Santa Monica Quaker Meeting

Santa Monica Quaker Meeting Welcome to the Quaker Meeting in Santa Monica! We meet every Sunday at 8:30 am & at 10:00 am.

We are located 0.6 miles away from the 26th/Bergamot Station on the Expo Line & 0.2 miles away from the Yale St/Santa Monica Blv bus stop.

03/31/2026

Please take a look and if you have any comments or suggestions for changes, send them to Stan & he will pass them along to other members of our writing group, Eleanor Barrett and Rachel Fretz.

Here's and report and then the full State of the Meeting's initial queries from out Quarterly Meeting:

State of the Meeting Report for Santa Monica Meeting

2025

Newcomers: We have welcomed newcomers in ways that bring the long-time members and recent attendees together to worship in the spiritual container of our meeting. The renovations of our space for worship with new lighting, fresh paint, refinished wooden floors, and comfortable cushioned chairs give a welcoming space for our many newcomers. In addition to the House Committee’s work, our Fellowship, Connections, and Education Committees have reached out to involve and celebrate newcomers through multiple initiatives, ranging from a table in the patio to welcome visitors, to educational sessions led by newcomers, to encouragement and leadership on committees such as Peace and Social Action and Finance. One newcomer talked about the way participating in our meeting has changed her life for the better. We continue with the challenge of teaching new people about Quaker process and discerning the sense of the meeting. Several of us, including new attendees, recently attended the clerking workshop at Ben Lomand.

Tradition and New Ideas: We intend to provide Quaker worship and decision-making in a way that meets the needs of all. We now have an 8:30 am worship that is zoom free and an inclusive hybrid meeting at 10:00 am. We acknowledge the challenge of bringing together new, often younger Friends with long-time, older ones. We work to ensure that the smaller 8:30 worship continues to connect to the greater community. Our Business and Committee Meetings, grounded in silent worship, enable us to deeply listen to each other and strive for unity by spiritual guidance for all.

Structures and Practices that appeal to the Spiritual Journey: At the end of silent worship, we have a time to share our joys and sorrows before the rise of meeting. This allows us to hear each other’s deep issues and hold them in the Light. We continue to encourage worshipers to become members and thereby align their personal spiritual journeys with our community’s spiritual journey. We have three new members and another three who have requested membership. We offer a clearness process to assure connections between the individual and group, both for membership and for personal struggles. Our Alice Herman Committee (an endowed fund from a founding member) encourages Santa Monica Friends to attend Quaker conferences, retreats, quarterly and yearly meetings. This funding allows new and longtime Friends assistance to connect to the wider Quaker community.

Joy in Service, in the ministry of small things: Much spiritual work occurs in the in-between, small actions and the regular duties that create the fabric of community: offering rides to aging members, listening to each other’s stories, getting coffee and refreshments for someone, jumping in where a need is seen. In doing service, we create a loving community. One person noted that service, small or great, is not so much a joy as an offering to the world.

Here are the queries from the Southern California Quarterly Meeting:

How do we appreciate and include those who have joined our Meeting in the last few years? How can we honor and encourage their commitment to the community without presenting a burden of rules and expectations? How do we accommodate the views of those seeing a need for change, having a new idea, and those who value tradition and wish to season any changes.
How do the structures and practices of our Quaker meeting appeal to the spiritual journey of the meeting? How can our Meeting find joy in service, in the ministry of small things?
Note: Santa Monica Friends are welcome to provide feedback and suggestions about this 2025 State of the Meeting report. The Meeting’s Joint Committee of Worship & Ministry/Pastoral Care has designated a writing group of Eleanor Barrett, Rachel Fretz and Stanford Searl. Please send any feedback to [email protected]

Best to all,

Stan, for the Joint Committee

Hi Friends, This Sunday, Feb 22 at 1:15 pm, Peace & Social Action will meet for its February committee meeting. We will ...
02/20/2026

Hi Friends,

This Sunday, Feb 22 at 1:15 pm, Peace & Social Action will meet for its February committee meeting. We will be working on a Minute of Social Concern regarding the current administration's campaign of violence. All are welcome to attend, although this meeting is intended to be a small group working session to get a first draft of the Minute. There will be a future opportunity for us to come together as a broader Meeting to review and discern the Minute before adopting it as a community.

This meeting will be available via Zoom only. You can email us for the Zoom link at [email protected].

Here is our agenda--

02/19/2026

Every Sunday, we have the following meetings:

8:30 am meeting for worship (in person only, no Zoom option)

10:00 am meeting for worship (you can join in person or via Zoom - for the Zoom info, please email us at [email protected])

02/08/2026

The Adult Education Committee invites Friends to a community sing on March 1, 2026 at noon. We will offer blended as well, but during the singing, please mute online.

We’ll sing together a setting of a poem by Robert Burns and “Que Sera, Sera” as well as two traditional hymns, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” We may end with the three-part canon or round, “Dona Nobis Pacem.”

We will try out the piano that Marion Covington’s family gave to us a couple of years ago.

Join us and make a joyful noise!

12/07/2025

Come and join us at our Adult Education session on Sunday, December 7th at noon, blended. We are delighted that both Issac and Marcus will start the session, speaking from their experience about the meanings of Quaker silence.

