Peterborough Monthly Meeting started as a worship group under the care of Wooler Monthly Meeting meeting twice a month in attenders’ homes. (All members in the group held their membership in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) with Wooler Monthly Meeting. Those who attend Peterborough meeting are always welcome to attend Wooler meetings (held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month)).
Every other year Wooler MM has a candle-light carol sing in the meeting house the Saturday evening before Christmas and a number of us like to carpool to attend that.
The group grew until it became impractical to always meet in homes. One of our members was connected with Trent University and was able to inquire about and finalize arrangements to rent the Traill College Lecture Hall every Sunday during the school months. We continued to meet at attenders’ homes during the summer months, where we could often meet outside.
At roughly the same time, our attendance numbers approached and even surpassed those for Wooler Monthly Meeting. Although it had been suggested that we become a Monthly Meeting of our own, many of us remained reluctant to plunge right away into regular monthly meetings for worship for business, especially since it has seemed that we did not have much business anyway. The alternative was to test the waters of more formal structure by becoming an Allowed Meeting under the care of Wooler Monthly Meeting. Over the subsequent years the presence of serious inquirers who wanted to learn more about Quakerism led us to schedule regular discussion groups.The influence of these same serious inquirers led us to also engage in more community-building activities within the group as well as some outreach activities.
In 2010 we seriously looked into becoming a Monthly Meeting. The group again did not feel it was ready. We agreed to revisit the matter in a year’s time. Doing so in the fall of 2011, we decided to become a Monthy Meeting. The matter was brought forth and approved in the 2012 Canadian Yearly Meeting.