PFF was founded in 1968 out of a need for meetings to come together and to address issues and share concerns in a wider Quaker forum. Annually, PFF develops one or two workshops, a weekend family retreat, and through its youth committee, retreats for middle and high-school age young Friends. At all of these gatherings, the underlying goal is to nurture the spirit within each of us as we share with new and old Friends.
Through its affiliation with Friends General Conference (FGC), many families and individual Friends in PFF enjoy attending the annual FGC national Gathering of Friends. PFF appoints representatives to the FGC Central Committee and numerous PFF members are engaged in the various programs and ministries of FGC.
Piedmont Friends Fellowship has welcomed into its membership Friends Meetings or organized Friends worship groups desirous of mutual support and fellowship as Quakers in North Carolina and adjacent areas. PFF respects the theological basis and worship practice of each individual meeting or worship group and, although open to Friendly and educational discussion, as an organization does not emphasize theological issues.
Piedmont Friends Fellowship has historically focused on the Quaker testimonies of Peace, Equality, Integrity, Simplicity, and Community. From this basis PFF meetings founded and have supported Quaker House of Fayetteville with a mission of service, witness, and peace building around our country’s military establishments in Fayetteville, NC and nearby.
PFF is an intentionally inclusive organization not only with respect to theology, but also with regard to race and sexual orientation as part of the historic testimony of equality. While individual Friends and PFF meetings may have some differing understandings and worship practices, PFF holds to unprogrammed worship at its gatherings seeking, through deep spiritual attention, to experience and respond to the Light Within.
The creation of Piedmont Friends Yearly Meeting evolved from the needs of some meetings within PFF that desired a yearly meeting affiliation as might be made available through PFF. Over six years of threshing and planning resulted in the establishment of PFYM which held its first annual sessions in March of 2015.