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Primitive Christianity Revived, Again
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Primitive Christianity Revived, Again
Did you know about the "Public Universal Friend" Jemimah Wilkinson?
I was raised in a village not far from Penn Yan, New York in Yates County. One of the earliest settlers in that area was someone who called herself the "Public Universal Friend". She was not a Quaker, exactly, though her parents were. She seems to have been quite an interesting person. See the following link:
Public Universal Friend
Public Universal Friend
Tags: new york, penn yan, public universal friend, quaker, quaker.history
Views: 85
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Bullock-Rest on -
No, I did not know about Jemimah Wilkinson. Thanks for the article! ~Elizabeth
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Permalink Reply by Gil Skidmore on -
Yes I had heard of Jemimah but thanks for the link. I read about her in a printed article and will see if I can find the reference.
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Permalink Reply by Martin Kelley on -
Thanks for sharing that. I know Friends at the time warned against following the "New Light" movement. In her renaming she reminds me a little of Peace Pilgrim (http://www.peacepilgrim.com/), who passed in 1981. She came from the next town over from where I now live and also had quasi-Quaker connections.
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Permalink Reply by Rudy Zalesak on -
My wife is from the Rochester area, so we know about the Public Universal Friend. The county historical museum in Penn Yann has an extensive exhibit on Jemimah Wilkinson, including some of her personal effects. They sell an interesting biography of the Public Universal Friend.
When she was young, her family had a difficult relationship with their Quaker Meeting. I think her brother was kicked out for Revolutionary activities. She changed from Jemimah Wilikinson into the Public Universal Friend after a near-death experience.
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Permalink Reply by Mary Elizabeth Harwood on -
Fascinating sharing, Friends. Thank you.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Laning on -
Goodness, this makes me feel old. I remember Lisa Kuenning from Young Friends gatherings and have occasionally followed her career from a distance.
The local Meeting had a visit from Peace Pilgrim that I likewise remember well.
I do remember reading about the Public Universal Friend as well and am glad of the reminder.
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Permalink Reply by Rich Accetta-Evans on -
Thanks to Chuck Fager for drawing this interesting comparison (albeit one that I don't suppose Lisa Kuenning would appreciate). One correction: although Chuck's review of Licia's novel may be the only one that was published in print media, I also wrote one which I titled "A Kinder, Gentler Apocalypse" on by blog "Brooklyn Quaker" back in November 2005. As can be seen if you click on this link, the review occasioned some reactions from several Friends, including Licia Kuenning herself. I will now read Chuck's review, to see if he and I had similar reactions.
Incidentally, I share Chuck's appreciation of The Quaker Heritage Press, a joint effort by Licia Kuenning and her husband Larry (who - as far as I know - was never an advocate of the Farmington prophecy).
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Permalink Reply by Linda J. Wilk on -
http://prweb0.voicenet.com/~kuenning/fot/light.html
As I looked into some of the links included here, I found this lovely little piece of prose written by Licia Kuenning, which I thought some of you might enjoy reading. It is not so far from my own beliefs, I must say, though the reports of her actions do not match my political leanings. Interestingly, she signs at the bottom as Licia Kuenning, Friends of Truth.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Landskroener on -
Not to divert too far from Rich's original piece, I want to note that Peace Pilgrim did indeed have quasi-Quaker connections, and this Quaker has a poignant quasi-connection to Peace Pilgrim: In July 1981, she was visiting the Methodist Church in which our meeting held its meetings for worship at the invitation of the church's pastor, a military veteran who became a pacifist as a result of his WWII experience. Many of us attended her public talk on a Saturday evening, and she visited our meeting the next morning -- I can't remember whether it was for worship or for a program afterwards, but I do remember her asking for more ice cream. She was deliciously no-nonsense but full of humor and joy; she was serious but not in the least dour. I clearly remember her asking where she could go to watch 4th of July fireworks that evening because she loved fireworks. Someone from our meeting took her to the fairgrounds that evening to enjoy them. We were therefore shocked and saddened to learn a day or two later that she had been instantly killed, along with the Mennonite man who was driving her, in a collision along a highway on her way to Knox, Indiana. Our meeting (Duneland, in Valparaiso, IN) was therefore the last Friends meeting she visited. The next year when the trans-continental march led by Buddhists to the UN Disarmamant Conference in New York passed through our community, it stopped for about a half-hour silent meditation at the spot on the highway where she died.
The one quote I remember her saying that stuck with me was: "I am penniless, but I am rich beyond imagination."
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Permalink Reply by N. Jeanne Burns on -
The first transgendered Quaker? The first Universalist Quaker?
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Permalink Reply by Rich Accetta-Evans on
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Well, maybe. But notice also that she accepted as her own some land from which the Iroquois had recently been expelled by force by the American government. So not the first anti-racist or anti-imperialist Quaker by any means. Personally, although I'm fascinated by her, I'm still glad that she was not actually a Quaker at all and that Friends did not count her as one of their number.
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