history
The Macon Quaker Worship Group, with guidance from the Atlanta Friends Meeting, began in 2011 in the home of its founding members John and Diana Day. The Days continued to host until their move to North Georgia in 2018, and the group secured its current meeting space within Macon's High Street Unitarian Universalist Church. Diana Day served five years as the first clerk, and our current clerk is Kellie Divis.
The group is regionally affiliated with the Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting Association (SAYMA) and is currently exploring moving its status from "worship group" to full "monthly meeting" under the care of the Atlanta Friends Meeting. We are aspiring to increase opportunities for children as well as adults in areas of service, education, and creative expression. As we grow in new ways, we wish to be welcoming and easily accessible to all those seeking Quakerism in Macon and throughout Middle Georgia.
Globally, the group is affiliated with the unprogrammed, meditative branch of Quakerism held by Friends General Conference (FGC). Quakerism, also called The Religious Society of Friends, began with George Fox of England in the mid-1600's and arrived in North America by the 1700's. The greatest concentration of the nearly 80,000 Quakers in the U.S. today is in the Northeast, especially in and around Pennsylvania (recall William Penn's "Holy Experiment"). Traditionally, the faith has been classified under the umbrella of Christian Protestantism. However, people from many faith traditions, or even no faith tradition, find Quakerism a beautiful and powerful framework for living.