A Yearly Meeting is the central organizing unit of the Religious Society of Friends with no larger body exercising authority over it. As such, Yearly Meetings develop their own concepts of beliefs and operations, which they publish in a Faith and Practice document. The Yearly Meeting ties the Monthly Meetings together and exists as a support organization to those Monthly Meetings. Like a Monthly Meeting, the Yearly Meeting exists to build community, support the life of the spirit, and discern appropriate action as an active witness to the world.

Monthly Meetings in Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting are grouped under two Quarterly Meetings: Miami and Whitewater.

Miami Quarterly's Monthly Meetings:
Campus Meeting in Wilmington, Ohio
Community Meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio
Dayton Meeting in Dayton, Ohio
Eastern Hills in Cincinnati, Ohio
Englewood Friends in Clayton, Ohio
Green Plain Meeting in Selma, Ohio
Lexington Meeting in Lexington, Kentucky
Louisville Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky
Miami Meeting in Waynesville, Ohio
Oxford Meeting in Oxford, Ohio
Yellow Springs Meeting in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Whitewater Quarterly's Monthly Meetings:
Bloomington Meeting in Bloomington, Indiana
Clear Creek Meeting in Richmond, Indiana
Fall Creek Meeting in Pendleton, Indiana
Fort Wayne Meeting in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Hopewell Meeting in Pershing, Indiana
Lafayette Meeting in West Lafayette, Indiana
Maple Grove Meeting (Inactive) in Grabill, Indiana
North Meadow Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana
White Rose Meeting in Wabash, Indiana

Existing with several different names since the early 1800s, Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting (OVYM) was originally formed from Monthly Meetings under the care of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. The beginnings of OVYM are deeply rooted in the anti-slavery movement. Quakers have sought that of God in all people, whether female or male, white or people of color, young or old. Although some early Quakers held slaves, many came to see that this was incompatible with their testimony of equality. This was especially difficult for Friends living in the Southern states. Some began to investigate moving to the Northwest Territory, designated as slave free. This included Ohio and other Midwest states. When Quakers moved from North Carolina to the “free state” of Ohio to escape the scourge of slavery and created Miami Monthly Meeting (Waynesville, Ohio), the first Quaker Meeting of what would become Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting was founded. Over the years, more monthly meetings were branched off of Miami and eventually there were sufficient related meetings in the area to organize the Yearly Meeting.

During the 18th Century many Friends were attracted southward into Virginia and the Carolinas and became involved in the institution of slavery. Near the end of that century, as a result of the labor of John Woolman and others, Friends came to believe slavery a curse; and slowly the conscience of the Society of Friends there awakened to the evil. Seeing no other way out of their dilemma, most Friends decided to transfer title of their slaves to the Yearly Meeting (North Carolina), since it was illegal to free them; sell their property, which brought only one-half of its real worth; and migrate to the Northwest Territory to begin a new life there.

The migration to the Waynesville area began in 1799 when Abijah O‘Neal and his family left Bush River, South Carolina, and settled on some 3,000 acres on the east bank of the Little Miami River north of Caesar‘s Creek. Within 15 years more than 18,000 followers of Fox and Penn left the land of slavery and made for the North to find a home in the Northwest Territory. Others came to the Miami country from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other seaboard states.

In April, 1801, twelve families (81 individuals) in the Waynesville area began meeting for worship in a member‘s home. Near the end of that year they sent a request to Westland Meeting, Pennsylvania (Baltimore Yearly Meeting) for establishing a regular meeting for worship on First and Fifth Days. This request was granted in Ninth Month, 1802. The Meeting was called Miami. Early in 1803 Miami asked Westland Meeting for permission to establish a Monthly Meeting; and when the request was approved, the Monthly Meeting was opened, Tenth Month 13, 1803. The eastern boundary was the Hocking River, the southern was the Ohio River, but there was no limit to the north or to the west. During this period of migration, hundreds of Friends from the Carolinas and Georgia brought their membership to Miami Monthly Meeting, until such time as other meetings could be established in the Northwest Territory. By 1815, Miami Monthly Meeting was said to have the largest membership of any Friends Meeting in Quakerdom.

After its establishment in 1803, Miami Monthly Meeting set off many new Meetings. Among the earliest ones were Lees Creek, Hardin Creek, Caesar‘s Creek, West Branch, Elk, Center and Whitewater. In 1807 Miami, West Branch and Center Monthly Meetings requested that a new Quarterly Meeting be established to be known as Miami Quarterly Meeting, to be held at Waynesville, Ohio, on the second Seventh Day in the Second, Fifth, Eighth and Eleventh Months. Baltimore Yearly Meeting having approved the request, Miami Quarterly Meeting was opened, Fifth month 1809. The building of the White Brick Meetinghouse at Waynesville was begun in 1811 to accommodate the Quarterly Meeting.

In 1812 Baltimore Yearly Meeting granted permission to the Quarterly Meetings west of the Alleghenies to form a yearly meeting which was called Ohio Yearly Meeting. The first session was held at Short Creek on the 14th of Eighth month, 1813. The Ohio Yearly Meeting included all meetings in Ohio, Indiana Territory and adjacent areas of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

In 1820 Miami Quarterly Meeting proposed that all Meetings in Illinois, Indiana and western Ohio be known as Indiana Yearly Meeting. The Quarterly Meetings making up the new proposed Yearly Meeting were Miami, West Branch, Fairfield, Whitewater and Blue River Quarterlies. Ohio Yearly Meeting approved the proposal, and the first session was held at Whitewater, Eighth month 10, 1821.

When the separation occurred in 1828, the Yearly Meeting split into two bodies: Indiana Yearly Meeting Orthodox (later Friends United Meeting), and Indiana Yearly Meeting Hicksite (later Friends General Conference). At Waynesville the Hicksite body retained the Meetinghouse; however, in most other cases west of the Alleghenies, the Orthodox body retained it.

In 1975 there were two reasons why it seemed desirable for this Yearly Meeting (Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends General Conference) to change its name: one, the unavoidable confusion which resulted from identical names; and two, the need to better identify the area included in the membership. For these reasons the name of Indiana Yearly Meeting FGC to Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting. The change became effective in 1976. At that time the Yearly Meeting was composed of two Quarters: Miami and Whitewater.

Alive and Quiet—Come be with Us --Ben Griffith

If I had to characterize the business of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting this year in one word, I would use the word “Quiet”. As a clerk, this quietness has given me a slight nervousness. A natural defensive caution can be a good thing for a clerk. However, when I find some Center and evaluate what is going on in the Yearly Meeting, what I see is many Friends powerfully engaged in the monthly meeting community they belong to. This is good. The Yearly Meeting’s health is bottom up stuff. It is time now for you to renew yourself. OVYM is part of this process. The call is clear to listen for the spirit within us. If I had to characterize the spirit moving within us in one word, I would use the word “Alive”. Come experience the wonder of waiting. Be with us!

Yearly Meeting as an Extended Meeting for Worship --Paul Kriese

I am reminded that the [Yearly Meeting Annual] Sessions as a whole are various ways to worship that which is holy and sacred in each of us. Business sessions are held in holy obedience to the corporate will of God expressed in our worshipful discernment of issues. Workshops are more focused explorations into various aspects of how the Spirit of God speaks to us. The various youth groups meet and begin to (or continue to deepen) their sense of how they connect to our religious society in work and play and community building exercises. As we eat together, gather in informal collectives or sequester ourselves in solitude we regain our sense of being a gathered community collected by the spirit to do God's will.