On Metzerott Road in Adelphi, just minutes from the District line and the University of Maryland, a small brick meetinghouse has long been the gathering place for Adelphi Friends Meeting. Members and attenders sit together in expectant silence on Sunday mornings, listening for what they call the "still, small voice" of the Divine. Founded in 1956 as the merger of the College Park and Washington Meetings, Adelphi has grown into a theologically liberal Quaker community known for its LGBTQ affirmation, decades of public witness on issues ranging from gun control to reproductive justice, and a vibrant children's religious education program that has been a hallmark of the meeting for as long as most current members can remember.
Silent Worship and the Sunday Rhythm
Sunday at Adelphi begins early with singing. From 9:45 to 10:00 a.m., those who arrive first trade favorite hymns from the meeting's songbook in a casual sing-along; newcomers are warmly invited to join in. At 10:00 sharp, the singing gives way to the main event: an hour of silent, unprogrammed Meeting for Worship, sometimes called Meeting, and at Adelphi, sometimes simply the meeting.
There is no pastor. No one delivers a sermon. Vocal ministry, when it comes at all, rises out of the silence as a message someone feels called to share. "At some point, someone will probably share a message they've received," the meeting explains to first-time visitors. About twenty minutes in, the children head out for their First Day School lessons, leaving adults in the meeting room. In the final ten minutes, the silence opens for a period the meeting calls "joys and concerns," a time to briefly share prayerful thanks and petitions.
"Stick around!" the meeting urges. After the rise of worship, Friends gather downstairs for a potluck lunch and good conversation, a tradition so central to Adelphi's life that the planned renovation of the meetinghouse centers on making the social space larger and the kitchen commercial. A "second hour" program, typically an adult religious education session, begins around 12:15 p.m.
During the long-planned renovation of the Metzerott Road building, Sunday worship is being held at Friends Community School, the Quaker school that shares a relationship with the meeting. The change has not changed the gathering. The Wednesday worship at noon happens on Zoom, as does the Bible study at 7:30 p.m. that uses the Illuminate series from Barclay Press.
What to Wear, Where to Sit, Where to Park
Adelphi is welcoming to newcomers in the small, ordinary ways that matter most. "Some of us wear t-shirts and jeans. Some of us wear button-up shirts and slacks or skirts. It's fine." There are no reserved seats; visitors are free to sit anywhere in the meeting room. The meeting maintains a small parking lot reserved for visitors and people with mobility impairments, with most others parking on the street.
Accessibility, the community acknowledges, is a work in progress. A ramp to the first floor exists; renovations will, in time, make the social hall and other spaces accessible to wheelchair users. Restrooms, by long-standing meeting decision, are all gender neutral. Weddings and memorial meetings are not photographed or recorded, a practice rooted in the Quaker conviction that these occasions are themselves forms of worship, and that a recorder cannot capture the leadings of the Spirit.
Becoming a Member and the Discernment of Members
Membership at Adelphi begins the way most decisions at Adelphi begin: with a letter and a clearness process. An attender writes to the Clerk, shares a bit about their faith journey and their involvement, and asks to be considered. The Clerk reads the letter aloud at a Meeting for Worship (in the manner of business), which is held monthly, generally the second Sunday of the year. Pastoral Care then convenes a clearness committee of three to five Friends to meet with the applicant, ask open and searching questions, and discern whether the meeting is ready to welcome a new Friend.
"The central principle of Quaker discernment is listening for the guidance of the Spirit," the meeting explains. "This principle means that Quaker decision-making is fundamentally different from other ways we have learned to make decisions, such as by majority rule, consensus, or compromise." When the clearness committee reaches unity, it brings a minute to the next Meeting for Worship, and the assembled community either welcomes the new member or declines to do so.
The Clerk of the meeting is Chester McCoy. The Meeting is led through the work of committees, each with a clerk chosen from within the committee, who moderate discussion and carry forward the work. Standing committees cover the essential rhythms of the meeting: Ministry and Worship, Pastoral Care, Religious Education, Continuing Quaker Education (formerly Adult Religious Education), Finance, Peace and Social Concerns, Building, Outreach and Fellowship, House and Grounds, Memorial Garden, Trustees, Hospitality, Library, Nominating, Search, Clerk's Support, Resident Liaison and Support, and Communications. Three sub-committees - Memorial Garden, Communications, and Development & Stewardship - work under the care of standing committees.
Marriage Under the Care of the Meeting
Adelphi is one of a small number of Quaker meetings with a particularly long and public history of affirming same-sex relationships. The meeting minuted its belief in marriage equality in 1991 and celebrated its first same-sex wedding in 2006, between Jenn and Lexi Chapin-Smith, under the meeting's care. In 2013, the meeting adopted a formal minute of transgender inclusion, walking alongside a member who transitioned in 2009.
