About Camas Friends

Meets every Sunday morning at 10:45am for worship
in song, prayer, discussion, a message and listening in silence.

We are a participatory, Christ-centered Quaker meeting in Camas Washington that seeks to live out our faith by loving God and loving our neighbors. We are diverse in our beliefs, backgrounds, and personal experiences. This is an asset to who we are. We work to be a welcoming community for all people, one that loves without judgment. It is important to us to be active in our community and to care for those in need the best we can. We are open to dialogue, we like good questions, and we value the practice of listening.

Matt Boswell is the pastor of our meeting. We have a nursery for small children, and we follow Godly Play curriculum for our children’s program that goes from pre-K to 5th grade.  We invite older kids to participate in our regular worship, and practice ‘listening for God’ in our meeting.

Here are some of the things we say about ourselves. You may visit us or contact us for more information.

On Being Quakers

We are a community committed to following the way of Jesus who we understand to be our present teacher and guide. We also take very seriously our Quaker tradition and its practices. We see living the way of Christ as being connected to and flowing out of our faith tradition. It is what shapes us and gives us the resources to grow deeper in our faith.

Quaker practices help us be the kind of community able to listen and follow Jesus in a chaotic world. We believe that there is “that of God in everyone.” We like the Quaker saying, “Let your lives speak.” We try and read the bible with empathy rather than as a handbook. We believe in the importance of peace and living lives of integrity and simplicity. We think that listening to God in community is essential. And we believe in the equality of all people.

On Participatory Worship

We practice participatory worship. We believe that God moves within, speaks to, calls and loves all people. Therefore we try to make space for each person to live into their questions, encounter Jesus in their own way and in their own timing, and to contribute to our collective voice.  We sing together. We share our prayers with one another. There is often time to reflect on questions surrounding the biblical text for the week. And there is always a time of “silent” or waiting worship at the end of each of our worship services. These are some of the ways that we practice listening for and to God through one another. We believe that we are all ministers in Christ.

If you are led we invite you to join us for worship.