Monthly Meeting – Quarterly Meeting – Yearly Meeting
State of Society Reflection and Statistical Report
Officers and Committees for Westerly Monthly Meeting 2025 – General Responsibilities for Committees
Clerk: Ann Watkins; Recording Clerk: David Madden; Treasure & Recorder: Carol Baker
Book and Tract: John Back, Ann Watkins, James Morren, Beth Hansen
Buildings and Grounds: Kurt Hansen, John Schneider, James Morren, Abel Collins
Burial Grounds: Carol Baker, Clarkson Collins, Edie Morren, Jan Salsich
Communications Committee: John Back, Laura Jackson, David Madden
Finance Committee: Kurt Hansen, Carol Baker, Mary Kay Long, Phil Fitzpatrick
First Day School: John Back, Melissa French, Lilly Meadows
First Day School Helpers: James Morren, Ann Watkins
Housekeeping: Mary Kay Long, Laura Jackson, Edie Morren
Ministry and Counsel: Jana Noyes-Dakota, 3 years, John Back, 3 years, John Schneider, 2 years, Edie Morren, 2 years, David Madden, 1 year, (Ann Watkins), 2 years
Nominating Committee: Jessie Stratton, Edie Morren
Outreach Committee: Jan Salsich, Ann Watkins, Edie Morren (for WARM)
Peace and Justice: David Madden, John Fletcher, Gail Fletcher, Abel Collins, Edie Morren, Phil, Fitzpatrick
NOTE: First person listed for each committee is the Clerk of the Committee
Southeast Quarter – Quarterly Meeting – Third First Day of March, June, and October
Monthly Meetings of: Providence RI, Smithfield RI, Westerly RI, Worcester MA, and Conanicut Friends Worship Group Jamestown/Providence RI
New England Yearly Meeting – Yearly Meeting – Annual Sessions August 2, 2025
Who We Are – Over 5,000 people living our faith in the Quaker tradition across the six New England states. More than 90 local Quaker congregations where the practice of this faith is encouraged. An organization providing programs and services to liberate ministry and strengthen the Quaker movement
Friends Camp – New England Yearly Meeting
Friends Camp, in South China, Maine, is a caring and accepting youth camp community with Quaker values and lots of zany fun. We offer recreational, artistic, dramatic, and aquatic programming with Quaker worship and community work projects. Friends Camp gives youth a unique outdoor camping experience for spiritual, emotional, and creative growth that helps them discern a true and healthy path into adulthood.
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – January 2025 – Newsletter: Becoming real
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – December 2024 – Newsletter: Becoming the Quakers the world needs
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – November 2024 – Newsletter: Curiosity and empathy
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – October 2024 – Newsletter: Sharing Our Experience
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – September 2024 – Newsletter: Simple Gifts
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – July & August 2024 – Newsletter: Learning from the Labyrinth
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – June 2024 – Newsletter: Learning to Love
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – May 2024 – Newsletter: Growing Community
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – April 2024 – Newsletter: For What Are We Waiting
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – March 2024 – Newsletter: Synchronicity
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter – February 2024 – Newsletter: Staying with Love
Woolman Hill Retreat Center: Quaker retreat center situated on 110 acres of beautiful meadows and woods in the Connecticut Valley of western Massachusetts. Founded on the Quaker belief that there is that of God in every person, we welcome all who wish to nurture the spirit within and without. Upcoming Programs
Aging Resources Consultation and Help – New England Yearly Meeting
The Aging Resources Consultation and Help (ARCH) Program provides support for Friends in our journey of growing older as a community, grounded in care for one another and mutual accompaniment. We do this through our network of volunteers and staff who form a community of practice spanning across New England and New York Yearly Meetings. Continue Reading
Religious Society of Friends – Organizations
Friends Committee on National Legislation – FCNL.ORG
Legislative Priorities for the 119th Congress
The Friends Committee on National Legislation is a national, nonpartisan Quaker organization that lobbies Congress and the administration to advance peace, justice, and environmental stewardship. Founded in 1943 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), FCNL fields an expert team of lobbyists on Capitol Hill and works with a grassroots network of tens of thousands of people across the country to advance policies and priorities established by our governing General Committee. Issues We Work On
The World We Seek: Statement of Legislative Policy – This statement of policy embodies our convictions and provides the foundation for our work. It derives from careful discernment by Friends throughout the nation who have identified the fundamental vision that underlies our legislative actions. Continue Reading
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by American members of the Religious Society of Friends to assist civilian victims of World War I. AFSC works for a just, peaceful, and sustainable world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. We join with people and partners worldwide to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.
