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:
“There is a saying in Baltimore that crabs may be prepared in fifty ways and that all of them are good.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“... 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)
“I think it is better to show love by meeting needs than to keep telling my son that I love him. Right now he is learning to tie his shoes. He is old enough, so even though it’s hard for him, sometimes I insist. But once in a while when I see he’s tired I still do it for him, and I have noticed that while I am tying his shoe, he says, “I love you, Mommy.” When he says, “I love you,” I know that he knows that he is loved.”
—Anonymous Parent (20th century)