Join us in Worship
Grass Valley Friends Meeting
You are Welcome Here!
We are an unprogrammed Friends meeting. We sit in silent, expectant worship. We gather to seek and share spiritual nourishment, care for one another, and serve the wider world.
We believe that every person is loved by the Divine Spirit, which dwells in everyone and everything. There are Quakers of all ages, religious backgrounds, races, education, sexual orientations, gender identities, and classes.
Who We Are
We are part of the worldwide Religious Society of Friends, which began over 300 years ago in England. Locally, we have about 80 members and attendees. The membership total worldwide is about 200,000. Please click here for more information about the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers.
We come together in worship:
- To listen to God
- To know and be known by God
- To grow in our faith
- To be changed
- To support each other, and
- To help one another do what God asks us to do
Our time together looks like this:
- Sitting quietly together
- Listening if someone is moved by the Spirit to speak
- Including children for a time before a children’s program
- Shaking hands when worship ends; and greeting those around us
You are welcome to join us as you are. Dress as you feel comfortable.
Please feel free to ask the person who ends the meeting any questions you might have after Worship.
When We Meet
First Day (Sundays)
- 9 a.m. Singing
- 10:00 a.m. Meeting for Worship and Children’s Program and child care (all ages welcome).
We also come together for other events and programs, see below for details.
Where We Meet
NOTE: We are now doing hybrid Meetings for Worship.
Please use the Contact Form below to receive details on how to attend in person at Sierra Friends Center or on Zoom.
Our meeting house is located at 13075 Woolman Lane, Nevada City, California. [Map Link] It is on a 232 acre site that is the ancestral land of the Nisenan people. Here there was once a thriving Nisenan village called Yulića. For the past seven decades this land was owned by Quakers and called Sierra Friends Center or Woolman. However, in 2024 ownership of the land was transferred back to the Nisenan. It is becoming, once again, the home of the Nevada City Ranchería Nisenan Tribe, and they enable us to continue to hold our Meetings for Worship on their land. As a Meeting, we continue to discern meaningful ways to support the sovereignty of the Nisenan people.
About Us
What Do We Believe?
Friends believe that there is that of God in each human being and that each individual is capable of having direct communion with the divine without the need for clergy or doctrine. We wait with hearts and minds open to “the still small voice” within. We refrain from fixing our faith in a formal set of words because we feel that experience and knowledge of the divine lie beyond words.
How Do We Live?
We strive to show in our lives and interactions with others our belief in peace, simplicity, and equality. We encourage sincerity in our common aspiration toward spirit-filled living. We believe our worship strengthens us in our daily lives and that our lives, well-lived, are worshipful.
Families and Events
Presidents Day Protest
Housewarming celebration for Mary and Gordon’s new home & Gordon’s 80th birthday
Fellowship potluck after Meeting for Worship
Families
Families and children are welcome at Grass Valley Friends Meeting!
There is a Children’s Program every Sunday.
On Fifth Sundays, we hold an Intergenerational Meeting for Worship. Adults and children gather together for 20 minutes of storytelling, 20 minutes of signing, and 20 minutes of silence.
Please use our Contact Form for more information.
Regional Friends Gatherings
Grass Valley Friends Meeting is part of the College Park Quarterly Meeting and Pacific Yearly Meeting.
You are welcome, Friend.
You are welcome to attend the programs, meetings, and events we hold throughout the year.
On the second Sunday of each month, after our Meeting for Worship and fellowship, we have a meeting where we conduct the business of our Quaker meeting. We consider this to also be an opportunity for worship, so we call it Meeting for Worship on the Occasion for Business.
We offer adult education programs on the fourth Sunday of each month, after the Meeting for Worship and fellowship. There is a different program every month. These programs, which we call Spiritual Life, focus on exploring spiritual experience. Some programs include
· Writing a spiritual autobiography,
· Mystical experience and Quakerism,
· Eco-spirituality, the climate crisis, and environmental justice,
· Relationships in the Quaker community,
· Spiritual guidance
When there is a fifth Sunday in a given month, we hold a Family Meeting for Worship. Children and adults gather and spend 20 minutes in storytelling, 20 minutes in singing, and 20 minutes in silent worship.
Please use the Contact Form to get a list of our current events and programs.
Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand
Isaac Pennington
Contact and Resources
Contact Us
LIBRARY
We have a collection of Pendle Hill pamphlets. Browse our collection here.
We are also indexing our book collection online. Browse our book collection here.
