New England Yearly Meeting
Encyclopedia
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Quakers) headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
that includes Friends from the New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
region of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) is part of both Friends General Conference
Friends General Conference
Friends General Conference is a North American Quaker organization primarily serving the Quaker yearly and monthly meetings in the United States and Canada that choose to be members...
and Friends United Meeting
Friends United Meeting
Friends United Meeting is an association of twenty-six yearly meetings of the Religious Society of Friends in North America, Africa, and the Caribbean. In addition there are several individual Monthly meetings and organizations that are members of FUM...
–- two broader bodies of Friends. They are also part of Friends World Committee for Consultation
Friends World Committee for Consultation
The Friends World Committee for Consultation is a Quaker organization that works to communicate between all parts of Quakerism. FWCC's world headquarters is based in London. It has Consultative NGO status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations...
and the Friends Peace Teams Project.
Sixty-eight monthly meeting
Monthly meeting
Monthly Meetings are, traditionally, the basic unit of administration in the Religious Society of Friends .For some Friends a Monthly Meeting is a single Meeting , while for others it is a grouping of Meetings which come together for administrative purposes. Membership in the Religious Society of...
s are associated with NEYM. Most of the 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. Others are in the programmed tradition, which means that they have a pastor who leads the meeting and plans ahead of time what will be said and done.
Yearly meeting sessions are held once a year, usually in the first week of August. Most recently they have been held at Bryant University
Bryant University
Bryant University is a private university located in Smithfield, Rhode Island, U.S., that grants the degrees of bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and master's degrees in business, taxation and accounting. Until August 2004, it was known as Bryant College...
in Smithfield, Rhode Island
Smithfield, Rhode Island
Smithfield is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. It includes the historic villages of Esmond, Georgiaville, Mountaindale, Hanton City, Stillwater and Greenville...
. Past locations include Stonehill College
Stonehill College
Stonehill College is a private Roman Catholic college located in Easton, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1948. Situated in North Easton, Massachusetts, a suburban community of 23,329 people, Stonehill is located south of Boston on a campus, the original estate of Frederick Lothrop Ames...
in North Easton, Massachusetts; Wheaton College
Wheaton College (Massachusetts)
Wheaton College is a four-year, private liberal arts college with an approximate student body of 1,550. Wheaton's residential campus is located in Norton, Massachusetts, between Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1834 as a female seminary, it is one of the oldest...
in Norton, Massachusetts
Norton, Massachusetts
Norton is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, and contains the village of Norton Center. The population was 18,036 at the 2000 census...
; Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
in Brunswick, Maine
Brunswick, Maine
Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,278 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, , and the...
; and Hampshire College
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...
in Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
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NEYM publishes a quarterly newsletter entitled The New England Friend. The archives for NEYM are housed in the Rhode Island Historical Society
Rhode Island Historical Society
The Rhode Island Historical Society is a privately endowed membership organization, founded in 1822, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Rhode Island...
Library in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
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NEYM also runs a summer camp in South China, Maine called Friends Camp.