Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Epistles

2018 Annual Sessions – Final Epistle

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Now the Work of Christmas Begins
by Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost,
to heal the broken, to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

July 29, 2018

To Friends everywhere:

Greetings from the 338th Annual Sessions of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, held at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey, from July 25 to 29, 2018.

Christmas in July greeted Friends who arrived early to attend a 24-hour retreat led by the Spiritual Formation Collaborative. The retreat leaders, holding an open, listening space, offered exercises to deepen spiritual grounding and personal reflection. While four yearly meeting Elders were present, all the retreat participants felt led to step forward as elders for the duration of Annual Sessions, relying on Spirit, and the belief that God could transform us during our time together.

Our theme of “How our Lives Speak” resonated throughout sessions as we practiced breathing, deep listening, grounding, and holding our clerks and each other with care and compassion. We recognized that we will make mistakes, we will say the wrong thing, we may hurt each other and yet we will love and care for each other as members of the beloved community.

We mourned the loss of our beloved clerk, Penny Colgan-Davis, who served with grace, wisdom, and firmness through challenging and sometimes contentious times. In the absence of a clerk, our Alternate and Council clerks stepped up to form a collaborative, cooperative clerking team designing a sessions agenda that balanced reports and minutes with spirit-filled plenaries, grounding exercises, reflection, and body prayers.

Plenaries offered rich examples of the work of Christmas. Sharing her ministry of transformation, Dr. Amanda Kemp focused on the questions, “How do we prepare ourselves to let our lives speak? What kinds of spiritual practices do we engage in so that we stay grounded and maintain our own integrity as we do the hard work of loving the world?” She encouraged us to hold space for transformation by getting grounded, breathing, checking in with ourselves, and setting an intention to allow unconditional love and unconditional acceptance to flow through us. Amanda also offered that the first song in her head each morning provides her spiritual guidance for the whole day.

Members of Ujima Friends Peace Center offered a presentation on the work, witness, and worship of Friends of recent African descent. Ujima serves the North Philadelphia community by offering weekly worship, after-school programs, food giveaways, renters’ rights workshops, and conflict transformation. Ayesha Imani, president of Ujima and member of Germantown Monthly Meeting, defined Ujima as recognizing that the problems of our brothers and sisters are all of our problems. Friends from Ujima celebrated that children in the neighborhood identify them as “the Quakers.” She invited us to look at our own communities and see how we can bring the spirit of Ujima to the places we live.

In an experiment in open space technology, we connected with others who shared our passions. A later plenary led by Walter Hjelt Sullivan helped us examine our covenant relationships and explore the pain in our community when the covenantal relationship is broken. In a listening exercise, the workshop leader encouraged us to find the balance of firmness and gentleness in our connections with each other.

Each afternoon we participated in workshops on a wide range of subjects, led by Friends of all ages. The workshop covered a wide variety of topics including “Emergent Strategy: Creating Community, Unpacking the Knapsack, and Transforming Justice,” “Art and Advocacy: Making Comics for Social Change,” and “How our lives speak as we dialogue with Native and Indigenous Peoples.” On Saturday evening, we celebrated the official printing of our new edition of Faith and Practice. Each day we gathered for multi-generational worship in All Together Time and heard reports on the activities of our young Friends. Our younger members ministered to us by providing soul-searching queries for all members to consider in a worship-sharing format.

We experienced the transforming Power during important business. The clerk of the Multicultural Institutional Audit Steering committee offered a personal reflection on the misunderstandings that have led to profound frustration and delays. The clerk’s reflection offered a new way for the committee to move forward. The Friends present from the committee expressed a sense of disillusionment and disappointment about the overall experience, yet remained dedicated to completing this work. In an afternoon listening session, more than 100 Friends gathered to share perspective on the process, listen to each other, and through the grace of Spirit, transform into a place of trust, hope, and faithful listening. In an evening meeting for business, and with the winds of Spirit still present, Friends affirmed their support for the committee and their ongoing work.

