LEYM’s web site and publications (except Policies & Procedures) are under the care of the Publications & Archives Committee. Please contact the clerk of the committee if you have questions.
Movement toward becoming an anti-racist Quaker society
LEYM has begun to delve more seriously into issues of racism. For the past several years, LEYM has engaged in self education through workshops and keynote speakers on racial justice or related issues such as incarceration and refugees at annual sessions.
For instance, at the 2016 annual sessions, LEYM adopted a minute in response to calls for FGC to engage in an introspective process:
Lake Erie Yearly Meeting supports the request by Friends of FGC/Spiritual and Institutional Accountability Working Group for an institutional audit of Friends General Conference to identify and provide recommendations to correct any structural racism and/or implicit bias within the organization.
LEYM also decided to send a $1,400 donation to FGC earmarked for the proposed institutional audit that year. In this same discussion, LEYM agreed to look into an introspective process to identify and deal with racism within LEYM.
Monthly Meetings within LEYM have taken many actions, including holding vigils, engaging with local elected officials on issues of racial justice, participating in the selection process of local police chiefs, and writing letters to the editor. Monthly Meetings have also engaged in self education through discussion groups, movie screenings, retreats, and more. A number of LEYM Friends have attended the White Privilege Conference.
Minutes on Peace & Justice
Monthly meetings and worship groups can review these documents and use them as resources in drafting your own letters to Congress and the media, and in taking action.
As an aid to Friends considering a committee position, we have provided the following descriptions of LEYM committees and details about serving on them.
Committees are appointed by Lake Erie Yearly Meeting to perform functions more easily carried out by a small group than the entire body. Charges to committees are defined by the yearly meeting when they are created or when their roles change. Committees may perform specific tasks, think through issues, or bring proposals or recommendations to the full body for consideration and a decision. Committees with budgets may spend them within the guidelines established by the yearly meeting. Some committees oversee funds.
Clerks of committees are responsible for convening meetings and keeping them on task and for seeing that appropriate records are kept, that reports are made to the larger body, and that the work is carried out.
The Advancement & Outreach Committee supports meetings and worship groups in attracting and welcoming new members and attenders. It works with worship groups ready to become monthly meetings and with meetings wanting to become worship groups or be laid down.
6 members, 3-year terms, renewable once
1. Nurture and encourage small meetings, new meetings and worship groups within LEYM
2. Support meetings in attracting and welcoming new members and attenders
3. Keep an up-to-date list of the monthly meetings, preparative meetings, and worship groups within LEYM along with contact information for clerks and conveners
4. Work with groups interested in forming new monthly meetings or with meetings that are being laid down
5. With the Publications & Archives Committee, oversee the LEYM web site
Meets: prior to Representative and Annual Meetings and a Saturday meeting in the fall.
The Arrangements & Site Committee is responsible for all aspects of the Annual Meeting that have to do with the site as well as registration.
6 members, 3-year terms, renewable once
1. Set time and place for Annual Meeting two years in advance & notify YM
2. Registration materials to LEYM Bulletin Editor in time for spring issue
3. Conduct registration and ensure that physical needs are met
4. Pass list of attenders on to Nominating Committee for use during Annual Meeting sessions
Meets: as required and called by committee clerk.
The Earthcare Committee helps Friends understand and move toward better stewardship of the earth.
6 members, 3-year terms, renewable once
1. Educate selves and Yearly Meeting about environmental issues
2. Generate, collect and disseminate informational materials concerning earthcare
3. Liaise with MM Earthcare committees and with national Quaker Earthcare Witness
Meets: prior to Representative and Annual Meetings for business and at other times as arranged.
The Finance Committee plans and manages the yearly meeting’s finances, proposes an annual budget, and advises on the yearly meeting’s investments.
