To Friends Everywhere,
We need to raise our voices when things are not right.
You have to know when things are not right..
This week Ollie tried to chase a chicken at Snipes Farm.
We watched Mulan for movie night.
We went to game night with Middle School Friends.
We played on a slip and slide, and always have friendship.
We also took pictures of our week, and here they are.
In Peace,
PYM Children
PS – It was also really fun break dancing with pushed learning!
(Thank Edy and Megan!)
Archives for July 2019
Workshops at Sessions – So Many Terrific Things to Learn
Some volunteers at PYM have sent stories about the workshops they attended and we have assembled them into an article here. With thanks to Frank Barch for his help.
Digital Outreach Workshop
The PYM membership list shows that there are about 2000 fewer members now than in 1990. How can seekers discover a Meeting to test whether it will speak to their condition?
Online search engines offer the easiest way. Does your Meeting have an easily navigated, inviting, informative, up-to-date and “alive”web site? Do search engines find it, and give it prominent ranking? Do mapping programs report your Meetinghouse, place it accurately and share its name, or just a street address? Do mapping programs show the seeker a picture of the front of the Meeting house and indicate where to park?
What other information is it useful- or possible- to provide on a website, mapping app or review app such as Yelp? How can Facebook support your Meeting’s visibility and connect members and seekers to the Meeting & its activities? What about best practices for using photos? How about security and maintenance concerns?
What if your Meeting has no web presence? How can one be created & by whom? Should you begin with something simple like the Friends General Conference Quaker Cloud, create one using “off-the-shelf” software such as WordPress, or hire a professional? What are important basic ingredients and considerations?
These questions were clearly & succinctly addressed in an information-packed workshop lead by Friends Irene Oleksiw and Ilona Wilcox (Downingtown Meeting), and Catherine (Cie) Stroud (a contract worker for Burlington Meeting House, who, among other talents, has built over 50 websites). You missed it? Maybe these well-informed presenters who convey useful information so well might be willing to give the workshop again next year!
Prevention Point – a Kensington Harm Reduction Program
Many Friends see the need to address opioid addition, but as non-medical, non-social services professionals, they struggle to find appropriate ways to help. Many of us of us know a friend, a meeting member, a relative, or a young adult who has been affected by the overdose of someone they love.
Addiction has torn through the fabric of our society, surely there must be a way for Quakers to help?
Prevention Point first came into being as a needle exchange program, and it remains the largest in the nation with 3,000,000 + needles handed out each year. But this is just a small part of what Prevention Point (PPP) does, according to Clayton Ruley, Director of Community Engagement. They also provide medical services, case management, shelter housing, meals, education, and legal help, plus medical care.
Founded by Mayor Ed Rendell in 1992, Prevention Point quickly grew from a needle exchange program to a full service social work and medical support provider. Today it mitigates the harmful effects of drug use and supports workers in the sex industry by offering a range of services that are centered in public health in a welcoming, nonjudgmental, and non-criminalized way.
Haverford Meeting first learned about the groups through members of the community who volunteer there, Beverly Benson and Macy Grabowski. Bev and Macy hosted an educational forum about Prevention Point services and organized A Simple Meal fund raiser and a drive to deliver food, plus other essential supplies. When Macy heard about the possibility of offering workshops at sessions, she agreed to share how meaningful her weekly volunteering has become with PYM sessions attenders.
Macy introduced Dr. David Barclay and Clayton Ruhley at Friday’s workshop. Both Clayton and David explained their service model, and highlighted Prevention Point’s belief that addiction is a disease (like diabetes). The most effective treatment for addiction is not rehabilitation, but a drug treatment program. Rehab, on the contrary, is actually not very effective.
PPP’s goal is to offer PPP clients treatment for opioid use disorder. Dr. Barclay reported that the most commonly prescribed medications are buprenorphine and naltrexone injections. Clients beginning on buprenorphine typically start with weekly appointments. Additionally, naltrexone is an injection that lasts 28-days, assisting clients with maintaining abstinence from opioids.
Prevention Point’s is on Kensington Avenue and is open to the public from Monday through Thursday from 12pm – 4:30pm and on Fridays from 12pm – 3pm. They also operate two mobile sites on Saturdays. And offer Overdose Prevention and Reversal Training. To receive training please submit an Overdose Prevention and Reversal Training Request Form for Agencies. Meetings can contact Clayton to learn how you can help at 215-634-5272 x 1102.
