A Quaker Meeting on Meeting House Road
Tucked into the village of Sandy Spring in Montgomery County, Maryland, the brick Meeting House at 17715 Meeting House Road has stood since 1817, and the Quaker community that gathers there traces its roots to 1753. Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends is one of the oldest Quaker meetings in Maryland, a worshipping community that grew up alongside the rural Sandy Spring that gave it its name. The Friends who gather here each First Day practice an ancient Christian tradition of waiting upon the Divine in expectant silence, a practice that has given the Meeting both its rhythm and its identity for more than two and a half centuries.
Sandy Spring Friends Meeting describes itself as a warm and welcoming community where members support each other in their shared journeys of the Spirit. When the Meeting gathers for worship, the gathered Friends sit together in receptive silence, listening for the piece of the Divine that resides in everyone. That practice, and the conviction that the Light of God lives in every person, drives everything the Meeting does, from the children's First Day School to its extensive peace and earth-care work to its searching engagement with the legacies of slavery and Indigenous dispossession in the land it now tends.
The Meeting sits in the care of Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM), an association of 54 Monthly Meetings across southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and parts of West Virginia, and through BYM, in both Friends General Conference and Friends United Meeting. The Meeting itself is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit religious organization under federal and Maryland law.
Worship in Silence
Meeting for Worship is at the heart of the Sandy Spring community. The style of worship practiced here is unprogrammed, meaning there is no set order of service, no clergy, no hymns sung together as a matter of routine, no written liturgy. The Ministry & Counsel committee describes the practice this way: "We gather together to listen intentionally to that which is Divine in each of us. During worship, we enter into stillness of body and mind in order to feel that spirit of love within and among us, to give ourselves over to it, and to discern what it would have us do. We share a sense of expectant waiting, anticipating the probability of being connected to the Spirit. Our ministry is not planned. Messages from the divine are often received. Perhaps there is an undeniable awareness that the message has to be shared. When this happens, we stand and share the message with the Meeting. Thus we allow ourselves to be led by the spirit."
The worship period closes after the Clerk asks Friends to share situations and persons to hold in the Light in times of joy and difficulty. The Clerk then signals the close with a greeting and announcements. Meetings typically last about an hour and end when a Friend designated in advance shakes hands with a neighbor, breaking the silence so that the Friends can greet one another. Each Meeting for Worship is a unique experience.
Sundays in Sandy Spring
Two Meetings for Worship are held on most Sundays, and both are open to in-person worshippers and to those joining by Zoom in what the Meeting calls blended or hybrid worship. The 9:00 a.m. Meeting is held in the historic 1817 Meeting House. The 11:00 a.m. Meeting is also held in the Meeting House. Children's programming is available during the 11:00 a.m. hour. Childcare for infants and toddlers is offered in the Community House nursery on the first floor from 9:00 a.m. until 12:15 p.m., and parents are welcome to keep younger children (especially infants) with them in Meeting.
The schedule shifts once a month. On the first Sunday of each month the Meeting gathers for Worship at 9:00 a.m. in the Meeting House and on Zoom, and at 10:15 a.m. holds Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, the spiritual and practical decision-making meeting that gives the Monthly Meeting its name. There is no 11:00 a.m. Meeting for Worship on first Sundays.
A Bible Study, currently working through Luke and Acts with Justo Gonzalez's and Willie James Jennings' commentaries, meets at 9:00 a.m. in Community House Room 101 on the second and fourth Sundays of the month, and it is open both in person and on Zoom. On every fourth Sunday at 10:00 a.m., a Hymn Sing is held in the Lyceum.
Masks are optional in the Meeting's buildings and on its grounds, except for designated areas in the Meeting House.
Midweek and Evening Worship
For those who cannot gather on Sunday, two midweek Meetings for Worship round out the rhythm of the week. On Wednesdays the Meeting gathers in the Meeting House from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. for a silent midweek Meeting for Worship. On Thursdays the Meeting gathers on Zoom only, beginning with a virtual potluck at 6:30 p.m. and moving into Meeting for Worship at 7:30 p.m.
The Zoom infrastructure that supports these gatherings also hosts Bible Study and the Meeting's First Day School, the network of children, parents, and adult volunteers that the Meeting calls its religious education community.
First Day School: Children and Young Friends
Friends affirm that there is that of God in everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, and the Meeting's First Day School program reflects that conviction. Religious Education is conducted in person at 10:30 a.m., with the exception of first Sundays, and it runs from September through mid-June each year. Two First Day School groups meet each Sunday.
