Cincinnati Friends Meeting - About Cincinnati Friends Meeting

About The Meeting - For Visiting Friends

About the Meeting

We meet every Sunday for at 11 a.m. until about noon for semi-programmed worship in the meetinghouse at 8075 Keller Road in Cincinnati. Visitors are always welcome, and there are usually refreshments just off the main foyer after Meeting. During worship we have a nursery attendant for infants and toddlers and religious education for older children.

More information:

If this is your first time at a Quaker Meeting...
If you've been to other Quaker Meetings

Here are some things you might want to know about us:

We are a semi-programmed Meeting, and the form of worship we use is quite different from either silent worship (with unplanned vocal ministry), or programmed worship (which may include group prayer, practied music, and a minimal amount of silence). In our Meeting, someone—most often the pastoral minister—comes to Meeting for Worship prepared to give a message from the silence. Messages from our interim pastor, Donne Hayden, are in the Archive of Messages. We don’t think of this message as bearing any more authority than any other message, nor do we think of the speaker as an intermediary between the Meeting and God. But we’ve found it helpful in worship for at at least one among us to have spent considerable time in prayer and study during the week on behalf of the Meeting, and to offer the fruits of that conversation with God as part of our worship. At its best, this message serves to draw us closer together within the presence of God. Other messages, spoken by worshippers, may build upon or complete the message begun by the speaker. We believe that when we are faithful together, all these words arise from the same Spirit.

In practice, our worship begins with an extended period of silence. At some point, the speaker will rise from the silence and deliver a message, after which we resume our silent worship. At any time during the silence, members and attenders may be moved to speak. Sometimes someone will request a hymn for us to sing. Our singing may sound inept at times, when the pianist or organist has never heard the tune, and neither have the singers. But we keep trying, and sometimes a hymn works as we hope any message will: it brings us into deeper communion with God and with one another.

A few minutes before the end of worship, we take a collection, which is frequently signaled by instrumental music. Then we ask whether there are joys or concerns to share within the community, or any announcements. We also give space for visitors to introduce themselves. We would love to know who you are, so we can welcome you personally, but please don’t feel compelled to make yourself known if you are wary of attention. We invite you to join us in the Fireside Room (just off the foyer) for light refreshments after Meeting. Any one of us would be happy to answer any questions you have about Friends.

Cincinnati Friends Meeting | 8075 Keller Rd | Cincinnati, OH 45243 | (513) 791-0788