In late October 2018, members of the Willits Book Trust of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Walton Burwell of Germantown Monthly Meeting and Lisa Stewart Garrison of Greenwich Monthly Meeting, visited with Dr. Carl Patrick Burrowes to prepare 250 copies of his book Between the Forest and the Salty Sea: A History of the Liberian People Before 1800 to be shipped to Monrovia. The committee enjoyed a delicious Liberian meal while enjoying their work. The boxes of books, a gift from the Willits Book Trust to people in Liberia, have been shipped abroad to coincide with the author’s return to his native land. Dr. Burrowes is visiting parts of Liberia within and beyond Monrovia to present copies of his book to thought leaders, educators, decision makers, and aspiring students. [Read more…] about Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea: Willits Book Trust supports Stories to Heal Liberia
Archives for December 2018
Food Stamps End Poverty: Letter to the Editor published
Judith Pilla of Radnor Monthly Meeting has published a letter to the editor in the December 23 Philadelphia Inquirer following a trip to Washington, DC, to lobby lawmakers on the importance of preserving the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) benefits. The lobby visit was part of Friends Committee on National Legislation’s recent Annual Meeting and Lobby Day a few weeks ago. The Farm Bill, which included language preserving a more comprehensive set of SNAP benefits, passed both the Senate and the House of Representatives following lobby efforts by Friends and other like-minded folks. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting had one of the very largest delegations to FCNL’s lobby day and Annual Meeting. For more information on FCNL, please visit fcnl.org. The text of Judith’s letter to the editor is below: [Read more…] about Food Stamps End Poverty: Letter to the Editor published
Epistle from “At the Well” Gathering
December 7-9, 2018, twenty-four Quaker women and genderqueer people with a call to ministry gathered at Stony Point Center, New York to explore and nurture our different ministries. Among those in attendance [from 6 yearly meetings and 19 monthly meetings] were six Friends from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, two of whom had been on the planning committee for the gathering. “At the Well” grew out of the experience of the 2016 Quaker Women in Public Ministry gathering. The intention of the 2018 conference was to create a space to gather again with a wider circle of Quakers in public ministry, including Friends of all marginalized genders.
At the Well aspired to witness to the particularity of callings laid upon participants’ hearts by providing a venue for Spirit to knit together a blessed community of connection, support, mentoring, restoration, and passion. From the epistle, linked below: “As have the many generations of Quaker ministers that have come before us, we gathered for renewal. Coming from many places in the U.S. and Mexico, we arrived parched, excited, discouraged, weary, and hopeful.”
The time together was, as one participant described it, “A time of making vital connections, giving and receiving encouragement, looking at hard truths, and remembering that the Power of the Spirit comes through groups better than through individuals.” The At the Well epistle lifts up the words of Margaret Fell, “We are a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love, and unity,” and we challenge ourselves to truly live into embodying the full meaning of these words, rather than using them to maintain the status quo. Even as we lifted up hard truths about challenges to carrying ministry in the Religious Society of Friends, particularly the impact of racial injustice, we ask: what does love look like in times of conflict?
Read more powerful testimony from the gathering: Epistle of At the Well Gathering, December 2018
Families Sharing Stories in the Christmas Season
“Parents are their children’s first and most important teachers,” was wisdom I learned from my mother, who was an advocate for children and families in all her work. It was some of the most important learning I took into the classroom with me as a teacher. It is of course true as well in religious education, though I would widen the role to include grandparents and other caregivers helping to raise a child. Stories often provide common ground across generations for sharing what’s in our hearts and teaching about our faith.
Amy Owsley from Third Haven Friends Meeting shares how families in the meeting came together to share the Christmas story with their children, and with one another. In a season often focused on worldly delights and diversions, how could the time before Christmas — a day that Friends did not traditionally celebrate as a holiday — also be about exploring the “meaning and relevance of the Christmas story in our lives today.”
Last September at a First Day School family open house, the PYM Youth Engagement Coordinator, Melinda Wenner Bradley, spoke to us about “Children, Families, and the Quaker Community.” One of the resources she shared was a story about the Advent season, adapted for Friends from the Godly Play story. It was just one of a whole batch of rich resources, but the idea of this particular story caught the heart of several families. We wondered if we could use this story to imbibe the busy, hectic Christmas season with more meaning? And we could we do this individually with our families at home, but in a way that built community among our families in the Meeting?
