Elias Hicks (March 19 1748 - February 27 1830) was an itinerant Quaker preacher from Long Island, New York. He was caught up in the midst of the first major schism within the Religious Society of Friends in the U.S.

In 1827 certain members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting tried to prevent him from speaking. In 1828, the Yearly Meeting split, and there were two sessions. Other yearly meetings split along similar lines during subsequent years.

Hicks' partisans were mostly country Friends who perceived urban Friends as worldly. Many of the Philadelphia Friends were wealthy businessmen, and many of the country Friends kept less peculiar in matters of "plain speech" and "plain dress", which by this point in time had become a sort of jargon and a sort of uniform, respectively. These Hicksites, as they were called, placed a greater reliance on the Inward Light as a guide to the individual conscience, while Orthodox Friends, as they were called, tended to emphasize the Bible and Christian teaching as a guide. Both groups that emerged after the schism continued as unprogrammed Meetings, having no designated preacher, prearranged music, or set ritual.

The two yearly meetings in Philadelphia did reunite into a single PYM again in 1955, but during the years between 1828 and 1955 other and more serious schisms had afflicted the Society in America.

(Elias should not be confused with his younger cousin, Edward Hicks, then known like Elias as a Quaker preacher, but now remembered mostly for his paintings.)

References

• Pacific Yearly Meeting 2001 Faith and Discipline