The following thank you letter came our way from Moorestown Meeting and Youth Promise Kenya. It shows that despite the pandemic, friendships across the world have positive impact, and that human-to-human efforts make a difference in the lives of others. Friends Meetings and Schools in the PYM region engage in many such worthy projects. Please share your stories with us. [Read more…] about Moorestown Meeting Support for Computer Literacy Program in Kenya
Grants
Meeting Owl Pro Device: Technology to Support Digital Worship
The pandemic has resulted in technology becoming an essential part of many Quaker meetings as in-person worship came to a stop at most meetings. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s (PYM) monthly meetings have had to find new ways to keep the community together through Zoom video calls or Facebook Live videos.
These new ways of worship have had a silver lining; members and attenders not able to typically attend worship in person have been able to join digitally. Digital worship creates a path for long-time members who no longer live near the meetinghouse and seekers new to Quakerism to attend. Many meetings have decided that offering a way for Friends to worship digitally is here to stay, even after a return to meeting in person. For those considering this option, there is technology available to support hybrid forms of gathering that offer a meaningful experience for attending in person and digitally. [Read more…] about Meeting Owl Pro Device: Technology to Support Digital Worship
Tuition Aid for Friends Children in PYM Friends Schools
PYM’s Committee on Friends Education reminds families that monthly meeting members’ children attending or applying to Friends Schools are eligible to apply for educational support for the 2021-22 school year. Funding for all grants comes from the National Friends Education Fund and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting endowment income from the Jonathan Rhoads Fund and other PYM education endowments. [Read more…] about Tuition Aid for Friends Children in PYM Friends Schools
John Martin Trust: Grants for Friends with Financial Need
Purpose and History of the Trust
The John Martin Trust (JMT) of the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia exists to aid financially needy Friends in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. It gives aid through the Monthly Meetings, not directly to individuals.
Elizabeth Simms, a seamstress and once a servant of William Penn, married John Martin, a Quaker tailor. Penn gave Simms the property at 320 Walnut Street in Philadelphia, on which she and her husband built a small stone cottage. John Martin inherited this property from his wife, and at his death in 1702, left it to the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia (now at 4th and Arch Streets) to be used to assist poor and necessitous Friends.
[Read more…] about John Martin Trust: Grants for Friends with Financial Need
Willits Book Trust Participates in A Community Reading of Frederick Douglass’ July 4 Speech
As a representative of the Willits Book Trust Committee, a grantmaking group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Lisa Stewart Garrison, a member of Greenwich Friends Meeting in Salem Quarter, was invited to take part in a community reading of Frederick Douglass’ “4th of July Speech” sponsored by the National Park Service and the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Travel and Witness Grant: Elom Tettey-Tamaklo’s Travel to Ramallah, Palestine
PYM’s Travel and Witness Granting Group makes grants to support active service and witness by individuals following leadings of the Spirit. Recent grants help illustrate the types of travel and projects that bear witness to the overall granting mission of the Travel and Witness Granting Group. We write about one particular grant recipient today – to Elom Tettey-Tamaklo. Elom has been awarded two travel grants to visit the Isreal – Palestine region.
[Read more…] about Travel and Witness Grant: Elom Tettey-Tamaklo’s Travel to Ramallah, Palestine
Friends Emily and Julia Visit the Friends International Bilingual Center in La Paz, Bolivia
The Friends International Bilingual Center (FIBC) is a Bolivian program that offers educational programs for children, young people, and adults in la Paz, Bolivia. Their programming is focused around human value and Quaker principles, and participants experience spiritual and intellectual growth centered in the belief that there is that of God in everyone.
Travel & Witness Grant Report: Friends Reflect on Travel in Ghana
In August of 2019, Vanessa Julye of Central Philadelphia Meeting led a group of Quakers to Ghana to explore the histories of Ghana and the United States. The trip, part of Vanessa’s 25-year ministry to address White Supremacy within the Religious Society of Friends, provided people of all races an opportunity to have critical conversations about history.
[Read more…] about Travel & Witness Grant Report: Friends Reflect on Travel in Ghana
PYM’s Willits Book Trust Committee Honors Storytellers and Bridge Builders of the Underground Railroad
The Willits Book Trust Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting presented books to a number of participants who attended “Crossings: Bridging the Authentic Underground Railroad Past to the Present,” a training event in Niagara, New York Sept. 11th – 14th, 2019, sponsored by the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, and the Association for the Study of African American Life. [Read more…] about PYM’s Willits Book Trust Committee Honors Storytellers and Bridge Builders of the Underground Railroad
Westfield MM Uses Membership Development Grant for Outreach and Quaker Community Building
Westfield Meeting received a Membership Development Grant for the purchase of an 8X8 foot pop-up tent, 5-foot-long table, table weights, a tablecloth printed with the “SPICES”, and literature from PYM. The purpose was to attend public events and increase awareness of Quakerism and Westfield Meeting as well as other Meetings; develop cooperative outreach with other Meetings and organizations; and focus members of Westfield Meeting on the need for vigorous outreach. We were to attend six events during the first year of the grant, and keep a tally of direct encounters with members of the public.