Welcome to Baltimore Yearly Meeting!
Baltimore Yearly Meeting nurtures a vibrant Quaker community across the Mid-Atlantic. BYM unites Friends from 50 Quaker meetings and worship groups throughout Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
Together at BYM Friends we
Strengthen Local Meetings
The monthly meeting is the beating heart of everything we do. At its core, the yearly meeting is an association of Quaker monthly meetings and other local worshipping communities coming together to support one another. We share a common Faith & Practice - and we share our skills, gifts, spiritual leadings, and resources across local worshipping communities.
Grow in Spirit & Community
Quakers believe that there is “that of God” in every person—an Inner Light that is loving and honest and can lead us to truth and justice. As BYM Friends we gather for Meetings for Worship four times each year to discern the Leadings of the Spirit and to conduct our community business and three more times throughout the year for spiritual formation retreats.
Nurture Youth
BYM has a special commitment to the spiritual, social, and emotional thriving of all young people. Our camps and youth retreats are vibrant, diverse, youth-centered communities. BYM scholarships and grants provide material support to children, families, and child-serving organizations, and the Religious Education Committee connects meetings to resources for nurturing youth.
Connect & Serve as Friends
Working together is an extension of our worship into the practical life of Quakerism. Working together benefits both the wider community and those Friends who participate. We serve together on Committtes, gather for service projects and social witness, and are part of the worldwide body of Quakers - connected to 14 organizations and hundreds of thousands of Friends around the world.
Kenyan Quakers in America Gathering
This announces a gathering, beginning at 4pm, of "Kenyan Quakers in America", all the Kenyan Quakers we can find in the area. Lifegate Chuch, the Kenyan Quaker Church which met for a while at Stony Run, has reached a point where attendance is very low, and some of them think this is the right time to start afresh, laying down the existing structure, and coming together to work at developing a church structure much more similar to what they are familiar with from Kenya. The concern arises from the hundreds of Kenyan Quakers who are now in this area, who are not comfortable in the local unprogrammed Quaker worship service. We all know that some have persisted with us and have become valued members of the local Quaker community. But many more have not. There is no immediate expectation that a new Kenyan-based Friends Meeting or Church would necessarily become part of or affiliated with Stony Run. That will be up to the new group and its agreements with existing Meetings. It is hoped that we can support Kenyan Friends' aspirations, similar to the way that we might support a preparative meeting. For more information, contact Adrian Bishop. (aadrianfpt@gmail.com). If you are a Kenyan Friend or if you know Kenyan Friends, please invite them. And bring food, so we can break mandazis together!!
