Baltimore Yearly Meeting


Baltimore Yearly Meeting is a body of the Religious Society of Friends headquartered in Sandy Spring, Maryland that includes Friends from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and West Virginia. It is one of the oldest yearly meetings in North America, first 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 Ken Stockbridge. Baltimore Yearly Meeting 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.