An empty water goblet at the Clerks’ table reminded us that we are ready to be filled with the Living Water, sometimes over and over. A juggling ball represented the transfer of leadership within our clerking team. A hazelnut reminded us of our prayer upon rising each morning and before retiring for the night. Beautiful, natural collections of flowers recalled fond thoughts of our former clerk. Quilts scattered on the floor signified our commitment to comfortable worship space for the littlest legs in our community.

We leave with a deep sense of God’s work in us still present, and a renewed commitment to love, trust, support, encourage, and care for each other. We return to our communities, replenished with a sense of love for our neighbors and an intention to share Spirit with those who were not here with us.

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in Annual Sessions July 2018

2018 Annual Sessions – Children’s Epistle

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To All Friends Everywhere,

We, the Children of PYM, came together for Annual Sessions at The College of New Jersey, July 25-29, 2018.

We gathered to discuss Earthcare, one way we can let our lives speak. Resident artist Anna DeCaria hosted a sustainable weaving workshop. We used recycled fabric to make pom poms and bags. We had a meeting for business where we discerned and we’re in unity to plant flowers at the next Children & Families gathering, to compost and recycle more, and to raise money for a nonprofit centering Earthcare by hosting a bake sale. We learned that taking care of the Earth is very important. We urge the community to follow our lead and love the Earth by planting seeds, helping people, and sharing the joy!

We urge adults to ask the children because we know how to take care of the Earth.

2018 Annual Sessions – Young Friends Epistle

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Dear Friends Everywhere,

The Young Friends program of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) gathered at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey, for the days of July 25, 2018 through July 29, 2018. Our community welcomed Friends, both old and new as well as the new incoming Young Friends Facilitator, Lori Sinitzky.

The gathering program began with light-hearted introductions, part of ensuring that there were a variety of different opportunities throughout the gathering for self-care and fun. We enjoyed spending time Thursday evening playing games with the rest of the youth programs. The Young Friends  community continued its traditions, including the vigorous physical activity of Wink and the playing of board games while connecting during Late Night. A new addition was a fun personality test. We had the opportunity to cool off with Frank (the unicorn who spouts water out his horn) and a slip-and-slide. Young Friends were also led in a weaving workshop led by Anna Decaria. Numerous Young Friends were  inspired to continue practicing this new skill throughout the gathering, and are grateful for Anna sharing with them.

The Young Friends are also a seriously introspective, spiritual group, and attended many various forms of meditative activities. Apart from regularly attending meeting for worship, we also had daily sessions of worship sharing and had many thoughtful discussions. We also were a part of the multigenerational All Together Time, a time where young and old alike explore spirituality as a single group. Those of us who identify as LGBTQ+ and Allies took part in a unifying time during dinner, to strengthen bonds between those Friends. Some of us finished our evening with a multigenerational vespers, which allowed us to settle in for the night with a state of calm.

Our Nurturing Committee enjoyed providing opportunities for deeper connections and spiritual growth by writing worship sharing questions both for Young Friends and for all of Annual Sessions. Young Friends decided during their business meeting to affirm our work of writing worship sharing questions for Annual Sessions in 2019.

A very controversial issue among the Yearly Meeting and the Young Friends alike was the PYM Staff Voice Policy, which limits the ways PYM staff can share information and opinions related to PYM policies and operations. Led by a call to unify Young Friends, some of us sat in on a discussion with the PYM Personnel committee, in order to give our individual opinions, which were received by the committee.

The “World of Loss” activity was a memorial to victims of gun violence from the Philadelphia area, as well as victims of the Parkland School instances of gun violence. Names, ages, and death dates were written for each victim onto a t-shirt. These were then placed on a stake to represent the victim in a handmade memorial. Those that participated were deeply moved.

