Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Annual Sessions

Letting Ourselves Be Known… through worship!

Marcelle Martin to ground virtual PYM Annual Sessions in worship

Marcelle Martin, a member of Swarthmore Meeting, has led workshops at retreat centers and Quaker meetings across the United States. She was the resident Quaker Studies teacher at Pendle Hill for four years and is a core teacher for the 9-month program, “Nurturing Faithfulness.” On her blog, A Whole Heart, she shares inspiration to help us be all that God has created us to be. She is the author of Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey and A Guide to Faithfulness Groups. She lives in Chester, PA with her husband, Terry.

SAVE THE DATE: Marcelle will lead the Spiritual Formation Retreat on the evening of Tuesday, July 28th and join us for Opening Worship on Wednesday, July 29th, at 7pm EDT online.

Announcing our 2020 Annual Sessions Keynote!

Naomi MadarasNaomi Madaras to keynote Annual Sessions

Naomi Madaras (pronouns: she/her) is a Master of Divinity candidate at Union Theological Seminary in New York. A graduate of Guilford College, Naomi served as the program coordinator at William Penn House before transitioning to seminary to pursue a career in chaplaincy. Her clinical training has been in hospitals and nursing homes in New York where she provides spiritual care to patients, families, and staff. Naomi focuses on interfaith community-building, death, and disability in her work. She is a member of Chambersburg Friends Meeting, a regular attender at Brooklyn Friends Meeting, and grew up milking goats and climbing trees on a farm.

SAVE THE DATE: Naomi’s keynote will occur on Friday, July 31st, at 7pm EDT online.

Letting Ourselves Be Known… through art!

Featuring City Love and Zenaida Peterson

In addition to their performances, both City Love and our artist-in-residence, Zenaida Peterson, will lead workshops for children and young people during the online Youth Program sessions! Watch for program updates from Children’s Sessions, Middle School Friends, and Young Friends in coming weeks!

Also, look for information soon about the Yearly Meeting Poem project!

Zenaida Peterson

A Boston-based spoken word poet, Zenaida is a fire starter, a southern green witch and a queer of color who likes the wind chimes outside their window and giving rocks to people they love. Most recently Zenaida was on the House Slam team placing 3rd and organized the Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam, the first slam tournament for feminine people. Zenaida believes the softness and floral of people is silenced too often. Zenaida unwrites the lies they’ve been given. Zenaida also unwrites violence, misogyny, racism and their ancestors’ curses.

SAVE THE DATE: Zenaida will perform on Thursday, July 30th, at 7pm EDT online.

City Love

Making “music for the world we need,” City Love is a West Philly social justice music and education group, using songs to spread love, hope, dialogue, justice, and healing. City Love has shared assemblies, workshops, and performances at schools, colleges, and conferences throughout the country and recently released a young children’s album about race, honoring our differences, standing up for each other, equity, self-love, and belonging.

SAVE THE DATE: City Love will perform on Saturday, August 1st, at 7pm EDT online.

So Much More To Come!

Watch this space

In the coming weeks, expect to hear more and more from us about this year’s virtual Annual Sessions, including workshops, affinity groups, programs for youth and young adult Friends, Meeting for Business, and more.

Registration will go live in early June!

Questions?