Accountability Report for 2025

Our name, the Religious Society of Friends, suggests that we think of ourselves not only as Friends in the Truth, which the early Quakers saw themselves to be, but also as a society of friends, prizing friendship highly and recognizing its value for the religious life.

In our intimate relationships, as in the wider community of our meeting, openness to one another can open us to the Holy Spirit and enable us to acknowledge that of God in our own hearts and in those of our friends.

                           22.02 Quaker Faith & Practice, second edition, the Book of Christian Discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain.

After reviewing the 2024 State of Society Reports, the theme that emerged for the Quaker Life Group to guide our work in 2025 was “connections.” There was a sense of the need to deepen connections within our community.

Connections are the very sacred glue that holds us together as a community. Religious means to be linked, to be connected. We are bonded to each other through our relationship to the Holy Spirit. We can only be a gathered community if we are connected.

Monthly Meetings are the hub and heart of Quaker communities. They are often the first port of call for connecting with our faith.

Maintaining connections between Friends and Meetings in Canada can be challenging, given that many Monthly Meetings across Canada are small and isolated, or their members are far-flung. They face challenges, ranging from finding appropriate meeting spaces to welcoming newcomers. Many are figuring out new ways to weave online technologies with in-person meetings, affecting how we worship and do business.

Canadian Yearly Meeting (CYM) of the Religious Society of Friends is the national body for Quakers in Canada. CYM provides a range of activities and programs that support the religious development of Quaker faith and practice and connections within the Quaker community in Canada.

The following report provides a brief snapshot of the services provided by CYM in 2025. We hope these offerings helped local Quaker Monthly Meetings be less isolated, more connected, and vibrant. We hope the strengthening connections between Friends, Monthly Meetings, Young Friends, and the wider Quaker and ecumenical world help create a community where, as the quote above says, “openness to one another can open us to the Holy Spirit” or the Spirit of God.  

Summary of CYM Offerings in 2025

The four priorities (Community, Learning, Sustainability, and Youth), proposed by the Change and Sustainable Transformation Committee in 2022, continue as useful guides to our work. Within these priorities, connections were nurtured in a myriad of ways in 2025.

Community: To support Friends in Canada with resources and connections that nurture the spiritual communities nationally, regionally, and locally.

• As part of CYM’s efforts to improve outreach, connection, and bring renewed life to our resources, CYM’s Communications Coordinator has been working to enhance CYM’s website, monthly e-newsletter, and implement the ogo throughout the different communication channels. The new CYM logo was approved towards the end of 2024. The logo aims to embody the essence of Spirit. The spiral design is inspired by Van Gogh’s talent for capturing movement in skies, reflecting the active motion of the intangible or invisible. The different arms of the spiral symbolize the various journeys and paths toward the Light that exists within us all. The website and e-newsletter support these paths by connecting Friends and the broader community with events, news, and resources, as well as stories and updates from Friends, Monthly Meetings, and Half-Yearly Meetings. The website redesign offers enhanced functionality, including a brand-new searchable resource library.
• The annual Gathering provides a space for connection and fellowship. This year, it was held online in June. There were four days of fellowship, learning, and worship. Robert (Asher) Kirchner gave the Sunderland P. Gardner Lecture, which reflected on his experience as a dual-tradition Quaker and Jew, as a protective accompaniment working in Palestine, and as an activist in Canada. You can watch or read here. There were a number of special-interest groups, including a conversation with our neighbours, the American Friends, despite the deteriorating political relationship between Canada and the U.S. You can read reflections on the gathering here.
• A number of CYM representatives provide linkages and connections between Canadian Quakers and other Quaker and Ecumenical Bodies: Friends United Meeting, Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), Friends General Meeting, the Canadian Council of Churches, Quaker Earthcare Witness, and KAIROS. Throughout the year, CYM representatives attended various governance meetings, either in person or online, and provided reports and resources for the newsletter or Meetings for Worship for Business. They also contributed to events such as the FWCC event “Inspiration for Refreshment: Dispatches from the FWCC Section Meeting 2025.” It was a difficult year for many Quaker bodies in the U.S. as they embarked on lawsuits (read about these here and here) or dealt with financial crises (read more here and here). This led to a CYM minute of support for U.S. Friends in the spring.

Learning: To provide opportunities to learn about Friends’ ways and affirm our Quaker identity.

