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.
School of the Spirit Spring e-Retreat: All Shall Be Well: Contemplation and Transformation
Many Friends have expressed their desire for contemplative time apart from daily life during this time of COVID-19, when in-person retreats are not feasible. In response, and to celebrate the renewal that takes place in the spring, the School of the Spirit Ministry is offering an online retreat via Zoom. From Friday evening through Saturday afternoon, while you remain at home, you will be joined by others from their homes.
The retreat will begin on Friday evening, April 9, at 6:30 Central Time/7:30 Eastern Time. We will introduce ourselves to one another, worship together, and talk about plans for the next day.
On Saturday morning, April 10, we will gather online again at 8:00 Central Time/9:00 Eastern Time. The day will include worship, worship sharing, and silence. We’ll bid farewell at 4:00/5:00pm.
About half of the time will be spent in individual contemplative silence. We’ve found that retreatants continue to feel one another’s presences during these quiet periods. In advance of the e-retreat, participants will receive by email a collection of suggestions for ways to spend the silent time. We will also, of course, send you the link for our Zoom time together.
There is a fee of $30 for this retreat. If this amount is not currently possible for you, please be assured that we have scholarship money available.
We have discovered that retreats are most rewarding when participants do not come and go. Your fellow retreatants will feel the disturbance if you can’t be with us the entire time. Please, if you know you will be otherwise occupied during part of the retreat, request to be placed on the waiting list for a future date.
Others have found e-Retreats rewarding. We hope that you will too!
To register, please click below and fill out the form by April 6. If you have questions about the e-Retreat, you can email Catherine (blycox@comcast.net or 301-471-5330) or Roger (johnroger1@sbcglobal.net or 414-988-0605). There will be a limit of 21 participants in addition to the leaders.
Blessings from the e-Retreat leaders,
Catherine Cox (Goose Creek MM), Roger Hansen, Thais Carr, and Elizabeth Evans