3 members, 3-year terms, renewable once, plus Treasurer ex officio
1. Consult with Treasurer on financial policies
2. Recommend annual budget for following fiscal year to Representative Meeting
3. Determine recommended share per reported member
4. Evaluate any unusual requests for expenditures and make recommendations to YM
5. Consult with Arrangements, Program and Youth & Children cmttees to set registration fee for Annual Meetings
Meets: prior to Representative and Annual Meetings and at other times as arranged.
The High School Teen Retreat Program Committee holds in concern the spiritual life of LEYM high schoolers. The committee hires, supports, and oversees the work of a paid coordinator of teen retreats.
3 adults with 3-year terms, renewable once, plus 2 high-schoolers with 2-year terms, plus High School Youth Program Coordinator ex officio
1. Search for, hire and oversee the work of a High School Program Coordinator
2. Set remuneration in consultation with Finance & Budget Committee
3. Assist the Coordinator in keeping an updated database of eligible youth for the High School Youth Program
4. Identify and nurture Friends in monthly meetings who are interesting in working with high school youth
Meets: as required and as called by committee clerk.
The Ministry & Nurture Committee offers meetings and worship groups support as they seek to strengthen and enrich their meetings for worship and the spiritual vitality of Friends. The committee encourages meetings and worship groups to undertake an annual assessment of their spiritual condition. The committee oversees LEYM’s Spiritual Formation Program and traveling ministers from the yearly meeting.
6 members, 3-year terms, renewable once, plus one member appointed from each monthly meeting as meetings are led
1. Work with and assist committees on Ministry & Nurture in local meetings at their request
2. Arrange workshops for Ministry & Nurture Committee members
3. Care for the spiritual life of the Yearly Meeting (Note: in carrying out this charge, M&N Committee has discerned and disseminated a YM query each year since 1985, encouraging each meeting to respond.)
4. Recommend a nominee for a Cooper Scholarship at the Earlham School of Religion
Meets: prior to Representative and Annual Meetings and at other times as arranged.
The Nominating Committee identifies Friends who are competent and willing to carry out the many tasks that enable the yearly meeting to act as we are led. It proposes a slate of nominees at Annual Meeting and individual nominations throughout the year as necessary.
6 members from different MMs, 3-year terms, renewable once
(Named by Yearly Meeting through a “Naming Committee”)
1. Discern and secure acceptance of nominations for officers, committee members and representatives to Friends organizations and visitors to nearby YMs
2. Nominate clerks for standing committees, after consulting with current committee clerk by rise of YM
3. Fill vacancies as they occur throughout year
4. Advise YM when a committee may need to be laid down
5. Choose which FWCC representatives may attend the Triennial
6. Provide to officers, Bulletin editor a complete list of all approved appointments promptly at the close of YM Annual sessions
7. Keep accurate records of each individual’s initial year of appointment to a committee so that the limit of six years is not exceeded
Meets: at Representative and Annual Meetings, conference calls and e-mail as called by committee clerk.
The Peace & Justice Committee helps Friends understand matters of peace and justice and work toward a more peaceful and just world.
6 members, 3-year terms, renewable once; MMs are also encouraged to appoint one representative.
1. Exchange information about peace and justice actions & concerns in MMs and communicate to YM and own meetings
2. Receive reports from representatives to various Friends organizations (AFSC, FCNL, FWCC, etc.)
3. Initiate minutes or suggestions and transmit to MMs and YM
Meets: during Representative and Annual Meetings and at other times as called by committee clerk.
The Program Committee is responsible for planning activities except for conducting business. This includes developing a theme, setting a schedule, and publicizing Annual Meeting to LEYM Friends.
6 members, 3-year terms, renewable once
1. Establish a theme for the Annual Sessions
2. Arrange for speaker(s), workshops, worship sharing, recreational activities which encourage spiritual growth, nurture and fellowship
3. Consult with YM Clerk the times for YM business sessions
4. Communicate necessary information to Arrangements & Site committee and Bulletin Editor
Meets: As called by clerk, mostly by e-mail and conference call.
