of God in everyone, and a peace testimony kept at the price of prison in every century since George Fox. No clergy, no liturgy, no creed — the Inner Light needs no intermediary.
DeitiesGod known experimentally — through the Inner Light
Founded1652 CE · England
FounderGeorge Fox
AfterlifeHeld lightly — the Light is now
TextsBible · Journals of Friends
The map
Quakerism (Religious Society of Friends)’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →
c. 1000 BCE Judaism 30 CE Christianity 1517 CE Protestantism 1652 CE Quakerism (Religious Society of Friends) 2026 CE Ordinary Time
There is that of God in everyone.
The Inner Light: direct access, universally issued — the premise beneath Quaker equality, worship, and refusal to fight.
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Worship is expectant silence.
No liturgy, no pulpit: Friends sit until the Spirit gives someone words worth breaking silence for.
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War is refused outright.
The peace testimony — Friends have gone to prison rather than to the front, in every century since Fox.
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Let your life speak.
Integrity, simplicity, plain dealing: testimony is lived, not recited.
held by most
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Meeting for worship.
An hour of shared silence, broken only by vocal ministry — the emptiest liturgy in Christendom, deliberately.
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Meeting for business.
Decisions by discerning the sense of the meeting — no votes, no majorities; unity or wait.
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