Here are the details:

Conversations about the meanings of Quaker Silence in Worship: Advices & Queries
Images and Silence, Swarthmore Lecture 1992 by Brenda Clifft Heals and Chris Cook
December 7, 2025 at noon, blended
Presenters: Marcus Corrothers and Isaac Norman-Sokoll

In Adult Education’s ongoing series about “What it means to be Quaker,” we welcome Marcus and Issac. After opening brief worship, they will share their experience of the meanings of Quaker silence. We invite Friends to listen with open hearts and minds and souls.

Advice from Images and Silence

· “One of the things that is peculiar to Quakers is the ministry of silence … “[Quakers] can also share, with confidence, their experience that when such human silence is achieved, the silence of God can flow through it, healing hurts and differences of every description, and making it whole.”

Overall Query:
· What is your experience of the Quaker silence and what does it mean to you?

Please email us for the Zoom information at [email protected]

11/02/2025

Dear Friends,

We have a contemplative reading group on November 12 at 6pm with poems selected by Walton Chiu. The poems and Zoom information are available via email ([email protected]). Hope to see you there!

Best wishes,
Casey, on behalf of the Adult Ed committee

10/26/2025

Please join us this Sunday, Oct. 26, at 1:15 p.m. on Zoom for our Peace and Social Action committee meeting.

Please email us for the zoom link for the 26th & for a copy of yhe draft notes from our last month’s committee meeting.

Help us discern the issues (of the distressingly many!) that are calling for our focus.

[email protected]

10/19/2025

Dear Friends,

Due to Fall Fellowship the first weekend of November, Adult Ed will not be holding a November session. We will return with a session in December, and hope to see you then!

Casey, on behalf of the Adult Ed committee

10/19/2025

Hello All,

Please join Anthony Manousos and Jill Shook, founders of the nonprofit Making Housing and Community Happen, today, Sunday, October 19, at noon as they share their experience of organizing and advocating for affordable housing in the Pasadena area.

Anthony and Jill, in collaboration with others, have achieved some success in increasing the supply of affordable housing in their area.

What they have learned could prove helpful to us on the Westside in our own efforts, such as the Cloverfield Commons vision for the Santa Monica Airport, to make more affordable housing available here.

This is a unique learning opportunity and we encourage you to join us in-person or on Zoom today at noon. Please email us if you’d like the Zoom information at [email protected].

09/26/2025

The Peace and Social Action committee will be convening this Sunday at 2:00 PM on Zoom to renew its task of organizing our committee and our Meeting in a critical time in our nations’ history.

We are all aware that our constitutional democracy is under threat and our ability as a nation to stand for peace and human rights is currrently diminished. Our people need now, as never before, to hear our Quaker voices raised, clear and plain spoken. P&SA, in the coming year will guide our monthly Meeting’s public response and the response of larger Quaker organizations.

Please plan to attend. All are welcome, members and attenders, even if you haven’t participated before. You will have an opportunity to be heard.

Please email us for the Zoom Information- [email protected].

09/23/2025

Adult Education is thrilled to welcome Ariel Butters and Anne-Marie Schaaf as our speakers for this October 5th session. They will share their experience of Quaker silent Meeting for Worship.

All are welcome!

Here are the details:

Conversations about Quaker Worship: Advices & Queries

Exploring Quakerism: A Study Guide by Marsha D. Holliday

October 5, 2025 at noon, In person & online

Presenters: Ariel Butters and Anne-Marie Schaaf

In Adult Education’s ongoing series about “What it means to be Quaker,” we welcome Ariel Butters and Anne-Marie Schaaf. After opening brief worship, they will share their experience of Quaker silent Meeting for Worship. We invite Friends to listen with open hearts and minds.

Please email us if you’d like the Zoom information at [email protected]

The Peace & Social Action committee will hold a brief meeting on Sunday, Aug. 10 at noon to discuss ideas for a sign/ban...
08/10/2025

The Peace & Social Action committee will hold a brief meeting on Sunday, Aug. 10 at noon to discuss ideas for a sign/banner that could be used at a stationary street vigil/protest and perhaps a sign/banner that could used in a protest march.

We don’t yet have all the info we need in order to make a decision, but we wanted to share what we have so far and open it up for ideas.

The committee has $200 left in this year’s budget which we’ve earmarked for desired signs/banners.

The image you see is a design for a retractable, vertical sign that measures 78” high and 33” wide. Retractable signs have a medal base from which one pulls the sign vertically to its full height before locking it in place with a rod.

The idea is that this one-sided stationary sign would be surrounded by Meeting members with their hand-made protest signs.

The cost would run just a little over $100, including tax and shipping. The medal base for this sign weights about 10 lbs.

There’s another type of sign, which we’re still investigating, called a parade banner that a marching band might carry, displaying a school’s name or colors.

We’re trying to find the details on such a sign, perhaps with the same text as on the retractable sign, that one person could walk with in a march.

Please email us at [email protected] if you are interested in joining our Zoom meeting on August 10 at noon.

Address

1440 Harvard Street
Santa Monica, CA
90404

Telephone

+13108284069

Website

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