c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) QUAKERS AT A GLANCE

ORIGINS: The Religious Society of Friends was founded by George Fox in England in the 1640s.

NAME: They were called “Quakers” for the way their bodies moved, or quaked, under divine inspiration.

BELIEFS: Early Quakers were Christians who thought their hierarchical churches were corrupt and spiritually barren. They believed the “inner light of God” was available to all believers. Quakers now run the gamut from evangelicals to atheists.

IN THE U.S.: Quaker leader William Penn founded the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the 1680s. Friends have been on the forefront of numerous progressive causes including abolition, women’s rights and religious tolerance.

PEACE WORK: The American Friends Service Committee and the Friends Service Council (England) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for their work after World Wars I and II.

MEMBERSHIP: There are about 100,000 Quakers in the U.S. and about 350,000 worldwide. Kenya has the largest Quaker population in the world, with about 130,000 Friends.

Sources: “The Quakers in America,” by Thomas D. Hamm, and the Friends World Committee for Consultation.

KRE/PH END RNS

200 words

See mainbar, RNS-QUAKER-BELIEFS, and photos transmitted Aug. 16.