Right after Thanksgiving, several families gathered together with reams of felt, little wooden peg figures, paint and sewing needles to make the materials needed to tell the story. One our Meeting members, Susan Claggett, began the evening by sharing with the parents a Faith & Play story, and giving us some pointers on storytelling at home. Together we then made a handful of “Advent story kits” that we could take home. The kits are humble little collections — not a bit of polish to them! They are simple, made with heart, and carry our collective hope for creating connection and quiet in our lives during the holiday.
The Advent story can be told in four parts, so on each of the four Sundays of Advent, we share one more part of the story with our family at home. Then we informally share our experiences the next Sunday among our group at Meeting. The weeks unfold the Christmas story from the perspectives of the knowing prophets, the waiting and journeying of the holy family, the shepherds in the fields who are first to receive the news of the baby’s birth, the travels of the three Magi, and then the animals who witness the wonder of the birth of Jesus. We are finding such magic in a quiet moment with our families each week, dwelling on the meaning and relevance of the Christmas story in our lives today. Again, there isn’t any elegance or perfection here, as we are all fumbling a bit as we learn . . . but somehow this imperfection makes the experience sweeter and accessible, as our kids deepen their curiosity about the mystery of Christmas, and we parents deepen our kinship with others in the Meeting.
Herndon: Travels with Josh
Hello my name is Joshua Ponter. I am a member of Haddonfield Monthly Meeting in South Jersey’s Philadelphia area. I have embarked on a year-long mission to travel around the country collecting stories about the founding of different meetings and looking at the way we practice Quakerism today. I will be blogging about my travels on the PYM website. Find my latest entry below. Please email me at JPonter1@gmail.com if there is anyone from your meeting who would like to sit down with me and speak to some of your history — or if you would like more information on me or my project . Thank you! [Read more…] about Herndon: Travels with Josh
General Secretary Report to Councils
General Secretary Report on Staff Activity to Councils
Mid November – Mid December 2018
Business and Finances:
- Your Part Time Controller has PYM’s accounting work in hand. Check writing and payroll have run smoothly, as have all Aging grants which are sent out at the beginning of each month.
We received the 2018 Audit from our auditors, Kreischler Miller. It is a clean audit, without remarks, and was accepted by the Audit Committee on December 10th. It will be presented to the Administrative Council on the 15th. - We took first steps toward reviewing our cybersecurity systems and practices.
- The beautiful December appeal was mailed on November 26 and our incoming mail has been pleasantly heavy. The new database automates a five-year giving report for each donor and compares income year over year. An analysis of current donors shows we are generally matching or exceeding their prior years’ giving. We will shift to reaching out to lapsed donors in January and February.
- Weekly emails with the theme of ‘the 25 Gifts of Yearly Meeting’ are going out weekly, extending the December appeal electronically. At the close of the year PYM also reminds donors to make a gift to their monthly meeting in its final electronic appeal.
- After Administrative Council approved the establishment of a Development Committee in its care the Admin Governance Committee took steps toward peopling it effectively. It established a Sprint to work with staff to thresh the most pressing questions and to lay the groundwork for the launching of a full-fledged, effective committee.
Program and Ministry:
- Friends in Business hosted the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, at a dinner event on December 5. Enrollment was at a record high of about 90 people it a tremendously successful evening. It was a blessing to get him and he was a knowledgeable, compelling speaker. His brother went to Westtown School!
- Youth staff and Quaker Life Council are populating the Youth Programs Advisory Committee.
- Staff met with Quarterly Meeting Coordinators to learn about their work and explore ways of supporting them with yearly meeting resources. They also discussed PYM Youth Program events with Friends Schools.
- Community Engagement has completed their second Zoom call with Friends of other yearly meetings – it is wonderful to be in relationship together as we continue to develop a strategic direction for our work.
- We have been preparing applications from members for review at the semi-annual meeting of the PYM Greenleaf Granting Group. The Greenleaf Granting Group makes grants to aging Friends of modest means in need of financial support for medical and/or residential expenses. In this granting cycle, approximately twenty applications will be reviewed.
- We are drafting a harassment policy for use at yearly meeting events and the PYM community. The Quaker Life Council will move it forward from the draft.
- Program & Religious Life staff are currently working with other PYM staff, Friends General Conference, Friends Journal, Pendle Hill and Friends Committee on National Legislation on several projects related to outreach:
- Pendle Hill: PYM staff are working with the Education Coordinator at Pendle Hill to plan a Quaker Skills institute. See the Pendle Hill Website for more information. Pendle Hill also produced a series of suggested program evaluation metrics (funded by a Shoemaker grant) that we will integrate into our own program evaluation work in April.
