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Saturday, July 11, 2020, 70 people gathered in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Plenary Session on Climate Change to share minutes and discuss yearly-meeting-wide witness for climate action. [Read more…] about A Report on the July 11 Plenary Session on Climate Change
Re-imagining Our Relationship with the Planet
There are many ways to connect to our planet: environmental projects, trails, management of our carbon footprint, decisions around what we use, purchase, eat, or invest in, considerations about what we plant in our backyards, how we build our homes or get from place to place. All are important, but most important is to be informed.
As we prepare to address climate change during Annual Sessions 2020 it is helpful for Friends in our community to ground themselves with advance preparation.
[Read more…] about Re-imagining Our Relationship with the Planet
This summer, Third Haven Friends Meeting is hosting two sessions of a summer nature and mindfulness camp. The camp weeks are part of an effort both to support families in the meeting and reach out to families in the surrounding community.
During the first week of the camp in June, children ages 4-8 spent Monday to Thursday mornings guided through a set of thoughtful activities that helped them find connection and peace in the nature around them. If you look around the grounds of the meeting, you will see a couple of new additions: some logs decorated with mosaics of spirals and stones, a hand-built “peace” teepee of sticks, yarn and twine woven together by little hands; little bridges over areas of heavy vegetation growth between the “grove” and the “meadow;” and a set of painted, bamboo chimes hanging from a tree that a child-sized person can walk through to hear music.
Resting in the boughs of the large rhododendron bush near the meetinghouse, or sitting crosslegged around the brick spiral meditation circle, the children heard picture books centered on Quaker testimonies and discussed the meaning. Ukulele lessons inspired a whole morning of listening and music! And all the participants made beautiful art with bits of nature they found throughout the grounds.
The kids had such a great time that many signed up for the second session planned for late July. First Day School hopes to carry forward the interest in Third Haven Meeting sparked with these families into the Fall season, when we are looking forward to hosting more programming for Families, including a visit and program with the PYM Young Engagement Coordinator.
The Indian committee honored and fortunate to have the opportunity to present an exciting and moving work of art to the Quaker community and beyond.
The Indian Committee is supporting a performance of Tatanka vs. the Black Snake by Coopdanza, Inc. We felt it was within our guidelines to not only provide a grant for the artists and promotional materials but to put our work into action in our own community by co-hosting at Historic Arch Street Meetinghouse.
If you come, Native Americans performers will engage you in a look at the devastating effects of oil production and its transportation on the environment through dance, creative costuming, dramatic contemporary and traditional music framed by a multifaceted media backdrop.
All of creation is impacted by extreme energy extraction. Enbridge is laying pipeline structure through Philadelphia. We know our Native brothers and sisters have the wisdom to share through story and culture to give us a solid foundation for resistance.
WHEN: Saturday, July 14, 2018, @ 4:30
WHERE: Historic Arch Street Meetinghouse 320 Arch St. Philadelphia, PA – FREE PARKING is available in the lot – entrance off 4th.
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!
Members and attenders of Westtown and other Monthly Meetings joined several hundred in West Chester on June 9th to publicly witness on behalf of our neighbors facing the dangers of new pipelines snaking their way through Chester and Delaware counties designed to carry high risk liquefied gas pipelines. The Mariner East Rally for Community Safety speakers painted a grim picture of the threat to families, schools and local businesses. Quaker activist Sandra Steingraber came from NY to lend us encouragement. She and other Friends in NY State led a multi-year civil disobedience effort to protect the water resources provided by Seneca Lake. Many of us first heard of Sandra and we were inspired by her letter Why I am in Jail. Others of us had read her compelling book Living Downstream. In the evening, we attended the Pennsylvania premier of the film Unfractured depicting this struggle and the hard work that she and others undertook which finally led to the ban on fracking in New York State. Her message was clear – as people of faith, we all need to find our courage and determine what role we can play in choosing life giving energy over fossil fuels, given what we know about their short and long term impact on human and environmental health. She herself had to overcome her own preference to stick to research as an approach to change, as she is by nature more of an introvert. To learn more about the pipeline movement and which Monthly Meetings are in or near the blast zone visit the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety.
Seventy-five F(f)riends gathered for worship at Schuylkill Meeting—a beautiful and active Friends meeting near Phoenixville—followed by a Friends in Fellowship event at Eden Valley Farm on Sunday, February 25th. As the Spirit moved among them in worship, and the warmth of John and Penny Hunt’s welcome sunk in, Friends who had come from as far away as Third Haven Meeting, MD, and Harrisburg Meeting, PA, enjoyed the chance to connect around farming, biodiversity, the extensive seed collection of Roughwood Seeds, and Native American corn collected by 21 year-old Stephen Smith, who is part Cherokee.
Welcomed by John and Penny, their Penn-MaryDel hounds, and Angus-Wagyu cattle, we sat for a “Quaker Burgers and Kale Salad” lunch designed by chef Ben Thomas of Restaurant Cerise. The chef’s buttermilk-dill aioli and shaved pickled onion relish on a bed of arugula made for a delicious lunch.
From John Hunt, we learned about the value of farming and the “Quaker” contract among neighboring farms to be generous to each other in times of adversity and during moments of need. John explained that, as farmers, the Quaker practice of sharing and trusting led to an unshakable sense of community. Penny Hunt then shared a story of the founding history of the John Martin Trust – rooted in the property of John’s wife, Elizabeth Simms. She was a former servant of William Penn’s, and received land at 3rd and Walnut Streets that served as an early alms house and retirement community before being sold to endow the Trust.
The featured speaker, William Woys Weaver, gave a nuanced talk about Quakers’ engagement in the collection and dissemination of heritage seeds. Painting a vivid portrait of vegetable growing in this region, and the role of Quakers in identifying and developing seed stock for nutritious native crops, he described his work in setting up the Roughwood Seed Bank. As the agricultural industry develops universal crops, the biodiversity of our food supply diminishes, and healthful treasures from past gardens are lost to future generations. Busier than ever, with three new books underway, William has turned over management of the Roughwood Seed Collection to Stephen Smith, a plant historian from Kentucky. Stephen, also known as Dancing Wolf, then gave a slide presentation of his work in researching the origins of corn and its role in Native American myth and faith. Featured above is a picture of some of the corn varieties in his collection of several thousands of seeds.
Many thanks to John and Penny Hunt of Eden Valley Farm for their wonderful hospitality! The weather may have been cold and damp, but their welcome was warm and the event delightful.
Article drafted by Charles Walsh and Grace Cooke.
Jeffery Perkins, Executive Director of Friends Fiduciary wrote an op-ed —Fix to Solar Credit Will Boost State’s Economy — published in the Philadelphia Business Journal supporting the implementation of Pennsylvania’s Solar Energy Credit legislation, which would eliminate the loophole allowing utilities to satisfy clean energy requirements out of state.
Closing this loophole would mean boosting the state’s clean energy economy, adding solar jobs and positioning Pennsylvania well in this growing sector.
