Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

The Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) is composed of constituent meetings which are the local worshiping congregations of Quakers, and which convene for business monthly, quarterly and half-yearly. Committees of the yearly meeting, representative of all Canadian Friends, take care during the year of activities approved by the yearly meeting at its annual sessions, and report to it. Twice a year, between sessions of the yearly meeting, business is conducted by the representative meeting. The greatest part of the service work of Quakers in Canada is carried out under the auspices of the Canadian Friends Service Committee, formed in 1931. The CFSC, a standing committee of CYM with its own charitable organization status, works to aid war victims, the oppressed, the poor, and victims of social injustice around the world, as well as promoting peace education and a responsibility to the natural environment, as an expression of the Quaker belief in the worth of all human beings and all creation.

The Canadian Friends Foreign Missionary Board is active in Quaker medical and educational work overseas, in particular in Kenya. The Home Mission and Advancement committee seeks to nurture meetings, new and old, and to interpret the religious emphases of the society, answering enquiries, operating a Quaker book service, and publishing a periodical, The Canadian Friend. Other committees operate a Quaker camp, provide religious education, oversee representation on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, maintain records and archives, and administer the affairs of the society.

Canadian Yearly Meeting maintains membership in the Friends General Conference based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), and the Friends United Meeting based in Richmond, Indiana (USA), both groupings of Friends yearly meetings in North America, and with the Friends World Committee for Consultation, a world-wide association of Friends yearly meetings. The association with the CCC and the WCC enables Canadian Friends to keep abreast of ecumenical thinking and participate in actions at national and international levels.