Later, the Young Friends conducted their business meeting, where they attended to various pieces of business for the care of their community. They then heard a presentation from the Undoing Racism group about challenges in the broader PYM community regarding anti-racism work. The Friend from this committee shared that a report regarding a multicultural audit process was about to be shared with the adult business meeting. After reading and reflecting with this report, many Young Friends felt that Quaker process had not properly been followed. Some Young Friends felt strongly inclined to share their concern for this report and hustled over to adult Business Meeting. From that group, many Young Friends attended an extended portion of adult Business Sessions on the same topic. After sitting with this information and reflecting both individually and as a community, some Young Friends continued to show an interest in this work and attended the evening adult Business Session to hear the next steps for the Multicultural Audit Committee. They then brought their impressions back to the community for further reflection during worship sharing.

Another important issue that was discussed in the broader PYM body in the presence of Young Friends was the Youth Program Vision and Mission Statement. The Young Friends community shares its gratitude for having our input heard in the Vision and Mission Statements. As Friends entered the plenary space at the outset of the evening business session, Young Friends spontaneously sat at the clerks’ table and held the space during worship.

The Young Friends attended many different workshops. Young Friends had an opportunity to show leadership in the wider community of PYM by facilitating an intergenerational workshop, which was planned collaboratively in advance of the gathering by a group including Young Friends and adults covering a wide range of ages. The workshop topic was “Roots of Injustice, Seeds of Change”. The workshop, which was created by Paula Palmer working with Indigenous North Americans, provided participants with an opportunity to learn about, and to experience, the taking of the land of the Indigenous Peoples by European settlers. Participants took on roles of Indigenous Peoples, and facilitators took on roles of both Native peoples and Europeans. The workshop included a script that summarized 500 years of North American history from the view of Indigenous Peoples, as well as opportunities for group discussion and reflection. Each Friend who attended received a corn seed to symbolize reconnecting with Native Peoples.

Another workshop was a guided discussion in a worshipful setting relating to Liberation Theology and the application of the nativity story to today’s marginalized peoples. Young Friends opened with a discussion of our understanding of the nativity story. Many Young Friends created stories, artwork and poetry expressing their application of the nativity story to today’s world.

We were led in a combination of a Panel and a Workshop, or a “Panel-Shop”, in which three guests- Dana Robinson, Lane Taylor, and Sa’ed Atshan- told us a personal story about their work relating to Earth Quaker Action Team, Fat Acceptance, and education and Quaker involvement in other countries, respectively. The Panel-shop started by each Friend sharing a personal story that explained how they found their true calling. After these three Friends finished sharing individually, the community broke into small groups with our guests to share further about finding our true callings. The Panel-Shop helped us embrace the knowledge that we may find our true calling in life at any age.

After this long gathering, the Young Friends of PYM Young Friends have joined together to laugh, worship and make business. We were grateful to share this gathering with each other and the wider community, and we are looking forward to gathering as a Young Friends community again at Camp Onas in August, and to gathering as part of the entire PYM community again at Continuing Sessions this Fall.

Thank you, PYM.

Respectfully submitted,

– PYM Young Friends Epistle committee on behalf of the Young Friends body

– Committee members: Joe Schiffer, Kaise Coyle, with support from Adult Co-Clerk Robert Rosenthal

2018 Annual Sessions – Young Adult Friends Epistle

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29 July 2018

College of New Jersey, New Jersey, USA

To Friends Everywhere:

This is America: an environment riddled with fear for our entire lives as Young Adults, although we strive for and center justice and peace in this spiritual space. The search for justice and peace will always be ongoing, and never fully achieved. They are ideals we must constantly rediscover, redefine, and reinvigorate.

As one voice, Young Adult Friends speak to breathe life in our beloved community. Our entire lives, those our age have been politicized in the name of a War on Terror. We were all raised, to some extent, in a disconnected and violent world. The difference is that many of us were born with privileges that raised us with some shelter.

