Last March, Cincinnati Friends Meeting approved the formation of a small group that led two open worship sharing sessions to discern our meeting’s responses to a series of queries posed by the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) regarding reproductive health. Seventeen people participated in the process, either during the
Examining the Life of Levi Coffin
While being interviewed recently for a documentary on Agents of the Underground Railroad, I was asked about the relationship between the abolitionist Levi Coffin and the other members of Cincinnati Friends Meeting. And the answer was . . . it’s complicated. By the nineteenth century, all yearly meetings in North
CFM Roots: Property Added and Divided
After sharing the same Fifth Street lot with the Hicksites since the late 1820s, the Orthodox members of Cincinnati Friends Meeting eventually decided that they needed more land. Nicholas Longworth, who originally owned the property purchased by the meeting in 1813, also owned two lots to the west of it—about
Camp, a Contemplative Rhythm and Spiritual Companionship
I packed the car in the cool of night, blessing each basket of goodies, expressing gratitude for the rewarding task ahead. In the morning I would head to Quaker Knoll Camp on Cowan Lake to offer a retreat on spiritual nurture—my vocation for the past 20 years—for the opening of
CFM Roots: Separate Burial Grounds
Although a portion of the Fifth Street meetinghouse grounds had been set aside as a cemetery in 1819, by 1833 the property was now occupied by two meetinghouses and a schoolhouse, and the remaining space was not sufficient for the burial needs of the community. In 1834, a collection was