Germantown Meeting at its Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business on November 13th endorsed the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent’s (FFAD) Minute on State Sanctioned Violence. The minute, approved at FFAD’s National Gathering this summer at Arch Street Meetinghouse, calls for a variety of ways to lessen violence and strengthen communities, including a local Peace Force of police …
Meeting our Muslim Neighbors.
The Lewes Worship Group in Southern Quarter recently hosted an evening to meet our Muslim Neighbors from the Islamic Center of Central Delaware. More than 80 people attended the event in the auditorium at Cadbury Lifestyles. Visitors included people from other Christian congregations and from the local Jewish synagogue. Three articulate and sensitive Muslims, two men who had been in …
Walking the Walk: Taking Stock Ahead of Upcoming Thread
Quakers understand that there is a strong connection between working toward social justice and walking through life in mindful spirituality. Insights emerge from a life that expresses and searches for that of God in everyone. These insights often present opportunities to recognize the need for collective liberation. With further examination, we can see that we do not live in a …
Showing Up for Racial Justice Mass Meeting in Friends Center
In response to the most recent police shootings in Charlotte NC, over one hundred and fifty people gathered in the Race Street room of the Friends Center on September 26th to learn about Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). SURJ is a national organization comprised of chapters in cities all over the country. The group’s main goal is to mobilize …
Worship & Vigil for Black Lives at Friends Center
In the wake of the killings of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott this week, and the long line of killings, suffering, injustice and sorrow that came before, more than 30 Friends were called to take visible action in the courtyard of Friends Center on September 21, to bear witness that the police killing must stop, and to join together in worship for our own …
Pennsylvania Council of Churches: “A Statement and Lament on Racism and Violence”
The Pennsylvania Council of Churches (of which Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has been a member since its founding in 1917) has issued “A Statement and Lament on Racism and Violence,” and has encouraged its member organizations to share this message widely. It is reproduced in its entirety below, but you can see the original post on the PCC website, where you …
Asking to Move the Furniture
by Lucy Duncan The Undoing Racism Group of Philadelphia YM has been working for two years to support the yearly meeting’s central corporate witness expressed in this query, “What is God calling PYM Quakers to do next to end racism and white supremacy in the Religious Society of Friends and beyond?” We have offered 10 workshops at sessions last year …
Learning and Doing Anti-Racism at Annual Sessions
Towards Transformation We strive as Quakers to live our daily lives grounded in the center of our beings. In this striving, we gather as a community away from everyday challenges to strengthen our spiritual practice. As we strengthen our practice, ever deeper insights emerge, and we ready ourselves to embrace their transformative power. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Friends have continued to …
Inspiring Connections Across Difference in Delaware County
Written by Sarah Willie-LeBreton and Pauline Guerin, July 15, 2016 Like many meetings and faith organizations across the country, Providence Monthly Meeting in Media, PA has been wrestling with what racism and white privilege, the nation’s policies of hyper incarceration of black and brown people in particular, and state-sponsored as well as individual violence mean for us. We have engaged …
Yardley Friends Host Program on Mass Incarceration
You just have to think 'racism' and 'money' to understand what drives The New Jim Crow. Patrick Hall Yardley Friends Meeting hosted a presentation and discussion on the impact of mass incarceration led by The Campaign to End the New Jim Crow Princeton/Trenton Chapter. Some 25 people were in attendance, and questions led to a thoughtful discussion. Presenters included Patrick Hall, who works ...
Providence Meeting’s Sarah Willie-LeBreton Writes about “Black Lives Matter”
Sarah Willie-LeBreton’s article, “Out of the silvery silence: The prophetic call of Black Lives Matter” was just published on the website of the American Friends Service Committee. Sarah is a sociologist who teaches at Swarthmore College and a member of Providence Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. She lives in Media with her family.
Friends in PYM Encouraged to Attend the White Privilege Conference
Race, gender, sexuality, class, disability: these are ways we all experience some form of privilege, and we are all affected by that privilege. At our called meeting in January 2015, we affirmed our commitment to dismantling racism and white supremacy as a yearly meeting. We are now blessed with a great opportunity to discover more ways to do that: The ...
URG Networking!
Fall, 2015 PYM Undoing Racism Group News (To connect with the network, go to a short survey at: pym.org/undoingracism) Several dozen Friends involved in making our meetings welcoming beloved communities have met regularly since 2014 sessions. At sessions 2015 in open worship and planned programs the impacts of racist behavior and efforts toward healing were shared. Also, the Implementation Committee …
Responses to 2015 Sessions’ Work on Addressing Racism
At our 2015 Annual Sessions there was a significant focus on addressing racism. Two Friends, both of whom were active at Sessions and who have been doing the work of Undoing Racism, shared their reflections of their experiences at Sessions. Their stories and an opportunity to share your own reflections for sharing are presented in this article.
Highlights of What’s Happening at Annual Sessions Around Addressing Racism
“Open our eyes that we may see” is the theme of the 2015 Annual Sessions at PYM. There will be many opportunities to have our eyes opened on the topic of race, including: Affinity Groups, Resource Friends and library resources.
Developing a Network of Friends
The PYM Undoing Racism Network is a non-centralized, mutually-supporting network of Friends working on racism and racial justice in the yearly and monthly meetings that came out of our experience at Annual Sessions in 2014. We are eager to find each other, to share resources, and to give and receive support. Our vision is that we might have at least …
Workshops Addressing Racism at Annual Sessions
The workshops at our 2015 Annual Sessions feature a large array of opportunities for Friends to learn, explore, tell stories, discover and share knowledge and wisdom on topics related to addressing racism in ourselves, our community and the world. Fully one third of the offered workshops are on this topic. The Undoing Racism Group recruited leaders and curated a set ...
Resources Lists for Friends and Meetings
During our called meeting on January 10, 2015 our yearly meeting affirmed a Minute of Action regarding how our faith community intends to address the many facets of “-isms” that confront us and our wider community. In the time since our called meeting an “extended clerks’ team” consisting of the clerk, rising clerk, an elder and a consultant have been …
A Report from the Called Meeting on Racism
If our principles are right, why should we be cowards? – Lucretia Mott We who believe in freedom cannot rest. – Bernice Johnson Reagon Report from the Called Meeting held January 10, 2015 On Saturday, January 10, 2015, more than 400 members and attenders from meetings across Philadelphia Yearly Meeting gathered in a called meeting to enthusiastically commit to addressing ...
Over 400 Attend Called Meeting. Minute of Action Approved.
Over 400 Friends from 79 meetings, other yearly meetings and religious organizations attended today’s Called Meeting Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business to discern how we, as a faith community, are being led to address racism. Imagine, if you will, the Arch Street Meeting House filled with so many Friends: young, old and middle-aged, White, African-American, Asian and Latino, …