There is incontrovertible evidence of the ongoing traumatization of immigrant communities, the most glaringly obvious of which is occurring in family detention facilities, such as Berks Detention Center. To end cycles of violence, we must address them. At the individual level, detention of families enacts violence in the form of sexual assault, abuse, neglect, and intimidation. At the systemic level, the U.S. Federal government’s insistence on separating families and on erasing domestic violence as grounds for asylum perpetuates that cycle. Shoving trauma into the shadows and out of the light has been our country’s history since its inception.

As Friends, we believe in the light in others. We stand in solidarity with those actively abused and traumatized within the walls of Berks Detention Center, and recognize that what is happening there is happening nationwide.

Putting time, effort, and financial resources into enforcing restrictions that target migrant communities will only continue to perpetuate these abusive systems. This is a call to action to end family incarceration at Berks Detention Center, and put resources into alternative options within migrant communities. Most important, we must pursue solutions that are approved by intersectional practitioners in education, mental health, and community development.

As Quakers, we must shake the grounds of this building, and all others like it, until the faulted foundations of those housed atrocities have collapsed.

We have a leading to hold worship outside Berks Detention Center, as a form of direct action. We find this to be rooted in Quaker spiritual practice and history, and we are seeking spiritual, financial, and logistical support and participation from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in order to act on this leading.

Finally, we affirm the efforts of the Multicultural Institutional Assessment Steering Committee, and highlight the work of the Young Adults on that committee. We see a direct connection between the need to address violent structures in our meetings, and to take action towards justice for migrant communities. In both cases, what we are seeking is affirmation of the Light in all people.

As was spoken in our multi-generational prayer activity during all-together time on Saturday, “Help us, Help us; We love you, We love you; Thank you, Thank you.”

2018 Annual Sessions – Middle School Friends Epistle

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Dear Friends Everywhere,

We are the 2018 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions Middle School Friends (MSF) community. This week, MSF had fun, built a community, and attended various workshops.
We engaged in many enjoyable games and activities.

On Friday we took a trip to the pool. Some of us relaxed in the shade, while others dove off diving boards and slid down slides. The following day, we continued our water fun using a Slip ‘N Slide and a giant blow-up unicorn sprinkler. Later that day, many Friends participated in the talent show, the dance party, and then finished the day by leading vespers for the PYM community.

This year MSF at Annual Sessions had a new sleeping arrangement. We now sleep as a community in the College of New Jersey’s dorm rooms. This helped to strengthen our community and caused us to form new friendships as well as further already existing ones. As a result of our strong friendships, it became easier to open up to each other. This made our Worship sharing groups more meaningful. Not only did we have a growing bond within the MSF community, but we also grew closer with the wider youth programs.

During the course of this week, MSF attended various thought provoking workshops and plenary sessions. We, along with the PYM community, were introduced to Ujima. Ujima is a peace center dedicated to supporting people of African descent to find a black Quakerism that speaks to attendee’s condition. Following the Ujima presentation, we had a workshop led by Anna DeCaria about quilting, collaging, and fabrics. Later that evening, the MSF community came together to share our ideas in a Meeting for Business where we discussed and planned MSF led Vespers.

Throughout this week, the PYM Middle School Friends have gained many friendships and learned many interesting and funny facts about each other. We have all been through the mixing up of schedules, our facilitator standing up for the MSFers, and rushing out from lunch. We had so much fun this week going on the slip ‘ N slide, playing with a giant unicorn sprinkler, swimming at the pool, diving, and sliding into fun.

Even our long business meeting was a little fun. We played a lot of outside games and had many dance, snack, and group game breaks. All in all in this Annual Sessions, the MSFers learned how to work well as a group and ultimately as a community.

2017 Annual Sessions – Children’s Epistle

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To Friends everywhere,

We are the Fisher’s group from PYM Annual Sessions 2017. We learned about the love wolf and the fear wolf. We made dreamcatchers, god’s eyes, magnets and love wolf masks. We went to Snipes Farm to pick berries and make forts. We loved Fort Building, the goats, and god’s eyes. We explored how we are made and friendship.

