The Role a Female Traveling Minister Played in Spreading Quaker Beliefs :: American History Religion

The Role a Fe manful Traveling Minister Played in Spreading acquaintance BeliefsOne important aspect of acquaintance life to understand onward reading An Account of the Travels, Sufferings and Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone, is the use of travel ministers to spread the champion trust around the world. The Society of Friends, given the popular name Quakers, originated in England in the seventeenth century and quickly spread to the English colonies, and later to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Turkey, and the States (Sharpless 393). The most influential people in this rapid spread of the Quaker religion were the missionaries. While Quakers believed that no one should preach the Word without a direct roar from God, they did believe that any one male or female, old or young (395) could receive this call. The truth of the outcome was, however, that the majority of the traveling ministers in the seventeenth century were women. Usually, two women traveled together and the pairing o f a young woman and an older woman was encouraged (Bacon 29). This discouraged women from engaging in too familiar bearing (31) with persons they met in new towns, or with men who would sometimes accompany women on missions. The first order of business for a woman who had received the call and wanted to travel, was to appear before the ministry committee of her own monthly merging, which would whence discuss her request in light of her health, her family duties, and the strength and soundness of her ministry. If the topical anaesthetic meeting felt all was well, the quarterly and then the yearly meeting had to be consulted. This took time, but prevented men and women from wandering about, preaching doctrines non in accordance with Friends beliefs. It also tested the strength of the ministers genuine sense of mission (Bacon 33-34). Attending all these meetings, and proving ones unthaw was the only way to receive a traveling minute which was not required for Friends who were not ministers, but was sought if the person intended to reckon other Friends meetings while traveling. Ministers, on the other hand, did require a traveling minute if they intended on preaching in other Quaker meetings. Ministers with the traveling minute were referred to as Public Friends (34). Once a missional or minister had acquired their minute and successfully traveled to their destination (which was farther more perilous than you might imagine), they went about spreading the word in one of many ways.