We thought you might like to know something about Peterborough Meeting and how it functions today. The Meeting was established in the 1930s when the Quaker founded manufacturing firm of Joseph Baker moved from London to Peterborough and merged with another manufacturing company Perkins to form Baker Perkins, manufacturers of baking and printing machinery. There were still a number of practising Quakers on the staff of Joseph Baker and they invited interested Peterborough residents to join with them. Meetings for worship were held in an old banana warehouse sited where the Queensgate shopping centre now stands. The present meeting house was built in the orchard of the "house next door" which is still called Orchard House, and was officially opened in 1936. Peterborough meeting is one of a group of meetings called the Cambridge and Peterborough Monthly Meeting. It is called a Monthly Meeting because its members meet together each month to deal with membership and other business matters and, most important, to meet in fellowship and "see one another's faces" to use a time honoured phrase. There are three distinct meetings in Cambridge, one in Godmanchester, a very new small meeting in Ely, a small but old established meeting in

Wisbech, and a recently established meeting in Oundle. The basis of worship in all Quaker meetings is to meet in silent waiting on the spirit of God, but every meeting has its own distinct character formed out of the characters of the members and attenders. We hope that you will want to experience Quaker worship in other meetings besides Peterborough. Peterborough Friends meet together once a month, usually after meeting for worship, to deal with local business matters and to prepare for Monthly Meeting. This is why each local meeting is called a Preparative Meeting! Quaker meetings are distinctive. They are conducted in the same spirit as meetings for worship. We have no chairperson or secretary, but a Friend, called the Clerk, is appointed to bring the business matters before the meeting, to listen to and, sometimes, to guide the discussion and to write a minute which expresses "the sense of the Meeting". No votes are taken; the minute is discussed and shaped by members before it is accepted as expressing "the exercise of the meeting" and Friends proceed to the next item of business. Minutes are never altered by subsequent meetings, although the business covered by them may be freshly considered, and a new minute accepted. Business discussed ranges from practical matters about  the care

of the meeting house to concern of Friends for particular religious, social or charitable actions. You are welcome to ask the Clerk for permission to attend a preparative meeting to see for yourself how Friends conduct their affairs. We have no ministers, no paid officers. The right holding of our meetings and the conduct of our business is the responsibility of every one of us; but we do appoint some Friends to accept special responsibility for some functions. These appointments are never permanent and are reconsidered from time to time so that the burdens do not fall too heavily on some individuals. Some Friends, called Elders, accept special responsibility for the spiritual health of the meeting and the conduct of meetings for worship. Other Friends, called Overseers, accept special responsibility for the physical and wellbeing of members. In Peterborough the Elders and Overseers meet together. There is also a need for a Clerk, a Treasurer, Librarian, Doorkeepers and Gardeners! The Society of Friends has been described as a "do it yourself" church, but we believe that if we are faithful we are guided by the spirit of truth and it is this spirit that we wait upon.