The Walla Walla Friends Meeting was formed on April 1, 1980 and received preparative meeting status in October, 1980 under the oversight of Eastside Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Bellevue, which is affiliated with Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting and North Pacific Yearly Meeting. Since then Walla Walla Friends have continued as a perpetual preparative meeting.
Walla Walla Friends regularly meet on the first Sunday of each month at 10 a.m. at Whitman College's Glover Alston Center, 26 Boyer Avenue. When the weather is mild, we meet in the back yard, otherwise inside.
Please telephone 509-522-0399 or 509-629-2791, or email clarkdb@charter.net to confirm the meeting time and location and for other information about the meeting.
FRIENDS HISTORY AND PRACTICES
The awakening of the first Friends in the 1650s to the presence of the divine within them was revolutionary to those who experienced it. Friends variously described the divine presence they found within themselves as the Inward Light, the Truth, “that of God within every person,” the Spirit, and the Inner Christ. Quaker worship is designed to assure that forms such as rituals, books, symbols, and words not coming out of the present experience of the Spirit are not substituted for that experience.
In addition to time spent individually in cultivating the Inner Presence, Friends gather regularly for worship in what they call silent “waiting”, bringing nothing but an open heart and mind, and a trust that in the silence, beyond the din of words, thoughts, and external clamor, a deeper reality awaits us which has the power to unite us both internally and with our fellows. From that experience, many Friends have become deeply involved in issues of peace, justice and respect for all people.
A detailed history of the Meeting and its projects is now available in a book titled, "What Sayest Thou?--A History of the Walla Walla Friends Meeting," a .pdf of which can be found in the right hand column and printed copies of which are available at the weekly meetings or from online or local booksellers.
To learn more about Friends, please see the Short Course on Quakerism link in the upper right hand corner of this page, along with the link to North Pacific Yearly Meeting and Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting of Friends.
