History of Downtown Manhattan Allowed Meeting

The Downtown Meeting began in June 2003 as a way for Friends from all over the city to come together to worship, which is why Lower Manhattan was selected as the area to meet. It was also hoped that it would be a more public presence to attract passersby to join us. The first year we met on folding chairs on the grass in Bowling Green, but then the Parks Department decided that they would reseed the grass and we had to find another place. 

So, in April 2004 Andy von Salis, Sally Campbell and Lorcan Otway (I believe) searched in Battery Park and Battery Park City for a new place to meet.  We started at the tip of Manhattan and walked uptown. Nothing seemed like the right place. Near the north end of the park we came upon a small group of people dressed in beautiful costumes. They said they were about to go into the Labyrinth of Contemplation to do a New Moon Walk. We were curious but went on, ending with a meeting for worship on a dock sticking out into the Hudson at Battery Park City. We agreed that we would try meeting at the labyrinth. Looking back, it feels like a well-timed gift, for if we had been a few minutes later, we would not have seen the walkers nor the labyrinth. We found out later this was the first time they did such a walk. 

For the past 21 years (as of 2024) we have been meeting there each summer.  Hurricanes and the pandemic and now construction to build a barricade against future storm surges have all made it more difficult, but whenever we could we have been worshipping in or near the labyrinth. Andy Von Salis is particularly to be praised for sitting there alone many weeks near the beginning of the lockdown. 

— Sally Campbell, October 2024