Friends Journal is published by Friends Publishing Corporation. Our mission is to communicate Quaker experience in order to connect and deepen spiritual lives. Friends Publishing Corporation was founded in 1955 “for the purpose of promoting religious concerns of the Religious Society of Friends and the education and information of its members and others by means of the written or spoken word, including the publication of a magazine or magazines, pamphlets or other writings.
American Friends Service Committee to Woodbrooke, Quaker Works is a semiannual feature highlighting the recent works of Quaker organizations worldwide in the following categories: Advocacy – Consultation, Support, and Resource – Development – Education – Environmental and Ecojustice – Investment Management – Retreat, Conference, and Study Centers – Service and Peace Work
Organizations Westerly Friends Supports:
WARM Center – Westerly Area Rest Meals – Making Meals as a Volunteer Coordinator
The mission statement at inception was; “Westerly Area Rest/Meals Shelter, Inc. offers each guest three basic expressions of hospitality: a warm meal, a warm bed and a warm welcome as well as related social services and advocacy.” throughout southern Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut. Westerly Monthly Meeting has been supporting the WARM Center for the past 35 years. The Meeting donates 50 dinner meals each month cooked by members of the Meeting. Each Christmas season the Meeting adopts a family and provides Christmas presents for the children.
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) is a network of Friends (Quakers) in North America working on Earthcare concerns. We work to inspire Spirit-led action toward ecological sustainability and environmental justice. QEW has grown out of a strong leading among Friends that our future depends on a spiritual transformation in our relationships with each other and the natural world. For over 30 years, we have helped Friends integrate Earthcare into their daily lives. As our communities are being impacted more and more by the climate crisis, we feel an urgent leading to share our witness.
Guided by Quaker principles and values, enriched by being in Palestine, and strengthened by collaboration within the school community and with external partnerships, Ramallah Friends School (RFS) offers children and youth with an academically rigorous, balanced, engaging and inclusive learning environment of the highest quality standard, every day. We inspire our students to become a living expression of a spiritual life, and be in constant search for God in all human situations. By doing so, we nurture confidence and intellectual curiosity through experiential learning and innovative application of knowledge and skills, enabling our students to become independent, adaptable but principled, socially responsible, and internationally-minded citizens. RAMALLAH FRIENDS SCHOOL strives to be a leading educational institution in the Palestinian community. The Lower and Upper Schools were founded in 1869 and 1901 respectively, for the purpose of offering Palestinian youth a rigorous program guided by Quaker principles. Central to Quaker education is a vitality that comes from being a living expression of a religious life. A Friends School education seeks to promote a constant search for God to all human situations and to cultivate ethical, moral and spiritual values.
Organizations Supported by Quakers
Alternatives to Violence (AVP)
AVP was initiated by US Quakers in 1975, in response to requests for help from inmates in Greenhaven Prison, New York. It is now an international movement independent from Quakers, though many Friends are actively involved in AVP groups in many countries. Although it began in a prison context, it soon became evident that its approach was applicable to conflict situations in many other settings. Basic to the AVP philosophy is the idea that there is something good in everyone, which we should affirm as a first step in strengthening self-respect. Learning to communicate feelings without creating a negative response is a valuable skill in handling conflict, whether at home, at work, in prison or in the community at large. The ability to listen to what the parties in a conflict are trying to say goes beyond simply hearing the words they use. It requires close attention, empathy, patience and courage. Quakers In The World