...to Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. This site includes information about Quakerism and the latest news of our faith community, which includes Central Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. We would like to invite you to come worship with us. All are welcome! Please visit these links to find out more about our faith, witness and fellowship:

• Find out how to contribute to BYM programs on-line!
• Find a place to worship with us.
• Find out about our Annual Meeting
• Find out more about Quakerism.
• Find out about Quaker Peace activities.
• Find out about BYM Quaker Summer Camps.
• Find out where the Quaker Schools are.
• Find out about Quaker History in our area.

The BYM Educational Loan Committee is reevaluating its loan program. For 2008 loans will be made only to those students who were funded last year, if they are still in school. We hope that next year we can open the program to new applicants again. For more information contact Oliver Moles, clerk

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. AFSC has just released a new 2 min. video to help people understand the outrageous amount of money that is being spent daily on the Iraq war -- at the expense of meeting human needs. (more...)

Friends are expressing appreciation to Michael Cronin, who served as Clerk of Interim Meeting beginning in 2003. He resigned this position November 27, 2007. During his period of service as Clerk of Interim Meeting and of Supervisory Committee, Michael helped the Yearly Meeting through an important time of transition. (more...)

The January 2008 edition of the Sandy Spring Prison Journal is now online. Prison ministry has long been important to Quakers, and the Sandy Spring Friends ministry has been active for about 30 years. All material in this publication was produced by persons currently incarcerated. (more...)

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is accepting financial donations for Kenyans affected by post-election violence. After the results of the latest elections, conflicts have erupted which have claimed the lives, homes, and livelihoods of many Kenyans. (more...)

Friends in Baltimore Yearly Meeting have been following the news from Kenya closely. Some of us could recognize the places we saw in the newscasts. In your time of stress, we remember that you wrote us after 11 September 2001. (more...)

Mary Lord is a Friend from Baltimore Yearly Meeting and a former staff member of the American Friends Service Committee. She is visiting Kenya in a private capacity, and sends the following personal reflections. (more...)

Friends, your prayers for Kenya are needed desperately. We hope you will invite many others to pray for peace, for a healthy dialogue between the warring parties, and for a quick end to this "sad and bloody new year for Kenya 2008" as John Muhanji says. (more...)

Now there is before us an ever mounting need for funds to help provide subsistence to the folks who are displaced and without enough food, fresh water, clothing and shelter. Depending on the news reports there is somewhere between 250,000 to well over 500,000. (more...)

We appreciate your statement on January 2 calling for a cessation of violence in Kenya. Unfortunately the violence and underlying causes of the conflict have not been resolved, and we urgently request that you make lasting peace in Kenya a priority and use all available diplomatic resources to help Kenyans bring a definitive end to the violence. (more...)

The purpose of this fund is to support the understanding and practice of Quaker faith in schools, and to support the growth of a life lived in the Spirit by members of the school communities. The fund is targeted for Friends schools under the care of a Friends Meeting, but is available to any school community. (more...)

The Baltimore Yearly Meeting Program Committee is beginning to plan for next summer’s Annual Session, to be held at Frostburg State University August 5-10, 2008. The theme is “Let Us Then Try What Love Will Do.” The Committee asks that you circulate the workshop proposal form to anyone who may be interested in leading a workshop. (more...)

We have been blessed with a wonderful challenge and opportunity. One of our members who believes strongly in the importance, mission, and work of BYM has given us the following challenge: All “new” money that is received in response to this letter in 2007 will be matched— dollar-for-dollar, up to $25,000 — by this generous Friend. (more...)

The Yearly Meeting Clerk sent the following letter to all monthly meetings: Dear Friends, A few years ago, Baltimore Yearly Meeting asked our Monthly Meetings to discuss the yearly meeting’s financial contributions to Friends United Meeting. At last Annual Session, our representatives to the FUM General Board raised new issues about our membership in FUM... (more...)

Friends are invited to take a look at a new element on our webpage: The twelve most recent posts from a collection of blogs by QuakerQuaker.org is displayed in a scrolling window below. (more...)

On touring the 1652 country

Flossie Fullerton, Shelia Bach, and I were fortunate to tour the “1652 country” after the Friends World Committee Gathering in Dublin. This involved visiting Swarthmore Hall, climbing Pendle Hill, visiting Firbank Fell, and visiting many Meeting Houses and burial grounds. (more...)

Fall is here again and things have gotten a little quieter at the camps, but that does not mean that we are out of opportunities to enjoy the properties. Work weekends offer us an opportunity to enjoy some fun with Friends, some time for renewal, and some gratifying and meaningful work! (more...)

