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Quaker Chaplaincy Resources

  • Writer: Yvonne Aburrow
    Yvonne Aburrow
  • 2 hours ago
  • 4 min read

About the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Quaker faith springs from a deeply held belief in living life according to spiritual experience. Spiritual insights that Quakers call testimonies spring from deep experience and have been a part of Quaker faith for many years. These testimonies arise out of inner convictions and challenge normal ways of living.


  • Simplicity: Quakers try to live simply and to give space for the things that really matter: the people around us, the natural world, their experience of God.

  • Peace: the Quaker peace testimony arises from their conviction that love is at the heart of existence and all human beings are equal in the eyes of God.

  • Truth & Integrity: Quakers try to live according to the deepest truth they know. This means speaking the truth to all, including people in positions of power. Integrity is the guiding principle they set for themselves and expect in public life.

  • Justice, Equality & Community: Quakers recognize the equal worth and unique nature of every person.

  • Unity with Creation: affirming the interrelatedness of nature, spirit and all living beings as expressions of God’s creation.



Quaker organizations


Peace is a central tenet of Quaker faith and practice
Peace is a central tenet of Quaker faith and practice
Historically and at present, Quakers have not placed much emphasis on theological constructs or corporate beliefs of what an afterlife might look like. Friends place much more emphasis on paying attention to the sacredness of daily life and faithfulness to the Divine, from birth to death. It is expected that Friends in one’s Quaker meeting will help the caregivers of the dying person in different ways: visiting, providing childcare if needed, taking turns sitting with and worshipping with the sick or dying Friend, or providing a casserole for the caregivers’ family. Quakers see death as a holy, natural process, not unlike birth. Friends emphasize that grief for a loved one is a healthy, normal process in which they may be of support to one another.

Death, The Afterlife, Funerals, & Memorials - Friends General Conference


Falling into Grace by Steve Fick (2017 SPG Lecture)

Death will inevitably make us an offer that we cannot refuse – to surrender into the vastness of a power that is beyond our ability to comprehend. In the meantime, our daily life offers us ongoing opportunities to begin that process of surrender – to “die before we die,” and in so doing, to awaken to a deeper aliveness – a “falling into grace” that turns our mortality into a spiritual companion. Our Quaker ancestors considered death to be a spiritual event that involved the whole community. When we hide death away, or treat it primarily as a medical event to be managed by professionals, we discourage the dying from doing the profound soul work they need to do as they prepare to enter into this great mystery. As well, the living are robbed of what the dying process might teach them.


The Old Barrington House in Nova Scotia is the oldest still-standing Quaker Meeting House in Canada. (Quaker.ca)
The Old Barrington House in Nova Scotia is the oldest still-standing Quaker Meeting House in Canada. (Quaker.ca)


Hospice & Caregiver Chaplaincy Resources



Quaker perspectives on death


Please note that this page has been compiled by a member of Interfaith Grand River who is not a Quaker. The content of the page has been emailed to the Religious Society of Friends for approval and review, but no response was forthcoming.

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