The K-5 group meets in the Community House at 11:00 a.m., with drop-off beginning at 10:45 a.m. Children learn about the Quaker testimonies (the SPICES), Bible stories, Quaker history from the Faith & Play curriculum, and what it means to be a citizen of the world. Each third Sunday features a special EarthCare curriculum, with outdoor activities that help maintain the Meeting's status as a wildlife sanctuary. The K-5 group joins Meeting for Worship in the Meeting House around 11:50 a.m., often sharing what they have learned at the rise of Meeting. They also join an annual permaculture farm field trip in November, plus the annual Christmas pageant and Easter Egg hunt.
The Young Friends group, made up of middle and high school-age youth, meets in the Community House at 10:45 a.m. With the assistance of Friendly Adult Mentors, the Young Friends plan a self-directed curriculum of service, study, and worship. They make their own decisions about their activities following the Quaker decision-making process, name their own clerk, and manage their own resources. Past projects have included food drives and service projects in partnership with Sharp Street United Methodist Church, Bible study, organizing a haunted house for Sandy Spring's annual Halloween party, marching in the Capital Pride Parade, bake sales, and EarthCare projects. Each year the Young Friends take an overnight trip to a site of Quaker importance; recent destinations have included Philadelphia's historic Arch Street Meeting and Patuxent Friends Meeting in Southern Maryland, where George Fox is known to have visited.
Families with young Friends are encouraged to apply to the Meeting's Camp Scholarship Fund, administered in cooperation with the BYM Camps Program, which is supported each year in the Meeting's operating budget.
Religious Education Coordinator Evangeline Bolles-Rioux has led the program since fall 2024. "Quakerism is fundamental to my identity and the way I live my life," Bolles-Rioux says, "and I'm grateful for the opportunity to provide spiritual education and guidance and share the value of Quaker practice with the next generation." A lifelong Quaker who grew up in Meetings across the country, including in Chapel Hill, Durham, Tucson, Albuquerque, Grand Rapids, and most recently Madison, Wisconsin, where she served as Children and Youth Program Coordinator, Bolles-Rioux believes that the key to a flourishing First Day School program is adult participation.
Beyond Sunday mornings, the Meeting hosts an annual calendar of family-friendly events: Winter Game Nights with board games and snacks, an Easter Egg Hunt, a Juneteenth Celebration with Sharp Street United Methodist Church, Heritage Days celebrating Quaker history in Sandy Spring, a Halloween Party, Christmas Crafts Sunday, and the Christmas Pageant.
Quaker Beliefs: The Inner Light and Continuing Revelation
The Religious Society of Friends holds as the basis of its faith the belief that God endows each human being with a measure of the Divine Spirit. The Meeting has no formal creed but seeks continuing revelation. As Baltimore Yearly Meeting's draft Faith and Practice puts it, the Religious Society of Friends is "a religious fellowship based on common religious ideals and experiences rather than on creed or liturgy. Each person must prayerfully seek individual guidance and must follow the Light found within."
Quaker worship seeks direct divine illumination by setting aside Christian sacraments, rituals, hymns, formal prayers, and priesthood. The Inner Light is not conscience, in the Quaker understanding, but that which enlightens conscience. Most Quakers hold to the inherent goodness of human beings. The Bible is considered a word of God, but the Inner Light is considered a manifestation of God; the same Spirit that inspired the writers of Scripture can enlighten any individual today. Quakers are not Amish, Anabaptists, Shakers, or Puritans; they come from a separate tradition, and in Sandy Spring, as elsewhere, hardly anyone uses the pronoun "thee" anymore.
The Testimonies, or SPICES
The testimonies are the ways Quakers have found to live and act in the world based on their beliefs. As a group, Sandy Spring Friends find that listening to and following God, and seeking that of God in others, leads to Simplicity (focusing on what is truly important and letting other things fall away), Peace (seeking justice and healing for all people, taking away the causes of war in the ways they live), Integrity (living as whole people who act on what they believe, tell the truth, and do what they say they will do), Community (supporting one another in faith journeys and in times of joy and sorrow, sharing with and caring for each other), Equality (treating everyone everywhere as equally precious to God, recognizing that everyone has gifts to share), and Stewardship (valuing and respecting all of God's creation, using only their fair share of the Earth's resources, working to protect the planet). These six testimonies are sometimes collectively called SPICES, a memory device.
