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Background
editBucks Quarterly Meeting, one of thirteen regional groups within the Religious Society of Friends' Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, is a collection of 14 monthly meetings (congregations) located in Bucks and Northampton Counties in Pennsylvania and Hunterdon County in New Jersey. Membership records list approximately 1,400 persons of all ages within the quarterly meeting.
History
editThroughout the history of Quakers in North America, Friends gathered for regular worship and community in congregations called monthly meetings. Though congregations met at least once weekly, they were known as "monthly meetings" after the frequency of business meetings held one Sunday every month. At these meetings, Friends addressed matters of care for one another, their meeting house and property, and concerns for their community.
Quarterly meetings addressed regional concerns of Friends which were greater than matters of concern to individual meetings yet not so great that they needed the attention of all Friends at annual sessions of the yearly meeting. They also provided an opportunity for young Quakers to meet other Quakers from nearby meetings with the intention of sustaining their communities through intermarriage.
Today, Bucks Quarterly Meeting offers local Quakers worship and fellowship opportunities with regional common efforts on outreach, peace and social justice initiatives, issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and support for disadvantaged persons.
Records of Bucks Quarterly Meeting are held at Swarthmore College's Friends Historical Library.
Organization
editThere are 14 monthly meetings in Bucks Quarterly Meeting. All but two are in Bucks County, with Lehigh Valley located in Bethlehem (Northampton County, Pennsylvania) and Quakertown (Hunterdon County, New Jersey).
- Bristol Friends Meeting (Bristol Borough) This meeting has its own website.
- Buckingham Friends Meeting (Buckingham Township) This meeting has its own website.
- Doylestown Friends Meeting (Doylestown Borough) This meeting has its own website.
- Fallsington Friends Meeting (Falls Township) This meeting has its own website.
- Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting (Hanover Township [Bethlehem PO], Northampton County, Pennsylvania) This meeting has its own website.
- Makefield Friends Meeting (Lower Makefield Township) This meeting has its own website.
- Middletown Friends Meeting (Middletown Township) This meeting has its own website.
- Newtown Friends Meeting (Newtown Borough) This meeting has its own website.
- Plumstead Friends Meeting (Plumstead Township) This meeting has its own website.
- Quakertown Friends Meeting (Franklin Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey)This meeting has its own website.
- Solebury Friends Meeting (Solebury Township) This meeting has its own website.
- Southampton Friends Meeting (Upper Southampton Township) This meeting has its own website.
- Wrightstown Friends Meeting (Wrightstown Township) This meeting has its own website.
- Yardley Friends Meeting (Yardley Borough) This meeting has its own website.
Activities
editBucks Quarterly Meeting gathers four times annually on the third Sunday in February, May, August, and November. Locations rotate among the 14 monthly meetings, scheduled annually by the clerk of the quarter and managed by the quarter coordinator (a paid full-time position).
Since 2020, quarterly meetings have been held virtually and in hybrid format. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, meetings were entirely virtual. Since then, Friends gather and person and with "meeting-in-a-box" hybrid technology.
Bucks Quarter Friends participate in the annual Wrightstown Peace Fair on the grounds of Wrightstown Friends Meeting and in Lehigh Valley Pride, most recently at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The quarterly meeting oversees Friends Home and Village in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
Publications
editBucks Quarter publishes a monthly newsletter, Quakerphernalia and weekly "Stories of Vitality" featuring Friends engaging with one another and with their communities.
References
editBucks Quarterly Meeting (official site)
Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
External links
editFriends Home and Village financial reporting (ProPublica)
Bucks Quarterly Meeting corporate filing (Guidestar)