Brooklyn Meeting asked me to make a presentation to newcomers about Quaker history.  I will upload the notes with some discussion questions in the next series of blog posts.  In my outline of Quaker history ( I am following the examples of Howard Brinton in Friends for 300 Years and Leonard Kenworthy in Quakerism) I delineate six phases of Quaker history.

Phase I:  Quaker Pentecost (1647 – 1660)

Phase II: Persecution and Sectarian Organization (1660 – 1691)

Phase III: Quietism and the Classical Period of Quakerism (1691-1827)

Phase IV:  Division, Revival, Evangelism, Social concerns (1827-1887)

Phase V:   Rise of Liberal Quakerism, Coalescence into inter-Yearly Meeting Organizations, Outreach &  Missions (1895-1955)

Phase VI:  Reunification of American Yearly Meetings, the AFSC generation, FWCC (1955- today)

This is certainly oversimplified but I hope that it will be useful.