• Two courses were offered jointly with Woodbrook: “What Happens When We Worship Online” explored how meeting online challenges or reshapes how we worship, and “Four Doors to Meeting for Worship” offered practical guidance for our attempts to pay attention to the Divine.
• The Quaker Pocket Thought events took off and provided opportunities to learn about “Centring down in Meeting,” “Serving as Recording Clerk,” “Serving as a Clerk,” and “To be in Unity with the Other.” Some of the recordings are available here.
• As many Monthly Meetings and Yearly Meetings are going through a lot of change, Emily Provance, 2025 Swarthmore Lecturer and member of Fifteenth Street Meeting in New York City, held two sessions on “The Life Cycles of Meetings” and “Simplifying Committee Structures.” Recordings can be viewed here and here.
• The Canadian Quaker Library and Archives provided a special interest group during the annual gathering that explored our story from the 1955 unification.
• Monthly Meetings shared their news and learning with each other at two online events.
• The e-newsletter shared monthly updates about events hosted by other Monthly Meetings in Canada and by other Quaker agencies, such as Toronto Monthly Meeting‘s event on Advocating for Refugee Rights.
• The magazine The Canadian Friend was launched in a new format with the Winter 2025 edition theme of “origins” and the summer edition on “belonging.” The magazine’s mandate has shifted direction toward more “deeper spiritual content.”
• Two pamphlets were also produced and distributed: “How to Walk Cheerfully” with Margaret Slavin, the 2024 SPG lecturer and “The Transforming Power of Mercy” with Colin Saxton, the CYM 2022 Gathering Bible Study leader. You can view these along with other pamphlets here.
• Grants were given to support Friends to attend courses and educational opportunities, to participate in the in-person gathering portion of the Children and Youth Program at Camp NeeKauNis in July, and for the Saskatoon Monthly Meeting to purchase an owl camera that will assist with hosting their hybrid meetings.

Sustainability: To ensure our use of resources is sustainable – volunteer energy, finances, and environmental impacts.

• A new staffing structure was created in 2021 to relieve the burden on volunteers. This work continued in 2025, with time spent developing several new positions. Two new staff positions were developed for Camp NeeKauNis (a Camp Administrator and Resident Friend) and a Youth Coordinator for Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting. The new Camp Administrator started working in late November. The other two positions will be advertised in the new year.
• Over the past couple of years, a lot of work has been done to simplify, strengthen, and unify CYM’s financial systems. To do this, we have made changes to how we organize CYM’s funds, bank accounts, account numbers, financial software, bookkeeping, and the budget template. This past year, work was done with Camp NeeKauNis to better integrate their finances within CYM’s. All of these changes have helped CYM move towards more balanced budgets. 2024 ended with a slight surplus due to unspent grant funds (see the pie chart below), and for the first time, a balanced General Fund budget for 2026 was presented.
• Work also continued to build a strong administrative foundation that will help CYM to become more sustainable in the future. For example, work was done on developing policies/guidelines for issues such as addressing conflict, privacy, intellectual property, and communications. The archivist at the Canadian Quaker Library and Archives also completed inputting the first level of fonds (or collections) into Archives Space, which will enable the Archives to locate and share resources more effectively in the future.
• To address environmental impacts, CYM continues to keep travel to a minimum (no in-person gathering this year) and purchase carbon offsets for any travel.

Youth: To support youth involvement within the Quaker community including provision of finances, staff resources, and assistance to pursue leadings and hold gatherings.

• While the gathering was online, children and youth had an opportunity to go back to Camp NeeKauNis and connect during Community Camp in July. It was a chance for Quaker families to connect with each other within a larger multigenerational community.
• Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting held two in-person retreats. One in April at Toronto Monthly Meeting’s Friends House, and one in July at Camp NeeKauNis, in the lead-up to the Children and Youth program. Time was also spent working on the new Youth Coordinator position.
• The CYM office provided significant administrative support to Camp NeeKauNis this past year, which is a place that connects and nourishes families, children and youth.

Only so much can be captured in this snapshot. For more details on the work in 2025, please see the compilation of CYM Reports from the various committees and bodies that will be available late Spring 2026 on CYM’s business side of the website.

Thank you

This work would have been possible without the financial and in-kind support of so many Friends.

• Thank you to the many friends who serve and work countless hours across the country.
• Thank you to all the Monthly Meetings and Friends who contributed financial support and/or shared resources.
• Thank you to the Samuel Rogers Memorial Trust for your generous support.
• Thank you to Ottawa Monthly Meeting for supporting the CYM office space.
• Thank you to Pickering College for supporting the Canadian Quaker Library and Archives.

In Friendship and with gratitude,
Tasmin Rajotte,
CYM General Secretary-Treasurer