- Friends Committee on National Legislation: We are working with Christine Ashley at FCNL to imagine how our community might creatively and collaboratively use FCNL’s new Quaker Welcome Center.
- Friends General Conference: FGC’s Spiritual Deepening Program has a focus related to welcoming newcomers and inclusion. PYM staff are meeting monthly with FGC staff Holly Baldwin, members of the QLC Program Committee, the PYM Membership Development Granting Group, and members from New York Yearly Meeting who are focused on outreach.
- Friends Journal: We are working with Jon Watts of QuakerSpeak to produce four videos that can be used as resources for monthly meetings around welcoming newcomers.
- We have invited FGC staff Holly Baldwin and Friends Journal staff Jon Watts to lead sessions at the February 9 Outreach and Communications Thread Gathering to be held at Abington Monthly Meeting. Please mark your calendars!
Communications and Technology:
- WordPress, our website content management system released a major upgrade. Our Website Manager is in the next stage of modifying the back end of the website to ensure a seamless transition. This is a complicated and ongoing project.
- 2018 State of the Meeting reports have been posted to the website. Previous years’ reports are in the process of being added.
- Positive feedback on the website gets stronger every month and Friends are expressing appreciation of the changes.
- Staff are planning the next Faith in Practice newsletter which will focus on the religious experience within our community.
- The third party that processes our online payments, Acceptiva, renovated their software platform. There were some significant bugs in the update which led to credit card processing errors and restricted PYM’s administration access. The CEO of Acceptiva posted an open apology to all of its customers on its website. Things seem back on track now.
- We had already decided to move from Acceptiva to another platform, Click and Pledge, which integrates well with Salesforce and have now determined an earlier start-date for that transition.
- We will be switching our email platform form Constant Contact to Mail Chimp and expect this change in February. Mail Chimp will allow us to automatically integrate data from outgoing emails into the database.
- Verification of the information in our new database, Salesforce, continues. We have removed duplicated records and deleted old contact and other peripheral information. All deleted data was archived first as a precaution.
Staff and Administration:
- We are nearing completion of staff annual reviews and subsequently revising staff goals.
- Legal review of the revised staff handbook is nearing completion.
- The data entry position was posted – we have a large applicant pool and one internal candidate.
- We successfully completed open enrollment for benefits with a combination of staff and consultant support. Distributing, completing, reviewing and processing the necessary documents and answering all questions is a big job that came at a time of some staff turnover. The team effort was led by our new Director of HR and Inclusion and included our accountant, an HR consultant, and our brokers.
- We now have a draft of an individualized on-boarding plan, an organizational on-boarding document, and a process to support employee improvement plans.
- A staff person has been identified to lead a selection committee for the staff liaison to the personnel committee.
- The General Secretary and Director of HR and Inclusion have recommended to staff that we eliminate the staff voice policy, because its goals can be addressed more robustly with attention to culture and processes in staff and, additionally, because a separate policy can be restrictive and experienced as oppressive by some. A series of meetings with staff have begun to thresh that recommendation.
- The office was closed for two days for Thanksgiving and many staff took advantage of the slow week and took vacation. The office will be closed for two days for Christmas and one for New Year’s in the coming month and many staff will again be out of the office for a week or more at this slow time.
Inclusion and Anti-Racism:
- Zakia Williams is compiling information received from individual PYM staff interviews and looking for themes and trends. This information will be reported back to staff at staff meeting and we will seek input on next steps.
- Zachary Dutton attended, for the second time, Beyond Diversity 101 training at Pendle Hill led by Niyonu Spann. Zachary served as an intern at this training which is a step toward being a facilitator in the work.
- Christie Duncan-Tessmer attended the training by Philadelphia Quarter titled A Friendly Response to ‘Fight, Flight or Freeze’ Feelings – An Interactive Workshop
- Christie Duncan-Tessmer attended the annual consultation of the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC). This year’s them was “Unearthing the Effects of Racism: A Pathway to Hope in a Time of Hate.” The CNBC has invited the board members of the National Council of Churches to attend and Christie was one of about 6 communions who responded.
Visits:
- Christie Duncan-Tessmer and Zachary Dutton, Associate Secretary for Program & Religious Life, attended the FCNL annual meeting in Washington DC. There is a report in PYM’s Web News.
- Christie Duncan-Tessmer, Grace Sharples Cooke, Associate Secretary for Advancement and Relationship, Linell McCurry, Associate Secretary for Business & Finance, and Meg Rose, Young Adult Engagement Coordinator, attended Friends in Business with Governor Wolf.
- Grace Sharples Cooke attended worship at Centre Meeting in Delaware and met with the clerk afterwards to talk about the life and work of the meeting.