– Simza, Kingston, Mara, Vanessa, TJ, Oliver (Pre-K – 2nd Grade)

From the 3rd-5th Graders:
Gianna- “Tie Dying with Friends”
Ishayla- “Fun, tie dye, mandalas, games, farm trip”
Nicole- “It was a silly and fun week. And we each tie dyed two bandannas.”
Erica- “This week was more fun than I ever imagined. In the beginning I wanted to leave, but now I want to stay! This experience has been fun and different. I didn’t think I would be in crutches, and so I was worried it wouldn’t be fun because of my injury. But I did and it was a great experience!”

Click here for more photos from Children’s Sessions 2017

2017 Annual Sessions – Young Friends Epistle

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Dear Friends Everywhere,

Coming together in a new location, The College of New Jersey, the Young Friends program of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting gathered together to welcome old friends and new.

Our experience began on Wednesday the 26th of July, as we came together with the Yearly Meeting. We met up with the group Spiral Q, whose mission is to use art to bring people together to combat social issues affecting the world today. We specifically brought them into our community to address issues of institutionalized racism and white supremacy and to continue supporting the long process of healing. One of the activities brought to us was the story circles, during which we split off into smaller intergenerational groups and shared our tales of woe. Afterwards, Young Friends broke off from the rest of the Yearly Meeting to play games and make introductions. We introduced ourselves with our names, pronouns, monthly meetings, and hobbies (predominately watching Netflix). The group immediately began to bond as we smoothly incorporated the new Friends into our community, as well as when we were kicked out of our building, not due to rowdy behavior, but a fire drill. After the “fire,” we participated in Worship Sharing to wind down before bed.

On Thursday, we began our day after breakfast, once again joining with the rest of the Yearly Meeting for All Together Time, a debrief of the Story Circles of the previous night. The Young Friends agreed that the activity was meaningful and connected them with parts of the community that they might not have ordinarily interacted with. Following that activity (what the cool kids call “ATT”), we met up with the Middle School Friends to do a workshop with Spiral Q. We talked about what the word “book” means and made our own out of cardstock, paper, and string. Later on, the Young Friends gathered in our space for Affinity Time, during which a young friend was enlightened on the glories of feminism while people did puzzles. The Young Friend’s Nurture Committee also took up the task of writing queries for the entire yearly meeting discussing the week’s theme of “Faith Magnified.” Whilst what became known as the best meal of the gathering, Young Friends had a picnic with local Interfaith leaders. Only a few Young Friends attended the Interfaith panel, but those who did found it very valuable. A Young Friend said that the importance of love in the lives of the interfaith leaders was especially moving to them. The Young Friends who did not attend the panel enjoyed playing Bingo with the other children’s programs. A friend had extreme difficulty winning the game, despite having seven sets of four in a row! The Young Friends ended their day with a calming game of Wink, in which players tackled each other to the ground to stop one another from reaching the Winker.

Earlier, during free time, Young Friends took the opportunity to walk to “Campus Town,” believe it or not, a town near campus. In the spirit of income equality, all Young Friends were given five dollars, and five dollars only, to spend during free time. Young Friends spent their money on frozen yogurt, a vending machine, and window shopping in Barnes & Noble.

——

Friday was spent with the Middle School Friends on a rafting trip. Though the participants were originally supposed to leave 10:30, but due to the incompetence of our bus company, we did not end up leaving until 1 o’clock. Whilst waiting, the Youth Programs spent the time eating, reading, and playing cards. Despite a bit of chaos, we ended up bonding all the same. The community came together to collectively carpool 36 children and 12 adults, via 10 cars to the Edge of the Woods Outfitters, where we boarded our rafts. We bonded just as much on the rafting trip as we did waiting for it; with a combination of splashing friends, fierce competition, and one swallowed bug, the trip was well worth the wait. While most youth programs were on the trip, other members of the community stepped up to greet us with pizza, brownies that were inexplicably crumbly yet spongey, and the chance to watch a movie, even if we were four hours late. Upon reflection, the rafting trip was only possible thanks to the adaptable and amazing souls who volunteered in the spur of the moment. To those who helped us, thank you for rallying, sacrificing your time, and coming together to make our trip as fast as possible.

