| abstract
| - The Friends General Conference (FGC) is a North American Quaker organization primarily serving the Quaker yearly and monthly meetings in the United States and Canada that choose to be members. The FGC was founded in 1900. There are two other similar organizations within Quakerism, branches within Quakerism, with the FUM occupying a more-or-less centrist theological viewpoint and the EFI representing an admixture of Quakerism and conservative "unprogrammed" Quaker tradition, which means that such meetings take place without human pastoral leadership, or a prepared order of worship. Friends (Quakers) in FGC tend to be decidedly more socially and theologically liberal than Friends from other parts of Quakerism (and than the general U.S. population). In many respects, they are analogous to mainline Protestants who hold strongly progressive viewpoints on matters such as biblical authority, sexual mores, and attitudes toward public policy, with pacifism perhaps being the FGC's chief distinctive. The FGC hosts an annual conference in early July for members of member organizations (although individual membership is not required to attend). It also operates a bookstore and a publishing house, and provides numerous resources for meetings and individual Friends. The main offices for the FGC are in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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