Quakers

====North and South America====
{{see also|Quakers in North America|Quakers in Latin America}}
Quakers can be found throughout the Americas. Friends in the United States in particular have diverse worship styles and differences of theology, vocabulary, and practice.

A local [[wikt:congregation|congregation]] in the unprogrammed tradition is called a ''meeting'', or a ''monthly meeting'' (e.g., ''Smalltown Meeting'' or ''Smalltown Monthly Meeting''). The reference to "monthly" is because the meeting meets monthly to conduct the group's business. Most "monthly meetings" meet for worship at least once a week; some meetings have several worship meetings during the week. In programmed traditions, local congregations are often referred to as "Friends Churches" or "Meetings".

Monthly meetings are often part of a regional group called a ''quarterly meeting'', which is usually part of an even larger group called a ''yearly meeting;'' with the adjectives "quarterly" and "yearly" referring specifically to the frequency of ''meetings for worship with a concern for business''.

Some yearly meetings, like Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, belong to larger organisations to help maintain order and communication within the Society. The three chief ones are [[Friends General Conference]] (FGC), [[Friends United Meeting]] (FUM), and [[Evangelical Friends Church International]] (EFCI). In all three groups, most member organisations, though not necessarily members, are from the United States. FGC is theologically the most liberal of the three groups, while EFCI is the most evangelical. FUM is the largest. [[Friends United Meeting]] was originally known as "Five Years Meeting". Some monthly meetings belong to more than one larger organisation, while others are fully independent.