“… a religious society listening to that of God within us, and honoring simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and continuing revelation.”

Early in the history of Quakerism, Friends across England began to congregate in large gatherings that eventually became known as the yearly meeting; smaller groups met quarterly, and the local meetings became known as monthly meetings. These basic organizational units are still in use.

Friends in our Quaker organization gather for worship and other purposes at least once a week, yet we are a monthly meeting because we discuss the meeting’s business every month. The monthly meeting is analogous to a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque in other religious traditions. The complete name of our organization is: The West Knoxville Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Sometimes we use the initials, WKFM.

WKFM has been in existence since the 1950′s. We celebrated our fiftieth birthday recently. We have been gathering in today’s meetinghouse, in a wooded lot in West Knoxville, since its construction in the early 1960′s.

Like many Quaker organizations, WKFM has no pastor. The meeting’s business is conducted by members and attenders. The clerk, and people with other responsibilities, are chosen when we conduct our business meetings.