The Wider Quaker Community
Haverford Quarter
The Religious Society of Friends in Truth (Quakers) is organized from the bottom up and there is no centralized authority. We make decisions collectively, seeking unity rather than compromise or following directives from a hierarchy. Each Monthly Meeting (so named because it has Meeting for Business to make decisions once a month) has its own distinctive flavor -- small or large membership, varying diversity of age groups and ethnic, social and economic backgrounds, and theology.
Several Monthly Meetings come together about every 3 months for a Quarterly Meeting. The Quarterly Meeting is designed to bring together a larger group for inspiration and counsel and to consider more varied interests. Haverford Quarterly Meeting (or "Haverford Quarter") usually meets on the 4th Sunday of January, April and October and supports a variety of projects, including sponsoring college students to help further our Quarter's peace and social service goals, to help the students become more familiar with Quakers and to develop their leadership skills. We also have an Arts of the Quarter group. Our Education and Memorial committees consult and coordinate activities.
Haverford Quarter consists of Haverford Friends Meeting, Merion Friends Meeting, Newtown Square Friends Meeting, Old Haverford Friends Meeting, Radnor Friends Meeting and Valley Friends Meeting.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM)
Monthly and Quarterly Meetings join to form a Yearly Meeting. There are 15 Yearly Meetings in the United States, including Alaska. Our Meeting is part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is made up of 13 Quarterly Meetings and over 100 Monthly (local) Meetings in Central and Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Northern Delaware. It helps local Quaker communities find meaning and purpose through engagement and collaboration in a larger network of Friends.
Members of local Meetings collaborate in a variety of Yearly Meeting organizational structures to set group priorities and run programs with the support of PYM staff. Among other services, they develop educational, pastoral, spiritual and youth programs, maintain a library and provide grants. They also revise and publish Faith and Practice, which includes advice on procedures within the faith, membership and current practice for conducting meeting business and quotations from Quakers on belief, worship, concerns, spiritual leadings, and testimonies. For more information about PYM and its work, go to https://www.pym.org or follow PYM.
National and International Quaker Organizations:
FWCC Website |
The Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC)
fosters fellowship among all the branches of the Religious Society of Friends, bringing Friends of varying traditions and cultural experiences together in worship, communications and consultation, to express our common heritage and our Quaker message to the world.. In the Americas, the Quaker community extends from the Arctic to the Andes, spanning a rich diversity of regional cultures, beliefs and styles of worship.
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AFSC Website |
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action.
Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, AFSC nurtures the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social relations and systems.
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FCNL Website |
The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
is dedicated to pursuing policies that uphold and sustain the inherent worth, contributions, and dignity of each person, including refugees.
FCNL’s multi-faceted approach draws on the expertise of registered lobbyists in Washington, DC, the commitment and passion of people around the country in our advocacy network, and the relationships we cultivate with elected officials and community leaders.
Because our lawmakers are making decisions about people’s lives, we must be ready to work with them, regardless of party or agreement, on all issues.This practice of respectful lobbying that stays open to the possibilities of “yes” is the way we turn love and faith into action.
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FPT Website |
Friends Peace Teams
is a Spirit-led organization that develops long-term relationships with communities in conflict around the world to work for peace, healing and reconciliation, and to create enduring cultures of peace.
Friends Peace Teams travel and visit with a concern for peace in difficult places –- geographically, politically, and emotionally. Wherever they go, they bring people together from different backgrounds, orientations, affiliations, ethnicities, religions, and ages. The intent is to contribute to healing the effects of trauma and deprivation in their many forms across boundaries.
Friends Peace Teams work in solidarity and parity, listening to and sharing experiences, not working or teaching from an agenda. To honor the dignity of every person and support local peace workers, the teams exchange experience through active, experiential methods, working grassroots to grassroots to preserve peace by deconstructing historical legacies of racism, exploitation and oppression.
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QEC Website |
Quaker EarthCare Witness
is a network of North American Friends (Quakers) and other like-minded people who are taking spirit-led action to address ecological and social crises, emphasizing Quaker process, beliefs and practies. We recognize that the entire world is interconnected and is to be respected, protected, and held in reverence in its own right.
While QEW supports reforms in laws, technology, education, and institutions, its primary calling is to facilitate transformation of humans' attitudes, values, identity, and worldview that underlie much of the environmental destruction going on in the world today.
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QUNO Website |
The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO)
is a Quaker presence at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, representing Friends’ concerns for global peace and justice to the international community. Quakers are known for speaking out against injustice and war -- issues that are incompatible with our vision of a world in which peace and justice prevail.
QUNO staff work with people in the UN, multilateral organisations, government delegations, and non-governmental organisations, to achieve changes in international standards and practice. We understand peace as more than the absence of war and violence, recognizing the need to look for what seeds of war there may be in all our social, political, and economic relationships.
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QVS Website |
Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS)
is an 11-month experience, for young adults to work full-time in professional positions at community based organizations, addressing a wide range of issues, while living in a cooperative house and worshiping with, and being mentored by, local Quakers.
Fellows receive housing, transportation, food, support for health and wellness (including access to health insurance if needed), and a small stipend, while engaging in regular self-led workshops and retreats that allow for continuing education in social justice, faith, and community building topics.
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RSWR Website |
Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR)
is an independent Quaker not-for-profit organization grounded in a sense of stewardship for the world’s material, human, and spiritual resources.
RSWR provides grants for marginalized women in Kenya, Sierra Leone, and India to fund individual micro-enterprise projects, to empower these women in a sustainable and self-determined way.
A second goal of RSWR's work is to provide opportunities for those blessed with material resources to explore the burdens of materialism, the power of enough, and global responsibility; and to promote balanced sustainable lifestyles and sharing rightly from abundance.
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