Unforeseen Joy of Recording Minutes
Which is more intimidating to consider: Serving as Clerk or as Recording Clerk?
Many recording clerks have been approached by Friends offering sorrowful condolences for how hard it must be to serve as a recorder of Friends’ processes and decisions.
Jim Herr & Suzanne Day, both well-seasoned recording clerks within PYM offered a workshop to tell us about the joys of recording, sharing that it is more than just a sense of satisfaction for a job well-done when a minute captures sense of the Meeting. The joy is, at least in significant part, of having participated in the process of finding and capturing…recording… how God’s still, small voice in each person lead the body into discovering Unity with Their will.
Using the small book by Damon Hickey, “Unforeseen Joy, Serving a Friends Meeting as Recording Clerk” they shared their own joys as well as lifting up specific ideas & pointers on the actual process of becoming, and being, a well-used written voice for the work of a meeting, committee or group.
The assembled workshop wrestled with challenges that the participants had experienced. Ideas & solutions were freely shared, as many who were present had either some clerking experience or were open to the possibility of recording.
If you were not fortunate enough to attend the workshop, you can avail yourself of a copy of “Unforeseen Joy” through Philadelphia Yearly Meeting which will offer support & guidance if you might be called to service. Perhaps Jim & Suzanne might even give the workshop again in the future, offering you a chance to discover what you missed this year: learning of the Unforeseen Joy of the Recording Clerk!
American Studies through the Light of Social Justice
There were about ten people in the room. Many of them were teachers, but some were parents and a few were on the boards of schools.
Picture this. A Quaker school with students coming from 100 different zip codes decides to devote a double period to a new topic covering both History and English in 11th grade. In this course, students step outside of their comfort zones and authentically explore their cultural biases, assumptions, and blind spots.
On ‘day one’ of class, there is only one book on the reading list for the year; Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man. The rest of the books are proposed, advocated for and ultimately selected by the class. The teachers, Lee Payton and Shahidah Kalam Id-Din, say they’ve only had to teach one student-selected book that failed to deliver the hoped-for intellectual punch.
Students who take the course transition from being typical 11th graders to becoming leaders in their community. They can do this because they have challenged themselves (working in pairs and as group) to discuss the hardest issues in America today – race, class and power – plus all the ‘isms’ that go with them.
Unusual? Right. Effective and impactful, definitely. Life changing? Yes.
Why does it work? It works because students are accountable to each other and themselves. It nurtures student agency. It teaches them how to think with complexity. They live in a climate of discovery with no right answers. Years later, alumni still reunite to talk about what they learned. Lives have been changed.
Isn’t that the way school should be?
2019 Annual Sessions – Middle School Friends Epistle
ERICA: Dear Friends Everywhere, We are the Middle School Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
We gathered at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey from July 24th to July 28th, 2019 for Annual Sessions. We grew as a community and expanded our knowledge by learning about the LGBTQIA+ and people of color communities. We learned about microaggressions and how to work as a community by talking about our disagreements and vulnerabilities with Pushed Learning Media.
[Read more…] about 2019 Annual Sessions – Middle School Friends Epistle
Centering in Trust and Love Keynote at Annual Sessions
Saturday July 27, 2019
Plenary speaker, Valerie Brown, offered a keynote centering in trust and love and we explored the questions: What does it mean to you to center in trust and love? Why is this meaningful?
The participants were engaged in reflection and discussion on these questions through poetry, video and dialogue as well as through the sharing of research on the nature of trust, vulnerability and the practices that support centering in trust and love.
A poem was offered for reflection by Youth Program participant Anjali Surti.
Poem by Anjali Surti
I can’t think. My brain is full of
Thoughts but I can’t think.
We get this one life. We’re told
to make what we while
we’re here but how. How can
I change something I have
Yet to fully explore to
Understand. And the truth is
I should be more vulnerable. Let the
World experience me and I
It in diligent effortlessness. My
brain Splashes over with words
But I can’t think. The
One clear thought is love.
The Keynote ended with a song.
Middle School & Children’s Programs at Annual Sessions
People think of Annual Sessions as a linking of different meeting communities and a grounding of our Faith in business, fellowship, and care.
For children it is Quaker summer camp. And for families it is a time to be together with other families like them – to talk about raising Quaker children, to share in the pleasure of being Quaker families gathered together.
