Who we are....

Multnomah Friends Meeting, a Quaker spiritual community, welcomes all. We are a member of the Community of Welcoming Congregations.

Like all Quakers, we call ourselves “Friends”; we are formally known as the “Religious Society of Friends.”

We value our “radical diversity.”  Our core belief is that the Divine Spirit is accessible to all. Most Friends are Christians, but many are not. We come to Friends from many faith traditions. Most of us began our spiritual journeys in some other tradition or no tradition at all.

We call our gathering place a Meetinghouse.  Striving for simplicity, our place of worship is plain. We sit together in a circle or rectangle.  Recognizing that the Divine Spirit is accessible to all, we gather without reliance on formal creeds, sacraments, or clergy. Our worship is grounded in silence.  All present are free to speak “out of the silence” if they are genuinely moved to do so. Spoken ministry should be for the others gathered as well as for the speaker.

The community gathers in a monthly Meeting for Worship for Business to consider together what actions we might take.  We do this recognizing that the Divine Spirit is present to guide us to decisions which are appropriate for this community at this time.

Individually we each strive to live in the “Light of the Spirit” which leads us to lives based in simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality. These are our testimonies and we find that in trying to live up to them, our lives are changed.