Baltimore Yearly Meeting (officially the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends) is a body of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) headquartered in Sandy Spring, Maryland that includes Friends from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. It was the first Yearly Meeting founded in North America, meeting in May 1672. It is also the only Yearly Meeting in North America visited by George Fox, who visited after a trip to Barbados. Its Clerk is Betsy Meyer. Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) is part of both Friends General Conference and Friends United Meeting –- two broader bodies of Friends. They are also part of Friends World Committee for Consultation and the Friends Peace Teams Project.
Baltimore Yearly Meeting is composed of fifty local Monthly Meetings. Its constituent Monthly Meetings are in the unprogrammed tradition, which means that they meet for silent worship in which any participant may share whatever they believe the Spirit of God leads them to say.
As a part of its ministry, BYM runs a number of summer camp programs for Quaker and non-Quaker youth, namely Catoctin Quaker Camp, Shiloh Quaker Camp, Opequon Quaker Camp, and the Teen Adventure Program.
Famous quotes containing the words baltimore, yearly and/or meeting:
“The treatment of the incident of the assault upon the sailors of the Baltimore is so conciliatory and friendly that I am of the opinion that there is a good prospect that the differences growing out of that serious affair can now be adjusted upon terms satisfactory to this Government by the usual methods and without special powers from Congress.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“... the yearly expenses of the existing religious system ... exceed in these United States twenty millions of dollars. Twenty millions! For teaching what? Things unseen and causes unknown!... Twenty millions would more than suffice to make us wise; and alas! do they not more than suffice to make us foolish?”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)
“No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us,—something more than we could learn for ourselves, from a book.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)