Friends meet to explore universalism
The Quaker Universalist Group and London Quakers held a meeting at Friends House on 12 January
Over forty people gathered at Friends House recently for a two-hour meeting to consider: ‘Why be a Quaker universalist?’
Tony Philpott, clerk of the Quaker Universalist Group (QUG), introduced the afternoon on 12 January, which was organised by QUG and London Quakers.
He explained that, to QUG, ‘universalism means delighting in the fact that spiritual awareness comes from all religions or none’.
He contrasted this with two other categories of Quakers (Christian and nontheist) and said that ‘outlining what a Christian Quaker believes is very difficult’.
This was illustrated by the Quaker Quest booklet Twelve Quakers and God.
Tony Philpott told the Friend: ‘Nontheists also are a varied group, though the Nontheist Friends Network website does state that “religion is a human creation”.’
One of the arguments for being a Quaker universalist, he said, was that it fitted in well with the Quaker testimonies of truth, peace and equality; and it made Quakerism ‘attractive to newcomers in our pluralist society’. The meeting divided into five groups to discuss questions including: ‘What sort of Quaker are you?’ ‘Why are you this sort of Quaker?’ and ‘How does the sort of Quaker you are affect what you do?’
Tony Philpott said: ‘It was noted that the particular religion or worldview we have is largely determined by the culture in which we grow up and that we are fortunate in this country to have the freedom to believe what we wish. There was a fascinating debate about the use of labels: how they are necessary in order for knowledge to progress, but they can be inadequate, disrespectful and misleading.
‘As Quakers we are united in our silence, but we need words as well to communicate what is going on in the silence. Our spiritual awareness comes from many sources: not only words, but all the arts, nature and so on. We live in uncertainty: a quote from one of the groups was “living on the edge between knowing and not knowing”.’