A History from 1753 to Today
The earliest written accounts of the Sandy Spring Friends date to 1753, and the first recorded burial in the graveyard is from 1754. The Meeting property was gifted by James Brooke in 1770, at which time a log house was used for worship. The brick Sandy Spring Meeting House was constructed in 1817 and has been in continual use since then. The Meeting's Community House was built in 1859, originally as the Sandy Spring Lyceum, used for educational lectures. As early as 1797, Sandy Spring Quakers organized schools for local Quaker and non-Quaker children, and the Lyceum became the property of the Meeting in 1923.
Since the early days of Friends' worship, women have practiced as equals to men. The Sandy Spring Meeting House was constructed with a wood-paneled partition that separated the men's meeting from the women's. The building still bears this reminder of the gendered separation that characterized much of Quaker business in earlier centuries.
Quakers have long acted in opposition to war and have historically been at the forefront of the conscientious objection movement. Friends also were the first Christian faith to require its members to free all people held as slaves. In 1790, the Baltimore Yearly Meeting reported that all members kept no one in bondage. In 1806 the last slaveholder among Sandy Spring Quakers manumitted his slaves in his will, the largest manumission in Maryland history. The Meeting's manumissions led to several free Black communities in Sandy Spring as early as the late 1700s.
Through the first half of the twentieth century, the Meeting was split due to religious and ideological differences. Sandy Spring Friends were known as Hicksites, influenced by Elias Hicks, who in the 1820s called on Friends to seek God in experiential religious practice. The Ashton Meeting was Orthodox Friends who believed and practiced in keeping with a literal reading of the Bible. The two Meetings worshipped virtually right next door to each other for many decades before reuniting in 1950.
Quakers in the twentieth century were active in connection with civil rights and equality for women, helped with the resettling of Jewish refugees from Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, planned the strategy that led to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, sought to end the death penalty, pressed for arms reductions, and participated in the environmental movement. In keeping with a commitment to education, Sandy Spring Friends School was established by the Meeting in 1961 and continues to serve as a coeducational preparatory school for children from Pre-K through 12th grade. Although the school is a separate, independent legal entity with its own board of trustees, the connection between the school and the Meeting remains an important part of the Meeting's identity.
How the Meeting Is Run
Sandy Spring Friends Meeting is governed in the Quaker manner through committees and through Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business. The Meeting's Clerk is Catherine Stratton Treadway. Ed Eisenstein serves as Treasurer, and Jim Webner is the Web Clerk. Most committees meet at least once a month, and committee terms typically run for three years, beginning in May.
The Meeting maintains an extensive committee structure. Advancement & Outreach welcomes attenders and visitors and provides information on Quaker faith and practice. Building Care supervises the Meeting House and Community House. Community Life organizes special events, coffee hours, potluck meals, and wedding and memorial receptions. Finance works with operating costs and compiles the annual budget. Friends in Unity with Nature provides environmental information and advocates for ecological integrity. Graveyard and Grounds assists families with burials, assigns grave lots, and maintains the Meeting's lawns and memorial grove. Library provides stewardship of the Meeting's book and periodical collection. Marriage and Family Relations oversees marriages under the care of the Meeting. Membership and Spiritual Care interviews prospective members and maintains concern for the well-being of members and attenders. Ministry and Counsel attends to the vitality of the spiritual life of the Meeting. Office maintains communications, calendars, and historical records. Religious Education operates the First Day School. Social Concerns attends to relations among all peoples in the local community. Trustees oversee the real estate, personal property, and investing funds of the Meeting.
Several working groups operate alongside the committees, including the Change Group (antiracism work), the Growing Our Meeting group, the Refugee Assistance Working Group (Afghan refugee resettlement since February 2022), and the Reparations Working Group, founded in fall 2024.
Members have access to a password-protected online directory of contact information for members and attenders.
Public Ministry and the Friends Incubator
In the Quaker tradition, public ministry refers to Spirit-led service that is offered outwardly: speaking, traveling, writing, witnessing, caregiving, healing, organizing, teaching. It has deep roots in Quaker history, from early Friends who preached in marketplaces to modern Friends who labor for abolition, peace, environmental justice, right relationship, and healing. In the last two decades, Sandy Spring's Ministry and Counsel Committee has recognized the need to provide discernment, clearness, and support for Friends called to ministry outside the monthly meeting. A process established in 2024 includes appointing a clearness committee for mutual discernment; if clearness is reached that the call is rightly ordered and the Meeting is clear to take the minister under its care, a Support and Accountability Committee (SAC) is formed.
