In the mid-1820s, wealthy Friends in leadership positions in Quaker organizations in Philadelphia began to "express disunity" (openly disagree) with the ministry of Elias Hicks, a rural traveling minister from Long Island, New York, whose ministry emphasized direct experience of God over reliance on scripture. Hicks himself was concerned that urban, successful and wealthy Friends particularly in Philadelphia but also in the United Kingdom had strayed from the testimonies and early practices of Friends. Of particular concern to Hicksite Friends was the adoption of Protestant notions of the authority of scripture over the Light of the Inward Christ, endorsement of justification and sanctification over the more traditional Quaker sense of gradual convincement, and the use of Trinitarian language.