NWYM Friends (Quaker) congregations throughout Oregon, Washington, and Idaho maintain contact with the Yearly Meeting administration through representatives at the annual meeting in Newberg, Oregon. The local meetings, called either “churches” or “meetings” were once referred to as “Monthly Meetings” and were additionally categorized into “Quarterly Meetings.” Now the designation is “Area Meeting” and the requisite number of assemblies required has been reduced to only two per year, while the traditional expectation was that events for local churches in close proximity would take place at least four times each year.
A Presiding Clerk conducts business meetings at the local level with statistical recording and minutes maintained by the Recording Clerk. Other officers are appointed as needed. The NWYM Website: http://nwfriends.org/governance section states: “in the church, members have equal rights and privileges varying only in accordance with the nature of their gifts and their faithfulness in exercising them. There are no distinctions in the rights, privileges, or responsibilities of members because of gender, color, or race. Friends polity is connectional, rather than congregational or Episcopal; therefore yearly meeting represents the highest court of appeal in matters of faith and practice.”