Windy Cooler is the most prominent public minister under the Meeting's care, having been embraced in 2019. She is the convener of the Friends Incubator for Public Ministry, a project under the fiscal sponsorship and care of Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting. The Incubator seeks to revitalize the practice of public ministry within the Religious Society of Friends by nurturing emerging leaders and empowering local meetings. Windy's call to right relationship is grounded in the Quaker theology of continuing revelation: through relationships with one another, the Divine in each of us is in an infinite conversation that recreates the world anew each day, year, and generation. She sometimes calls herself a "good Quaker pirate," and says her call is to "provoke unto love." A Public Ministry Fund supports public ministers under the Meeting's care; donations can be directed through PayPal or Vanco by selecting the "Public Ministry Fund" option.
Reparations and Right Relationship
In fall 2024, Sandy Spring Friends Meeting established a Reparations Working Group under the care of the Peace Committee. The group's framing draws on Quaker Harold Weaver's guidance to Friends of European descent: educate yourself, make the commitment to the ongoing process, make a formal acknowledgment of harms, memorialize the acknowledgment, commit to truth-telling, and make amends.
The group emerged from a learning and worship-sharing session on reparations offered to the Meeting in spring 2024 as part of a four-part series on committing to antiracist work called Beyond Acknowledgment. In First Month 2026, the Meeting approved Brief and Longer formal Acknowledgments of its relationship with chattel slavery. Coleman Bazelon, principal at the Brattle Group and a member of Sandy Spring Friends Meeting, presented research from the Second Symposium on Reparations Under the Law in February 2023 on the quantification of reparations for transatlantic chattel slavery. Tom Farquhar has shared the history of the first generations of Sandy Spring Quakers, including Richard Snowden, a Quaker enslaver at his ironworks on the Patuxent River near Laurel, Maryland, who also dealt in the chattel slave trade.
A Land Acknowledgment was approved at Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business in Sixth Month 2026. Three members of Baltimore Yearly Meeting's Indian Affairs Committee, Sue Marcus, Dellie James, and Sandy Spring member Pat Powers, contributed suggestions. The Indigenous Affairs Committee publication Quick Facts About Indigenous Americans was compiled and prepared by Alexis Contreras of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
Earth Care
The Meeting's Earth Care work is organized by the Friends in Unity with Nature Committee. The committee's Statement on Stewardship reads, in part: "Through practices of silence, listening, noticing, and paying attention, and guided by testimonies derived from those experiences, Quakers have sought right relationship with the natural world for 350 years."
The Meeting's stewardship activities include the installation of a solar panel array on the Community House roof in 2023, the planting of a raingarden to reduce the flow of water and pollution into local streams and rivers and to protect animal habitats, plans for future raingardens on the north side of the Lyceum, environmental education for youth and adults, and advocacy for eco-friendly legislation in the Maryland General Assembly. The Meeting property is also maintained as a wildlife sanctuary. The committee partners with organizations including Re-Volv, Anacostia Riverkeeper, the Montgomery County Green Bank, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, Lumina Solar, and Interfaith Power & Light DMV.
Peace Work
The Peace Committee endorses a wide range of peace, justice, and human rights organizations and supports them in the Meeting's annual operating budget, including Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Fellowship of Reconciliation, Friends Peace Teams, Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina (directed by Sandy Spring member Wayne Finegar), Center on Conscience and War, Peace Action Montgomery, United Palestinian Appeal, Ramallah School Scholarship Fund, Olive Oil Ministry (whose bottles of Palestinian olive oil can be purchased at the Meeting), Poor People's Campaign, CASA de Maryland, Right Sharing of World Resources, African Great Lakes Initiative, and Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform (MAJR).
The Meeting has approved minutes on the war between Israel and Hamas (December 2023) and an urgent Minute of Conscience and Witness in 5th Month 2026 calling on national leaders to stop the flow of weapons and funds fueling war, to press for an immediate cease-fire, and to use every diplomatic and peaceful means available to end the fighting. The Meeting also supports the Back from the Brink campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons.
Marriages, Memorial Meetings, and the End of Life
Couples seeking to be married under the care of the Meeting, or marriages held in the Meeting House but under the care of other Friends Meetings, are overseen by the Marriage and Family Relations Committee. Members, associate members, regular attenders, and nonmembers, including Quakers and non-Quakers, may be married under the care of the Meeting. Friends regard marriage as religious in nature, a solemn covenant made between two people in the presence of God. The Meeting applies its marriage procedures to all couples, regardless of sex or gender.
The Ministry and Counsel Committee is responsible for all memorial services held in the Meeting House, called Memorial Meeting for Worship. The Meeting has prepared Completing the Circle of Life: Preparing for the End of One's Life, a Practical Guide, along with both printable and fillable PDF forms. The End of Life Planning Group also offers advance directive assistance and Dinner with Death programs that address end of life issues several times each year.
