Downingtown Friends Meeting

Website: http://www.downingtownfriendsmeeting.org/

Come worship with us Sunday mornings, 10:30 A.M., in our Meetinghouse (Childcare provided)

Phone: 610-269-4223

We, at Downingtown Friends Meeting, are a spiritually led, socially conscious, vibrant and welcoming faith community of Friends (with a capital "F") who practice the Quaker faith. Entering our third century of Quaker presence in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, our growing community, made up of people from all walks of life, acts as an extended family, helping each other in times of need. And while our main purpose is to gather in silent worship, we’re also an active community, involved in all sorts of activities. Adults take part in brown-bag and book discussions, cooperative dinners, Christmas chorus, and prayer-for-healing groups. Our many children enjoy attending our excellent Sunday School, as well as participating in weekend campouts, and trips to foreign countries for our older teens. And if all this isn’t enough, our Meeting family comes together to put on our annual Fall Festival where we celebrate the season with good food, good music, and good fun.

Meeting for Worship  Sundays 10:30-11:30 AM
(Nursery and child care available)

Opening Exercises 
Sundays 10:00 AM
In the School House, before Meeting for Worship
September-June

First Day School 
Sundays 10:30-11:30 AM
September-June

Meeting for Business
last Sunday of each month, following Meeting for Worship

Eating Meeting
2nd Sunday
potluck lunch after Meeting for Worship 
September-June

Our Worship
We center ourselves to still our minds and hearts and await the voice of God in silent expectation. We may be moved to share a message which often lends guidance to our worship.
Meeting for Worship is a celebration where we give praise for all the good in our lives and rejoice in God's creation.
It's the time when we reflect on steering the challenges in our lives, to connect with the power of good in all people, to contemplate service to others, and to practice the power of forgiveness.
A handshake ends our Meeting for Worship.

Regular Meeting Activities
We worship in our meetinghouse from 10:30-11:30 A.M. every Sunday.
Before worship, we hold Opening Exercises, short presentations by a volunteer, along with hymn singing and announcements, from 10:00-10:30 A.M. in our Schoolhouse (the larger building) from September through May.

Children from kindergarten to high school age attend Sunday School from 10:30-11:15 A.M. every Sunday from September through June. If you have pre-school children, there’s nursery and child care available during worship. Children join their parents in worship in the meetinghouse at 11:15.

On the second Sunday of each month from September through June, we have a potluck lunch we call Eating Meeting, held immediately following Meeting for Worship. It's a great place to meet us. And don't feel you need to bring food. There's usually plenty for all.

History:

In 1712, a group of Friends established Uwchlan Monthly Meeting in Lionville, assembling in members' homes. By 1715, they built a log meeting house and met there until a more permanent Lionville Meeting House could be built in 1756.

John Downing, owner of the King's Arms Tavern, gave the Meeting a piece of land near the corner of Lancaster & Uwchlan Avenue in 1774, on which the new Meeting built a schoolhouse.

By 1784, Friends living in Milltown (Downingtown) asked to meet in the Friends Schoolhouse on Sunday afternoons. The Lionville Friends (later called Uwchlan Meeting) granted permission and appointed George Thomas and others to "attend as often as they can and report the sense of the service of said meeting at close of the season."

By 1802, The Friends in Downings Town asked to become a separate Meeting. Lionville Meeting denied their request, but they allowed the Downings Town Friends to become an indulged Meeting, a kind of recognized worship group.

An historic photo of our Meeting House, showing the iron gate and fence as it stood out front.

July 22, 1806 marked the signing of an agreement for the building of the Meeting House in Downingtown on land donated by Jenu Roberts. By mid- November, the first marriage, between Elizabeth Downing and John T. Thomas
had taken place.

In 1811, Uwchlan Meeting granted Downingtown Friends permission to establish a preparative Meeting under the care of Uwchlan Meeting.

By 1907, a lack of attenders forced the Lionville Meeting to be discontinued,
and Downingtown Preparative Meeting became Uwchlan Monthly Meeting.  Downingtown Friends School began in what was then the Public Library and in 1920 the Meeting inaugurated a new school building next to the Meeting House. An addition was added in 1985.

Today, Downingtown Friends Meeting is one of the fastest growing Meetings in the region.

We believe in:
          The Light of God in everyone
          Direct communion with God
          Continuing revelation
          A personal experience with God