About Annual Sessions
In our Annual Sessions, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting takes its name literally. Any and all PYM Friends have the opportunity to assemble. As Faith and Practice puts it, "In meeting for worship for business and other forums, members come together in annual or special sessions for assessment of the life of the Society, the conduct of business, spiritual refreshment and commitment, and the renewal of the bonds of friendship."
For 2007, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting will hold two sets of Annual Sessions: a Spring weekend and a Summer retreat experience. Previously, we alternated holding our regular (non-called) sessions between Spring at the Arch Street Meeting House and Summer on a university campus. This year, we're doing both: March in Philadelphia, with a focus on fellowship, worship, discernment and learning, and July at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, for an extended opportunity of worship, community, business, and growth.
FROM THE MARCH 2007 SESSIONS
"The thing is this: that if you had (once a year) a Yearly Meeting ... for Friends to see one another, and know how the affairs of truth prosper, and how friends do grow in the truth of God, to the comfort and joy of one another in it ... all things (by the truth and power of God) may be kept in peace and love, all dwelling in the wisdom of God."
George Fox to Friends in Jamaica, 1681, Epistle 373, Works 8:210
Posted by: Rich Ailes on May 10, 07 | 9:46 pm
Report from our recent Sessions at Arch Street.
PYM NEWS: This video documentary was originally developed for showing at PYM's Annual Sessions in April 2005, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Hicksite and Orthodox Friends finally setting aside their differences after 128 years of disunity.