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Quaker Cloud

Quaker Cloud Core Vocabulary

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

This document defines shared vocabulary terms in the Quaker Cloud (quaker:) namespace. These terms are used across Quaker Cloud specifications wherever a controlled vocabulary is needed for Quaker-specific concepts not covered by schema.org or other standard vocabularies.

All terms defined here are properties of the namespace https://quaker.cloud/spec/ns/. Specifications that use these terms should declare the quaker: prefix accordingly:

"@context": {
  "@vocab": "https://schema.org/",
  "quaker": "https://quaker.cloud/spec/ns/"
}

Other Quaker Cloud specifications are normatively dependent on this document for any term prefixed quaker:.

Meeting Types

Section titled “Meeting Types”

Term: quaker:meetingType Range: string (controlled vocabulary) Used on: schema:Organization

Identifies the structural level of a Quaker meeting or worship group within the organisational hierarchy of a yearly meeting. The value must be one of the following:

ValueDescription
worship-groupAn informal gathering that meets for worship but is not yet a constituted meeting with full membership functions
preparativeA meeting under the care of a monthly meeting; may hold membership but reports to its overseer meeting
monthlyThe primary unit of Quaker church governance; holds membership and conducts meeting for business
quarterlyA regional grouping of monthly meetings; meets quarterly for business and fellowship
half-yearlyA regional grouping that meets twice yearly; used in some yearly meetings in place of quarterly meetings
yearlyThe annual gathering of Friends across a region or nation; the highest unit of church governance in most branches

These values are lowercase and hyphenated for use in JSON-LD and XML contexts.

Quaker Branches

Section titled “Quaker Branches”

Term: quaker:quakerBranch Range: string (controlled vocabulary) Used on: schema:Organization

Identifies the theological and ecclesiological tradition of a Quaker meeting. Friends’ meetings vary considerably in worship style, theology, and church polity. This field supports disambiguation between meetings of the same name operating in different traditions.

The value must be one of the following:

ValueDescription
unprogrammedSilent waiting worship; no pastor or planned order of service; includes most Friends General Conference and Britain Yearly Meeting affiliates
semi-programmedWorship that combines a period of open unprogrammed worship with some planned elements; common in some Pacific coast yearly meetings
programmedWorship with a pastor and a prepared order of service; predominant in Friends Church and Evangelical Friends International affiliates
conservativeUnprogrammed meetings that maintain historic Quaker practices and testimonies; includes Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) and similar bodies
evangelicalMeetings emphasising evangelical Christian theology, often with programmed worship; some overlap with the programmed category

These values are not exhaustive of the full historical range of Quaker diversity. Implementations encountering meetings that do not fit any value may use a free-text string and are encouraged to propose additions via the Quaker Cloud issue tracker.

Record Types

Section titled “Record Types”

Term: quaker:documentType Range: string (controlled vocabulary) Used on: any schema:Article or similar record

Identifies the specific Quaker record type within a general schema.org type. This allows consuming systems to distinguish Quaker-specific record categories without requiring a new top-level @type.

ValueDescriptionDefined in
MemorialMinuteA written tribute prepared by a meeting for a Friend who has diedMemorial Minute Specification

Additional record types will be added as further Quaker Cloud specifications are published.

References

Section titled “References”