Yesterday, the 29th, The Young Friends began their day with a worship experiment created and led by a Young Friend. Later in the day, committees met, which included the Native Justice Committee, Discernment Committee, Program Committee, Graduation Committee, and Nurture Committee. Amongst the things the committees discussed were pool parties, future programs with local Native American tribes, afghans for graduating seniors, adult clerks, and Worship Sharing queries for the Yearly Meeting. The Young Friends attended adult business meeting, during which a minute was approved to begin an institutional multicultural audit. The Young Friends showed enthusiasm with the decision and look forward to beginning this process to make all feel welcome. The Young Friends appreciate the Middle School Friends for including us in their Vespers program and the Young Adult Friends for welcoming our two graduating seniors with open arms.

One of the most exciting parts of the day was the Young Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business. Our adult leaders directed the group on the fundamentals of a Business Meeting. Our new presiding clerk and recording clerk led us on a fluently through the agenda. Young Friends, specifically the Nurture Committee, graciously received a minute of appreciation for our queries from a Yearly Meeting Worship Sharing group. During the meeting, the group discerned to renew the term of the adult clerk. In conclusion, the Young Friends Business Meeting went well and all agreed that the worship was meaningful.

This morning, we had a business meeting discussing this epistle, packed our bags, and evaluated the gathering. And now we are here reading you this epistle.

Finally, though our gathering was worshipful, engaging, and positive, we can not ignore this opportunity to voice a larger concern. The Young Friends would like to take a moment to share the following official minute written over the course of several gatherings regarding the staff changes at hand.

 

The Young Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting were shocked to hear the announcement of staffing changes in March of 2017. After long discussion, discernment, and worship, Young Friends felt the need to express our concern with the changes that affect our community directly.

Friends were unsettled by both the content of the announcement and way in which the decisions were reached. We were shaken and upset at the lack of involvement of the Young Friends community in the decision process especially directly after work done with Young Friends to promote youth leadership. We do recognize that there was a brief consulting but Young Friends at the time were unaware that the feedback given would be affecting any party other than the Youth Programs Sprint and the Quaker Life Council. In the eyes of the Young Friends, the comments we gave to the PYM senior staff in no way suggested the resulting proposal.

In our opinion, the lack of consultation was damaging to our relationship with the Yearly Meeting. It made us question the validity of the decision-making process. The announcement seemed to have skipped traditional Quaker process and was to be implemented without widespread consensus. It is important to note that since the initial announcement, additional information has arisen to help identify the reasoning behind the decision and process. However even with additional explanation, Young Friends found difficulty in fully trusting and working with the governing staff of the Yearly Meeting. As younger members of this community, it has been common to have our voices drowned out or not acknowledged, so the lack of consultation felt like a harsh contrast to the ideal image of a cohesive and radically multigenerational community put forward.

While Young Friends are obviously upset about the process, we recognize that it is an action of the past and look to the future for reconciliation. We ask for not only recognition of failures in the process but active work to mend the rifts created then. We are grateful for the open discussion and involvement we have been given thus far and look forward to its continuation in the future of our community.

Finally, The Young Friends would like to thank the Yearly meeting for listening to our epistle and giving us this opportunity to come together. Overall, Young Friends had an exhausting yet rewarding week. We look forward to our next gathering next month, and to next year’s annual sessions. Lastly, the Young Friends would like to pay tribute to our lovely Program Director, Hannah Mayer, for whom this gathering is the with her current position. She has helped nurture and support us for many, many years, and although sad to see her leaving her current job, we look forward to interacting with her in her new position of Program Facilitator. The Young Friends eagerly await the next time we can come together as a whole and witness the lights of this community again.

