emergence
of pacific yearly meeting
Friends
from both the pastoral and the unprogrammed traditions
were scattered in California and around the Pacific Rim by 1928. In
that year, Howard and Anna Cox Brinton (a granddaughter of Joel
and Hannah Bean) moved from Philadelphia to the Oakland area to
serve on the faculty of Mills College. They played key roles in the
next phase of Quaker growth by actively visiting among Meetings
and helping to start the Pacific Coast Association of Friends (PCAF)
in 1931. It met annually and included Friends from unprogrammed
Meetings in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, China, Hawaii,
Japan, Korea, Honolulu, Mexico City, and California. By 1940, it was
holding weeklong gatherings every August, rotating its meeting
place among the Pacific Northwest, the San Francisco Bay area, and
Southern California.
The
Pacific Coast Association experienced growth and change in the 1940s.
Conscientious objectors (COs) to World War II were
scattered to locations far from their homes. The Friends Ambulance
Corps of Britain offered active service to a few. By 1942, the
Civilian Public Service (CPS) program gave COs of the historic
Peace Churches the option of working in special camps or other
institutions where the war had depleted available staff. Thus, many
young Quaker men were stationed in the West Coast area. Often
their wives had moved to be nearby and the family then remained
in the West.When travel became possible after the war, they built
a
thin but strong network. Their lives of faithful service left a lasting
imprint on Pacific Yearly Meeting.
The
unhappy experiences of some individual members influenced the Pacific
Coast Association of Friends to shun formal
relationships with other organizations. PCAF refused to exert
authority over individual Friends, who could join the Association
directly, without having a Monthly Meeting membership.
Beginning in 1941, Howard Brinton voiced strong support for
forming a new Yearly Meeting. His message gradually took effect.
In 1946, University Friends Meeting in Seattle formally proposed
that PCAF become Pacific Yearly Meeting (PYM). The first annual
gathering of the new Yearly Meeting was held at Palo Alto in the
summer of 1947 with twelve member Monthly Meetings.
As memberships
grew, and travel became an increasing problem, an amicable process
led to changes in the structures of
unprogrammed Meetings in the West. In 1973, Meetings in British
Columbia (which had maintained dual memberships) withdrew
from PYM to align with Canadian Yearly Meeting. Two new Yearly
Meetings were created out of sections of the original PYM: North
Pacific Yearly Meeting in 1973 and Intermountain Yearly Meeting in
1975. Although all three Yearly Meetings experienced some loss of
fellowship among particular Friends, they all continue to thrive
and
grow and they cooperate in activities such as sponsoring Friends
Bulletin and conducting the Brinton Visitor Program.
From
its varied beginnings, Pacific Yearly Meeting has come to have a
distinctive character.Many members maintain close ties with
their original Meetings. Most members are convinced Friends,
many of whom have little experience with Meetings outside PYM.
These factors, as well as a certain western spirit of independence,
have resulted in PYM’s reluctance to join either Friends
General
Conference or Friends United Meeting.
The
character of Pacific Yearly Meeting developed in large part from
the faithfulness of Friends to their concerns. From its beginning
in the Pacific Coast Association of Friends, ties stretching
beyond its geographical confines have been evident. Honolulu
Monthly Meeting was established in 1937 under the care of Friends
World Committee for Consultation. Connections with Quakers in
Korea, Japan, and China (Shanghai and Hong Kong) were maintained
even through the wars and gave an unusual richness and
flavor to the meetings of the PCAF and later of PYM. Shanghai
dropped out in 1951, though Hong Kong remained a part of PYM at
that time. The Friend in the Orient Committee, created in 1962,
continued to be active after China was closed to Westerners, carrying
on a ministry of support and communication among Quakers
around the Pacific Rim until it was laid down in 1998.
In
2000, Pacific Yearly Meeting includes Meetings and Worship Groups
in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guatemala, and Mexico. Still,
it is geographically smaller than the Pacific Coast Association of
Friends or the original Pacific Yearly Meeting. Individual
participation has remained constant since 1980 at about 1,500
members. In the 1990’s, the direction of outreach shifted
from the
Pacific Rim to Russia and Latin America.
The
ongoing support and faithfulness of individual Friends has led to
the establishment of several independent non-profit
corporations. Among these are the Friends Association of Services
for the Elderly, Ben Lomond Quaker Center, the Pacific Friends
Outreach Society and John Woolman School, the only Quaker
boarding school in California. Although these are not directly under
PYM authority, Friends throughout the Yearly Meeting have been
involved in their support. Other projects led by individual Friends
and carried forward by PYM include continuing support for
the Guatemala Scholarship Loan Program for indigenous students,
and links with the Casa de los Amigos in Mexico City. Friends
House Moscow evolved from initial work by PYM Friends in
conjunction with British Friends. Many informal bonds contribute
to a lively intercourse between PYM Friends and the wider world
of Quakerism.†
† For
more on the early history of Friends in the Western U.S., see Friends
Bulletin (May 1998 and January 1999), Quakers in California by David
LeShana, The Quakers by Barbour and Frost, The Transformation of
American Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907 by Thomas Hamm, A
Certain Kind of Perfection by Margery Post Abbot, A Western Quaker
Reader
by Anthony Manousos (ed.), as well as archival minutes. Some Meetings
have published extensive histories in booklet form
.