My Friends (Quaker) Meeting

I am a member of the Vancouver Island Monthly Meeting (VIMM) of Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends(CYM).

VIMM, like many Canadian Meetings, is spread over hundreds of kilometers; in our case, up and down the length of Vancouver Island. Like many other Canadian meetings, we are in a process of discovering how to operate a Monthly Meeting which is made up of a combination of several Worship groups and Friends Meetings. Quaker history is deep on Vancouver Island, with the beautiful meeting house in Victoria being on of the oldest meeting houses on the west coast of North America. It is over a hundred years old.

I usually attend meeting at Mid Island Allowed Meeting (MIAM), which take place in Nanaimo, or the Parksville—Qualicum area. We are a former worship group that is growing and learning about Quaker process and gradually taking on more responsibility for its own business as well a contributing to the bi-monthly meetings of VIMM. MIAM meets twice a month, on the 2nd Sunday of the month at the Bethlehem Retreat Centre, and then on the last Sunday of the month in someone's home.

After meeting on the 2nd Sunday, we often stay to have refreshments or a bag lunch, and have a sharing session on some topic of interest. After meeting on the last Sunday, we usually gather for a pot luck lunch and some time to catch up with other members of the meeting. As is often the case, the legendary Quaker pot-luck meals make this end of the month meeting a real favourite with local Friends.