| Description | From the early years of the Religious Society of Friends, meetings, facilitated by the clear channel of communication created by the hierarchical structure of the Society, turned to Yearly Meeting for advice, which it provided by outlining what was considered good Quaker practice, cautioning against failings, reminding Friends of their duties, and mediating in disputes. This it did firstly through the distribution of minutes and secondly through 'epistles'. The latter were letters encapsulating the main points of the Yearly meeting and composed by participants of the Yearly Meeting at its closure and then sent to Friends via the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings. However, as this arrangement was not always regular, it was increasingly felt that more standardised and comprehensive advice was required in a format which was easily accessible to the clerks of each meeting. As a result, in 1738 Yearly Meeting produced a manuscript volume of 'Christian and Brotherly Advices given forth from time to time by the Yearly Meeting in London alphabetically digested under proper heads' (also known as 'Book of Extracts') which contained the minutes and advice which had been issued until that year, with empty pages for further advice to be added in subsequent years. Copies were issued and sent out to the Quarterly Meetings.
Calls for a printed version of the Book of Extracts to be produced were finally heeded to in 1782 when Yearly Meeting published the Book of Extracts to ensure that all meetings had access to a complete and accurate collection of the advices so that the they could be more consistently and widely followed.
From 1824, the advices were combined in one volume with the queries (see below), although epistles continued to be circulated separately at the end of each Yearly Meeting. In 1833, the advices were revised to reflect evangelical principles and in 1860 and 1875, they were further amended, becoming longer and more extensive. At this point, it was decided that meetings for worship should end with the advices being read.
In 1682, not long after Yearly Meeting had been established and the hierarchical structure of Quarterly and Monthly Meetings implemented, it was decided that in order for Yearly Meeting to have an insight into how the Society was progressing across the country, it needed statistical information from those with local knowledge. To this end, it designed three questions for each Quarterly representative to answer orally each year, regarding the number of deaths, imprisonments and convincements (conversions to Quakerism). In 1694, these were increased to six, and then further increased in the early 18th century. As the number of questions increased, Yearly Meeting decided it was easier to request written replies from the Quarterly Meetings and so gathering information from the monthly and Preparative Meetings to formulate replies to the questions, which gradually became known as 'queries', became a key function of the Quarterly Meeting.
Over time, and in particular from 1760 onwards when there was concern about falling membership, the purpose of the queries changed, focusing more on the condition of the Society and on ensuring members behaved according to Quaker beliefs and upheld Quaker testimonies. Additional questions were asked about the number of meeting houses constructed, the numbers of new members and levels of regular attendance at meetings, whether Friends were maintaining opposition to the payment of tithes and war, the use of plain speech, behaviour and dress, providing for poor Friends, recording sufferings (see SF/1/6), bringing up and educating their children appropriately, avoiding debt and so on. At the same time, the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings were required to ensure a more thorough reading and answering of the queries.
Despite several revisions, the queries changed little until 1860 and 1875 when they were revised in response to a sense, which had been growing amongst Friends since the turn of the century, that they could be better used for self-examination instead of discipline. In addition, the large amount of time spent in business meetings reading and preparing answers to the queries led to the end of the obligation to prepare written answers.
By the 20th century, the evangelical tone of both the advices and queries had become unpopular and many Friends saw them as being too negative. In 1928, they were revised and lengthened, and while the queries continued to be considered in meetings for business, they also began to be read in many meetings for worship, together with the advices. At this time, advices on ministry were also introduced. In 1949, these were rewritten in a more modern style of language to encourage greater participation in vocal ministry.
A further revision was made in 1964 to better reflect societal changes which had not existed previously, and from 1984 to the mid-1990s, a major consultation and rewrite was carried out in which the 1964 edition was updated to remove some of the theological language, lengthy paragraphs and use of masculine nouns and pronouns, to make it more suitable for reading aloud. Its title was changed and the final text became known as 'Quaker Faith and Practice' which is (at the time of writing) in its 5th edition. This and Books of Extracts after 1942 are available from Friends Library.
'Yearly Meeting minutes for use of Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting' can be found at SF/2/1/1/32/1.
See SF/1/11/1/25 for an index to the Books of Extracts covering the period 1857-1906.
'Answers to queries' can be found in books of answers to queries as well as in the minutes of the Men's and Women's Quarterly and Monthly Meetings (see SF/1/1 and SF/2). |