QuakerQuaker

Primitive Christianity Revived, Again

Labels, labels, labels

Here in southeastern Pennsylvania, members of Ohio Yearly Meeting living in the area are called the Ohio Friends. This has been an interesting label for a variety of reasons.

The older Friends here have been trying to get rid of the two most common labels used around here: Hicksite and Orthodox. Interestingly enough, though, I was at a meeting lately when someone asked about a famous former resident of a particular farmhouse. One person asked, "Wasn't he a Quaker?" and someone else there said "Well, he was Orthodox" in a tone that meant "Not really, but he thought that he was." So locals sometimes like to keep the labels alive.

I like the label "Ohio Friends" for two main reasons, but I have one complaint about it.

First, the label avoids distinctions to be made among Conservative Friends. If someone asks me what Conservative Friends believe about a particular topic, I try to be careful (due to my appointments) to explain briefly that there are differences among Conservative Friends before answering because I try to explain Conservative Friends in a way that includes Iowa and North Carolina Yearly Meetings. If someone asks me what Ohio Friends believe about a topic, it is easier to respond because members of Ohio YM have similar understandings of the things of God and also because I know them better.

Associated with this concern is the fact that we have to keep explaining that the term "Conservative Friends" denotes that we find value in conserving traditional Quaker culture and heritage. Most Conservative Friends are not politically conservative. In fact, at Stillwater QM just before the 2008 election, I inquired quietly about political activity. About 45% of adults there were politically inactive, with Obama placing a distant second and McCain third.

Second, the label avoids the term Wilburite. As many of you know, I am unapologetically Wilburite. John Wilbur's original quarrel with Joseph J. Gurney was about the nature of sanctification. Wilbur believed that Christians need the ongoing and immediate inward influence of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis to live holy lives, and Gurney denied that. Wilbur's belief on this topic is a main topic of ministry in Ohio YM today, and I believe that the narrative each of us lives reflects that understanding of who God is. My only reservation about the term Wilburite is that it suggests that we worship John Wilbur. I don't know of any Conservative Friends or Ohio Friends who worship John Wilbur. [Lutheran don't worship Martin Luther, either.]

The major complaint that I have with the term "Ohio Friends" is that it is sometimes used to describe Eastern Region Friends, too. This is the traditional confusion between what used to be called Ohio Yearly Meeting - Barnesville (the Wilburite Ohio YM, held at Stillwater) and Ohio Yearly Meeting - Damascus (the Gurney YM, often held in their Upper Springfield meeting house in Damascus). [Note: the Hicksite Yearly Meeting House was in Salem, Ohio, so they were Ohio Yearly Meeting - Salem]. Most people at QQ are aware of the differences between Ohio YM and the Eastern Region, so I don't need to say any more on that.

Just to wrap up, the term "Ohio Friends" serves as a label to help other Quakers in this area recognize that we are a different group and usually avoids problems with definitions. It also has connotations of current behavior rather than the historic connotation of Wilburite, a term that usually requires a historic explanation.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Martin Kelley on 8th mo. 17, 2009 at 5:45pm

Thanks for sharing this (and thanks for sharing it twice!). I found it very helpful. I find that as many times as I try to explain that "Conservative" has nothing to do with politics, a fair number of people assume it has to do with politics! And while I love discussing Quaker theology, when talking to new people I try to stay away from the history lesson needed when one starts with "Wilburite," "Gurneyite," etc. It seems that "Ohio Friends" is a good shorthand and I like how it doesn't reduce OYM to hypenated Quaker status.

Permalink Reply by Raye on 8th mo. 17, 2009 at 6:11pm

Thanks for this look at labels. I too, have found I frequently need to explain that "conservative" doesn't refer to a political ideology, which is what many in my area immediately assume. The historical context was also quite helpful to me. It appears that in regards to the need for the Holy Spirit's ongoing guidance, I am a Wilburite.

When I moved back east, people especially at work called me "Raye from Ohio," even after they knew of my origins (Georgia) and that I had lived most of my life in New England. Somehow being from Ohio was significant, for what that's worth.

And, although my time living in Ohio was relatively brief, I think of myself as from Ohio, and as an Ohio Friend.

While at FCNL last fall, I noticed people kept tacking "Conservative" onto Ohio Yearly Meeting. I suppose it was to make some sort of distinction I already thought was made, since the two other Ohio Friends groups of which I was aware were Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting and EFI.

Thanks, Friend.

Permalink Reply by Raye on 8th mo. 17, 2009 at 7:23pm

Aha! Thanks, Tom! I reckoned there was more going on that I didn't know. . . When I first moved to Ohio, I contacted an EFCI-ER community and was told they knew of no unprogrammed or other Friends meetings in the area, which was, I am sure, true - that they were unaware.

I found Ohio Yearly Meeting (many years ago) while working with someone whose childhood babysitter was a member of Short Creek, and the existence of that meeting just came up in conversation out in a pasture - pure happenstance, one could say. Or as another Friend would say, "divine appointment."

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