First time visiting Friends Meeting at Cambridge?

Venturing out to a new religious community for the first time can be a challenge. Below we have tried to identify and answer most of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) that first time visitors might have. We are eager to welcome you and make your first visit with us a rewarding and comfortable one!

Currently, Meeting for Worship is offered in a hybrid format, which means you may attend in person or via Zoom. You may find the details at https://fmcquaker.org/meetings-for-worship/

Outside of Meeting for Worship, please check the calendar at https://fmcquaker.org/calendar/ to find out whether each individual activity is offered as hybrid, Zoom-only, or in-person.

The Meetinghouse is located at 5 Longfellow Park, off of Brattle Street, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, five blocks from Harvard Square. Click here for directions and map.

Friends Meeting at Cambridge offers many opportunities for worship—you may view all of them with places, times and links here.

Weekly Meetings for Worship are now hybrid. They are held in person and on Zoom at these times:

  • Sunday mornings (Hybrid), 10:30 – 11:30am
  • Wednesday mornings (Hybrid), 8:30 – 10am
  • Intergenerational/Family Worship (Hybrid) first Sunday of the month, 10:30 – 11:30am
  • Worship outside of Raytheon Technologies (In-Person, Off-Site) third Sunday of the month, 10:45- 11:45am

Childcare is always available for Sunday Morning Meeting for Worship, and by request for other worship times. Please email fdsypcoordinator@fmcquaker.org to reach the First Day School & Youth Programs Coordinator with any questions.

Our regular Sunday Meeting for Worship lasts for one hour. It begins when the first person settles into worship. A member of Ministry and Counsel is assigned to hold the meeting in prayer and sense when it is time to close the meeting, signaled by the shaking of hands.

Mid-week meeting for worship on Wednesday mornings, is scheduled from 8:30am to 10am, where you are invited to come to all or any part of the 90 minutes of worship.

Our main Meeting for Worship begins at 10:30am ET on Sundays. We encourage you to join us 10 minutes before worship starts in order to have time to get settled.

Before Meeting for Worship, we offer Sunday morning forum as an opportunity to deepen community and offer programmed material that helps to deepen our 10:30am Meeting for Worship. Forum begins at 9:15am ET and is available in a hybrid format—you may attend in person or via Zoom.

Yes!

Before Meeting, you may wish to attend Forum, which begins at 9:15am ET and offers smaller participatory conversations around topics of spiritual resonance.

After Meeting, you are invited to join us for smaller gatherings where you can get to know (and be known by!) other attendees:

  • Afterthoughts, which is a reflective time share with a small group (usually 20-30 participants) your experience of the meeting for worship—what came up for you? what was meaningful to you? what questions do you have? Afterthoughts is hosted by a different Friend each week, who has “care of Afterthoughts” and acts as a spiritual host for the conversation. Afterthoughts lasts half an hour, from approximately 12 – 12:30pm and is offered in a hybrid format, both in-person and via Zoom. The Zoom link is shared via Zoom chat after Meeting for Worship.
  • Fellowship Time: Those gathering in person often gather on the lawn and chat. When health and safety allows, we look forward to resuming our pre-pandemic practice of sharing coffee and tea, snacks, and Simple Lunch at the rise of Meeting for Worship.

On Sundays, parking is available on the Longfellow Park circle as well as all around the neighborhood. Cambridge resident parking restrictions are not enforced on Sundays. Other days of the week, Cambridge resident parking restrictions are enforced. And, even if you have a Cambridge resident parking sticker, you still need a special permit to park on Longfellow Park from 8am to 6pm, Monday through Friday. After 6pm, on any day, anyone can park on Longfellow Park.

The Meeting does have a very small parking lot behind the meetinghouse. During our busiest times (e.g., Sundays), please reserve the Meeting’s lot for people with ambulatory challenges. We have three handicapped parking places — one in the lot behind the meetinghouse, one on the driveway, and one on Longfellow Park in front of the Meeting property.

Lastly, we have an agreement with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, adjacent to the Longfellow House at 113 Brattle Street, to use their lot for evening meetings and on Sundays. You need to obtain an official note from the Meeting office to place on your car’s dashboard in order to use that parking lot.

Our Meeting has two buildings — the meetinghouse and the Friends Center. The meetinghouse is where the large meeting for worship is held each Sunday morning and the Material Aid and Advocacy Program operates a clothing room in the basement. The Friends Center lower level includes bathrooms, the nursery, and three First Day (Sunday) school classrooms. The first floor of the Friends Center includes an all-gender bathroom, the parlor, the library, the Meeting office, the kitchen, and the large, multi-purpose Friends Room. The second floor includes the Committee Room and the Selleck Room. All three levels are accessible via an elevator. There is an underground tunnel between the lower level of the Friends Center and the basement of the meetinghouse.

People usually dress in casual clothing. Feel free to wear whatever you feel most comfortable.

If attending in person, we encourage you to arrive by 10:15 or 10:20 if you can! If it’s your first time attending a Quaker meeting for worship, you may enjoy reading one of our newcomer pamphlets to give you a sense of what to expect—just mention to greeter that you are new and they will be happy to get you situated.

