Quakers

Religious Society of Friends
George Fox, the principal early leader of the Quakers
Theology	Variable; depends on meeting
Polity	Congregational
Distinct fellowships	Friends World Committee for Consultation
Associations	Britain Yearly Meeting, Friends United Meeting, Evangelical Friends Church International, Central Yearly Meeting of Friends, Conservative Friends, Friends General Conference, Beanite Quakerism
Founder	George Fox Margaret Fell
Origin	Mid-17th century England
Separated from	Church of England
Separations	Shakers[1]

The Religious Society of Friends is a group with Christian roots that began in England in the 1650s. The group's formal title is the Society of Friends, or the Religious Society of Friends.

People in the Society of Friends are called "Friends" or Quakers, which mean the same thing.^[2] Most Quakers are Christian, but the group today includes a few other people. They live all over the world, but the largest groups are in Kenya, the United States, Bolivia, Guatemala, the United Kingdom, and Burundi.^[3]

1. ↑ Michael Bjerknes Aune; Valerie M. DeMarinis (1996). Religious and Social Ritual: Interdisciplinary Explorations. SUNY Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-7914-2825-2.
2. ↑ "Quakers - the Religious Society of Friends". BBC. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
3. ↑ "2012 map". Friends World Committee for Consultation - Section of the Americas. 2012. Archived from the original on 2016-03-27. Retrieved 2016-05-07.