Richmond Declaration

The Richmond Declaration, also known as the Richmond Declaration of Faith is a confession of faith of the Religious Society of Friends, being made by 95 Quakers (representatives of all Gurneyite Orthodox Friends Yearly Meetings) from around the world in September 1887, at a conference in Richmond, Indiana.^[1] It was a declaration of faith, and although Quakers do not subscribe to a creed, the Richmond Declaration of Faith has been used as a doctrinal standard by Orthodox Quakers (now represented by the Friends United Meeting), Holiness Quakers (represented by the Central Yearly Meeting of Friends) and Evangelical Quakers (represented by Evangelical Friends International), ever since.^[2][3]

The Declaration was "approved," "accepted," or "adopted" by the Orthodox Yearly Meetings of Indiana, Western, New England, New York, Baltimore, North Carolina, Iowa, and Canada. Among Orthodox Friends in North America, only Ohio and Philadelphia yearly meetings did not so act. The Friends United Meeting General Board reaffirmed the declaration as a statement of faith in February 2007. The Declaration appears in most Books of Discipline (Manuals of Faith and Practice) of Evangelical, Holiness and Friends United Meeting yearly meetings. In present-day Quakerdom, the vast majority are Evangelical Friends, thus making the Richmond Declaration of Faith representative of much of Quaker doctrine.^[4][5]

The Richmond Declaration of Faith includes "assertions about God, Christ, the Bible, resurrection and atonement, and other Christian basics", as well as "core Quaker beliefs about simplicity, oaths, peace, and sacraments."^[6]

Criticism

Chuck Fager, a Liberal Quaker, claimed that the Richmond Declaration did not represent all branches of Friends and lamented that it had been used to expel ministers such as Joel Bean; in Fager's view, the confession does not represent what he sees as authentic Friends theology. Quaker author Bill Samuel rebutted Fager's claims, stating that the Richmond Declaration of Faith is consistent with early Quaker thought, inclusive of Robert Barclay's Apology for the True Christian Divinity; Samuel stated that Fager read "an awful lot between the lines" to make negative claims about the Richmond Declaration of Faith.^[7]

Though it was primarily written by a British Friend, Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, the London Yearly Meeting did not adopt the Richmond Declaration in 1888, after progressive younger members characterized by "theological and social drift" opposed its adoption in an extensive debate that "lasted for over five hours".^[8] Supported by many of the older, longstanding members in the London Yearly Meeting, Braithwaite saw the Richmond Declaration of Faith as being a bulwark against "unsound and dangerous doctrine" in times when Friends were "in a state of discipline and warfare".^[8]

References

1. Williams, Walter R. (13 January 2019). The Rich Heritage of Quakerism. Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78912-341-8. From time to time, over the three centuries of their history, Friends have issued longer or shorter statements of belief. They earnestly seek to base these declarations of the essential truths of Christianity upon the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures. The most detailed of these statements commonly held by orthodox Friends is known as the Richmond Declaration of Faith. This instrument was drawn up by ninety-nine representatives of ten American yearly meetings and of London and Dublin yearly meetings, assembled at Richmond, Indiana, in 1887.
2. "Declaration of Faith Issued by the Richmond Conference in 1887". 23 July 2008. Retrieved 30 May 2024. A conference of 95 delegates appointed by 12 Friends (Quaker) yearly meetings representing the Orthodox branch of Friends across the world met in Richmond, Indiana in September 1887. This conference issued a Declaration of Faith, which has been widely used by Orthodox Friends ever since.
3. Holden, David E. W. (1988). "The Genesis of Central Yearly Meeting". Quaker History. 77 (1): 49-50.
4. Angell, Stephen Ward; Dandelion, Pink (April 19, 2018). The Cambridge Companion to Quakerism. Cambridge University Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-1-107-13660-1. Contemporary Quakers worldwide are predominately evangelical and are often referred to as the Friends Church.
5. Abbott, Margery Post; Abbott, Carl (14 December 2020). Quakerism: The Basics. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-57530-3. A number of evangelical yearly meetings, especially those influenced by the holiness movement, embraced the Declaration as a statement of faith, and it remains an important reference point for many Friends.
6. Abbott, Margery Post; Abbott, Carl (14 December 2020). Quakerism: The Basics. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-57530-3.
7. Fager, Chuck: Position Paper against the Richmond Declaration
8. Kennedy, Thomas Cummings British Quakerism 1860-1920: the transformation of a religious community Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 117. ISBN 0-19-827035-6

External links

• Text of the Richmond Declaration