If attending via Zoom, we hope you’ll find a comfortable place in your home to join us for our Zoom Meeting for Worship! You may join with your camera on or off, or by phone. Meeting for worship begins when the first person settles into worship.

Meeting for Worship is rooted in silence, but the silence is not emptiness—rather, Friends gather in expectant waiting. We believe that there is “that of God” in all people, and through Meeting for Worship, we make space to encounter it. Anyone at a Quaker meeting might be led to speak; ministry and encounters with Spirit may also occur in silence.

After an hour of worship—which could be entirely silent, or filled with words—the Friend with Care of Meeting will signal the meeting’s end. We’ll hear announcements about upcoming activities, and newcomers and guests will be invited to introduce yourself so that we can welcome you. Please note that it’s your choice and no one will call on you if you choose not to speak—some people like to introduce themselves right away, while others prefer to attend a few times before making an introduction. We also encourage newcomers to introduce yourself multiple times so that the community can get to know you!

To learn more about what to expect spiritually, we encourage you to visit the Worship section of our website for words and videos about Quaker faith & practice.

Friends Meeting at Cambridge is a large community—we typically have about 100-120 attendees at our Sunday morning meeting each week. Our other meetings for worship (8:30am Wednesday) are smaller, with just a handful of attendees. Some newcomers like to attend the large Sunday morning meeting to blend in to a large crowd, while others prefer a small group for their first time attending—it’s up to you!

If you have any questions, concerns, or accessibility/inclusion needs, please email friendlypresence@fmcquaker.org and we’ll do our best to make you feel welcome.

You are welcome here! Our community is a mix of newcomers and longtime attendees & members. Some of us grew up Quaker, while others are new to Quakerism when they arrive at our meeting.
While Quakerism has its roots in Christianity, today we are theist and non-theist, Christian and non-Christian, and grew up in many different faith and cultural backgrounds.
Our meeting is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but since we started hosting worship online in March of 2020, we now have regular attendees from across the U.S. and several other countries—you’re welcome regardless of location.
We have many newcomers to Quakerism among our community, so you won’t be the only one! Whether you stop briefly with us, or stay and become part of our community, you are welcome wherever you are on your spiritual journey.
If you wish to hear about newcomer activities, please email friendlypresence@fmcquaker.org.

You are welcome here. Quakers have no unified creed or statement of belief, and we use many words to describe the Divine. Some of them include: God, the Light Within, Christ, Spirit, Seed, and Inward Teacher. More on this here.

At Friends Meeting at Cambridge, our community holds many diverse backgrounds and theologies. The Quaker way has deep Christian roots that form our understanding of God, our faith, and our practices. Many Quakers consider themselves Christian, and many do not. Many Quakers today draw spiritual nourishment from our Christian roots and strive to follow the example of Jesus. Many other Quakers draw spiritual sustenance from various religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and the nature religions.

For more on this, we encourage you to check out this brief video, peruse these FAQs, or ask fellow attendees at our meeting! Our monthly Quaker Basics sessions and weekly Afterthoughts are good times to ask questions about Quaker faith and practice.

First Day School (FDS) is the Quaker equivalent of Sunday School. FDS is available to the children of all ages. The First Day School is under the care of the FDS and Youth Programs Coordinator, Amy Greene. Regular attendance is encouraged, but one-time or irregular attenders are also welcome.

  • First Sundays. 10:30 – 11:45am: Intergenerational (Family) Meeting for Worship (Hybrid, Zoom). To participate using Zoom, click this link or call 1-646-558-8656 and provide the Meeting ID 846 5016 8316 and passcode 140406. Contact family-worship@fmcquaker.org
  • All other Sundays. 10:30 – 11:45am: Children begin worship with their families in the Meetinghouse. At approximately 10:45am, someone will stand with the First Day School (FDS) banner. At that time, children may follow the banner to their classrooms or outside (depending on weather and the planned activities.) Depending on the needs of your family, children are also welcome to remain in worship with their family or to bring an adult along with them to FDS. First Day School activities will wrap up around 11:45am, though children are welcome to stay until 12:45pm, if their parents are participating in Afterthoughts or Friendly Fellowship.

For more information, contact Amy Greene, Interim First day School and Youth Programs Coordinator at fdsypcoordinator@fmcquaker.org

Please fill out our newcomer welcome form and tell us about your interests. Or, you can email our “welcome coordinator” at friendlypresence@fmcquaker.org, or speak with the person who has care of the meeting when you visit. For all other information, please contact the Meeting office directly.

Email Updates

  • Announcements: To receive an email version of the bi-weekly announcement sheet, send request to: FMC Office
  • Meeting Listserv: To join the FMC Email Listserv, read the Guidelines for Google List carefully. Then send an email to FMC Office indicating that you agree to the guidelines and would like to join the List. You will receive a separate email from Google Groups with an invitation and instructions on how to be added to the List.
  • Newcomer activities: Fill out our newcomer welcome form to be added to our newcomer list, and we’ll send news of fellowship offerings and adult spiritual education opportunities, such as Exploring the Quaker Way, a class series offered 1-2 times a year, and Quaker Basics, offered monthly.

If we haven’t answered all your questions here, please call the Meeting office at (617) 876-6883. Office hours are 10am to 3pm Monday through Friday. Or email us with your questions: office@fmcquaker.org.