Melinda Wenner Bradley, PYM’s Youth Religious Life Coordinator, says that what she loves most about the five-day experience is “the opportunity to be a whole spiritual community across ages; gathered for worship, playing, and learning together. For our young people, this gathering is a place to explore Quaker identity and the many ways to be a Friend. And for me personally, the tradition of late-evening conversations with other parents, which is easier now that many of us have children in the residential MSF and Young Friends programs!”
It is also a place to write about what they find here. Our Middle School Friend, Erica Cox, wrote this blog to share with our wider Friends Community:
“Hello, we are the Middle School Friends group and this week we have been having lots of fun together.
“Some highlights of our week include going swimming in the The College of New Jersey’s (TCNJ) Olympic sized pool, sliding down an awesome (50-foot!) slip n’ slide (that the clerk of the Sessions Coordinator Committee brought for them!), and hanging out with our gigantic inflatable unicorn sprinkler named Frank.
“Later on this week we will go on a field trip to Mercer Meadows and get to participate in a talent show with children’s program.” —By Middle School Friend Erica Cox
PYM Children’s programs took a field trip to Snipes farm to pick blackberries, see the goats, play outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. All Friends wish they could have tagged along.
Photos from the farm are below:
Annual Sessions Report from Quarter Clerks & Coordinators
Lynne Piersol began the report by inviting those who met with her on July 27th, 2019 to join her in standing before the audience or sitting on the stage.
FULL REPORT
Yesterday, representatives from 8 Quarters, including 3 Coordinators, and 3 Quarter Clerks or Assistant Clerks met with Chris Lucca, Clerk of PYM. In the past Quarter leadership has met occasionally, either in person or by Zoom to share information with each other and ask for support. It has been very helpful to know each other and get advice from people we know are already dealing with a particular issue. There has, however, been change in the people who have taken on the roles of coordination and communication, as well as changes in the people clerking and coordinating, leading to challenges in setting up this meeting.
We shared various needs and ideas for communication to help both our monthly meetings and the Yearly Meeting. We recognize that the 13 Quarters are diverse in their structures and the way they function.
How can we have the work of the Councils known by Quarter Clerks? How can the Yearly Meeting support Quarters in the ways they need, thereby strengthening the monthly meetings? Could more Quarters do State of the Meeting reports? Could Quarters do more events together or plan a training together? We noticed there was little reference until now to the Quarters during these proceedings, yet they are important in the life of the Yearly Meeting and could do more with support.
We identified several needs:
- We ask for PYM Staff support in maintaining an up to date list of Quarter Clerks and Coordinators on the website and to manage an email list or google group for this group, understanding that it is up to you as meetings and Quarters to pass along the correct information to PYM. We
- We need a functional line of communication between the Yearly Meeting and the Quarters, ie someone whose job it is to communicate with the Quarters.
- We see value in regular ongoing gatherings, sometimes including PYM staff when we could hear from them on particular programs or where we could use their particular expertise.
- We see a need for a once a year meeting with the Clerk of PYM and the General Secretary.
One specific question raised by Linda Lotz, Haddonfield Quarter Coordinator, is “how do we “brand” Quakers, ie for a new South Jersey Quakers website. If you have experience in this, please let her know at Haddonfieldquarterly@yahoo.com
We do look forward to meeting again and there was energy in the room for new ideas.
2019 Annual Sessions – Young Friends Epistle
Dear Friends, everywhere,
We the Young Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting gathered together at The College of New Jersey located in Ewing, New Jersey from Wednesday, July 24the , through Sunday, July 28the , focusing on this year’s theme; “How do we center ourselves in trust and love?”
Throughout the week, the Young Friends were able to build a more unified and trusting group through a variety of activities. We started our week with a multi-generational gathering where we were able to connect with Friends on a more spiritual level through storytelling. In this activity, we had community members tell a spiritual story, that all Friends present appreciated. Following this, the Young Friends came together to discuss guidelines for this gathering that promoted a safe and loving environment for all Friends.
[Read more…] about 2019 Annual Sessions – Young Friends Epistle
2019 Annual Sessions – Philadelphia Yearly Meetings Final Epistle
We as Friends are called to work and witness for justice, wholeness, and connection. We feel a hunger to be gathered in the Spirit despite great pain and brokenness within our body and in the wider world.
Worship Sharing: Questions of Race, Inclusion & Diversity July 28, 2019
To Friends everywhere:
Greetings from the 339th Annual Sessions of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, held on the traditional land of the Lenni-Lenape at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey, from July 23 to 28, 2019. We recognize Lenni-Lenape peoples past and present and honor ancient and contemporary spiritual connections.
