Brand-New Quaker Universalist Blog

I am pleased and excited about a new blog that I have launched on behalf of the Quaker Universalist Fellowship (QUF). It will feature articles and news items about the interfaith/ecumenical movement, Quaker theology, etc. It will also contain the latest news about the Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee of Friends General Conference--the group that represents Quakers at the National and World Council of Churches. You can access this blog at quakeruniversalist.org.

As the QUF mission statement explains,

Quaker Universalist Fellowship is a gathering of Friends who work to foster understanding among people from the diverse spiritual cultures which flourish in our globalized human community. The Fellowship draws inspiration for its work from such traditional and respected statements of Quaker faith as are
represented by the following:

"Walk cheerfully over the earth answering to that of God in everyone.” – George Fox

“There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in
different places and ages hath different names: it is, however, pure and
proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no form of religion nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity.” – John Woolman

“The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion, and when death takes off the mask, they will know one another though the diverse liveries they wear here make them strangers.” – William Penn

The work of the Quaker Universalist Fellowship expresses Friends’ belief that there is a spirit of universal love in every person, and that a compassion-centered life is therefore available to people of all faiths and backgrounds.

Through publications, lectures, and conferences the Quaker Universalist Fellowship seeks to encourage appreciation of the diverse paths to that spirit available in humankind’s various spiritual cultures, to overcome discord, and to foster openness and listening among people of different religious faiths. In carrying out this work we cooperate with Friends from every branch of Quakerism.

We seek, or create, opportunities for all Friends to engage in constructive dialogue among Quakers and with representatives of other spiritual traditions, in the hope that religious faith, although diverse, will become a force which unites rather than divides the human family. We seek to nurture that unity through lives of simplicity, humility, justice, mercy, and peace so that it becomes a beacon drawing together the human family in love and service to all earthly life.

– QUF Steering Committee, October 2009

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I hope you enjoy this new blog and continue visiting laquaker.blogspot.com, which will consist of my usual (or rather unusual) mix of political, spiritual and personal entries.