Central Yearly Meeting of Friends

Central Yearly Meeting of Friends
ClassificationQuakerism
OrientationHoliness
TheologyGurneyite
Origin1926
Separated fromFive Years Meeting
Congregations8 (2010)
Members290 (2010)

Central Yearly Meeting of Friends is a yearly meeting of Friends (Quaker) churches located in Indiana, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Ohio. Central Yearly Meeting of Friends is a part of the Gurneyite wing of the Orthodox branch of Quakerism, and is aligned with the conservative holiness movement. Meeting for worship is programmed and led by pastors.

On First-month 31, 1924 (January 31, 1924), the Union Quarterly Meeting was formed from monthly meetings that were originally a part of the Western Yearly Meeting; certain monthly meetings that were a part of the Indiana Yearly Meeting formed the Eastern Quarterly Meeting.[1][2] The Union and Eastern Quarterly Meetings remained a part of the Five Years Meeting until 1926, when they separated and together became the Central Yearly Meeting on Ninth-month 17th, 1926 (September 17, 1926).[3][2][4] The Central Yearly Meeting strongly supported the Richmond Declaration, a confession of faith upheld by the Orthodox branch of Quakerism.[1]

Central Yearly Meeting is associated with Union Bible College.[5] Along with the Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends, the Central Yearly Meeting of Friends sponsors missionary work in Bolivia.[6][1]

These Quakers publish a periodical known as the Friends Evangel.[7] An annual camp meeting is held near Muncie, Indiana, every August.[citation needed]

Members of the Central Yearly Meeting of Friends practice the traditional Quaker teaching of plain dress, part of the Quaker testimony of simplicity.[4] The Central Yearly Meeting lays emphasis on the Quaker doctrine of perfection, which is explicated in Teaching of Evangelical Friends as Gleaned from George Fox's Journal and Friends Disciplines, by J. Edwin Newby.[8]

  1. ^ a b c Holden, David E. W. (1988). "The Genesis of Central Yearly Meeting". Quaker History. 77 (1): 45, 49-50.
  2. ^ a b Angell, Stephen W.; Dandelion, Pink; Watt, David Harrington (28 April 2023). The Creation of Modern Quaker Diversity, 1830–1937. Penn State Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-271-09576-9.
  3. ^ "Central Yearly Meeting of Friends". Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  4. ^ a b Manual of Faith and Practice of Central Yearly Meeting of Friends. Central Yearly Meeting of Friends. 2018. pp. 8, 107–110.
  5. ^ Abbott, Margery Post (2012). Historical Dictionary of Friends (Quakers). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 79.
  6. ^ Daniels, C. Wess; Grant, Rhiannon (4 November 2022). The Quaker World. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-429-63235-8.
  7. ^ Handbook of the Religious Society of Friends. Friends World Committee for Consultation. 1967. p. 34.
  8. ^ Wenger, John C. (3 October 2000). The Mennonites in Indiana and Michigan. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 432. ISBN 978-1-57910-456-6.