How do we Center ourselves in Trust and Love? was the theme as Friends from meetings in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were joined by Friends from other yearly meetings as well as traveling Friends from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ireland, and Lebanon. We sought to deepen our spiritual ground, enhance our ability to listen, to be teachable, and to share with each other through our work, play, and worship. This year an Artist in Residence, Eric Anthony Berdis, shared his energetic spirit, warmly inviting friends to contribute their own creativity to a fiber art project, which he will later exhibit.
Our time together began with a retreat led by our Spiritual Formation Collaborative, which helped us to center ourselves in trust and love. On our first evening together, all ages of Friends gathered across generations to experience the Faith & Play story, “Listening for God.” During the waiting worship that followed, we wondered where and how else we listen for and find God in our lives. Vespers each evening created a space for reflection and community after a full day of activity.
Multi-generational worship began each day. During one “All Together Time,” Young Friends led us in an activity that helped us understand and practice Enthusiastic Consent. We were challenged to ask for consent — verbal, emotional, and uncoerced consent — before engaging in physical contact, such as a hug. This lifts up our testimony of equality, and respects the specific movement of Spirit within each individual. Friends received this teaching with deep appreciation, and some noted how the practice modeled a respect that we could bring to bear not just as we offer to hug someone, but also as we consider the challenging nature of our work. Friends recognize that even the youngest among us can lead us towards new knowledge and deep understanding.
This year, the facing bench was draped with a table skirt created through the “One Quilt, One Yearly Meeting” project, stitching together individual patches contributed by our monthly meetings, collaboratives, and Friends schools. Our clerk encouraged us to be vulnerable, to love more deeply, to lean into challenges, and to embrace our stumbling steps forward. Our
clerk repeatedly challenged us to not get stuck seeking perfection, but instead to work with the “good enough” of our broken world and our imperfect Religious Society of Friends. Valerie Brown, our keynote speaker also emphasized the importance of being vulnerable with each other in her interactive program that moved us to share.
Moving forward with business required us to revisit the impact of racism and the resulting trauma in our yearly meeting. We made space in our agenda to focus on concerns that arose during our meetings for business, specifically on racism and the sustainability of the Religious Society of Friends.
White privilege and white supremacy continue to exist within our yearly meeting. Individual hearts are at various points, including some who feel emotionally raw, but how has our organization changed since our called session on racism and the resulting minute of 2015? Several Friends rose in meeting to share the transformative work taking place within their monthly and quarterly meetings, specifically including reparations, food banks, training sessions, and community investment.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting needs to address trauma inflicted on beloved souls in our Quaker family and to attack the roots of racism inside and outside our religious society. This is the cry of Spirit in our midst. Stories of heartfelt emotion and pain stemming from our history and our current practices moved Friends to share what is weighing on their souls. Friends lifted up prayer for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, naming concerns that threaten our vision for the future.
Acknowledging the impact of racism has forced some of us to recognize personal presumptions, and the often invisible culture of privilege that is contrary to the leadings of Spirit. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting accepts accountability for the real hurt experienced by Friends of color.
We need to examine our traditions and structures. Young Adult Friends asked us to consider their concerns around the traditional structures of membership. The requirement of monthly meeting membership can be a barrier for those who wish to more fully participate in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and the wider Quaker world. Might we discuss what membership means and how to welcome those who seek fellowship and service within our community?
Our Quaker Life Council united with a minute of concern from Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting: “Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting joins with people of good will everywhere in affirming the way of love. We denounce the normalization of hate and violence in society and within ourselves. We commit to working with others to build trust and understanding in our wider community .”
A Friend and pastor from Bolivia shared with us the dramatic effects of climate change in her country, and the water crisis that has emerged as a result. Bolivian Friends established a
Bilingual Friends Center where Young Friends connect those in need to safe drinking water. She asks Friends to be aware of the effects of climate change in our world, and to support the efforts of Friends and Young Friends in her country and elsewhere.
During their affinity time, Friends of African Descent met for an Mbongi, a Congolese word that means “the learning circle,” to discuss the Friends General Conference Institutional Assessment on Systemic Racism. Friends found unity to encourage Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to engage with the results of that assessment.
All of us live in the heart of God with the help of others. Friends desire to remain teachable as imperfect people. We continue to stumble forward as we seek to hold each other and invite you to hold us in trust and love.
