Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Families

Youth Religious Life & Program News

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In this story:

  • Giant Children’s Meeting is Back this Fall!
  • Young Friends Staffing Announcement
  • October issue of The Tote Bag focuses on collegial sharing and connection

Come to meet with young Friends from near and far!

If your meeting continues to use online spaces for religious education programs or is reluctant to gather with children in person, Giant Children’s Meeting on the 3rd Sunday of the month at 9:00 AM is for you!

Our monthly, online religious education programs connect with the Youth Programs theme for this year: “Building the Quaker Community We Want to Be.” In September, we celebrated seeing one another again and “welcoming all” — old and new friends. We read the book Nana Akua Goes to School and were led in singing by Abby Brace-Higgins (Mickleton Meeting), who wove together our personal attributes, as shared by participants, into a rousing version of the “Little Boxes” song — not houses, but our Zoom boxes! We look forward to seeing more friends in October!

Upcoming program themes:

  • October 17: Creating Peace Together
  • November 21: Extending the Table
  • December 19: Celebrating in the Light

Join Friends and Families from across the Yearly Meeting for this monthly religious education program! It’s “giant” because everyone is invited! It’s “children’s meeting” because we’re making a space to nurture the spiritual lives and Quaker identity of young people.

Young Friends Program Announcement

With love for her and excitement for new adventures, and also sadness for our community, we are sharing that Olivia Chalkley, Young Friends Program Facilitator, is moving to North Carolina and will step down from her staff role at the end of December. Aeryn Luminkith, current program Assistant, has moved to a co-facilitator role, and a search process has begun to hire zir new colleague. The search will include the participation of Young Friends on a hiring committee, and we hope to have a new Co-Facilitator working with Aeryn by the start of 2022!

Please read Olivia’s message to Young Friends below. 

Dear Young Friends Community,

It’s been a wild couple of years! When I accepted the Young Friends Program Facilitator position in the fall of 2019, we had no idea what was to come. I only had a couple in-person gatherings under my belt when the world shut down in March 2020, and we moved the majority of our programming online, which this community adapted to with grace and care. 

I’ve spent much of the past year living in limbo between Philly, Baltimore, and Western North Carolina, dwelling in the uncertainty brought on by COVID. After much discernment, my partner and I recently made the difficult decision to move to NC full-time. Because of this, I will be stepping down as Facilitator at the end of December.

This community has weathered a lot of change together, including the persistent disruption of a global pandemic. When we realized that so many in our Young Friends community would be graduating in 2021, Aeryn and I were a bit worried; we hadn’t been able to welcome as many new folks as usual with the limits of mostly online programming, which just isn’t the same as our longer gatherings together in person. 

But then, something great happened! We were able to do an overnight in late August at West Chester Friends Meeting.  A wonderful group of current and new Young Friends came together to reimagine what this community might look like as we enter a new era. We asked difficult questions about what this particular community needed, and Young Friends answered them bravely. They frankly addressed the gaps in institutional knowledge left by our graduating seniors, but also the opportunity we are presented with: by being forced to do things differently than they had been done before, we might find growth and positive change. This experience spoke to any worries I had about the future of Young Friends: this community knows what it needs and, with deep care and creativity, it will move into this next stage gracefully.

It’s been an honor to serve as your Facilitator for the past two years, and while I’m deeply saddened to be leaving, I know you’ll be in good hands: Aeryn Luminkith will be stepping into the role of co-facilitator, along with someone new! I’m excited to work with Aeryn and zir future co-facilitator over the next few months to set Young Friends up for success. I hope to see you at the Christmas Gathering, December 18-19! 

Love,  Olivia

October Issue of The Tote Bag Now Available!

Hot off the presses! This issue of the Tote Bag includes sharing from meetings about what they are up to this fall, sign-ups for Quaker Parent Mutual Support Groups, a spotlight on Historic Fair Hill burial ground as a wonderful place for a Sunday morning field trip, and much more. If you don’t already receive a copy of the (pretty much monthly) newsletter, you can subscribe here by choosing “Religious Education.”

Send resources and ideas to share to Melinda at mwennerbradley@pym.org — connecting Friends with one another and the good things you do is a joy!

Image Source: Unsplash

Building the Quaker Community We Want to Be

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The Youth Programs theme for the coming year, “Building the Quaker community we want to be,” is inspired by the hope that local meetings will consider the invitation from our Youth Programs to collaborate and use this theme in some way in your ministry with children and youth. Shared below are specific curriculum resources to support interest in thematic planning between our circles of spiritual community. [Read more…] about Building the Quaker Community We Want to Be

Youth Epistle “We Were Here”

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Each year the three Children and Youth programs of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting share Epistles at the close of Annual Sessions. This year, one united Epistle was shared by Youth Programs staff. Below please find their 341st Annual Sessions Epistle. 

