Faith and Practice

 Friends developed their way of making decisions in the late 1660’s in response to the sufferings of Friends in prison and the crucial needs of their families. A crisis of leadership had arisen within the Quaker movement. It became clear to George Fox — himself in prison at the time — that Friends needed to take collective responsibility for decisions, rather than depend on a few outstanding leaders. Fox worked out a system of Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meetings through which Friends could deal with matters of corporate concern and responsibility.