The Sandy Spring Graveyard is a resource for Quaker history. Adjacent to the Meeting House, it has received burials for more than 250 years, beginning when Maryland was still a province. In keeping with older Quaker belief that headstones were an extravagance, 135 people are known to have been buried prior to the mid-19th century without a marker. A book available from the Meeting lists all persons buried in the Sandy Spring Meeting graveyard through 2003.
Inclusiveness and Statements of the Meeting
Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting is affirming of the range of spiritual experience and a community where LGBTQ families are invited to participate in all aspects of community life. In April 2011 the Meeting approved a minute affirming same-sex marriage. On March 2, 2025, the Meeting approved a minute of support for transgender and nonbinary people, affirming that every person's lived understanding of their own gender identity is valid and committing the Meeting to support trans and nonbinary people within the Religious Society of Friends and throughout the community.
In December 2016, the Meeting approved a statement on religious freedom, joining other American Quakers in a call for the right of all people to the free, peaceful, and legal exercise of their own religious traditions. In May 2017, the Meeting joined the DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network, pledging to resist policies and actions that target and deport undocumented immigrants and discriminate against marginalized communities. In February 2022, Friends formed a working group under the care of the Social Concerns Committee to meet the needs of Afghan refugees recently resettled in Maryland, providing housing, furnishings, food, transportation, ESOL connections, and employment assistance, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Community Development Council-African Community Center.
Centering Prayer and the Contemplative Life
A regular Centering Prayer group meets on Tuesdays from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (except for first Tuesdays) at Sandy Spring Friends Meeting in the School House. The format draws on the wisdom teachings of the Desert Mothers and Fathers and the method developed by Thomas Keating. A typical session includes time for introductions and welcoming, a short spiritual reading, twenty minutes of silent Centering Prayer, followed by worship-sharing and prayer concerns. The groups are officially recognized and supported by the Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington (COMW) and are open to anyone of any faith tradition interested in developing contemplative prayer.
Sandy Spring in Stitches
Inspired by the Quaker Tapestry Project in Kendall, England, with its 77 embroidered panels documenting Quaker history, Sandy Spring Friends Meeting has launched its own community embroidery project, Sandy Spring in Stitches. The project celebrates the history of Sandy Spring, Maryland, and its Quaker roots. Conceived as a crewel embroidery project using wool yarn to create thick, textured, three-dimensional panels in the style of the Quaker Tapestry, the project welcomes everyone, including folks of any age and skill level. Those with ideas for panels, who enjoy drawing and designing, or who want to embroider or learn to embroider are encouraged to join.
Facilities and the Lyceum Gallery
The Meeting's properties include the historic 1817 Meeting House, the 1859 Lyceum, the Community House, and the School House. The Community House has eight rooms of various sizes, and the Lyceum has a large kitchen and room to accommodate about 200 people. The facilities are available for rental for meetings, conferences, workshops, wedding receptions, and other uses. The Meeting's Lyceum Gallery hosts rotating exhibits of local artists, including a multi-media exhibit of Clare Margiotta's work in watercolor, oil, acrylic, gouache, pastel, colored pencil, and printmaking.
Getting Involved
The Meeting invites newcomers and longtime attenders alike to be part of the community. Volunteers help set up or clean up for weekly coffee hour, assist with First Day School or other events, or help maintain Meeting grounds. Friendly Eights are groups of about eight Friends who gather regularly for meals and fellowship. Social Action Groups address Meeting concerns such as social justice, peace, and the environment. Seeker Sessions are gatherings to introduce and explore Quakerism, open to both new and experienced Friends. Study Groups gather around Bible study, Quaker topics, and spirituality. Committees accomplish much of the important work of the Meeting and welcome new members.
Supporting the Meeting
The Meeting raises funds from members and those who worship regularly with Friends. Quakers are called to live a life of integrity, a life of personal wholeness, consistency, honesty, and fair dealing. The Meeting does not ask for tithes but expects each Friend to give as the Spirit leads. Donations can be made electronically through Vanco or PayPal, by leaving a check in the office made out to "Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting," or by contributing stocks, bonds, or mutual funds directly to the Meeting's brokerage account. Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends is a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious organization and all donations are tax-deductible.
Visiting Sandy Spring Friends Meeting
The Meeting House is located at 17715 Meeting House Road, just off Route 108 at the traffic light by the old Sandy Spring Bank building and the Passion Bakery. Parking is available at the Meeting. The Meeting provides Zoom links for those joining each gathering remotely.
The Meeting is, as it has been since 1753, a community where all are welcome to worship among Friends.