George Schaefer serves Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as the Care and Aging Coordinator. He works with meetings, aging Friends, and individuals to support PYM’s spiritual growth, pastoral care, and community wholeness. This essay is his response to the burdens we may be carrying today and in the coming weeks. Tea with George is always perfect. Please sit with these thoughts and have a favorite cup of tea close to hand. [Read more…] about In These Times: A Pastoral Message
Aging Services
Video: Aging Well
The Newtown Meeting Aging Well series continues with two programs on housing: Where Will You Live in Your Later Years? and Aging in Place. They are presented in video format by Susan W. Hoskins, LCSW. Susan is a clinical social worker certified in gerontology. She is the Executive Director of the Friends Foundation for the Aging, and was director of the Princeton Senior Resource Center for nearly 20 years. [Read more…] about Video: Aging Well
Ministry & Care Letter to Our Meetings
Dear Friends,
This is a check-in to see how you and your meeting are doing in these unique times. The physical distancing required by the Covid-19 pandemic has created unexpected opportunities for discerning how to feel connected when physical contact is not possible. Some meetings are also struggling with how to complete their Spiritual State of the Meeting Report given the challenges of Covid-19. We offer some guidance here. [Read more…] about Ministry & Care Letter to Our Meetings
Resource Friends at Annual Sessions!
At the 2018 Annual Sessions this year, there will be a booth during free time and dinner time on Thursday and Friday where Resource Friends will be available to talk with you about their work and what they might be able to support for you and your meeting. They will also be offering workshops on Friday and Saturday. Resource Friends help our community thrive by providing support in specific areas of concern in our monthly and quarterly meetings. They offer a diversity of gifts and an extensive “how-to” knowledge-base. [Read more…] about Resource Friends at Annual Sessions!
Introducing Resource Friends!
We are excited to report that the Quaker Life Council approved investing nearly forty thousand dollars over two fiscal years to raise up a momentous new program called Resource Friends. Resource Friends help our community be healthy and thrive, by providing expert support in areas of need in our monthly meetings and on the yearly meeting level. They are the Friends who have a diverse variety of gifts and tremendous knowledge base from which the community may benefit. [Read more…] about Introducing Resource Friends!
Greenleaf Granting Group Highlights Caring, Compassion, Confidentiality, Respect
Over $1.7 million in needs-based financial assistance from the Greenleaf Fund has now been allocated to qualifying older members and attenders of monthly meetings in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The Greenleaf Granting Group recognizes that how they accomplish this is even more important than how much has been granted. They have issued a clear statement of the values their grants are meant to embody, hoping the statement will help aging Friends feel comfortable asking for help when they are in need. The statement is also intended to guide the Greenleaf Granting Group’s own work now and in the future. [Read more…] about Greenleaf Granting Group Highlights Caring, Compassion, Confidentiality, Respect
Friends Speaks My Mind: The Gifts of Aging
Three Friends, Peggy Brick, Ruth Peterson and George Schaefer talk about Quakers and the experience of aging. Peggy Brick, a long-time Friend from New York Yearly Meeting residing at Kendal Crosslands, a Quaker Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in Pennsylvania talks about her experience living at Crosslands and her work as a sex educator for persons over 50; Ruth Peterson who along with her husband Charley, lives at Pennswood Village, a Quaker CCRC, talks about her experience of being an E/elder among Friends and her advice from Elizabeth Watson to embrace her “Inner Crone” through celebration and ritual; and, George Schaefer the Philadephia Yearly Meeting Care & Aging Coordinator talks about his work and issues of aging among PYM Friends both young and old.
PYM gets grant for Spirituality and Aging Project
This project will be an expansion of the work of the PYM Quaker Aging Resources project and provide direct and web-based seminars designed to uphold a culture of holistic care for the body, mind and spirit of persons and communities.
The Spirituality and Aging project funded by Friends Foundation for the Aging will be implemented by PYM Care & Aging program services staff. The project will also seek to identify and train volunteers who can support the work in communities where they live. [Read more…] about PYM gets grant for Spirituality and Aging Project