Tangled Roots: Navigating the complex legacy of early Friends: Rebecca Hardy attends Stuart Masters’ Swarthmore Lecture

‘Stuart teased out some pertinent, timely questions.’

by Rebecca Hardy 8th May 2026

Stuart Masters was billed to explore ‘the diverse mix of characteristics visible in the early Quaker movement that produced several creative tensions which subsequent generations have had to navigate’. His lecture, organised by Woodbrooke, certainly delivered. In a seventy-five-minute tour of Quaker history at Friends House, the Woodbrooke associate tutor managed to give a fascinating historical glimpse into the challenges and inspirations of Friends over the centuries, and pitch probing insights into how these can help today. Charsimatic or Quietist? Prophetic or pragmatic? Inward-looking or outward-acting? Contemplative or noisy?