Quaker Meetings

 

Quakers organizes themselves by an unusual but simple method: the time period in which a group conducts its business meetings. The basic structure of Quakerism is the monthly meeting, so-called because it holds Meetings for Business at least every month. Midlothian Friends is a monthly meeting.

A monthly meeting is usually concentrated in a local geographic area, and sometimes takes its name from that area. In our case, Midlothian Meeting was named after its geographic hub, the village of Midlothian, a suburb of Richmond, and a separate mailing address. Our 'parent' meeting is the Richmond Friends Meeting, and was for many years the only Quaker meeting in the greater Richmond area.

Monthly meetings are part of a larger group, called a quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly meeting, which holds its meeting for business at those time intervals. Quarterly meetings are generally found in areas with a number of monthly meetings; they are not as numerous or as active as yearly meetings.

The state of Virginia had one time had its own yearly meeting. With the decline in number of Quakers in Virginia due to the civil war, the Virginia Yearly Meeting was eventually 'laid down', and its monthly meetings eventually became part of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting where they remain to this day.

 

Midlothian Friends belong to the group of monthly meetings that hold a yearly meeting for business, called Baltimore Yearly Meeting. This is the only Quaker group that has a (small) paid staff, with offices outside of Baltimore Maryland. It serves the monthly meetings in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Baltimore Yearly Meeting also publishes a Faith and Practices manual, which consists of statements of faith, as well as practical advice on organizational and business matters. Midlothian Friends turn to the Faith and Practice manual as needed; copies are available in the meeting library.

Baltimore Yearly Meeting runs Quaker youth summer camps, such as Camp Catoctin in Maryland.