The Publications & Archives Committee oversees printed and web publications of the yearly meeting. The committee sends yearly meeting materials to a Quaker archive and encourages meetings to do the same.
4 members, 3-year terms, renewable once, plus editor of Annual Records, editor of Bulletin and Webmaster.
1. Supervise the webmaster, consulting with him/her about the content, presentation, and maintenance of the Yearly Meeting website.
2. Supervise the Bulletin editor, consulting with him/her about the publication and distribution of the LEYM Bulletin.
3. Supervise the work of the database manager.
4. Select each year, from within or beyond the committee, an Annual Records editor, and supervise that editor, consulting with him/her about the publication and distribution of the Annual Records.
5. Help provide materials for the Annual Records, especially summaries of the plenary address and the workshops presented at Annual Meeting.
6. Name, when needed, from within or beyond the committee, an LEYM Directory editor, and supervise that editor, consulting with him/her and the database manager about the publication and distribution of an updated LEYM Directory.
7. Oversee the publication and distribution of any other print publications of the Yearly Meeting.
8. Submit LEYM records to the Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College. Items to be submitted include the Annual Records, LEYM Bulletins, and other print publications of the Yearly Meeting.
Tasks done by various members of the committee include proofreading the Bulletin and the Annual Records, and attending and writing up a summary of one of the workshops and/or the plenary at Annual Sessions, which are printed in the Annual Records. As needed, a member of the committee takes on compiling the Annual Records. This committee does not require much work outside of Rep. Mtg. and Annual Sessions except for those who prepare the Bulletin three times a year and put together the Annual Records.
Meets: during committee times at Representative and YM sessions. Communication also occurs via e-mail during the year.
The Youth & Children Committee nurtures children and teens at Annual Meeting as well as at a fall retreat.
Clerk, Assistant Clerk, Leader & Assistant Leader for each of the following groups:
Pre-school, Early elementary (grades 1-3), Upper elementary (4-6), Middle school (7-8), High school (9-12). Each to serve 2 years.
Also Fall Retreat Clerk & Assistant Clerk. Each to serve 2 years.
1. Develop and carry out program for groups (childcare providers may be hired in consultation with the treasurer).
2. Organize the LEYM Youth and Children Fall Retreat.
Meets: before rise of YM to assess this year and to plan for the next.
The materials on this page are provided by LEYM’s Earthcare Committee.
July 2019. This update was provided in preparation for the 2019 annual sessions and Lake Erie Yearly Meeting’s action on climate change. At the April 2019 Representatives’ Meeting held at Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, the yearly meeting discerned taking action about the climate crisis. That is why vegetarian meal service was the default for the 2019 sessions. The full minute was to be finalized by the Executive Committee. In brief, the action’s aim was:
“this year to commit as much as possible to a vegetarian food service as a response to the dire circumstances of our planet.”
In preparing LEYM’s action, Monthly Meetings were invited to “host” topics about climate crisis. Topics explore environmental cycles alongside human impact — from harmful to helpful. Select topics were readied for small displays for viewing during meals. At sessions, Friends are encouraged to respond to displays among table-mates and also to rotate tables across mealtimes for a “tour” of topics. This process is hoped to deepen Friends’ exploration too of LEYM’s recent annual query about Earthcare. Toward readying ourselves for 2019’s default vegetarian meal service, Earthcare committee member Ken Lawrence shared a reflection for us. We hope as many Friends as possible will take time to sit with Ken’s reflection, inclusive all choices that have been made individually about meal service. From this reflection, “Reducing meat consumption to reduce contribution to the Climate Crisis”, several resources are offered for further reading:
Vegetarian Friends, publishes The Peaceable Table, a monthly journal for vegetarian Quakers and other people of faith.
