Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) of Friends (Quakers) meets twice a year. Midyear meeting occurs in March or April. It is a time to hear speakers on Quaker or peace and justice subjects, usually with a lot of audience participation, sharing our experiences. This past weekend was this year’s midyear meeting. These meetings are held at my monthly meeting, Bear Creek Friends meeting in the countryside north of Earlham, Iowa. This year Jeff Cox, a member of the Iowa City meeting, spoke about Conservative Friends’ history, beliefs, and worship. (For those not familiar with our yearly meeting, Conservative refers to preserving the practices of the early Quakers of the mid 1600’s in England. Most Iowa Conservative Friends tend to be quite liberal politically.)

Photos often express how people are relating to each other better than words. The following are from this year’s meeting. The first set are of the women who worked with the youth. One thing they did was make Quaker bonnets out of construction paper.