The marriage process under the care of the meeting is unhurried and deliberate. Couples write to the meeting, are paired with a clearness committee that may include non-members but should be familiar with clearness, and over several months, discern together whether marriage is appropriate and whether the meeting is ready to take the marriage under its care. If the clearness committee reaches unity, the meeting approves and an oversight committee of three to five Friends, including at least one member of Ministry and Worship, sees the wedding planned well and "after the manner of Friends." Weddings in the meetinghouse are carried out without an officiant, with the couple speaking their vows in the context of a silent meeting for worship. Photography and video recording are not permitted during the wedding itself, though photographs are welcomed before and after.
"We have done our best to welcome equally gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and heterosexual Friends into the life of our Meeting," the meeting wrote in a 2012 epistle to other Quakers, signed by then-Clerk Jade Eaton. "Although we do the work of community imperfectly, we have all been blessed by the open, accepting, and loving atmosphere of our Meeting."
Children and Youth at Adelphi
The children's program at Adelphi is one of the meeting's most visible commitments. The nursery is open for infants through kindergarten every Sunday from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in the white house, the small white building on the meeting's grounds that has long housed classrooms and, at times, the meeting's resident. Children and youth in grades 1 through 12 join their families for the first twenty minutes of meeting for worship before moving to classrooms in the white house for First Day School.
The curriculum is rooted in Quaker history and values. Grades 1 through 5 work through Quaker history, the testimonies, and lessons from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. On a three-year rotation, middle schoolers cover world religions, service, and life stories. High schoolers discuss personal values, spiritual growth, and current issues from a Quaker perspective. "As an outgrowth of learning about Quaker values and callings, classes may undertake meaningful service activities throughout the year to explore the personal, spiritual, and community values of service."
Adelphi maintains a formal Youth Safety Policy, requiring criminal and child abuse background checks for all who supervise children, requiring teachers to be members or attenders of at least six months, and committing the meeting to two-adult presence in every classroom and at every field trip. Parents are reminded that children remain their responsibility whenever meeting-sponsored adult supervision is not provided.
A History Rooted in Washington Quakers
The meeting's roots reach back through the Washington Monthly Meeting to the Irving Street Meeting, a small Washington, D.C. meeting whose meetinghouse was built about 1900. Herbert Hoover was a member there, and when he was elected president in 1928, the Florida Avenue Meetinghouse was built to accommodate the growing congregation, with Hoover himself suggesting Augustus Murray as pastor. Some members stayed at Irving Street, but most followed the meeting to Florida Avenue, leaving behind receipts held by Baltimore Yearly Meeting to seed a future meeting somewhere.
In the early 1950s, a handful of Quakers began gathering in a University of Maryland classroom in College Park, later moving to the small brick Parish Hall of the Episcopal Church of College Park, a former tobacco shed still remembered for the holes in its brick walls that once kept air circulating through the eaves. By 1956, with Quaker families scattered across the suburban area, Herbert Hadley, Jessie Tichenor, and Edith Birgfeld surveyed the area and decided the center was at Riggs and Adelphi Roads. One Saturday night, reading the classifieds, Edith Birgfeld spotted a small house and declared, "There! There is the house for our meeting!" Her $500 option held the property while Baltimore Yearly Meeting's appraisal came back at exactly the $30,000 asking price.
On September 17, 1956, at 2:00 p.m., the College Park and Washington Monthly Meetings met in joint session. The Washington Meeting read its closing minute, feeling deeply that God had brought them on their way, and joyfully merged into a new standing. The new meeting was named Adelphi, a Greek word, after a 1797 mill on Branch Creek nearby named "adelphai," brothers. By the mid-1960s, with the original house too small even to satisfy the fire marshal, members raised money for a new building through asparagus plants, stock gifts, strawberry festivals, and suppers, eventually opening a purpose-built meetinghouse in 1966.
The major subsequent events all began with the meeting's quiet, written statements: the 1991 minute affirming same-gender relationships, the 2007 Sustainability Minute affirming the meeting's witness on the planet, the 2013 Transgender Inclusion Minute, the 2016 minute on gun violence and hate crimes, the 2018 minute on Civil and Human Rights of Transgender People, the 2022 Commitment to Anti-Racism, the 2022 Reproductive Justice statement, and the 2024 Peace Minute on the Conflict in Israel and Palestine.