Friend Emma Travels the US to Share her Quaker Light From Bolivia
Emma Condori-Mamani is a Bolivian Friend. She is traveling for two months in the United States to speak with youth, American Friends, climate change NGOs, and others. She came to PYM’s Annual Sessions to share the work of Quaker Youth in Bolivia regarding climate change with Americans.
As Emma meets with people, she is having conversations about life in Bolivia, about the Quaker center she runs, and the Bolivian youth work she stewards to minimize climate disruption. They need funding, a chance to build greater understanding of Bolivia as a nation facing climate change, and vibrant cross-national relationships with schools, NGOs and meetings.
Emma hopes that US Friends will speak with state senators or congresspersons regarding the development of new laws or polices to prevent climate change and to give support to those countries, that like Bolivia, that face damage caused by climate change.
Emma has a story to tell, and she tells it compellingly:
“I was born in a Quaker Family. I am a linguist, a teacher and a writer. In 2016 I started working as a director at the Friends International Bilingual Center that offers programs regarding peace and social justice work. Bolivian Quaker youth and Young Adult Friends have been working especially hard on the projects of this Center.
“At early age I was inspired to be a Quaker by how my Mom and other adult Friends worshipped God and lived out their faith in Truth and Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God has taught me and guided me to love and take care of others, including the creation. I see and feel the presence of God in them all the time!”
Emma has networked with Friends and mapped out her travels, but monthly meetings and schools would be well rewarded by taking advantage of Emma’s time here to meet with her, hear her story first hand, learn what it feels like to grow up in a land of abundant rivers only to see those rivers run dry. More than that has changed. Her family used to eat Quinoa, but popular in the US it is now priced beyond affordability. The lowlands experience floods, the highlands have such drought that Emma’s mother has water only every three days.
Emma is fascinating when she describes the changes she witnessed growing up. In her youth, education was rationed, and girls were not allowed to attend school past 5th grade. Life for women has improved under the current President, Evo Morales,. He is of indigenous descent, has worked for poverty reduction, greater education, gender equality, and better social services during his two terms.
To connect with Bolivian Friends’ concerns through giving
https://www.centrobilingueinternacionalamigos.org/give
To connect with Emma please call PYM at 215-241-7115
Thursday Evening and Friday Morning News From Annual Sessions
Thursday evening
PYM’s Clerk, Chris Lucca, noted that some 50 Friends of all ages had gathered to discuss the query raised by one of our younger friends about the future of the Religious Society of Friends. Richard Schiffer of Swarthmore meeting was invited to present the epistle on New Zealand.
Entering into worship sharing, Chris Lucca launched an opportunity to speak out of spirit on questions of race, inclusion and diversity. He invited friends to share what is weighing on their hearts, lifting up prayers for beloved community.
Friday Morning
Young Friends opened All Together Time with demonstrations about what ‘enthusiastic consent’ looks like.
After opening remarks, the clerk, Chris Lucca, invited Susan Day to read an epistle from New England Yearly Meeting. The morning session then continued with an interactive Quaker Life report presented by QLC Assistant Clerk, Anthony Stover. He read his report and invited George Schaefer to brief the community on the work of Friends Counseling Service—which connects friends with affordable mental health services provided by Quaker therapists. Zachary Dutton also spoke about PYM’s threads, sprints and collaboratives.
Julia Carrigan, a Young Friend who is a member of the council (also a student at George School) invited Friends to take a minute and share some stories of successes and challenges that monthly meetings have experienced. Then they also repeated the exercise to share a concern. A full report is captured in the minutes we’ll post at the end of the day.
Young Adult Friend Catherine Campbell deferred her reading of the Young Adult Friends’ minute, and the community turned our attention to the Thursday night minutes.
After breaking for lunch Friends convened for an added business session and heard from some external organizations.
- FGC: The highlight of Frank Barch’s report on Friends General Conference was a video summary of FGC’s work and recent institutional racism assessment. A question was asked how the results of the assessment can be applied more locally, and the video will be available on the Annual Sessions section of PYM’s website.
- FWCC: Sarah Palmer and Amy Duckett-Wagner reported for FWCC using a colorful PowerPoint (posted on PYM’s website). FWCC is active in 56 nations. The next Americans Section meeting will be in Florida in 2021, and the next world conference is planned in Durban, SA.
- PCC: Carter Nash reported on the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and its work. Friends who have questions about this work should contact Carter.
Minutes will be posted as they are approved