religioustolerance.org has the best breif write up I have seen. Briefly, Friends are divided into three basic categories, Conservative, Liberal and Evangelic. The Evangelic are by far the most numerous both here in the US and Africa, Liberal in Great Britain. Conservative is least in numbers in the US. Evangelical might be hard to distinguish from, say Methodists. Conservative and Liberal both depart from the given description of "Anabaptist" in that we hold scripture as second to the experience of the Spirit as verified by "the fruit of the spirit and the tempering influence of the body, both local and as a whole. Liberals tend to be more concerned with social justice issues and environmental causes and both Liberal and Conservative do not hold with professional clergy, though pastors (a job description, not a title) may be recorded by their Yearly Meeting (Monthly Meeting is the name for the local congregation based on the "Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business" and the Yearly Meeting is the loose organization of a general area such as Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Happy to answer questions.
Happy to answer questions.
Upvote
0