Universal Friends

Universal Friends pl (plural only)

1. (historical) An American Quaker (Christian) sect (from the 1770s to 1860s), the "Society of Universal Friends", which followed the teachings of the Public Universal Friend.
   • 1873, Stafford Canning Cleveland, History and Directory of Yates County, page 56:

     Before the Universal Friends left New England, they had, according to their means, contributed and pledged themselves to contribute to a joint fund for the purchase of land, […]

   • 1965 (edition: 2009), Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr., Pioneer Prophetess, page 222:

     A typewritten manuscript, […] compiled by the Rev. Willoughby Newton, traces the history of the Universal Friends' meetinghouse in New Milford.

   • 1988, Ruth H. Bloch, Visionary Republic: Millennial Themes in American Thought, page 88:

     At the time of the Revolution itself, however, the new sects that were both the most coherent and the most fully imbued with their own sense of millennial mission were the Shakers and the Universal Friends.

   • 1996, Susan Juster, Lisa MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism: Race, Gender, and the Creation of American Protestantism, page 34:

     Despite their obvious similarities (both, for instance, used dreams and visions as vehicles of prophetic expression, and both incorporated millennial themes in their soteriology), the Shakers and the Universal Friends offered dramatically different models of spiritual authority […]

   • 2015, Paul B. Moyer, The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America, Cornell University Press (→ISBN), page 169:

     Among the signatures attached to the document was that of its author, James Parker. Joining his name are those of several other Universal Friends who had turned against the prophet […]