Twin Cities Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends : Saint Paul, Minn.)

The Twin Cities Friends Meeting started in 1949 as an informal group of University of Minnesota students and staff members known as the University Friends Meeting. In 1953 they formalized their status, becoming a "preparative meeting" under the guidance of the Minneapolis Monthly Meeting and adopting the name Church Street Meeting. By early 1954 it became clear that the Meeting was no longer really a student organization and affiliation with the University was no longer appropriate. The tie to the school was discontinued and a lengthy debate began about the Meeting's place in the wider Society of Friends.

Although the Church Street Meeting enjoyed a warm relationship with the Minneapolis Meeting and its pastor, Richard Newby, many in the Church Street group had reservations about joining the Iowa Yearly Meeting, with which the Minneapolis group was affiliated. While the Iowa Yearly Meeting consisted primarily of pastoral groups with a strong Christian identification, many in the Church Street group felt a much stronger affinity for the universalist-liberal tradition that characterized the Illinois Yearly Meeting. Reluctant to break ties with the Minneapolis Meeting, the Church Street group applied for monthly meeting status in 1955 under the Iowa Yearly Meeting and requested dual membership in the Illinois Yearly Meeting. Iowa, however, refused to recognize the dual membership so in 1956 the Church Street Meeting affiliated with the Fox Valley Quarter of the Illinois Yearly Meeting.

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