| | by admin | | posted on 14th January 2026 in Seeking Faith & Practice | | views 66 | |
A Quaker invitation to let other faiths and experiences widen your spiritual life, not dilute it, while remaining rooted in the quiet practice of listening.
Quakerism is not built around a single creed that must be repeated in the same words by everyone. Instead, Friends gather in worship to listen, and many discover that this way of listening can make space for more than one spiritual language. Some people arrive with a Christian faith, some arrive without it, and some carry more than one tradition with them as they explore what is true and life-giving.
This openness is not a modern compromise so much as a feature of Quaker practice. For many Friends, encountering other faiths does not weaken Quakerism. It can deepen it. The Quaker path is not threatened by the fact that wisdom and devotion exist elsewhere. If anything, Friends are often glad to recognise spiritual insight wherever it appears.
“Our understanding of our own religious tradition may sometimes be enhanced by insights of other faiths.”
In practice, this can mean that some people feel able to be both Quaker and something else. For example, someone may worship with Friends while also feeling at home within a Methodist church, or may find that Buddhist practice sits naturally alongside Quaker waiting worship. Quakerism does not usually ask people to erase earlier spiritual journeys. It asks whether you are willing to listen deeply, live honestly, and let your life be shaped over time by what you are coming to know.
If you have read Why Quakerism is like LEGO bricks, this is part of what that image is trying to hold. Quaker practice can connect with other spiritual experiences and still remain recognisably Quaker, because its centre is not a set of statements but a way of listening, discerning, and living.
This openness has roots in the 17th century religious world from which Quakerism emerged. Many early Friends came from groups often called Seekers — people who were dissatisfied with established churches and who longed for a more immediate, lived experience of faith. Seeking was not always a neat label or a single membership card. People moved between gatherings, teachers, and communities, looking for what was true.
In that context, it was not unusual for a Seeker to be drawn toward more than one community at once, or to learn from different streams of radical Protestant spirituality. Quakerism grew in part because it offered a clear practice of waiting, a bold confidence that spiritual guidance was still available, and a community willing to take experience seriously. The Quaker insistence on inward reality, rather than outward conformity, created room for a faith that could remain open without losing its centre.
Openness to other faiths does not mean vagueness, and it does not mean that everything is the same. It means meeting others with respect, learning where learning is offered, and staying honest about what you have found. For many Christian Quakers today, the phrase “that of God in everyone” still carries a distinctly Christian meaning, and this can sit alongside a real appreciation for the insight and devotion found in other traditions.
For seekers, this can be deeply reassuring. You do not need to force yourself into a narrow identity before you have done the listening. You can explore, learn, and be enriched, while also noticing what practices help you become more truthful, more compassionate, and more grounded. Over time, Quaker openness becomes less like a theory and more like a habit of attention: a willingness to learn, and a willingness to be changed.
