Because Friends insist that each person can know God directly, there is a lot of freedom and diversity among Friends. Local Friends meetings (or churches) are organized into regional associates called "Yearly Meetings".

Throughout the 350 years that the Religious Society of Friends has been in existence, there have been many times when the approach to it's theology has been challenged. The interesting thing about Quakers is that both or all sides of a question have still referred to themselves as Quakers. Over the years there has become 3 main Quaker groups: Friends General Conference, Friends United Meeting, and Evangelical/Conservative Friends.

Friends General Conference is an association of yearly meetings and a few isolated monthly meetings. It "provides resources and opportunities that educate and invite members and attenders to experience, individually and corporately, God's living presence, and to discern and follow God's leadings." It has no governance over or with it's meetings. Most of the meetings within FGC are unprogrammed meetings and are liberal in outlook.

For more information: www.fgcquaker.org

Friends United Meeting "commits itself to energize and equip Friends through the power of the Holy Spirit to gather people into fellowship where Jesus Christ is known, loved and obeyed as Teacher and Lord". It is organized for evangelism, global partnership, leadership development and communications.

Most meetings within FUM are programmed or "pastoral" meetings and are broadly fundamentalist Christian. In these meetings, worship often includes hymns, Scripture readings, a children's message, a sermon from a minister and a period of "open" or "unprogrammed" worship lasting between five and twenty minutes.

For more information: www.fum.org

Evangelical Friends International is mostly pastoral and evangelical. It "exists to help local Friends churches around the world meet the spiritual needs of their communities." Their desire "is to stretch across racial, cultural, national, even denominational barriers to reach people with the life-changing love of Christ".

For more info: www.evangelical-friends.org