The LEYM Earthcare Committee encourages constituent monthly meetings and members, committees, and staff to actions based on awareness that current rapid destruction of our planet and its fragile ecosystems is diametrically opposed to Quaker beliefs and values, and that the Religious Society of Friends must take an active stand against these trends and practices, inseparable from our other activities.
“The produce of the earth is a gift from our gracious creator to the inhabitants, and to impoverish the earth now to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age.” — John Woolman, 1700s
A Shared Quaker Statement on Climate Change
At our yearly meeting sessions in 2016, LEYM minuted support of a shared statement on climate change supported by many Quaker organizations and yearly meetings around the world. You can read the text here.
The Interfaith Power and Light movement is made up of many different faith communities and offers a range of resources and programs. There are chapters in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Earthcare actions by LEYM monthly meetings
Oberlin: In March of 2021 Oberlin Friends Meeting released a minute “We Seek An Earth Restored.” It is available here as a PDF, and presented below in full-text.
Oberlin Friends Meeting joins a broad spectrum of Quaker and other spiritual fellowships in affirming the ecological integrity and sacredness of the Earth and all of Creation. We testify that its bounty should be equitably shared by all humans in this and succeeding generations.
We accept the judgment and urgency expressed by nearly all climate scientists that our individual and collective life styles, our economies, and our public policies threaten our health and our well-being, even the very existence of life on Earth.
We recognize that Black, indigenous, people of color, and low-income people are most impacted by planet destruction and climate change and that the links between racial and environmental injustice must be addressed.
Reversing the threats from “Climate Change” or “Global Warming” calls for dramatic changes in our personal and collective behavior and policies. This will involve:
Changing community and societal economic and social rules and practices to ensure that every person’s and family’s basic needs are met.
Assuring that the burden of environmental destruction and damage does not fall upon the poorest and must vulnerable.
Examining and simplifying our life styles as individuals and as a society, particularly as they draw on scarce resources.
Reducing energy use, particularly from fossil fuels.
Restoring the Earth will require the active cooperation among all people, communities, and nations, with the greatest contribution from those groups that have both accumulated the greatest resources and contributed the most to our present crisis.
We pledge our support for such leadership, even as we continually examine our own lives for ways we can live in harmony with the earth.
David Snyder, Presiding Clerk
David Finke, Clerk of Peace Building and Justice Committee
Adopted by Oberlin Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends March 20, 2021
Broadmead: Our Earthcare Interest Group meets on a periodic basis to discuss concerns and interests of our members. Since we don’t have a meeting house, we don’t have building issues to address. When possible, most of us carpool to meeting activities when they are held out of town. We try to minimize use of disposables at our potlucks.
Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Meeting is actively considering the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030. We also have a Carbon Footprint Group of members who work together to reduce our individual carbon consumption, and a Voluntary Carbon Tax. The Earthcare Committee distributed the voluntary tax contribution fund for 2019 to three organizations: Michigan Interfaith Power and Light (MIPL), Mayan Power and Light, and the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT). All of these three emphasize support for racially and economically disadvantaged communities.
For political action, we center our efforts through managing Michigan Quakers for Environmental Action (MQEA), which this year focuses on lobbying in support of bills on clean energy and clean water in the Michigan legislature.
The committee places major emphasis on issues of environmental and climate injustice. Our page on the AAFM website includes a set of readings and film resources, as well as links to climate action organizations, including those that are led by young people. The list emphasizes the spiritual foundations of Quaker environmental action. See our Resources on Earthcare and Environment.
North Columbus Monthly Meeting (NCMM): Our Peace and Social Action Committee meets monthly as is shown on our Columbus Meetup site (Peace & Social Action: NCMM). One current project is work on a proposed video called, “Planning Worlds Without War.” This explores Western inability to population plan consistent with earth care and peace care. It does so while addressing powerful questions raised by Eli Weisel and Oprah about genocide in their Youtube on Auschwitz. Some of us ponder whether earth care is possible as long as “population” remains a “flat earth” taboo?