The time has come to begin planning your visits to Baltimore Yearly Meetings camp properties (Catoctin Quaker Camp, Opequon Quaker Camp and Shiloh Quaker Camp)! The rental calendar is now open for 2008 and we are ready to consider your requests. (more...)

• Baltimore Yearly Meeting 2007
• Junior Young Friends' Epistle
• Young Adult Friends' Epistle

A Simple Question; And a Reponse Invited!: How are we doing?

As of the closing of BYM Annual Session, our Yearly Meeting is doing very well, if you measure by the number of capable new people joining committees, the challenging issues that we’re taking on wholeheartedly, or by the joy with which Friends greeted each other all week....(more...)

BELIEVING that the spirit of the Gospel breathes the ancient “peace on earth, and good will towards men,” it is our earnest concern, that Friends may adhere faithfully to our ancient testimony against wars and fightings; (more...)

Since October 15, 2002, at this silent vigil for peace has taken place each week on the West Lawn of the US Capitol. Started by Quakers, this vigil is not a protest, nor a march, but a non-partisan, ecumenical silent vigil, under the simple banner, “Seek Peace and Pursue It," a quote from Psalms 34. (more...)

• New Orleans Workcamp - October 5-8, 2007
• Teachers of Peace: Educating for Peace and Social Change - October 18th -October 21st, 2007.
• “Simply Awesome Youth Seminar” - November 2 to 5, 2007

Registration Closed
January 11-13, 2008, at Northern Virginia 4-H Educational Center near Front Royal, VA (more...)

• October 6: Benefit Concert.
• October 13: Poetry in the Trees.
• November 3: Autumn Work Day.
• November 10-11 Women's Retreat: “Dreaming Our Lives into Wholeness”

The program for Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting on September 9, 2007 was focused on "Young Quaker Lights" – how our Meetings nurture our youths. (more...)

Trish Cam of the FRIEND says "every three years the representatives named by their Yearly Meetings gather for nine days not only to conduct business, but also to grow in the life of Christ and the Holy spirit by discovering together their common Spiritual ground.” (more...)

Godly Play® Bible stories and Faith & Play Quaker stories in their programs for young people and for intergenerational gatherings, too. See what the excitement is all about! October 13-14, 2007 (more...)

Friends House Retirement Community became a reality in 1967, after more than twenty years of spiritual discernment and planning by a small group of Quakers in the Washington area. It had its beginnings in 1946 when the Friends Meeting of Washington made a commitment to begin a Quaker ministry to the aging.(more...)

Between the holidays, a Yearly Meeting Friend made just one phone call that created a more secure retirement plan and also left a legacy for Baltimore Yearly Meeting. (more...)

The Quaker Universalist Fellowship announces the publication of the "Quaker Universalist Reader Number 2: Universalism and Religions", edited by Patricia A. Williams. This new publication collects the writings of thirty-six Quaker authors from Great Britain and the U.S. (more...)

by Jenifer Morris. Click here for links to More Images to View or Order.
 

We Made It!

“Cool summer nights . . . Warm mountain hospitality.” That was the promise from Frostburg State University, our new campus in Frostburg, Maryland, and it was true! The 400 Friends who attended Baltimore Yearly Meeting annual sessions in August found the campus to be beautiful and easy to navigate. Why not try it yourself next year if you couldn’t make it this time? (more...)

We believe that as Quakers, our commitment to peace and justice must go beyond words and minutes. Therefore as the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, we call upon all people of Faith, and especially Friends, to act out of our beliefs and to prayerfully consider the following actions... (more...)

The BYM Working Group on Racism conducted, facilitated, sponsored or encouraged six workshops during Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions in 2007. These workshops addressed racial issues, focused on people of color, or were of special interest to people of color... (more...)

Our program of intervisitation with other FUM Meetings is growing. Consequently we need more committee members, minuted visitors, and traveling companions. Consider how you can support or become part of this program! Here are a few ideas... (more...)

Celebrating Quaker/Native American Prison Ministries:  Baltimore Yearly Meeting Indian Affairs Committee and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee... (more...)

• Adelphi
  
• Alexandria
  
• Annapolis
  
• Baltimore, Stony Run
  
• Charlottesville
  
• Hopewell Centre
  
• Maury River
  
• Patapsco
  
• Patuxent
  
• Pipe Creek
  
• Richmond
  
• Roanoke
  
• State College
  
• York