Updated May 09, 2008
Friends Meeting at Cambridge
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5 Longfellow Park (off Brattle St.) |
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Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-4816 |
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617-876-6883 |
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Office Hours: 10:30 am to 3:00 pm - Mon-Fri |
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Meeting for Worship |
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Sundays |
10:30 a.m. - 11:30
am |
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Wednesdays |
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 am |
The Meeting House is wheelchair accessible and has hearing aides connected to a microphone/amplification system. Please ask the individual who welcomes you at the door if you would like a hearing aide.
Sunday (First Day)
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* First Day School - childcare is available for all from 10am to 12 noon. Volunteers are needed - please contact Rebecca Grunko, First Day School Coordinator - rgrunko@yahoo.com. To learn more about the goals and schedule of First Day School click here
** Forum The forum is a relatively small
worship-sharing, informal discussion, usually with a leader about a given
topic, but with participation by many. All are welcome to this; it provides a
good opportunity for new members, attenders, and visitors to learn more about
our Meeting, what issues are of concern to the Meeting, and to get to know
other individuals in the Meeting. The Forums take place in the
parlor from 9:30 to 10:15 am on Sundays. We shut the parlor door at 9:30
because of the bustle of Friends arriving for meeting. If the door is closed
when you get there, please slip in and close it after you. Do come and join
with us. Childcare is provided in the nursery beginning at 9:15.
Click to obtain the
May 2008 Bulletin - Announcements and activities for the entire month.
Click to obtain the
April 2008 Bulletin - Announcements and activities for the entire month.
Click to obtain the Announcement Sheet for May 11, 2008 - Activities for the coming week.
Click to obtain the Announcement Sheet for May 4, 2008 - Activities for the coming week.
(Note all documents are in PDF format.)
Child Safety at Friends Meeting at Cambridge
In the winter of 2006, Friends Meeting approved the following
Minute of Concern: We cherish the children and youth in the Friends Meeting at
Cambridge community and the trust that they show in us as caring adults. We
believe that children and youth need a whole community that cares about them
and actively engages with them. As a result, we welcome and encourage loving
engagement between the adults and young people of our Meeting. We are sadly
aware that sexual abuse of children and youth occurs in religious communities
as well as in the wider society. We are therefore committed to policies and procedures
that will help us reduce the risk of harm happening to our beloved children and
youth while in our care and elsewhere. Our work as a meeting includes raising
awareness within the community, including adults, youth and children, about
sexual abuse risk reduction and response. FMC followed up this Minute of
Concern In the spring of 2006 by approving a thorough policy to reduce the risk
of sexual abuse of children and youth involved in First Day School and FMC
youth programs. An 11 page document available from the FMC office includes this
policy, attendant practices, Mandated Reporter guidelines, and other related
documents. Everyone in the FMC community is encouraged to become familiar with
these materials so that we can work together to provide a safe and nurturing
community for our young people. You
may download the minute by clicking here..
The weekly email announcements are available by sending a blank email
message to
fmcquaker-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Friends Meeting at Cambridge is part of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). We are a large Meeting with a diversity of backgrounds, ages, social commitments, and religious concerns. We are united primarily by religious experience and a common commitment to a way of life. In addition to worshiping and studying together, we share many activities together including retreats, festivals, small group discussions, innumerable committees, and work in the larger community. We, as individuals and as a community, attempt to witness to the wider world what we have learned from God about peace, justice, and the integrity of creation. Our belief in that of God in every person leads us to work with the homeless, the oppressed, and on behalf of peace, justice, and racial harmony.
Meeting for Worship at Cambridge is unprogrammed. There is no leader,
save the spirit of God which is in us and among us. Friends gather to wait
together in quiet anticipation of experiencing God's presence. There is a
living silence which has great power. A religious experience and a humble sense
that it must be shared may lead to a spoken message offered in the spirit of
worship. Meeting for Worship is a time for one's spiritual life to be deepened.
We welcome all who desire to worship with us.
Albert Schweitzer wrote the following in 1958 about "Peace or Atomic
War? These words are equally relevant today.
"We cannot continue in this paralyzing mistrust. If we want to work our
way out of the desperate situation in which we find ourselves another spirit
must enter into the people….The awareness that we are all human beings together
has become lost in war and through politics. We have reached the point of
regarding each other only as members of a people either allied with us or
against us. Now we must rediscover the fact that we - all together - are human
beings, and we must strive to concede to each other what moral capacity we
have. Only in this way can we begin to believe that in other peoples as well as
in ourselves there will arise the need for a new spirit…."
There are two national Quaker organizations who maintain home pages where there is a considerable amount of very excellent up-to-date information on issues concerning the response of Quakers to the national developments. These organizations are the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the American Friends Service Committee.
Two other Meetings are under our care: the South Shore Preparative Meeting in Hingham, and the worship group at Brookhaven in Lexington. Cambridge Friends Meeting formed and continues to support the Cambridge Friends School, an independent school, grades preK-8, established to foster Quaker values.
There are a number of other sites on the Internet which offer information about the traditions, organizations and activities of Friends
Susan Furry, Secretary 617-876-6883 fmcQuaker@iecc.com
Tom Ash, Resident Friend 617-876-1868 fmcResident@iecc.com
Rebecca Grunko, First Day School Coordinator 617-876-6884
rgrunko@yahoo.com
John Field, Facilities Manager 617-354-3383
fmcFacility@iecc.com