The Monthly Meeting
The Monthly Meeting consists of a group of Friends who meet together at regular intervals to wait upon God in Meetings for Worship and who meet monthly on the occasion of business. In corporate fellowship, Friends experience the most profound realities of life: birth and death, marriage and family, community of spirit, and concern for other people. A true Meeting in the Quaker sense is a gathering of people that is also an encounter with God. When this divine-human interaction takes place, there is order, unity, and power. If and when this connection fails, Friends wait and pray that “the way may open” once more. The good order of Friends is based on this conception of a “Meeting.”
A Monthly Meeting has many functions. It receives, records and terminates memberships. It provides spiritual and material aid to those in its fellowship. It oversees marriages, gives care at the time of death, and counsels with members in troubled circumstances. It collects and administers funds for its maintenance and work. Meetings hold titles to property, witness to Friends’ testimonies, and relate to other bodies of Friends and to other organizations with common concerns.