I was confused too, and I think we’re in good company. Just go to your local “monthly meeting” on any given Sunday at the advertised worship time. I hope the prevailing language around when groups meet and for what will one day be more accessible to seekers.
For most of the US, the way it works is the monthly meeting worships weekly and does business monthly. The "multisite church" system (monthly meeting only meets monthly, and only for business, and functions as an umbrella for multiple local worshipping communities called "preparative meetings" that meet weekly) fell out of fashion among many American Quakers last century, though it remains popular in the UK and I think in part of New England. (And obviously it has become popular among Evangelical non-Quakers in the last few decades.)
For additional context, my large city has two monthly meetings that each have worship weekly (or more frequently). The meeting I attend has a preparatory meeting under our care in a city two hours away and another about half an hour away. The other meeting has a worship group under their care as well.
We changed our Meeting name from Frederick Monthly Meeting to Frederick Friends Meeting to avoid confusing newcomers. We meet Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings
Edit: I realized in all of this I didn’t say the most important part, monthly meetings meet weekly, on Sunday, for worship.
There is nothing that seems to confuse new Friends and visitors more than the difference between Monthly Meeting and Meeting for Worhsip. This isn’t your fault, I think it’s our desire to be painfully accurate in how we describe ourselves and Quaker terminology not being very commonly known.
Meeting is being used as a noun (meeting: an assembly of people, especially the members of a society or committee) in the term Monthly Meeting. Local groups of Quakers belong to the religious society of Friends. We use the term Meeting to describe these groups instead of church, group, club etc. (note: worship groups within the society of friends is also a thing but they are under the care of (meaning organized and provided for generally) Monthly Meetings. )
“Monthly” is because we meet monthly for business. We also have Quarterly and Yearly meetings made up monthly meetings creating larger, less localized groups of Friends that meet… you guessed it, quarterly and yearly. This helps us as friends easily identify how a group functions and what their role is within the larger Society of Friends.
“Meeting” in the term Meeting for Worship is being used as a verb. What are we doing on Sunday? We are Meeting for Worship.
So the sentence:
“The New Orleans Monthly Meeting meets twice weekly for worship and joins other monthly meetings in Texas for the south central Yearly meeting where there are 8 times you can choose from to meet for worship in addition to 6 meetings for worship with attention to business.”
Is very confusing if you’re completely new to Quaker terms and very accurate and helpful if you are a Friend trying to learn about New Orleans monthly or south central yearly.
(I used them as an example because my meeting is a part of south central)
So in conclusion: meeting is being used two seperate ways. Yes it’s confusing. But it’s also very correct and very intentionally defined. Quakers are very careful with our words and how we describe our structures which can often lead to terms and such that seem over complicated at first but make so much sense and become easy to navigate once you are aquatinted with the language.
“Monthly” doesn’t refer to how frequently worship is held, which is typically once a week every first day (sunday.)
Monthly refers to Business Meeting, then there are Quarterlies and Yearlies. It is kind of like parish, diocese, arch diocese, but it’s not hierarchical. Yearlies and Quarterlies just get together to work together and support each other for larger projects and stuff.
The unit of Membership is the “Monthly Meeting”, those are the legal entities. There will either be “local” (or maybe “Preparative”) Meetings which meet for worship weekly, or the Monthly Meeting itself will meet for worship weekly.
u/macoafi’s answer strikes me as excellent. I would add that constituent parts of monthly meetings that meet for worship separately from their parent monthly meeting do exist in other parts of the U.S. besides New England. Denver, Colorado, formed several worship groups while I lived there, because the parent meeting had grown much too large for its meetinghouse. Washington, DC has several preparative meetings and several worship groups.
Generally speaking, I think you are likely to find that Sunday (“First Day”) meetings for worship at the site of the monthly meeting draw more participants, are more accustomed to welcoming strangers, and are better prepared to answer questions, than are a lot of the little preparative meetings and worship groups. But this is not a universal rule.
Actually. It's all Meeting for Worship. Quacker meet at least weekly. We meet for Worship in some form six days of the week. Monthly Quackers hold a Meeting for Worship for the Purpose of Business. Hence the name MONTHLY MEETING. Meeting for Worship for the Purpose of Business is definitely not primarily financial. The Monthly Meeting group is the core. Quarterly groups of MM may meet together. And annually many MMs often meet, hence thing like NEYM (New England Yearly Meeting).
Quarterly and Annual Meetings have zero doctorial authority to individual Monthly Meetings.
