Many may wonder at the name "Wilderness Friend" as referenced in this blog. So, a brief explanation may be in order.
Wilderness is where we live. Alaska, the great land; the last frontier; land of the midnight sun (and sometimes the noonday moon!). We spend much time as a family actually in the wilderness part of Alaska, far from roads and modern conveniences. Hence the "wilderness" part.
The "Friend" part comes from The Religious Society of Friends or Quakers as they are commonly called. I am a Conservative Friend by convincement (as opposed to by birth.) What does that mean? It is a discovery of Truth and denotes one who has become convinced of the truth of the Quaker way and is used to describe anyone who joins the Society of Friends. I have gone from being an "Enquirer" to a Quaker by fact of convincement. Not a quick and easy journey for me. I also would refer to myself as "Christocentric" which means I am a Quaker whose inspiration is essentially Christian and hold that the Society of Friends is essentially a Christian denomination. Further, I am a Conservative Friend and the following sums up my beliefs and was taken from words published by the Ohio Yearly Meeting on their website. (http://www.ohioyearlymeeting.org/2003_oym_beliefs.htm)
"This document is a summary of the contributions of individual Friends gathered at one worshipful session held during the 2003 session of Ohio Yearly Meeting for the purpose of articulating the common faith and beliefs of Friends in OYM. Friends who participated felt the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ move among them as they outlined their faith. However, this is not a comprehensive statement of OYM beliefs, nor is it to be taken as a creedal statement.
Jesus Christ lives and acts now within you and me. He is our hope of glory. Jesus, the living Word of God, will talk to us. He is the One who can speak to our condition. We experience Jesus Christ directly, drinking from the Living water and being refreshed as that spiritual stream flows over us. We can address God in prayer. When He speaks to us, we must listen and then obey.
Jesus’ outward work allowed us salvation from sin. His inner work transforms us. By God’s almighty power and grace we can be lifted out of sin into righteousness. God can break into our lives at any time, unexpectedly, to change what we do and even who we are.
We can pursue our own salvation by hanging our greed, lusts, anger, and other sins on the cross. By accepting the cross into our lives, we yield to and follow Christ.
Conversion, convincement, and transformation happen in different ways to different people. Some people experience an immediate, dramatic event; some people know steady spiritual growth; some people have both.
Truth does exist, and we can know it both individually and corporately. We know Truth through the immediate presence of Christ within us. The Scriptures, which were given by God, cannot contradict Truth. They contribute to our understanding of Truth, and they stand as a second authority to check our understanding of God’s Word within us.
When two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ name, He is in the midst of them. When we allow Him to work in and among us, He can bring us into corporate one-mindedness. We enter into corporate worship and business with the confident expectation that Christ, our pastor and shepherd, will direct us in both general practice and specific detail. God calls all believers into the priesthood, bestowing gifts and appointing members for the accomplishment of His will within the community. God calls us to faithfulness in using His gifts and to obedience in following His direction. An inward baptism is the only essential baptism, and spiritual communion with God is the only required communion.
We teach the importance of the commandments to trust in the Lord with all your heart, to acknowledge Him in all your ways, and to love one another. It is our desire that the words we have used here not be stumbling blocks in the communication of our faith but rather that our words reflect the Truth that we know."
There are many sites on the internet where one can find information on Quakers, both the Christian kind and the universalists.
Here are some of my favorite Conservative Quaker links:
www.quakerjane.com
www.quakeranne.com
www.ohioyearlymeeting.org
www.conservativefriend.org
These will certainly get you started.