- Wendy Kane visited Greenwich Monthly Meeting and was warmly welcomed by the community.
Pipe Creek: Travels with Josh
Hello my name is Joshua Ponter. I am a member of Haddonfield Monthly Meeting in South Jersey’s Philadelphia area. I have embarked on a year-long mission to travel around the country collecting stories about the founding of different meetings and looking at the way we practice Quakerism today. I will be blogging about my travels on the PYM website. Find my latest entry below. Please email me at JPonter1@gmail.com if there is anyone from your meeting who would like to sit down with me and speak to some of your history — or if you would like more information on me or my project . Thank you! [Read more…] about Pipe Creek: Travels with Josh
Exploring Vocal Ministry with Young People
“In worship we listen very carefully. Sometimes a person feels something happening inside that won’t go away. That person listens very hard to answer questions: “Is this from God or from somewhere else? Is this for me only, or for the group? If it is for everyone, do I share it now or later?” Sometimes the person feels words inside that are from God, that are for everyone, and that are for now. Then the person shares the message in a clear voice so everyone can hear the message.” These words are from the Faith & Play story, “Prayer and Friends Meeting for Worship,” that explores the spiritual practices in meeting for worship, including vocal ministry. How can we use experiential learning to explore with young people how Friends share Spirit-led vocal ministry as part of our communal worship? How can we provide opportunities to learn about and practice discerning the source of what we’re led to share, and lifting up our voice in community?
Openings for children to share their Light begin with creating safe spaces for them to share. The time we spend gathering and “building the circle” in programs for children and youth welcomes young people into spiritual community. Inviting each other to share and practicing deep listening when we do introductions or begin programs should be part of our process every time we gather. Before starting a lesson or story in the circle of children at meeting, we take the time to introduce newcomers and share something from our week. An exercise that I sometimes use in a new group is to invite each person to bring and share about a small object that is special or has significance to them. Set up a small table in the center of a circle and invite Friends when ready to share why the object they have brought is special to them, and place it on the table. You build a scared space together where images, words, and feelings can all be shared.
A way to approach worship sharing with children or in multigenerational groups is “Heart Sharing.” In Heart Sharing, we lift up a query for response, inviting the response to be “from the heart” and just a word or two. Rather than a thought-out response from the mind, it is from the heart. You can do Heart Sharing in a whole group, or break into smaller multi-age groups of 3-4 with suggested queries. Heart Sharing taps into the here-and-now of children’s spirituality. Children don’t necessarily differentiate between worship time and play time or work time. When we move beyond (or back from) the intellectual nuances and details often in adult responses, we make space for everyone to share from where they are.
Faith & Play stories are tools for teaching children about our faith and practice as Friends. The “wondering questions” that follow sharing a Faith & Play story make space for children to listen and reflect inwardly, or to wonder out loud with the group. The open-ended wondering questions can be used in response to any kind of story, whether it’s a Bible story, a children’s book, or asking how a child’s day at school went. The questions are open, invitational, and there are no “right” (or “wrong”) answers when we wonder together. It’s a place where all voices are invited, and yet not forced (children in the circle are not called on to answer the queries). There is also room for silence in this practice; when no one shares out loud, we can trust that wondering is happening inside. We can allow the pauses and spaces to model our Quaker practice of waiting worship and practice deepening how we listen inwardly. After many years of storytelling, I came to see the wondering time after the story as a place for children to practice sharing vocal ministry and hear their voices lifted up in the spiritual community.
How do we “teach” the practice of listening for God and knowing when a message is from Spirit and for us to share with the whole group? You can find several versions of “vocal ministry flow charts” from different Quaker sources online and see how they speak to you. One or more of them could be given to small groups and discussed, or you could make them into a kind of movement activity, like “red light, green light”: if the answer to one of the questions you ask yourself is yes, it’s a green light. If no, it’s “stop” and return to center. Teens at Friends Meeting of Washington were inspired by writing on this topic to create a skit for their meeting community about vocal ministry. The “Vocal Ministry Skit” is a playful and insightful resource to share, and can be found posted on the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative’s website. It’s a great conversation starter for a multigenerational group, as the skit requires “audience participation” and references contemporary tensions that can occur as we listen to the still small voice within.
Another resource that might be of interest to youth and multiage groups of teens and adults is the QuakerSpeak video, “How to Deepen Quaker Meeting for Worship.” At the 4:34 minute mark, a speaker lifts up several of the questions about when and whether to speak but stretches that discernment to include a question we might ask after sharing: “Do you feel that you were faithful in your speaking?” She opens a space for reflecting on our vocal ministry and seeing that practice as a skill we continue to develop.
