Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Rules of Discipline from 1704
These documents came at a time of political turmoil in Pennsylvania, and interpersonal challenges within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Much of the business minuted in the years immediately before 1704 centered on disciplinary procedures for those Quakers whose behavior was considered to be outside of the norms of the Society of Friends.
The collection of these rules into discrete documents appears to be an attempt to define what the Society of Friends was, and perhaps more importantly, what the Society of Friends was not.
While much of the focus in these documents was on discipline and what was considered to be appropriate personal behaviors, there was also a deep focus on defining structures and processes through which relationships within the meeting could be nurtured.
Author: David R. Haines
Pleasant Green Books. 2024
70 pages. $16.00 / paperback
ISBN (paperback) 978-0-9979848-3-5