Stacey D. Wheeler | Director of Communications and Church Planting Support
In 2022, many of us met for Ministry Conference in Lawrence, Kansas for our sesquicentennial celebration. Our sesquicentennial represented 150 years of ministry through EFC-MA. Technically, we were celebrating our 151st year.
On July 4th, we will celebrate America’s semiquincentennial celebration of 250 years. “Semiquincentennial,” is derived from Latin: “semi” meaning half, “quin” from “quinque” meaning five, and “centennial” meaning 100 years, so it literally signifies half of five centuries (250 years).
Celebrations provide opportunities to remember why we exist and reflect on the many years God has sustained us as a group
This year will be our 155th year gathering for our annual Ministry Conference; so, for 155 of the 250 years since our country was founded, more than half of the time, we have been meeting for Sunday services, praying together, worshiping together, influencing those around us, and spreading the good news of Christ.
I shared the following post on Facebook after our sesquicentennial celebration in 2022 and was drawn back to it to read it and remember that when we’re together, we have something to reflect on and hold up and celebrate: our shared love for Christ and our shared love for one another and our shared desire to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We are better together. I want to share this post with you, slightly edited, in case it might encourage you the way it did for me:
BEGINNING OF POST:
We celebrated our 150th year of meeting together for Evangelical Friends Church-Mid-America this last weekend in Lawrence, Kansas. For the very first gathering in 1872, 3,000 people came by ox wagon, by horse and buggy, by train, and on foot from all across the country to celebrate the launch of Kansas Yearly Meeting. They gathered for Sunday services, with representatives from every yearly meeting in America, gathering in a newly constructed meeting house made of native limestone in Lawrence, Kansas.
For this last weekend, people traveled by car and plane (I don’t think anyone walked!) to meet in another natural limestone building, The Oread, and remember our roots as Quakers and celebrate that we are still carrying the torch for Christ that was brought to America, influenced by George Fox, a leader in the 17th century spiritual awakening. He believed we should be motivated by an “inner light,” that of the Holy Spirit and our conscience, to stay spiritually connected to God in obedience to him. Fox first came to America in 1672, preaching and teaching and seeing “prominent colonists being converted,” spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Quaker name was a respected name, which is why some products used it in the hopes that the trusted ethos associated with Quakers would also be associated with their products: Quaker Oats Company, Quaker State Motor Oil, etc. They were also known as the Religious Society of Friends, now just called Friends.
Many people might wonder: Who are the Quakers? What are they all about? I am not a Quaker historian, but I have deep Quaker roots (ancestors converted by George Fox that go back 14 generations), and as such, these are my thoughts about our heritage.
In general, Quakers are known for being strong in their convictions. Their founder, George Fox, came against the traditional Church in the 1600s. Disillusioned with religion within the established church and with other preachers, he turned to God. In this place of seeking he heard in his spirit “There is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition.”
Through Fox and his passionate evangelism, he slowly gained new converts to his way of thinking. He desired to see a change in how people were living their daily lives here on earth and how they would spend their eternity. He found a new relationship with Jesus Christ through a radical encounter, after a long and serious search for him, and went on to follow this “inner light” and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit.
He came against rituals and ceremony and emphasized instead a direct relationship with God.
Fox radically countered the prevailing religious ideology of his time, and he was persecuted for it. In his day, the sacraments were used to excuse sin—by that I mean that communion and baptism and these kinds of sacraments were taken but did not reach the heart to change behavior.
For this reason, he came against these sacraments and declared that they must become matters of our heart. Communion for him was not an “act” but a way of living in daily relationship, communing, with God. Having communion with God and Christ were matters to be taken seriously and to be lived out from day to day. They were not to be taken callously or lightly, as he felt others were doing. (Just to add to this point, it has been agreed upon recently and added into our Faith and Practice that some people feel led to partake in the sacraments, like baptism and communion.)
As George Fox followed the Holy Spirit, he began going from town to town, preaching under trees, if necessary. He became known for his teaching and evangelism. He and many of his converts to his way and to the Lord were imprisoned many times and suffered in many ways because of their convictions.
Quakers are known for being strong minded—a people with strong values and beliefs and a people who keep their word. Their yes was a yes, and their no was a no. In fact, Quakers from the 17th Century onward refused to swear oaths on the Bible in court. They believed in living in such honesty that an oath could add nothing to what they said.
They were also known for living simple lives, speaking the truth and letting their actions speak louder than words, equality among the sexes and among different races, and living in peaceful community with other believers: so, they were known for simplicity, truth, equality, and community.
Quakers are known for their mission mindset. They have sent many missionaries overseas to spread the gospel of Christ.
They believed and still believe that women could and should teach, preach, evangelize, serve, and speak the truth of God as they were called. In the early days, men met separately from women during the church services. Women leaders kept their own notes and minutes and were established and accepted in the leadership structure. This is why the top five, well-known women suffragettes in America were Quakers. (Only Elizabeth Cadie Stanton was not Quaker.) This is why we have female pastors and have been on the leading edge of advancing women since the beginning of the movement.
Quakers are known for being peace-loving and many are conscientious objectors to war, as they believe in solving disputes in a peaceful way. When I was growing up, I was taught that guns cause grief and pain. I have never held a gun or seen a gun in our home. I raised our kids in this same way of thinking. (That being said, I am extremely patriotic and support our military. I do believe God can use war to shape nations—but that’s another conversation!)
Quakers also believe in equality among people, which is why they were on the leading edge of the anti-slavery movement and created the Underground Railroad. In a documentary I recently watched, Harriet Tubman gives credit to Quakers for helping her out of the South for the first time through the Underground Railroad—and they would go on to help her many more times as she went back 18 times to help others to freedom.
As well as being anti-slavery, they are well-known in helping the Indian tribes through Quaker orphanages and schools.
Quakers are also known for providing an excellent education for children. William Penn was a well-known Quaker who established colonies (Pennsylvania) and schools on the East Coast, including William Penn University. There are too many prominent, distinguished Quaker schools for me to mention here, but it is well known in Washington, D.C. that many President’s children have attended private Quaker schools in order to be considered for an Ivy League education in college.
Quakers are also known for serving the poor. I studied the Irish Potato Famine in my Master’s in English program at Fort Hays several years ago in Irish Literature, and it was the Quakers in both England and Ireland who brought food and money to the Irish to provide soup. Fifty boilers were donated from a Quaker family from Darby to help make the soup that kept thousands from starving, and many travelled there to make and serve the soup.
Quakers are known for prison reform and asylum reform for the mentally ill. They were thought leaders of their time in taking a stand for changing some of the barbaric systems in both of these fields.
As we met this last weekend to celebrate our history, we also looked toward our bright future and listened to the leaders of our own time who desire, like George Fox, to see us continue to live by our “inner light” and be led by the Holy Spirit.
I heard several people comment on how powerful the presence of God was within our meetings this last weekend. We are thankful that we can say that over 150 years after Kansas Yearly Meeting began, we are still going strong and seeking God to direct our steps. God is good.
END OF POST.
Our theme for Ministry Conference in 2026 is Better Together. We will gather at Friends University from July 9-12 and hear from James Bryan Smith, worship together, eat together, pray together, have business meetings together, and continue in our calling and vision to show people that Christ Jesus can still speak to whatever condition people might be in to see the darkness become light: together. This is something worth celebrating!
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