The Strawberry Festival, Go Forth, and the Cornstalk Project
For decades, the Strawberry Festival was Adelphi's largest single piece of outward support. Each spring, the meeting organized a community festival, with all proceeds supporting about a dozen local charities chosen in advance. In 2014 the meeting began to develop a different approach to outreach, called Go Forth, providing seed money and meeting-based encouragement for new non-profits in the wider community.
The first charity started through the Go Forth initiative was the Cornstalk Project, which supports widows and orphans in Magada, Kenya. The project was the meeting's first attempt to put into practice a leading articulated in the 2009 Long-Range Planning report, "Leadings and Actions for Adelphi's Future," to be "more creative and far-reaching in discerning the ways we can be of service to our local community and the wider world."
Sharing and Sufferings are also the names of two pieces of the meeting's Aid Fund, alongside a third piece of the fund used to help members and attenders attend Quaker conferences and workshops. The Aid Fund is overseen by an ad hoc committee of the meeting clerk, the finance clerk, and the pastoral care clerk; the treasurer administers the fund.
Speaking Out: Leadings on Peace and Social Justice
Adelphi has, for thirty years, put its convictions into formal, signed minutes read aloud to the business meeting. The 1991 minute on lesbian and gay relationships affirmed that "we recognize the Light in all sincere, loving, supportive relationships, which are characterized by growth and in which faith, hope, love, and truth abide." The 2007 Sustainability Minute acknowledged climate change and unsustainable industrial patterns as violations of the testimonies of simplicity, equality, and peace, and committed the meeting to live more sustainably "personally, in our families and neighborhoods, at our workplaces, and within our Meeting community."
In 2012, then-Clerk Jade Eaton signed an open letter to other Friends lamenting, over the meeting's signature, that "there are Friends in any Meeting or Quaker organization who cannot be honest about their intimate relationships and know that they are honored and fully included in their worship and work communities." In 2013, the meeting adopted an official minute on transgender inclusion, formally walking a Friend and a family member through her gender transition, formally honoring her wholeness, and committing to honor the gender identity of each person as that person determines it. In 2016, the meeting adopted a minute on gun violence, hate crimes, and racism, recognizing the link between them and calling for "spirit-filled action to work for peace and justice." In 2018, the meeting affirmed the civil and human rights of transgender people and committed to opposing discrimination in employment, housing, and health care.
In October 2022, the meeting adopted a Reproductive Justice statement affirming the right of every person to make personal decisions about pregnancy, abortion, contraception, sex education, and family formation, drawing on the definition developed by Sister Song. In December 2022, the meeting adopted a formal Commitment to Anti-Racism, renouncing complicity in white supremacy and committing to set annual goals for anti-racist work, "both within our Meeting and in the wider world," reviewed annually. In April 2024, the meeting adopted a Peace Minute on the Conflict in Israel and Palestine, condemning all violence against civilians and calling for an immediate end to the transfer of weapons, a permanent ceasefire, and negotiations for a lasting peace with justice for all.
Beyond the Day of Meeting, these statements are the meeting's public record for the peace and social concerns of a liberal Quaker meeting in 21st-century America.
Clearness Committees and Support Committees
Quakers place "a great deal of emphasis on individual discernment," the meeting explains, "but we also recognize that it is our collective responsibility - and joy - to help one another understand and refine our paths forward." Clearness and support committees are the small-group vehicles through which that help happens. Clearness committees help questions for a particular decision, generally asked by someone seeking membership, contemplating marriage, or discerning a spiritual leading. Support committees offer strategy and resources for someone facing a major life circumstance: a divorce, an illness, the death of a family member, the birth of a child, gender transitioning, unemployment, or a great new opportunity.
Most committees meet one to three times. Meetings open with silence and a deep holding of the person in the Light. Members ask "thought-provoking questions" rather than offering suggestions. "Meetings can last from about one hour to a maximum of two hours." Everything that happens within the clearness or support committee remains confidential within the circle of care. Clearness and support committees can be requested through the Pastoral Care Committee.
The Building, the Renovation, and Friends Community School
After the 1966 meetinghouse was built, the meeting quickly outgrew it, and over the next half-century the campus accumulated a series of additions. By the meeting's 50th anniversary in 2006, members felt that the building configurations did not fully meet the meeting's needs. Potluck lunches were cramped and noisy, much of the campus was inaccessible to those with mobility limitations, a part of the meetinghouse was not air-conditioned, and the children's program did not have enough suitable rooms.
