Below find opportunities for connecting with others for learning, fellowship, and more both within Patapsco Friends Meeting and the wider Quaker Community. For more information on any of these, please follow any link provided or use our contact form. And by all means, if you have an idea for a new opportunity you’d like to see happen, let us know that too, using the contact form.

While some opportunities have costs attached (indicated with “$”), Patapsco Friends Meeting provides funds to support attendance at Quaker events without regard to financial need.

Within Patapsco Friends Meeting

Wednesday Morning Worship with Friends

Meet 10:00-11:00am on Wednesday for worship and sharing.

Pendle Hill Pamphlet Reading Group

Pendle Hill, a retreat center outside of Philadelphia, has offered over 450 pamphlets on a wide range of topics.  We select and read one a month.

Spiritual Formation Program

For those who seek a deeper experience of God’s presence through retreats, devotional readings, spiritual community and individual spiritual practices.

These opportunities draw on the program modeled by Baltimore Yearly Meeting, which sponsors two retreats a year as well as an online program. See below for more.

Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles is a 1976 book by Helen Schucman, a curriculum for those seeking to achieve spiritual transformation. Once a month.

Meditation Group

Discussion group centered on meditation practices from a variety of disciplines. The group offers support for a daily meditation practice. Meets once a month.

Bible Study

Consider the stories, the miracles, the messages found in this age-old book.

Change Group for Racial Justice Book discussions and other activities.

Patapsco Friends Meeting has a Change Group for Racial Justice.  The change group’s purpose is

• To advance racial equity work and facilitate paths to change within ourselves, Patapsco Friends Meeting, and the wider community.
• To identify and lower barriers to participation for black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) within Patapsco Friends Meeting.
• To engage the Meeting community in activities of reflection and action that support the above-stated purpose. These have so far included book discussion groups, noon sessions, and field trips.

Unity with Nature Hikes

Join us on sporadic hikes in our neighborhoods.

Friendly Bunches

Get to know others at Patapsco: join a group for a social evening often with good food. Once a month.

Pre-Meeting Singing Group

Join a group of vocal Friends for singing before Meeting. It gathers at 9:30am on the 4th Sundays of the month at Hebron House (not online).

Patapsco Retreat

Once a year we gather over a long weekend to reflect and discuss Quaker topics.

Patapsco Library

Browse our library on the second floor. Our library catalog is now online: https://www.librarything.com/profile/PatapscoFriends

Various Activities in the Community on Social Concerns

Patapsco Friends have engaged in a variety of work on social concerns including prison ministry and refugee resettlement as well as the efforts highlighted below. Some of these efforts are facilitated by our Peace & Social Concerns Committee. See our description of our various committees for more information and this and other committees engaged in social action.

People Acting Together in Howard (PATH)

Patapsco is a member of PATH, a multi-racial, multi-faith, non-partisan residents’ organization, rooted in local congregations and organizations. Through the relationships it helps build, those involved with PATH challenge each other to imagine the change we want to see in our communities. It then plans targeted, strategic actions to work toward that vision by working with and holding accountable our public officials.

Volunteering at Our Daily Bread

About once a month on a Saturday, a group of volunteers from our Meeting serves lunch at Our Daily Bread in Baltimore.

In the Wider Quaker Community

Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting (CQM)

Patapsco is a member of Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting, an area Quaker Community in Central Maryland, that includes Annapolis; Baltimore, Homewood; Baltimore, Stony Run; Gunpowder; Little Falls; Patapsco; Patuxent; and Sandy Spring Meetings. It meets three times a year on the second Sunday of February, the second Sunday of June, and the last Sunday of September. It generally includes a program, worship with the host Meeting, lunch, and an opportunity to share what’s happening in our Meetings. There are routinely reports from the Quaker Voice of Maryland (QVM) and the Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform (MAJR), which are legislative advocacy organizations. Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting founded the Quaker Voice of Maryland in 2019. Meetings within CQM including Annapolis and Pataspco played a role in founding MAJR in 2015.

Baltimore Yearly Meeting

Patapsco Friends is a member of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, a regional Quaker community which covers much of Maryland, DC, Virginia, and parts of Pennsylvania and WV, with 50 local Meetings, about 7000 members and attenders, and 4 summer camps (where there are opportunities to adults to be involved as well as children).

Annual Session

Annual Session in August offers an opening retreat, worship, plenary programs, small group sharing, children’s programs, business sessions, workshops, interest groups, singing, a bookstore, and fellowship. It is in-person, lately at Hood College in Frederick, and offers online participation for plenary events. $

Interim Meeting

At Interim Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting conducts business sessions, generally three times a year in fall, early spring, and early summer. It is held in person at various local Meetings within the Yearly Meeting and also offers online participation.

Spiritual Formation Program

For those who seek a deeper experience of God’s presence through retreats, devotional readings, spiritual community and individual spiritual practices. The Yearly Meeting sponsors a Fall and Spring Retreat ($). Then during the year, local meetings organize large and small groups that meet once or twice a month. (See above for Patapsco’s groups.) There is also an online program with large and small groups that meet monthly from fall to spring, including Friends from across the Yearly Meeting and beyond.

Women’s Retreat

Once a year there is a weekend gathering of women in the yearly meeting. $

Friends General Conference (FGC)

Founded in 1900, Friends General Conference is an association of local and regional Quaker organizations primarily in the United States and Canada. FGC is a volunteer led association. Friends General Conference, with Divine guidance, nurtures the spiritual vitality of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) by providing programs and services for Friends, meetings, and seekers.

The FGC Gathering

A week-long gathering of American, Canadian, and other Friends at a college. The Gathering is packed with programs and events, from small group morning workshops to public evening plenaries, and programs for children, teens and young adults. $

FGC’s Ministry on Racism Programs

Friends General Conference’s Ministry on Racism program provides opportunities for Friends of Color to gather and build community together. It also provides opportunities for white Friends confronting racism. In addition, it offers assistance and support to FGC affiliated meetings and yearly meetings that want to develop their racial and ethnic awareness, increase their diversity, and strive to address the impact of the institution of racism on our Society. Through multiple channels the Ministry on Racism empowers individual Friends, Quaker meetings and Quaker organizations to confront and heal the wounds of white supremacy, challenge racism, and help Friends co-create communities that are more accessible and equitable. 

FGC Spiritual Deepening Program

The Spiritual Deepening Program gives Friends and newcomers opportunities to rediscover Quaker faith and thought, connect with Spirit, and build relationships with each other through sharing and deep listening.  Through exercises, discussions, introspection, and creativity, participants share their spiritual stories, explore how Quaker thought and spiritual practices can transform lives, and go deeper together into the life of the Spirit. Program materials are designed for participants of all ages and stages in their spiritual journey. Online courses and library. $

Friends World Committee for Consultation

Answering God’s call to universal love, Friends World Committee for Consultation brings 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. It has both online and in-person($) events.

Pendle Hill Workshops

Pendle Hill is a Quaker retreat center outside Philadelphia. Weekend and week-long workshops with knowledgeable leaders. ($) Pendle Hill also sponsors an online meeting for worship every day at 8:30am Eastern Time.

Quaker Spring

A Spirit-led, unstructured, intimate, gathering of Friends from many and diverse Yearly Meetings around the world. It has an annual hybrid gathering in June, alternating between Olney Friends School in Barnesville, OH in odd years and venues in the northeast in even years. It also has a few online gatherings in between, generally in fall and early spring.

Quaker Speak Videos

Find these for free on YouTube or https://quakerspeak.com/

And that’s just a start!

There are more resources and links to Quaker organizations, etc., on our “More” page.

Updated: 12/19/2023