Is Quakerism Current? An Examination of GFU’s Christian Identity

Reported By: Sophia Lumsdaine

Illustrated By: Addie Patterson

This year marks George Fox’s 400th birthday. George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, also called the Quakers, was born in 1624. Now 400 years later, George Fox University (GFU) operates a university under his name.

The Quaker community was officially established by George Fox in 1647. Having broken away from the mainstream Protestant Christianity of the time, it emphasized the inherent light of God in each individual and approached Christian worship and practice from a decentralized and non-hierarchical standpoint. Throughout the history of the Quaker movement, values of equality, justice, and peacemaking have been emphasized. In colonial America and throughout the 1700s and 1800s, Quakers were known for their strong relationships with Native Americans, their opposition to slavery, and their advocacy for women’s rights. 

Today, the Quaker tradition has separated into two main groups: a more secular or inter-faith-leaning sect, and another which is more focused on Christian scripture. This modern split can be traced back to 1827 when Elias Hicks separated from mainstream Quakerism. His followers, known as Hicksites, later formed the Friends General Conference. The remaining Quaker sect formed the Orthodox Friends United Conference, which later became Friends United Meeting. GFU is associated with the Northwest Yearly Quaker meeting, which represents about 3,000 individuals in the Pacific Northwest and is part of Evangelical Friends International.

During the “Third Great Awakening” (the Christian revival movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries), Quakers from the central United States migrated to the Pacific Northwest. In 1891, GFU was founded as a Quaker University. Nevertheless, “[f]rom day one, there have never been enough Quakers in the area to populate an entire institution,” said GFU Biblical and Quaker studies professor Paul Anderson. “The interest has been broader: to help all people develop a Christ-centered education [and] way of life.”

The university changed its name from Friends Pacific University to George Fox University in the 1950s, continuing the university’s Quaker identity. However, as GFU’s student body has grown over the decades, Quaker students have become a small minority on campus.

Jay Miller, a professor in the GFU English and Honors Programs, grew up attending the Newberg Friends Church. He received his bachelor's degree from GFU in 2011. 

Miller commented on his perceptions of Quaker identity at GFU over the past decade: “You’re never going to have a university with 2,000 or so Quaker students,” he said. “[But] I think that what has been lost in the past ten years is a larger university with a strong contingent of Quaker students and faculty [who have] an outsized role in shaping the culture of the university.”

Both the drop in the Quaker student population on campus and also the downsizing of the Center for Peace and Justice have contributed to the elimination of Quaker Heritage Week. This is indicative of the weakening of GFU’s identity as a Quaker institution. Formerly, the university board was required to have a two-thirds Quaker majority, but now the requirement is 51%. 

“I think the university has been so focused on innovation in recent years that […] there’s been a loss of culture,” Miller said. “[The university is] so focused on adapting to change that it hasn't always done a good job of keeping in sight what makes it what it is.”

Nevertheless, Miller sees the reflection of Quaker thought in the ‘Be Known Promise’ and said that when he communicates with university administration about Quakerism on campus, “they are genuinely interested in it.” Miller noted that he believed a shift away from Quakerism over the last ten years was much more a result of shrinking Quaker demographics and a lack of attention to Quaker programs on campus than it was a conscious choice.

Institutionalizing Quaker values at a majority non-Quaker university is difficult. However, Miller believes that explicitly talking about GFU’s Friends heritage, emphasizing the Quaker contemplative and experiential view of Christianity, and leaning into the Quaker concern for peace and justice would enhance the university’s Quaker identity without compromising its broad and diverse Christian grounding.