Young Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

2016 Annual Sessions – Young Adult Friends Epistle

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To all F/friends everywhere:

More than 50 Young Adult Friends (age 18-35-ish) gathered together in the Spirit of community, love, and friendship at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s 336th Annual Sessions, July 27-31, 2016 at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Many of us seek spiritual community because we need support in our work in the world. For some of us, while we live Quaker faith and practice every day, monthly meetings are not offering the depth and groundedness we are seeking. And so, we are finding meaningful communities outside of traditional Quaker structures, but we’re still searching for ways into our powerful spiritual tradition. We are searching for Truth as early Friends did, making our own spiritual paths. Though some of us are active in monthly and yearly meeting leadership, many find membership inaccessible or undesirable. Our yearly meeting structures exclude those of us who aren’t members or regular attenders—even when we have a calling to service. Young adulthood often entails transience—geographically, financially, and spiritually. This can preclude our membership in a Meeting, even when we feel at home there. YAFs who became members as children can feel trapped in the meeting where they grew up—no longer feeling part of that community, but not connected enough to a new meeting to transfer their membership. Some of these Friends long for direct membership with the yearly meeting.

Our yearly meeting is holding a corporate anti-racism witness. At Annual Sessions 2014, Friends called to this witness came together to form the Undoing Racism Group. The YAF community is working to recognize and change the structures of oppression and privilege that we operate under, as is the rest of our yearly meeting. Some of us are actively involved in anti-racism work, and yet we often do not bring that work back to our YAF community. We are just beginning conversations about how to create more space for continued work to challenge racism within our community.

This year, the Undoing Racism Group offered a proposal to establish the group’s role in the yearly meeting. During Saturday’s business sessions, members of the Undoing Racism Group called on the clerks’ table and the body to address where they fit in the new Philadelphia Yearly Meeting structure—business that was long overdue. Many Friends (literally or metaphorically) stood in solidarity with the Undoing Racism Group. Many members of our community were among the supporters of the call to amend the agenda and continue discernment. This clear leading of Spirit was shut down due to concerns about timing and process. We mourn our yearly meeting’s unwillingness to sacrifice the agenda for the movement of Spirit. We recognize the challenge of agenda-building, while at the same time holding a concern for the ways that rigid time structures perpetuate privilege and white supremacy in our yearly meeting.

Earlier this year, the Undoing Racism Group requested that we change the name of our William Penn Lecture Series because William Penn was a slaveholder, and there were African-American Friends who felt unwelcome while we used that name. A variety of concerns about the confusing name and stale format of the series had surrounded it for many years. Undoing Racism Group’s request pushed us to act upon those concerns. On Thursday night of this Annual Sessions, the YAF community approved the request to change the name, and an ad-hoc committee is moving forward with a more open format and a modernized charge. We recognize the pain of birthing structures that will call us to love each other more deeply, and we know that Spirit is already present in this work. We know that our yearly meeting has been laboring mightily with Spirit to listen deeply and come to a structure for challenging institutional racism that all of us can unite with. We stand with the Undoing Racism Group in its call to weave the work of anti-racist transformation into the fabric of every structure of our yearly meeting.

Historically, Young Adult Friends have felt called to work that challenges societal structures and norms. For example, as the yearly meeting was reminded by one of the alternate clerks on Saturday morning, YAFs were integral to the reunification of the Hicksite and Orthodox branches of our yearly meeting. We are trying to cultivate a sense of belonging, while being true to the Spirit and the wider work of our yearly meeting. Many of us still feel alienated, patronized or unsupported. For instance, we have repeatedly been referred to as Young Friends throughout Sessions, which is the name of the high school program in this yearly meeting. We call ourselves Young Adult Friends, adult participants in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. This year, we’ve struggled to find a voice that would be recognized, heard, and respected in business sessions and throughout our work in the yearly meeting. We have experienced ageism and misogyny this week.  Some YAFs are not able to be present for business sessions because many of them happen during the workweek. Our gifts are essential to our yearly meeting, but we have felt blocked from full participation—discouraged, frustrated, and ignored.

