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.
BYM Change Group Training - Hold Space for Transformation
The ad hoc Growing Diverse Leadership Committee and the Working Group on Racism invite you to this free Change Group training to realize our vision of overcoming racism and becoming a multicultural religious society. Our lead facilitator is Dr. Amanda Kemp assisted by Dr. Erika Fitz. Both are members of a Lancaster Monthly Meeting. Each training session will be from 10am to 5pm (with an hour lunch break). Click here to download the flyer and registration instructions. The Hold Space for Transformation strategy helps us facilitate and participate in difficult conversations about racism without losing our voices or our cool. It’s a form of mindfulness that can be used in Meetings and in one-on-one conversations. We will practice leaning in to conversations about racism via role plays and heightened listening. Those who have difficulty speaking will practice finding our voices even when afraid to say the wrong thing or when intimidated by others. Those who speak often will discover the secret to having a desired impact without shutting others down. We review important concepts such as: a white frame of reference, institutional racism, interpersonal racism and the limits of color blindness as a strategy to overcome racial inequities. Over the next six weeks we will practice what we learned. A ZOOM call will be scheduled for sharing our experiences in trying out what we learned in the first session. We are also planning a closed Facebook group or a similar online forum for change group members to share our experiences and discuss issues that arise as we do this work.