[Read more…] about Youth Epistle “We Were Here”

Support for Families in the Circle of Meeting Life

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One of the experiences of the pandemic has been the incredible strain placed on people parenting school-age children. This was acute during times of isolation and work/school from home, but the residual trauma may be felt by children and youth for some time. While no shared experience is the same for everyone, in many ways the circumstances of the pandemic uncovered or underscored an isolation and need for support being felt by families in our society today. This includes our Religious Society; when a family walks through the door of a meeting, there are three sets of needs we should be prepared to support: the spiritual formation of their children, the spiritual journey of the adults as individual seekers drawn to Quakerism, and the family unit as they search for a spiritual community for their family to grow and contribute in. [Read more…] about Support for Families in the Circle of Meeting Life

Youth Programs at Sessions Reimagined!

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We’ve scrambled our plans for Annual Sessions and made something new! Register here for all programs described below!

Recognizing that young people are both “Zoomed out” and families are out and about more this summer, Youth Programs staff have rethought and remixed our approach to Annual Sessions this year. We’re very excited to partner with Historic Fair Hill to offer an in-person event on Sunday morning, July 25, for children and youth of all ages and their families! During the week of Sessions, we scaled back online programming to focus on special guests and programs that explore identity, inclusion, and belonging. With these programs, we’re kicking off our Youth Programs theme for this year: “Building the Quaker Community We Want to Be.”

[Read more…] about Youth Programs at Sessions Reimagined!

Part 2: Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education

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Queries from PYM Faith and Practice are read at the beginning of worship each month at my meeting; one of the youth in our Young People’s Group is the reader.  In May, they were the ones about religious education: Nurturing Our Community: Religious Education in the Home and Meeting. As we think about returning to weekly programs for our children and youth, what guidance do these queries offer? This summer is a moment to pause and consider the experiences and lessons of these past months and how they might shape our programs and support for young Friends and families in our meetings. The PYM queries ask us is place in the center of our religious education programs preparation, formation, and belonging.
 [Read more…] about Part 2: Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education

The Story of How a Film Intersects with PYM Youth Programs

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As part of Runway to Annual Sessions, ‘We Are the Radical Monarchs’ is a two-part event for all ages (10-100!). The first event will be a community viewing of the documentary on June 11, followed by a facilitated discussion on June 13. Friends unable to join on June 11 can register and receive the link to view the film on their own time June 12-13 and join the conversation on Sunday! 

This documentary film tells the story of a different kind of “scout troop” — a group of BIPOC girls in Oakland, CA who coalesce personal leadership around environmental, LGBTQ+, and disability issues of their time and community. The Radical Monarchs co-founders and leaders, two queer women of color, shape and motivate their work. Below is an interview with Melinda Wenner Bradley, PYM’s Youth Religious Life Coordinator, who describes “fierce sisterhood” and “multigenerational joy” as motivations to host these events. 

[Read more…] about The Story of How a Film Intersects with PYM Youth Programs

Part I: Where have we been? Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education

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This is the first of a two-part story focused on local meetings and their experiences with programs and support for children and youth, and their families, in the last fourteen months of “pandemic times.” Families in our local meetings come in all different varieties; these stories are focused on families with children and the people parenting them (who also come to that relationship in a variety of ways, including foster parents and grandparents).

The people who support children and youth programs in meetings, in their Quarter, and the Yearly Meeting have expressed many feelings in this time — sadness at separation, joy in creativity, mourning for connections lost, delight in new ideas, frustration with lack of support, fear that families will not “return” when others resume community in person. I’ve written about the liminal time we’re in, and the opportunities this disruption/interruption provides to think in new ways. I’m also holding a keen awareness of the exhaustion and longing to return to “normalcy” that Friends may be feeling; it feels important to balance encouragement about new possibilities and succor for what feels lost or overwhelming. [Read more…] about Part I: Where have we been? Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education

Reflections on the Light and Languages of Pentecost

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How do Friends experience the fire of the Holy Spirit? What questions and images do we offer in religious education to contemplate the inner Light? How does Pentecost help us to come close to these ideas? Pentecost was absent from my own religious education in an unprogrammed Friends meeting, and it was through work in another church that I came close to this story and found how it resonated for me as a Quaker.

[Read more…] about Reflections on the Light and Languages of Pentecost

PYM Community Gathering: Reopening Our Meetings

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The Runway to Annual Sessions launched on May 4th. Our first gathering engaged 80 participants who convened virtually to share concerns and hopes regarding the process of re-opening to in-person gatherings by the end of 2021.  The evening was facilitated by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s (PYM) Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life, Zachary Dutton, and supported by General Secretary Christie Duncan-Tessmer.

[Read more…] about PYM Community Gathering: Reopening Our Meetings