PUF

For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encompasses a man. – Jeremiah 31:22 (NRSV) 

In 1776, a young Rhode Island Quaker woman lay ill. This person eventually arose and declared that they had died, and a new prophetic spirit sent by God had reanimated the body: that of the Public Universal Friend. The Friend had no gender, refused to respond to the dead girl’s name, and started preaching almost immediately. 

The PUF, as followers often called the Friend, preached all over, gathering converts and supporters. A deep familiarity with Scripture, the ability to preach compellingly and extemporaneously, a comportment that was “decent & graceful & grave,” as one observer said, all combined to draw both converts and critics. 

You can imagine the reactions that a genderless, nonbinary-presenting, assigned-female-at-birth preacher advocating celibacy, abolition, women’s religious leadership, and the possibility of universal salvation invited. Tired of the riots and the constant attacks in the newspapers, the PUF and several hundred of the Society of Universal Friends decided to head into the wilderness of the Finger Lakes region of New York, where they founded the town of Jerusalem in the late 1780s. 

This didn’t fully protect the Friend. Charges of blasphemy were brought. One equestrian arrest attempt ended with the Friend escaping from male pursuers, being a far stronger horseback rider than they. A second attempt ended with the women of the PUF’s household seeing the men off with a sound drubbing. A third attempt, this time with a posse of dozens of men, might have been successful, but the PUF voluntarily agreed to appear in court—where the Friend won handily and was afterward invited to preach to those gathered. 

The PUF died peacefully in Jerusalem in 1819, surrounded by followers who would spend the rest of their days in the community they had founded together. 

I just thought you’d like to know. 

Prayer
Thank you for the Public Universal Friend, and for prophets and pioneers in every age. Amen.

About the Author
Quinn G. Caldwell is Chaplain of the Protestant Cooperative Ministry at Cornell University. His most recent book is a series of daily reflections for Advent and Christmas called All I Really Want: Readings for a Modern Christmas. Learn more about it and find him on Facebook at Quinn G. Caldwell.