Multnomah Friends News

Oregon Senator: We no longer ask to feel safe; we demand that we feel safe in our country, state, city and neighborhoods

"It has been a simple request: I want to feel safe in my neighborhood, downtown, in my car, at the grocery store, in my backyard, and in my house. And if I don't feel safe for some reason, I want the people I call to address that danger to not also be a danger to me because my skin is darker than theirs or because I am not wearing a police uniform."  Lew Frederick, a part of our Meeting community, wrote this piece for the Portland Tribune, 6/14/20. Read more.

Multnomah Meeting Friends For Racial Justice Statement

Dear Friends:

Multnomah Monthly Meeting reminds Friends of our Minute on Racial Justice. In this time of universal mourning for the lives of black citizens who have been killed by and in the criminal "justice" system, we ask that friends take action to live our Minute. In addition to any specific action you are taking in response to the latest police killings of unarmed Black people, we especially encourage our white friends to please review this excellent article entitled "75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice." The Meeting's Friends for Racial Justice Planning Committee asks each of us to commit to doing one or two things from the list by a certain date. 

Please share the things you commit to doing (and updates on your progress) either on the Meeting’s Racial Justice Facebook page or by emailing the information to Lori Patterson ([email protected]), who will post it on the Facebook page. These are concrete things we can do to work against racism in our own community and beyond. You can access the page by joining Facebook and searching for Multnomah Quaker Meeting Racial Justice Study and Action Group. You will see a link that says "Join Group."

Here are additional resources that you can access to find ways to support people of color and anti-racist work: Friends Committee on National Legislation; Black Lives Matter; Don't Shoot Portland; Campaign Zero; and My Brother's Keeper.

Justice & Peace,

Friends for Racial Justice of Multnomah Monthly Meeting

Read full statement here.

Welcome to Multnomah Friends Meeting

Meeting for Worship will be held every Sunday at 10 am, until further notice, using Zoom. Click this link at 9:55 am. Meeting ID: 705 774 465. Password: 923550. Please mute your audio unless you have a message to give. Early Worship and Meeting for Worship for Business will be held at the same link. Dialing in by phone?

Note that there is no Meeting for Worship for Business in July.

Midweek Worship Group Meeting for Worship will be held Wednesdays at noon using Zoom. Click this link at 11:55 am.  Meeting ID: 325 077 955. Password: 337283

For more information about our online activity, check out A Quaker's Guide to Online Worship and Meetings and this recent article in the New York Times about Quaker Meetings online.

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.