So why do we keep coming back? Because this yearly meeting is striving to transform itself into a welcoming and inclusive community so that it can witness with integrity in the world. We trust in each other, and we trust Spirit to use us well for that goal. Much of our time with each other was spent living into that trust, as we discussed difficult topics, how we live faithfully, and the work we each do. We laughed and created art and formed new friendships. We are Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Yours in Truth,

Young Adult Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

July 31, 2016

2016 Annual Sessions – Children’s Epistle

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Hello Friends Everywhere,
Greetings from the 4th and 5th grades of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. As we gathered with PYM’s 336th Annual Sessions, we experienced the joys of being together, with old friends and new friends. Along with the joys of being together, we experienced some conflicts and upsets. We learned that when we stand together as friends, we found the strength to move forward together. In unity, the way opened. In each other’s presence we grow, and we are able to find hidden treasures both within ourselves, and in others. We invite others to join us as we continue this exploration together at our Continuing Sessions, November 5th at Westtown School.
Shakar, Rich, Erica, Robin, Imajah, Gianna, and Nicole
The Epistle from our youngest Friends (Pre-K- 3rd)
The Epistle from our youngest Friends (Pre-K- 3rd)

 

2015 Annual Sessions – Young Friends Epistle

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Dear Friends everywhere,

Young Friends would like to recognize the epistle put forth by the members of PYM. With more than 20 people attending, we began the gathering with several games focused on community building and had our opening programs. For many days, a group of Young Friends accompanied the Middle School Friends and the children’s program to the pool but sadly on the last day couldn’t attend due to lack of life guards. Through this partnering and the multi-generational morning worship sharing the experience helped promote the inter-generational community. During Young Friends business meeting, we approved a standing clerk and an assistant clerk to lead us in the absence of our presiding clerks and a Friendly Adult Presence to serve as recording clerk. At this meeting we completed the yearlong review of our guidelines in order to make our community a more welcoming, comfortable and safe place for us to express and explore who we are. On our final evening together we had a rich worship sharing time amongst ourselves, and then spent the evening watching movies and enjoying each other’s’ presence.

On Thursday friends participated in an eye opening and inspirational workshop lead by Pamela Haines, we did a small bit of worship sharing and created signs about issues involving the intersection of race, environment, and social justice. The signs were then placed around campus.

Young Friends enjoyed hiking up the Glen Onoko Falls. We felt spiritually fulfilled and our hearts were warmed despite the chilling water engulfing us. It was really fabulous to connect with Middle School Friends and talk to rising 8th graders about our excitement for them to join our community and make new friends.

Young Friends attended the session on Addressing Racism as a Community Saturday morning. Some Young Friends entered the session with weary hearts and nervous emotions. Young Friends, particularly our Friends of Color, felt moved to share in a transformational worship. We enjoyed participating as active members of the PYM body to deepen the relationship with the wider community.

A Friend shared a powerful poem that showed our willingness and ability to participate strongly in the greater PYM community. The experiences of Young Friends have prepared us individually and as a community to continue work with the PYM body in leadership roles on racism.

Young Friends were deeply moved and grateful for the keynote presentation by Victoria Greene, founder of EMIR, Every Murder is Real. After the murder of her son, Victoria founded EMIR to offer support, education, and healing to those affected by homicide. Her personal story of loss moved many of us to tears. We hope to take her messages with us in our collective future.

Our time at annual sessions was an exceptional experience and we are grateful to the staff, and other F/friends who created an environment for spiritual enrichment.

With love and in worship,
Young Friends

Epistle Committee Annual Sessions 2015: Lilly Basgall, Hayden Dutton-Shen, Tenaja Henson, Henry Mohr, Rachel Sidener