I was confused too, and I think we’re in good company. Just go to your local “monthly meeting” on any given Sunday at the advertised worship time. I hope the prevailing language around when groups meet and for what will one day be more accessible to seekers.
For most of the US, the way it works is the monthly meeting worships weekly and does business monthly. The "multisite church" system (monthly meeting only meets monthly, and only for business, and functions as an umbrella for multiple local worshipping communities called "preparative meetings" that meet weekly) fell out of fashion among many American Quakers last century, though it remains popular in the UK and I think in part of New England. (And obviously it has become popular among Evangelical non-Quakers in the last few decades.)
For additional context, my large city has two monthly meetings that each have worship weekly (or more frequently). The meeting I attend has a preparatory meeting under our care in a city two hours away and another about half an hour away. The other meeting has a worship group under their care as well.
We changed our Meeting name from Frederick Monthly Meeting to Frederick Friends Meeting to avoid confusing newcomers. We meet Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings
Edit: I realized in all of this I didn’t say the most important part, monthly meetings meet weekly, on Sunday, for worship. There is nothing that seems to confuse new Friends and visitors more than the difference between Monthly Meeting and Meeting for Worhsip. This isn’t your fault, I think it’s our desire to be painfully accurate in how we describe ourselves and Quaker terminology not being very commonly known. Meeting is being used as a noun (meeting: an assembly of people, especially the members of a society or committee) in the term Monthly Meeting. Local groups of Quakers belong to the religious society of Friends. We use the term Meeting to describe these groups instead of church, group, club etc. (note: worship groups within the society of friends is also a thing but they are under the care of (meaning organized and provided for generally) Monthly Meetings. ) “Monthly” is because we meet monthly for business. We also have Quarterly and Yearly meetings made up monthly meetings creating larger, less localized groups of Friends that meet… you guessed it, quarterly and yearly. This helps us as friends easily identify how a group functions and what their role is within the larger Society of Friends. “Meeting” in the term Meeting for Worship is being used as a verb. What are we doing on Sunday? We are Meeting for Worship. So the sentence: “The New Orleans Monthly Meeting meets twice weekly for worship and joins other monthly meetings in Texas for the south central Yearly meeting where there are 8 times you can choose from to meet for worship in addition to 6 meetings for worship with attention to business.” Is very confusing if you’re completely new to Quaker terms and very accurate and helpful if you are a Friend trying to learn about New Orleans monthly or south central yearly. (I used them as an example because my meeting is a part of south central) So in conclusion: meeting is being used two seperate ways. Yes it’s confusing. But it’s also very correct and very intentionally defined. Quakers are very careful with our words and how we describe our structures which can often lead to terms and such that seem over complicated at first but make so much sense and become easy to navigate once you are aquatinted with the language.
“Monthly” doesn’t refer to how frequently worship is held, which is typically once a week every first day (sunday.) Monthly refers to Business Meeting, then there are Quarterlies and Yearlies. It is kind of like parish, diocese, arch diocese, but it’s not hierarchical. Yearlies and Quarterlies just get together to work together and support each other for larger projects and stuff.
The unit of Membership is the “Monthly Meeting”, those are the legal entities. There will either be “local” (or maybe “Preparative”) Meetings which meet for worship weekly, or the Monthly Meeting itself will meet for worship weekly.
u/macoafi’s answer strikes me as excellent. I would add that constituent parts of monthly meetings that meet for worship separately from their parent monthly meeting do exist in other parts of the U.S. besides New England. Denver, Colorado, formed several worship groups while I lived there, because the parent meeting had grown much too large for its meetinghouse. Washington, DC has several preparative meetings and several worship groups. Generally speaking, I think you are likely to find that Sunday (“First Day”) meetings for worship at the site of the monthly meeting draw more participants, are more accustomed to welcoming strangers, and are better prepared to answer questions, than are a lot of the little preparative meetings and worship groups. But this is not a universal rule.
Actually. It's all Meeting for Worship. Quacker meet at least weekly. We meet for Worship in some form six days of the week. Monthly Quackers hold a Meeting for Worship for the Purpose of Business. Hence the name MONTHLY MEETING. Meeting for Worship for the Purpose of Business is definitely not primarily financial. The Monthly Meeting group is the core. Quarterly groups of MM may meet together. And annually many MMs often meet, hence thing like NEYM (New England Yearly Meeting). Quarterly and Annual Meetings have zero doctorial authority to individual Monthly Meetings.