Beacon Hill Friends Meeting
Beacon Hill Friends Meeting is an inclusive Quaker religious community in Boston that affirms the value of all people inclusive of race, nationality, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Our Community
Young People's Ministry and Education is in charge of providing a learning environment for young and very young Friends.
Our business meetings begin and end with worship, framing the work at hand with centered awareness in the divine presence. Although the business to be addressed requires attention to facts, details, and varying options, we seek to remain spiritually grounded throughout the discernment process. Our decisions do not rely on majority rule, but rather on a unity found through calm attention to the Light Within. The Spirit may speak through anyone present, and it is our task to listen and speak with humility and to trust in the Spirit’s guidance.
The history of Friends still speaks to us. We are the proud recipients of that history and we embrace its greatness and its flaws. But we must not allow ourselves as Friends to believe that the wonderful work of previous generations speaks for us today. We are called now - women and men with children, homes, jobs, bills, and all other worldly concerns and responsibilities - just as previous generations of Quakers were called upon in the past. This involves spirit-led discussions and explorations of various topics and engaging in various service activities and actions relating to Quaker witness.
New England Friends are engaged with the need to work in a more focused and intentional way towards right relationship with Indigenous Peoples in our region. In 2020, NE Friends approved forwarding a Letter of Apology to Native Americans as well as a set of recommendations for further action to local meetings for reflection.
BHFM charged a Working Group on Right Relations with bringing forward concrete and meaningful measures, informed by consultation with local Indigenous people, that we might take as individuals or collectively that will make this Apology more than words on a page. The group created this resource list to inspire you and help you learn more.