Bioregional Awareness Booklet
Getting Started! Growing Our Sense of Spirit Home the Bioregional Way is a 29-page booklet prepared by the Lake Erie Yearly Meeting Earthcare Committee for attendees of Lake Erie Yearly Meeting in June, 2008. All are encouraged to read and be inspired by this friendly introduction to our local environment.
Survival Sourcebook: The Care and Maintenance of Small Meetings and Worship Groups (PDF)
North Pacific Yearly Meeting Outreach Committee
2nd Edition, 1990
This document is somewhat dated. In particular, the lists of resources are mostly out of date, and no mention is made of the internet. Minor errors have been introduced by the process of converting the printed text into an electronic file. However, there are many helpful pieces in it that small meetings and worship groups can benefit from. Posted by permission of North Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Outreach & Visitation Committee
Website of Quaker Communications & Outreach (originally a Facebook group)
Outreach web page Newcomers Cards: a series of free cards available for print by meetings. These simple cards are good, brief introductions suitable to hand out to newcomers. They can also be purchased from the FGC Bookstore. Topics include: You are Welcome Here, Quaker Worship, What Do Quakers Believe, Quakers and Prayer, How Quaker Meetings Work, and Quaker Testimonies. Grow Our Meetings toolkit: Inreach, Outreach, and Integrating Newcomers. Guidance and tools for Friends who want to deepen their own spiritual life, welcome new life into their meetings, consider what it’s like to be new in a meeting, and do outreach. You Are Welcome Here – A Booklet of Learnings from QuakerQuest Build It: A Toolkit for Nurturing Intergenerational Spiritual Community: The Youth Ministries Program of FGC collects here their best practices for nurturing intergenerational spiritual community. The toolkit includes resources, activities, games, advice, and the skit, “A Short History of Quakerism in 10 Easy Points.” Both practical and fun, it is useful for nurturing spiritual community among all ages.
In worship, Friends gather in silent, expectant waiting for guidance. We hold ourselves open to the Light and reach for the divine center of our being. We know the center to be a place of peace, love, and balance, where we are at one with the universe and with each other.
We know from experience that revelation is continuing and that a divine power is at work in the world today, healing, guiding, gathering, and transforming. We call this power God, the Light, Christ, the Seed, the Holy Spirit, the Inward Teacher. By whatever name it is known, its nature is love. It draws us toward a life of integrity, simplicity, equality, community, and peace.
Our meetings strive to be loving, nurturing communities. We celebrate diversity and encourage each person to find his or her true voice grounded in experience. We listen deeply to the Spirit and to each other as we seek to discern and embrace God’s will for us individually and as a community. Two things distinguish Quakers from other Protestant churches: our traditional style of worship, and our group method of making decisions.
Few of the Friends in Lake Erie Yearly Meeting were raised as Quakers. Our meetings have people who have come from a variety of backgrounds: Methodist, Catholic, Jewish, atheist, Buddhist, as well as other religious groups and denominations. Some have had no religious upbringing. Others have previously experienced religious alienation. Consequently, we tend to have a wide range of religious thinking within our meetings.
Worship is at the heart of all that Quakers do and are. From their beginning, Quakers adopted worship practices with a minimum of planned events, instead relying on direct revelation by the Holy Spirit to the worshipers gathered in silent expectation.
Quakers call their services “meeting for worship”. The following attempts to briefly describe worship in Lake Erie Yearly Meeting and among other Friends who practice unprogrammed worship based in silence. There are other groups of Quakers that use a format for worship more like other Protestant church services.
The community gathers together in a waiting, expectant spirit. Worship happens in silent waiting upon insight from God. A participant may feel led to share a message with those present. There may be many, few, or no such messages, which Friends call “vocal ministry”. The meeting concludes when the person with responsibility for closing the worship discerns that the meeting has drawn to an end. Worship usually lasts about an hour.
What am I supposed to do during worship?
You are encouraged to explore ways to center down. Centering means entering deep stillness. The idea is to clear one’s mind of chatter and to concentrate on listening to God.
Each person finds his or her own way of centering down. Here are a few possibilities that have been found helpful.
Take a deep breath and relax your body; repeat several times.
Consciously bring up your internal conversations (such as, I need to stop at the store on the way home, What did my friend mean when they said that yesterday? When is someone going to say something?) and dismiss each one for the time being.
Think of your friends and relatives and offer up a brief prayer for each one.
Let a familiar hymn run through your mind.
Let a familiar prayer run through your mind.
There are many more ways to help you center. If you find your mind wandering, don’t worry about it. Gently bring your focus back to being open to God. The ability to stay focused develops over time.
Centering leads to worship. It is not a time for “thinking,” for deliberate, intellectual exercise. It is a time for spiritual receptivity. The aim is not to think about things, but to experience God’s presence. If someone gives a message, listen carefully and non-judgmentally as they share their experience of the Divine.
Who do I talk to to get my questions answered?
If no one approaches you after worship, ask anyone, such as the person sitting next to you. Or seek out the person who closed meeting (started the hand-shaking), who gave announcements, or who identified him or herself as the Clerk. If the first person you ask can’t answer your question, ask them to direct you to the Clerk or someone else who does know. Because Quakers are organized non-hierarchically, it can take a couple of tries to find someone to connect with who can answer your questions.
What are the arrangements for children and youth?
If you are bringing children or youth, it is wise to check the meeting’s web site or call the meeting’s contact person in advance to find out what provisions the meeting makes. Many meetings follow the practice of having children and youth sit with the adults for the first or last quarter hour, then offer some kind of programming for the rest of the time.
Friends’ decision-making is based on communal discernment of where God is leading us. Discernment involves careful listening and recognizing God-inspired leadings. Discernment offers tools to distinguish between an interior leading from God and a worldly impulse such as a desire to feel important or look clever.
In meeting for worship, Friends can come into a powerful experience of unity. The same unifying spirit of worship is the basis for Friends’ decision-making. Quakers do not decide by voting. Instead, we look for a unity deeper than majority rule.
Business Meeting
Local congregations, called “meetings,” usually schedule time once a month to hear reports and make decisions (which is why they’re called “monthly meetings”). Each monthly meeting appoints a clerk, a treasurer, and whatever other officers it finds useful, including a recording clerk (secretary). It also appoints committees to perform tasks that the meeting wants done. Typical committees include Ministry & Nurture which serves pastoral functions; Finance; Peace & Social Concerns; Building & Grounds; etc. The officers are servants of the meeting. The clerk’s task is to help those present at a business meeting discern the will of God. The recording clerk takes minutes.
Everyone who attends worship is encouraged to come to business meeting, which functions as a committee of the whole. Often referred to as Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, the proceedings are held in a worshipful attitude. Items to be decided may deal with membership, finance, community building, the quality of worship, appointments, action to be taken to further the cause of peace in the world, or other matters. Many issues are considered by a committee before being presented to the whole body, and part of the committee’s responsibility is to recommend how the meeting might proceed. Controversial items are presented and discussed among those in the meeting well in advance of the business session so Friends can come to the business meeting prepared with sufficient information and prayerful consideration to engage in group discernment.
The business meeting begins with silent worship. When the clerk judges the meeting is ready, he or she begins the business meeting. The clerk will usually go over the agenda and then present the first item for consideration. People who have something to contribute speak one at a time and allow silent reflection between comments. The clerk can pull together and summarize feelings which are being expressed in the meeting. The meeting seeks to come to an understanding of where God is leading the group. When those present agree on the sense of the meeting, it is written down in the form of a minute and those present are asked to approve it. The next item is then presented.
