Date Names
The common names of days of the week and months of the year,such as “Sunday” and “January”, were adopted in honor of pagan deities. Friends have traditionally rejected such vocabulary and have called the days of the week and the months of the year by their numbers, as they are called in scripture, thus:
| First Day (sunday) | First Month (january) | Seventh Month (july) |
| Second Day (monday) | Second Month (february) | Eighth Month (august) |
| Third Day (tuesday) | Third Month (march) | Ninth Month (september) |
| Fourth Day (wednesday) | Fourth Month (april) | Tenth Month (october) |
| Fifth Day (thursday) | Fifth Month (may) | Eleventh Month (november) |
| Sixth Day (friday) | Sixth Month (june) | Twelfth Month (december) |
| Seventh Day (saturday) |
It is interesting that, earlier in the 20th century, Friends began accepting use of the common date names, feeling that any pagan meaning has been forgotten, while in the 21st century, most of us write (or type) dates using their number designations. Perhaps the Quaker usage will catch on in common speech as well.
“Under the care of…”
We, as individuals and as a whole, intentionally and conficently put ourselves under the care of our beloved Lord, Jesus the Anointed Son of God. In turn, as Christ’s body here on earth, each member must care for, and be cared for by, other members, as Christ directs. Founded on that relationship, individual Friends care for each other among those with whom they share regular worship, fellowship, discipleship, stewardship, and service. We also care for each other as groups. Worship Groups are small and immature, and are under the care of Monthly Meetings. Monthly Meetings are well enough established to take on the reponsibity of meeting houses, marriages and funerals, and other termporal business. They are, in turn, under the care of Quarterly Meetings, and Quarterly Meetings are under the care of the Yearly Meeting. The “care” may be compared to parental love, which emphasizes instruction, advice, and council, reserving correction and authority for special cases, and always in a sense of Christian love. Since Monthly Meetings are made up of all their own members and members of their worship groups, and Quarterly Meetings are made up of all the members of their Monthly Meetings, and the Yearly Meeting is made up of all the members of all the Quarterly Meetings, there is not a true hierarchy. Rather, as each such group’s strength comes from the unity which they find in Christ, the larger the group that has found unity, the more power that unity exerts over the body and its members.