Melinda Wenner Bradley, Youth Engagement Coordinator
(A version of this story first appeared in the November 2016 issue of “Spark” the New York YM newsletter.)
Featured image by Jacob Hoopes, Valley Meeting.
Pennsylvania’s Governor Wolf Addresses Quaker Business Community
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s business community recently hosted Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf for a talk on the evening of December 5 at the Acorn Club. Newtown Meeting’s Norval Reece and Joseph Evans and London Grove’s Mark Myers organized the event with logistical support from PYM. The talk, “Reflections on William Penn’s Holy Experiment from a Business Perspective,” was followed by a Q&A period.
The governor mingled at cocktails before speaking to 87 legal, professional, and financial Friends for 30 minutes. He shared his personal beliefs concerning ethical business practices rooted in trust and discussed his long-term engagement as a businessman on the boards of charities and civic institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce.
When he retired, Governor Wolf felt led to participate in the political process and launched his campaign for governor despite polls that showed only 1 percent of the population knew who he was. He still believes that most of that 1 percent likely confused him with author, Tom Wolf, but he persisted in running and won the governorship.
Governor Wolf believes that PA’s unique characteristics as a leader in building a diverse and business-friendly civic society with strong educational institutions go back to William Penn’s holy experiment. It was the creation of a commonwealth where the values of fairness, inclusion, and trust were uppermost in Penn’s mind that led to a successful colonial society. Economically Pennsylvania benefited from this vision, with strong ports, cities, and universities. The trust and diversity William Penn laid the groundwork for generated a dynamic Pennsylvania economy and society—despite Penn’s documented weaknesses as an administrator and the fact that his vision was not fully realized.
Pennsylvania, according to the French writer Voltaire, was the freest place in the world. This, Governor Wolf noted, was even though not all colonial business began on equal footing with equal apportionment of resources. Later, under Benjamin Franklin’s leadership, our Pennsylvania constitution was the first to offer voting rights to adult males, independent of property ownership.
Today, fairness, diversity, and trust still matter. The old saying; ‘do well by doing good’ highlights the essential role of trust and business integrity in a free-market economy.
Governor Wolf believes that in the geographically and politically diverse state that Pennsylvania continues to be today fairness, inclusion, and trust still matter. He cautioned that he’s happy to take feedback about things that need to change, but with advocacy also comes the responsibility to serve as more than a critic. It is important to seek solutions that lead to better conditions and outcomes.
Friends found the governor’s talk—with messages of fairness, diversity and trust—a bright spot given the current politicization of governments.
As he left the Acorn Club that evening, the governor made sure to pause for a brief stop in the kitchen to greet the Acorn Club’s chef and manager, thanking them for their fine work.
“Love Knows No Borders” Witness
Join the Call for Migrant Justice!
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) is partnering with American Friends Service Committee (ASFC) to stand in solidarity with the asylum seekers, the migrant caravan, and all who seek refuge in the US. Faith leaders and communities around the country will take part in AFSC “Love Knows No Borders” days of action which begin on December 10, 2018 (International Human Rights Day) through December 18 (International Migrants’ Day). In the PYM community, Young Adult Friends have lifted up the concern about immigrant justice and AFSC has been present at the US-Mexico border in recent weeks. We are called as a faith community to be present to this issue.
“Together, we are calling on the U.S. to end the detention and deportation of immigrants, respect the human right to migrate, and end the militarization of the border.” – AFSC website.
Days of Action: December 10-18, 2018. All are welcome!
There will be a daily vigil at Friends Center in Philadelphia on Monday-Friday, December 10-13, and Monday and Tuesday, December 17 &18. All are welcome to gather from 12:00-12:15pm for worship to hold in prayer the asylum seekers and those called to witness at the border.
Following the vigil on December 14 at 12:00pm, we will walk from Friends Center to the Thomas Paine Plaza at City Hall and stand in support of the migrants. We will proceed to the historic Arch Street Meeting House where we will have open discussion and worship, which will end by 2:00pm. Please join us for any part of this witness that afternoon.
Resources for Organizing
This is a great opportunity to organize a local event, and AFSC has created a “toolkit” for ideas and resources on how to do this as a meeting, individual or group.
For more information: “Love Knows No Borders”: https://migrantjustice.afsc.org/
Toolkit: https://migrantjustice.afsc.org/sites/default/files/Caravan-Solidarity-Action-Toolkit-11-30b.pdf