Ideally, Friends come to business meeting in a prayerful, open state of mind ready to listen attentively to others and to the Spirit. We may express contradictory views, but do not argue with one another. We state what we want to say frankly and briefly without belittling each other.
Because Friends place such a high value on unity, we are willing to wait until we can agree on a decision before moving ahead. This may seem impractical, not to mention exasperating in how long it seems to take to come to a decision. Implementation, however, may go quickly. If we imagine a line with “idea” on one end and “implementation” on the other, the distance between the two remains the same no matter when the group chooses to make a decision. If the group uses majority rule, the decision can be made when just over half the group agrees to vote in the same way. We might chart it like this:
The distance from decision to implementation is still considerable. The majority may have to tow a significant minority, many of them dragging their feet, to the point of implementation. The losers feel defeated and may resist or even sabotage the practical policy resulting from the decision.
When all consent to the decision, however, we might chart the process like this:
The distance from idea to decision seems immense, but once the decision is reached, the group may proceed directly to implementation. All can feel ownership of the process and of the decision. There are no disgruntled minorities determined to undermine the success of the policy. The group need not be divided into quarreling factions. No one need feel compromised or marginalized. A stronger sense of community results.
Questions you might want to ask
Can I come to a business meeting if I am not a member?
Yes. You are welcome to attend. In fact, attenders who apply for membership are expected to have participated in business meetings.
How long will the business meeting last?
This varies greatly from place to place and depends on how much business there is. Business meetings seldom take less than an hour and may run two or three hours. Check with the clerk of your meeting.
Will I have to do anything if I attend?
No. As with any Meeting for Worship you are under no obligation to do anything other than to support the work going forward by your presence.
Note: Portions of this text on business practices are based on Silence and Witness: The Quaker Tradition, by Michael L. Birkel, 2004, ISBN 1-57075-518-3. Used by permission. Other parts of this text are based on a document written and produced by Friends and Attenders from Glasgow Meeting, Scotland. Found at www.qis.net/~daruma/business.html 10/05.
Our denomination’s official name is “The Religious Society of Friends.” We got nicknamed “Quakers” when we were getting started in England in the 1650s. Nowadays, we call ourselves both “Friends” and “Quakers.”
Most faith groups have specific beliefs that their members are expected to follow. Quakers rely heavily instead upon spiritual discernment by individual members, congregations, and regional assemblies. This makes Quaker beliefs difficult to describe. The following attempts to briefly describe Quaker beliefs and practices in Lake Erie Yearly Meeting. Some groups of Quakers differ significantly from what is described below.
Testimonies
Quaker spirituality is both inward and outward. Friends have always expected the Holy Spirit to transform individuals and then guide them into ways to transform society. The mystical stream in Quakerism has a profound ethical dimension. In worship together Friends have experienced not only wordless union with God but also practical leadings to engage in concrete actions.
Friends have always held dear the belief that the Light would bring them into unity. Their pattern of worship is contemplative yet corporate, blossoming into experiences of deep communion and community. Similarly, Quakers have expected this Light to lead them in the same direction and toward the same goals. Because revelation is continuing, new leadings will come, but because the Spirit is consistent, certain principles will prevail. Friends have called these principles “testimonies” because they witness to the wider world of the power of God to transform individuals and human society.
The testimonies are radically counter-cultural. They challenge the values of a society based on unbridled greed, distrust, violence, and oppression. They are rooted in love for God and one’s neighbors.
The testimonies challenge us to live our lives as God would wish us to. Testimonies bear witness to the truth as Friends in community perceive it — truth known through relationship with God. Some key testimonies are integrity, simplicity, equality, peace, and care for creation.
Integrity. Integrity means to speak and behave so there is no slippage between what you say and what you do. It means to be honest in all dealings and tell the truth on all occasions.
Simplicity. Quaker understanding of simplicity has changed over time. Earliest Friends opposed luxury and waste. In the eighteenth century, simplicity became a code of plain dress and speech. Today, simplicity is understood to have to do with trust and with focus. A simple life is one that enables one to keep God at the center. Friends have also come to see simplicity as linked with the commitment to social justice and to responsible stewardship of God’s good creation.
