Overview

Below you’ll find resources and practical suggestions that participants in the Welcoming Friend Project Peer Groups found useful for increasing awareness and changing the culture of welcome within their meetings.

Print this Exercise

Provide clear information about Quaker practices and beliefs.

  • FGC’s Cards for Newcomers are written in plain, accessible language and are free to download and print.  Topics include Quaker Worship, Quakers and Prayer, What Do Quakers Believe, and You Are Welcome Here.
  • Quaker.org has some clear and simple introductions to Quakerism.

Support study and fellowship among newcomers and seasoned Friends to further develop our Quaker faith:

Plan social activities for the meeting that are newcomer friendly:

  • Friendly 8’s or Quaker 8’s — Try Quaker 7’s and leave space for a newcomer
    • Quaker Eights (or Sevens) is a community-building initiative where groups of eight people commit to meeting for eight potluck meals over a set period, typically a year. These gatherings, hosted in rotation by group members, aim to foster deeper connections and a sense of belonging within the Quaker community. Each participant brings a dish to share, promoting inclusivity and cultural exchange. The informal, relaxed setting encourages conversation and mutual support, reflecting core Quaker values of simplicity, fellowship, and community. Through Quaker Eights, participants strengthen relationships and create a more connected and supportive community.
  • Potlucks with a newcomers’ table where there’s a focus on themes of interest to newcomers
  • QuakerSpeak discussion group
  • Movie nights or game nights

Talk to people in your meeting, both recent attenders and old-timers, about their experience being new to the meeting.  What patterns do you notice?  Portland Friends created a short survey. Explore this comprehensive resource from our colleagues in the Episcopal church: Invite, Welcome, Connect Evaluate the bathroom layout at the meetinghouse.  Does it work for everyone?  What changes could be made so that everyone feels safe and welcome?

Create a uniform greeting policy– implicit bias is real and intentional practice will help.

  1. Hi, I’m Holly. I don’t think we’ve met. Have you been here before? Is this your first time at a Friends Meeting? 
  2. Meeting room is here, bathroom is here, fellowship is here. This is what to expect at our meeting. Do you have any questions? 
  3. I’d love to check in with you afterwards if you have any questions after worship. 

Wear nametags and pronoun buttons

Display the Transforming Quaker Welcoming Poster in your meetinghouse and discuss it with Friends.

Adopt an intentional “noticing” procedure for Business Meeting and committee meetings.  The noticer pays attention to power dynamics, issues of race, class, and gender, and how decisions are made, and reports back at the end of the meeting.

Adopt a query for assessing decisions made within the meeting, according to the priorities of the meeting.  Friends General Conference adopted the following minute in 2018: Central Committee resolves that in all FGC decision-making processes beginning now with the Fiscal Year 2019 budget, each body shall answer the following query with respect to each decision, “How does this decision support FGC in its goal to transform into an actively anti-racist faith community?” (This commitment from FGC took a great deal of time and followed a year-long Institutional and Cultural Assessment on Race.  We’ll explore this in more depth in the coming weeks) Honor and acknowledge the native land where your Quaker meeting is located:

Work together on deepening worship and spiritual community within the meeting:

Explore some non-Quaker resources for creating culture change in churches:

Show, don’t tell: Strategies for truly welcoming queer folks

✕
Translate »