Walla Walla Friends Meeting
PO Box 1222, Walla Walla WA 99362
Tel. 509-522-0399
General Information
A Brief History
General Information
The Walla Walla Friends Meeting holds public meetings for worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. in the Olin Hall Faculty Lounge on the Whitman College campus, except during school holidays when schedules vary. Meetings for business are normally held at 10:45 following meeting for worship on the lst Sunday of each month. Please see News and Events for additional schedule information, and consider calling to confirm meeting times and places before coming from a distance.
The Walla Walla Friends Meeting was formed in 1980 as a preparative meeting under the care of Eastside Friends Meeting in Bellevue, Washington, a monthly meeting affiliated with Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting and North Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, and has functioned as a perpetual preparative meeting since then.
The Society of Friends, or Quakers, began in England around 1650, following the leadings of George Fox, as an inward approach to the spirit of God. Traditional Friends do not observe outer sacraments, normally employ no ministers, and share the ministry among all members and attenders.
Friends meetings for worship are held in silence, out of which on occasion Friends share the inspirations that have come to them for the benefit of those attending. The presiding officer of a Friends meeting is the Clerk, who conducts its meetings for business, and normally will close the meeting for worship when it has come to a natural end, usually after an hour, unless a different period has been set.
The Walla Walla Friends Meeting performs all of the functions of a church, and as such is a 501(c)(3) organization authorized to receive tax-exempt contributions, and is empowered to perform marriages and other legal responsibilities under the care of its oversight meeting.
In addition to the Clerk, meeting functions are carried out by a Committee on Ministry and Oversight and a Committee on Peace and Social Concerns, each of which has its own Clerk, and by a meeting Treasurer, Assistant Clerk, and Recording Clerk. Other officers are appointed from time to time.
Contacts for the Walla Walla Friends Meeting are:
Clerk: Annie Capestany, email: cabeckstany&bmi-net Assistant Clerk: Nancy Ball, 509-525-8566, email: ncb1927&yahoo-net
Clerk of Ministry & Oversight: Daniel Clark, PO Box 1222, Walla Walla WA 99362; 509-522-0399, email: clarkdn&charter-net
Treasurer: Mark Beck, email: beckmk&whitman-edu
Recording Clerk, and Clerk of Peace & Social Concerns: Barbara Clark, email: clarkbh&charter-net
In all email addresses above, please replace "&" with @ and "-" with "."
A Brief History
The Walla Walla Friends Meeting was formed on April 1, 1980 as an unaffiliated meeting. It received preparative meeting status in October, 1980 under the oversight of Eastside Monthly Meeting in Bellevue, which is affiliated with North Pacific Yearly Meeting, and continues as a perpetual preparative meeting.
The first known Friends activity in Walla Walla was in the mid 1960’s when Friends Chuck and Etta Marie James moved to Walla Walla for a period of work, and began a worship group in their home with Nancy and George Ball, and several others. Nancy's parents had become Friends in the early fifties, and she had attended Friends meetings during college and had taken part in Quaker work camps. In the later sixties when the James moved back to Seattle, that group ended.
In the Spring of 1971, when Dan and Barbara Clark moved to Walla Walla, an unaffiliated worship group called the Friends Meditation Group was formed, and began meeting on Sunday afternoons at 4 o’clock in the Fireside Room at the First Congregational Church. The Clarks had attended the Berkeley Friends Meeting while attending law school and had organized an unaffiliated Friends worship group in their home in Napa, California in 1969. The Friends Meditation Group included the Clarks, the Balls, one or two others who had attended the prior worship group at the Jameses’, and several people new to Friends, most of whom had other Sunday morning church affiliations. This group continued to meet until 1977.
In 1980, the Clarks and the Balls decided to form a formal meeting in Walla Walla, and invited others to join with them at 10 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 1 at Sherwood Center on the Whitman College campus for the first meeting for worship and meeting for business. About twenty responded, and the group has been meeting weekly on the Whitman campus ever since, except during school holidays, when schedules vary.
While small numbers mean the group may never apply for full monthly meeting status, it has a strong and vital twenty-five year history combining spiritual pursuit and social action, and continues to play an important role in the life of its members and the community.
