| In the spring of 1968 some Guilford College students and professors began to meet
together for worship in the manner of Friends. They had in common a desire to worship in
the traditional way based in silent waiting out of which ministry arises in response to
the movement of the Holy Spirit. In the fall many of these students and professors resumed
these weekly meetings along with others. In October the first monthly meeting for business
was held. Friendship Meeting is located in Friendship Township, Guilford County, hence its
name.
At about the same time several unprogrammed meetings in central North Carolina,
including Friendship Meeting, organized the Piedmont Friends Fellowship. PPF met and
continues to meet twice yearly for worship, discussion, fellowship and fun. It is loosely
organized and is affiliated with Friends General Conference.
In 1980 Friendship Meeting joined North Carolina Yearly Meeting-Conservative. NCYM-C
comprises eight monthly meetings in North Carolina and one in Virginia at the present
time. Our Yearly Meeting - organized in 1904 by former members of North Carolina Yearly
Meeting (Five Years Meeting, now Friends United Meeting ~ maintains the traditional form of
silent worship and is a source of much spiritual nurture for those who participate in its
annual gatherings and other activities. NCYM-C also links us to many other Quaker
organizations such as Friends World Committee for Consultation, American Friends Service
Committee and Friends Committee on National Legislation. It supports four Friends schools
as well as Quaker House in Fayetteville, NC and Norfolk Quaker House, Virginia. Both these
provide education about alternatives to military service as well as support for military
personnel who seek to be released from service on grounds of conscientious objection, or
who have other problems in connection with their relationship with the military.
Friendship Meeting met in the Mary Pemberton Moon Room in Dana Auditorium of Guilford
College, a room furnished as a traditional Friends meeting room, for nineteen years. In
1987 the meeting purchased the house at 1103 New Garden Road and converted it into a
meetinghouse.
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During the Vietnam War, the meeting supported the weekly peace vigil in downtown
Greensboro. The vigil was resumed during the Persian Gulf War and, again, many members of
the meeting participated. In 1987 the meeting became a Sanctuary Meeting and soon two
Guatemalan refugee families were received into the care of the meeting. One of these
families has since joined the meeting. Several other refugees have also been helped for
short periods of time.
Since 1975 the meeting has maintained an explicit testimony of acceptance of any who
wish to worship with us and participate in the life of the meeting regardless of sexual
orientation. In 1993 the meeting expanded on the earlier minute of acceptance, stating in
a minute its willingness to have oversight of same-sex unions for members under the same
conditions and in the same manner as traditional heterosexual marriages.
Friendship Meeting is a diverse meeting. Its dual affiliation with Friends General
Conference and North Carolina Yearly Meeting-Conservative indicates its theological
diversity with many Friends in both groups whose spiritual lives are centered in Christ,
and others who have a more universalist outlook. This diversity creates tension at times
and is also appreciated by many. It seems to be an inevitable outcome of our commitment to
faith grounded in experience and subject to change and growth. The meeting is not divided
along the lines of affiliation to FGC or NCYM-C, for many would gladly participate in both
if time permitted. Some of us come from a tradition of Friends that have not for most of
this century named ministers and elders out of concern that none be elevated over any
others in meeting. Others of us have come from a tradition that has maintained the
practice of acknowledging formally those who have specific gifts in vocal ministry or in
spiritual nurture of the meeting, as a way of claiming the gifts and of supporting and
holding accountable those who have particular gifts. This difference has caused tension in
the meeting as we struggled with whether to record as a minister a member who functions in
that role for many Friends and others beyond the monthly meeting. In 1998, that member was
recorded in recognition of her ministry. The meeting
continues to be sensitive to issues regarding titling.
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