Swarthmore Lecture 2026

Tangled Roots: Navigating the Complex Legacy of Early Quakers

Stuart gave the 2026 Swarthmore Lecture on Saturday 2nd May 2026. His lecture focused on the faith and practice of the first Friends and explored how their complex legacy presents Quakers today with a range of challenging choices and dilemmas.

Stuart described the diverse mix of characteristics visible in the early Quaker movement that have produced several creative tensions for subsequent generations to navigate. Friends practice a Spirit-led faith based on continuing revelation, making them cautious of human traditions. However, since they have established a tradition of their own, how should Quakers balance the inward guidance received in the present, with the beliefs and practices inherited from the past? There is also a long-standing creative tension between communal order and individual freedom. Sometimes Friends have enforced uniformity through systems of corporate discipline, while at other times they have promoted freedom and a permissive attitude to individual belief and behaviour. The first Friends combined a contemplative spiritual practice with a strongly embodied charismatic response, but subsequent generations have struggled to hold these two elements together. Finally, Quakers have always found themselves caught between the world as it currently is, and a vision of a new creation of peace, justice and truth. How should they balance the desire to play a constructive role within the world, with the need to resist its violent, unjust, and destructive ways?

Stuart argued that by grappling with these issues, Friends can develop a deeper appreciation of the roots of global Quaker diversity and become better able to navigate important choices and dilemmas when they encounter them today.

The Swarthmore Lecture 2026

The Background to the Lecture

In these three short videos, Stuart explores the context behind

the lecture with Woodbrooke's Senior Communications Officer,

Aled Vernon-Rees.

Watch the Recording of the Lecture

Quotations

(Click on each one to get a better view)

1. Inward Experience and Received Tradition

2. Communal Order and Individual Freedom

3. Quietist and Charismatic

4. New Creation and the World