In 2013, the meeting adopted design criteria for expansion and renovation. In 2014, a capital campaign raised nearly $750,000 in three-year pledges, now paid. In 2016, the meeting reached unity on the design concept: a two-story addition to the front of the existing meetinghouse, an expanded lobby, a renovated basement, six new classrooms, four disability-accessible and gender-neutral bathrooms, three elevator-accessible stories, and a social hall fifty percent larger. An assisted listening system will be installed in the meeting room, which will retain its 1966 footprint but receive new windows, finishes, lighting, and air conditioning. The entire project is estimated at $2.9 million; two capital campaigns have raised $1.5 million.
While the renovation happens, Sunday worship is being held at Friends Community School, the Quaker school that shares a relationship with the meeting. The meeting appoints members to the school's board, and the meeting's practices and procedures note a formal relationship between the meeting and the school to be documented over time.
Pastoral Care, Memorial Garden, and the Rhythms of Loss
Pastoral Care at Adelphi is one of the meeting's largest standing committees and one of its most quietly essential. The committee is responsive to needs for encouragement and support, coordinates the meeting's response to the spiritual needs of members and attenders, including visits to homebound Friends, provides assistance at the time of a death, offers clearness and support committees for those who request them, and receives applications for membership. The committee's work is kept confidential and the dignity of those concerned is respected.
Adelphi also maintains a Memorial Garden, a small piece of ground on the meeting's campus where ashes may be buried and named stones placed. The Memorial Garden Committee keeps the garden planted, weeded, and welcoming; keeps a record book in the meeting library with a picture and biographical sketch of each person remembered; and arranges for information sessions about the garden's use. Memorial Meetings are held about a month after a death to give the family and the meeting space to absorb the loss. As in weddings, Memorial Meetings are held in silent worship and are not recorded.
A Wider Web of Quaker Connections
Adelphi is part of Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM), the regional Quaker body that oversees the meeting's incorporation and apportions dues. Within Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Adelphi is associated with both Friends General Conference (FGC) and Friends United Meeting (FUM), the two major North American Quaker umbrella organizations. The meeting also participates in the work of the American Friends Service Committee, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the William Penn House, and other Quaker institutions. Takoma Park Friends Meeting-Preparative, a worship group under Adelphi's care, holds its own meetings for worship and connects with the broader work of Baltimore Yearly Meeting through Adelphi.
Through BYM, Adelphi connects with Quaker camps, Quaker schools (including Friends Community School), and the wider work of Quaker witness in the world. Through FGC, the meeting participates in the FGC Gathering, the largest annual gathering of unprogrammed Quakers in North America. Through FUM and FCNL, the meeting's peace and social concerns join with Friends across the country. Through AFSC, the meeting's service work joins with Friends around the world.
The Library, the Newsletter, and the Residente
Adelphi maintains a lending library of its own, with books and periodicals on Quaker faith and practice, religious education, and the wider work of the Religious Society of Friends. The Library Committee selects new materials based on member and attender requests and keeps the lending file up to date. The meeting also publishes a monthly newsletter, with electronic distribution to most members and attenders and printed copies mailed to about seventy households.
The meeting's "Silent Announcements," distributed weekly by email, carry the meeting's ordinary announcements of births, marriages, deaths, committee meetings, and other community events. The Communications Sub-Committee maintains the meeting's email lists, directories, and web presence. Online giving is available; the directory is maintained in Breeze; and Sunday morning worship is livestreamed on Facebook. Sermon-like recordings of past worship are available on the meeting's YouTube channel.
The meeting also traditionally maintains a Resident, an individual or family living in the apartment in the white house in exchange for helping to care for the meeting's facilities. The Resident is an important member of the AFM community, expected to participate in the life of the meeting as led.
Becoming Part of Adelphi
For those who want to get to know the meeting first, there are many ways to begin. The meeting offers a six-week newcomers class each fall and a monthly adult religious education program during the school year. Friendly Eights, small groups of eight people who meet for connection, are organized by Outreach and Fellowship. A library of Quaker books is available to borrow. QuakerSpeak videos, Friends Journal, and the Illuminate Bible study series are recommended resources.
For those led to commit to the call to commit, the path runs through Pastoral Care and a letter to the Clerk. For those led to serve, the Nominating Committee considers capabilities, experiences, special gifts, and the requirements of each committee and office. For those led to give, online giving is available through the meeting's Breeze directory. For those led to give from their time, the Aid Fund's Sharing and Sufferings pieces can provide a measure of practical support to members and attenders facing financial difficulty or hardship occasioned by obedience to leadings of conscience.
Adelphi's faith, in four words, is this: "God is still speaking." The meeting gathers, week by week, to be attentive to that speaking. For nearly seven decades, on a small branch and changing neighborhood, that has been enough.