Society of the Holy Cross particularly over the interpretation of scripture and the ordination of women. As of October 2017 there are over 1,000 members of the society organised into provinces for England and Scotland, the Americas, Wales and Australasia, each under a provincial master reporting to an international master general. There are also some members in the Lutheran Church of Sweden. The current master general of the society is Fr Nicolas Spicer SSC, also the provincial master for England and Scotland, who resides in England. The brethren are united together in their keeping of a common rule of life, which bears much in common
Society of the Friends of the Blacks the organization's inception, rank and file membership were excluded from participating in the Society's operations. Analysis of the membership list of the Society reveals a predominance of elite individuals. Although they possessed great influence, they had most of their power in Paris. There was a lack of popular participation, which reflected the structure of government and society. The founding members of the Society included such notables as Brissot, Condorcet, Saint-Lambert, Lafayette, La Rochefoucauld, and Clavière. The Society began with a handful of abolitionists, increased to ninety-five by 1789, and would swell to a maximum of 141 associates in later years.