Our mission
About Us
The Quaker Universalist Fellowship promotes dialog, welcoming seekers with all religious and spiritual approaches to engage in honest expression and listening, in order to learn from each other and to clarify the truths and common understandings which guide our lives and actions. QUF welcomes participation from all branches of Friends (Quakers), as well as from the wider world community. We create opportunities for learning and dialog through such resources and forums as publications, website, blog, conferences, lectures and social media.
Mission
The mission of the Quaker Universalist Fellowship is to seek truth for guiding practice in the Quaker tradition.
Explanation of words and terms
- Seek
- The Quaker Universalist Fellowship provides a moderated safe environment to support honest exploration and discernment, in order to encourage free expression and constructive dialog among all branches of Friends, as well as in the wider religious and secular community. Sources for inspiration in seeking come from myriad sources, including, though not limited to the following: from the inward experience of the Divine or holy, God, love, Light, goodness, Goddess, and the Inward Christ, from the lives and teachings of spiritual luminaries such as Jesus, Buddha, Muhammed, from a variety of religious scriptures, and from science and history.
- Truth
- QUF encourages appreciation of diverse pathways to insight and individual truth, in pursuit of our common experience of the real and true. Our aim is for radical inclusiveness, especially seeking to lift up those whose voices are not commonly heard. In pursuit of ongoing revelation, we encourage honesty and boldness of ideas, be they comfortable or courageous. Some of the areas for discernment are spiritual deepening and expansion, identifying and testing our leadings, salvation and redemption, and death and what comes after. We cast a broad net to draw in concerns for humankind and human culture, for the earth, its environment and creatures, and for the cosmos.
- Guide practice
- We seek truth to give rise to, motivate, and structure our lives and actions in the world. Of what consequence are our leadings if they are not carried into how we act, what we do? What is the authority for our individual and collective truth? How does our faith translate into our relationships, communication, vocations and work, recreation and leisure, sexuality, and finances? What risks are we willing to take to carry our faith into action?
- Quaker Tradition
- Quakers believe that each person has direct experience and communication with the Spirit. Names for “the Spirit” are diverse: “that of God,” “the Light,” “the Inward Christ,” “the Seed,” “goodness,” the source of life,” and so on. We believe that when we listen attentively and act accordingly, our lives are guided by this Source. Over time, Quakers have lived by the traditional testimonies of simplicity, honesty and integrity, humility, equality, peace, community and stewardship.