Here are ten principles for a simple life:
Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status.
Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.
Develop a habit of giving things away.
Refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry.
Learn to enjoy things without owning them.
Develop a deeper appreciation for the creation.
Look with a healthy skepticism at all “buy now, pay later” schemes.
Obey Jesus’ instructions about plain, honest speech.
Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others.
Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God.
Summarized from Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, by Richard Foster.
Equality. Since every person has a spark of the Divine, Quakers emphasize that all people are equal before God. We welcome to our fellowship and worship all persons of whatever sexual orientation, race, religion or gender.
Peace. Since every person has a spark of the Divine, Friends are opposed to the taking of life, even in war or civil strife.
Community. Quakers seek to create a beloved community in their meetings and hope to influence the wider community to become one as well.
Living our Beliefs
A consequence of Friends’ search for truth is that scientific discoveries do not challenge the basis of our faith. Like the scientific method, Quaker faith and practice rely upon experience as a guide. We come to know truth experientially. The search for truth is more important to us than the maintenance of beliefs, so we try to remain open to new approaches to the truth.
Quakers attempt to live by our testimonies. Much of our ministry is carried out within our families, places of work, and through our community involvements. Over the years, Quakers have worked for prison reform, the abolition of slavery, an end to the death penalty, civil rights, right sharing of the world’s resources, stewardship of the earth, peaceful conflict resolution, religious liberty, and have advocated for alternative service for those whose conscience forbids them to kill others in war. Quakers have ministered to the needy, especially victims of war.
As you come to know us better, you will discover our shortcomings, our faults, and our failures. We have high ideals, but do not always live up to them. We are on a lifelong journey toward truth and fulfillment-a journey made more meaningful and easier by the companionship of other seekers.
Note: Portions of this text are quoted or paraphrased from Silence and Witness: The Quaker Tradition, by Michael L. Birkel, 2004, ISBN 1-57075-518-3. Used by permission.
In addition to worship and business, monthly meetings may sponsor a variety of activities, which might include:
Adult religious education
Potluck meals
Work sessions, either to work on the meetinghouse (church building) or grounds or to work together on a project such as making blankets to give to the needy or putting together kits of basic supplies for refugees
Quakers who practice worship based in silence call the local congregation “the meeting” and call the building they use “the meeting house”. This is because we consider “the church” to be the people. Meetings are usually named for their geographic location, such as Pittsburgh Monthly Meeting or Pine River Monthly Meeting. Meetings usually gather for worship once a week and hold business meetings once a month (which is why they are called monthly meetings).
The monthly meeting is the primary unit and is where the most important decisions are made. Each meeting appoints a clerk, a treasurer, and whatever other officers it finds useful, including a recording clerk (secretary). It also appoints committees to perform tasks that the meeting wants done. Appointments are for one, two, or three years. Typical committees include Ministry & Nurture which serves pastoral functions; Finance; Peace & Social Concerns; Building & Grounds; etc.
The officers are servants of the meeting. The clerk’s task is to help those present at a business meeting discern the will of God. The recording clerk takes minutes. The treasurer and any other officers act as directed by the meeting.
Meetings in a geographic region will band together in a regional organization in order to work together on issues of common concern. Lake Erie Yearly Meeting has member meetings throughout Ohio and lower Michigan as well as the western part of Pennsylvania. It holds an annual gathering for business and fellowship (which is why it’s called a yearly meeting). All the members of the monthly meetings are encouraged to attend yearly meeting sessions.
Lake Erie Yearly Meeting is affiliated with Friends General Conference (FGC), a Quaker service organization for unprogrammed meetings in the U.S. FGC publishes books and educational materials, organizes an annual conference, and provides other services to its affiliated yearly meetings.
