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.
Practicing Our Quaker Heritage of Mysticism and Resistance
From earliest days, Quakers have sought to attend and follow the Inward Light, the Inner Teacher, as the only true guide to right action. And from earliest days, Quakers have been moved and guided by the Inner Teacher to act conscientiously in the world to “see what Love can do” to mend a world rent by injustice and oppression. In contemporary Quaker circles, we sometimes hear Friends speak of contemplative Friends and activist Friends, implying a false dichotomy—that some Friends are mystics and others are actively engaged in mending the world. To be faithful to our tradition and to the leadings of the Light, we are both seekers after the Truth as revealed to us in prayer and worship and animators of the Truth that is revealed to us. We participate both in mysticism and resistance to the ways of the world by standing and moving in revealed Truth. In this extended weekend together, we will hear plenary speakers, engage in extended worship and workshops, and reflect in small groups and large on our heritage and what Spirit asks of us today in creating the Beloved Community in a broken world. For more information and to register, go to www.pendlehill.org or call 610-566-4507 x137.
