Compassion and courage. Those two words leap to my mind when I think about Mary J. Taylor. They’re the reason why I chose to speak as her at the Heritage Village Museum’s First Person Program Series on March 24. Mary and her parents left Virginia in 1814 when she was
Quaker History
CFM Roots: A Second Meetinghouse
Throughout 1829, as contention over the teachings of Elias Hicks continued, not a month went by that did not involve either dealing with or disowning members of the meeting who were sympathetic to his views. The disagreements over who were the rightful members of the meeting raised another specter: who
CFM Roots: The Hicksite Separation
Not long after Cincinnati Friends Meeting was established in 1815, an itinerant Long Island preacher named Elias Hicks became a nexus of controversy among Quakers on the East Coast. In the tradition of George Fox, Hicks strongly advocated for relying on the Inner Light for guidance, to the extent that
CFM Roots: Responding to Queries
For much of the nineteenth century, one item of business that was regularly addressed during our monthly meetings was responding to a number of queries contained in the Discipline (the guide to Quaker living that we now call Faith and Practice). In addition to reporting on the state of the
CFM Roots: Discipline and Disownment
George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, noted that, in addition to worship, one of the functions of the meeting was to “admonish and exhort such as walked disorderly or carelessly, and not according to Truth.” Quakers approached this task according to the guidelines laid out in