"Quakerism is a faith of personal experience and direct communion with God, a faith of continuing revelation; and a faith of living our values in the secular world. All who seek to deepen their spiritual lives are welcome!"
Please join our Meeting for Worship, Sundays 10:30 to 11:30 A.M.!
Our First Day School for Children meets from 10:30 to 11:15 AM so that all children can join in the last 15 minutes of the worship service.
Parking is along School House Lane across from the Meetinghouse, and if you follow the driveway behind the Meetinghouse there is additional parking behind the Meetinghouse as well. The Main entrance is wheelchair accessible and under the arched gateway in the front,. There is another entrance behind the Meetinghouse across from the playground, down a small flight of stairs.
Meeting for Worship gathers in the room to your immediate right as you enter the Main entrance.
First Day School for children begins at 10:30 a.m. at the top of the Main entrance stairs. Attending children will engage in activities either inside the Meetinghouse or outside, and join Worship at 11:15 a.m..
After the rise of meeting around 11:30 a.m., there are brief announcements and then hospitality, where F/friends enjoy light fare or lunch and each others company!
You are encouraged to contact our meeting secretary if you are a newcomer to Quakerism or have any questions.
Tradition of Worship: Green Street Monthly Meeting practices a traditional, unprogrammed, or a Silent Meeting for Worship. Silent Meetings for Worship are different from most organized religious services. Those attending the meeting sit silently, trying to listen to the Spirit, until someone is moved by the Spirit to speak. The person so moved generally stands, says what they have to say, and sits down. Meetings like this generally run for about an hour, and it is not out of the ordinary for a meeting to be silent the whole hour. It is customary to wait a few minutes between speakers to allow time for consideration of what has been said.
Monthly Meeting for Business: Third Sunday of the Month in the Meeting House
"The basis upon which we hold our Meetings for Business-- be they committee, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly Meetings-- is that, this is God's world, that He has unfinished business for us to do, and that it is possible for us to ascertain His will for us in this world. The Meeting for Business is, in essence, the Meeting for Worship focused upon specific matters, and there well may be a significant correlation between the depth and power of the Meeting for Business and the Meeting for Worship."
from When Friends Attend to Business by Thomas F. Brown
Committees : Concerns approved in a meeting for business are carried out by committees or appointed individuals. There are a number of standing committees with designated long term tasks. These include Budget, Coordinating, Educational Assistance, School Oversight, Hospitality, Property, Housekeeping, Necessitous Cases, Overseers, Religious Education, Trustees, Worship and Ministry, and Undesignated Funds.
In 1812, the Northern District Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia a Meeting house at Fourth and Green Streets, in what is now known as the Northern Liberties. Monthly Meeting status for Green Street was approved by the Quarterly Meeting in 1816. In 1822, Elias Hicks visited Green Street Monthly Meeting of Friends. The Meeting endorsed his visitation. A powerful faction of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting disapproved of Hick's preaching that the "Light within" was the source of all revelation. To forestall disciplinary action, Green Street Meeting transferred to Abington Quarterly Meeting, in 1827. The dispute over Elias Hicks led to a great schism among Friends throughout Canada and the East, one branch becoming known as the Orthodox, the other as the Hicksite Friends.
The Hicksite Friends of Germantown purchased the land on School House Lane in 1828 and erected a new Meeting House on the School House Lane property. This Germantown group was under the care of Green Street Monthly Meeting. At this time, the Frankford Preparative Meeting for Friends at Unity and Waln Streets, also became attached to Green Street Meeting.
In 1876, a new Meeting House was built when the additional space was needed. This is the current Meeting House of Green Street Monthly Meeting. This first building, erected in 1828, is now the site of Greene Street Friends School. The school was named "Greene Street Friends School" because it is on Greene Street in Germantown.
In 1914, the original property at Fourth and Green Street was sold to Philadelphia Quarterly. By 1917, the Monthly Meetings have been held at the School House Lane Meeting House.
Information from a brochure entitled "A History of Green Street Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia"