On Saturday, December 7, almost 30 Friends from 15 local meetings gathered at West Chester Meeting for a Thread Gathering to explore in community the connection between religious education and how a meeting welcomes and includes newcomers. Some came in pairs and groups from their meetings, bringing questions, examples of resources, and stories of experiences in meetings to the conversation together. The afternoon program included a presentation on welcome and belonging, small group conversations with queries, and threshing of the issues raised in the larger group. As we parted into the evening, overheard was the word, “hope.” [Read more…] about Hand in Hand: Religious Education & Outreach Thread Gathering
Religious Education
Young Adult Friends 2023 Winter Retreat Recap
During the weekend of January 13th-15th, young adult Friends gathered online and in person for the 2023 winter retreat themed Love Thy Neighbor. In connection to the 2023 PYM theme “living with neighbors, growing into beloved community,” the theme of this retreat is a continuation of the call for us to come together in the joyful work of reweaving our connections after three years of the pandemic.
Prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, retreats were usually held at a meetinghouse and typically began on Friday night with dinner and ran until the rise of meeting on Sunday morning. However, with new COVID policies and protocols in place, retreats have looked different as we learn how to build bridges between the accessibility of online gatherings and the intimacy of being together in person. The 2023 winter retreat took the shape of this new model. Participants gathered on Friday night with a virtual welcoming program.
On Saturday, YAFs gathered in Arch Street for a day-long program. Staff member Kimani Keaton led an ice breaker called Penny for Your Thoughts. Each YAF is provided with a penny that is no more than twenty years old and asked to think back to the date on their coin and share something significant or interesting that happened to them that year. Laughs filled the room as stories were shared of graduations, first moves to Philadelphia, travels, and new hobbies. After, YAF pastoral care co-clerk Tucker and her husband Sameer facilitated an interactive program on the retreat theme, using case studies of conscientious objection and early prison reform, queries, think-pair-shares, and discussions about different religious perspectives on community, integrity, and love as a basis in ministry. It was the perfect grounding activity for the next program.
The Young Adult Friends community invited Kerry Roeder, Executive Director of Historic Fair Hill, and .O .O, a member of Philly Thrive, to join a panel featuring Naomi Madaras, a chaplain in Bethlehem, PA, and Afroza Hossain, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Coordinator at PYM and original member and co-founder of Green Street Reparations Committee. Pastoral care co-clerk Liadh Reilly moderated the hour-long panel and raised queries such as Who are our neighbors? What is required of us to participate in beloved community? Where do we put this into practice? Conventional understanding of neighbors as adjacent, nearest, and closest were challenged in this panel as participants were encouraged expand and think across distance and species to include everyone and everything, even cockroaches.
Panelists discussed the need to invest in ourselves for healing and repair to allow for the potential of our relationships across lines to grow because despite what the culture of oppressive systems tells us, we are intimately woven and intertwined and so no one is disposable. To build community with our neighbors is to give grace and trust and refuse to see each other, or this work, as a task but instead as honoring our interconnectedness. Asking the question “where are the tears coming from?” and applying compassionate curiosity instead of spiritual diagnosis to cover the pain in others and in our community, which so many do when rushing to explain the wounds of white supremacy, is part of our work to participate and build beloved community.
With bellies full of pizza lunch, participants carpooled to Germantown, PA for the afternoon program of the retreat. Young Adult co-clerk Sarah Ennis facilitated the service-learning opportunity at Crayons to Cradles, a nonprofit organization providing children from 0-12 with essential items needed to thrive at school, at home, and at play. Upon arriving at the Giving Factory in Germantown, YAFs joined other groups and families for a quick training and then were shown to their workstations. For the next two hours, YAFs sorted children’s clothing according to gender and size, while sharing news of our lives, exchanging book recommendations, and debriefing the morning workshop and panel.
YAFs returned to Arch St for the evening portion of the retreat, included Meeting for Business and a potluck dinner with attention to celebration. The agenda for Meeting for Business featured a review of the community expectations, heard reports from committees, heard news and announcements for upcoming YAF events, and shared concerns for the current retreat model. To cap off the day, YAFs gathered in fellowship to enjoy a potluck dinner in the East Room of Arch Street Meetinghouse. Homemade gluten free cupcakes were made by Pastoral Care co-clerk Liad in the spirit of celebration for co-clerk Naomi Madaras, who is on the journey of becoming a board-certified chaplain.
The fun didn’t stop that day and we were invited to worship with Arch St on Sunday morning, as is tradition for our retreats. If you are interested in attending a future event or retreat, you can subscribe to the YAF newsletter for more information or you may choose to follow Young Adult Friends community on Instagram or Facebook for updates.
Our next retreat will be overnight at Haverford Meeting from May 5th-7th. The theme for the spring retreat is “vocation” and will feature a workshop led by Greg Woods, co-creator of the Vocational Discernment Curriculum. More information will come soon!
Religious Education Resources & Events for Winter 2023
Onward into the new year and new opportunities to learn and grow together in our Yearly Meeting in 2023! Two of those opportunities focus on intergenerational worship and Bible study. We have so much to learn from one another in our approaches to these topics, and the PYM “Worship & Care Package” is one way we will explore new possibilities together. Friends who support religious education in our meetings are a community of practice; let’s consider about how we might accompany one another in the next year, sharing the ways that children, young people, and their families are part of our meeting communities. [Read more…] about Religious Education Resources & Events for Winter 2023
New Youth Engagement Coordinator
A Care Package for Bible Study
The “Worship & Care Package” for PYM, a recently announced endeavor to support worship and pastoral care in our yearly meeting, includes two worship paths for Friends to walk together as we seek to deepen our experiences in faith community. One path is support for intergenerational worship, and the other is Bible study in the manner of Friends. Both practices are present in the roots of Quakerism and would have been familiar to early Friends. Today, we have an opportunity to explore intersections between Bible study and continuing revelation, generational experiences of the stories, and listening for how ancient texts can speak to our condition and witness in the world. Always, we can wonder together. [Read more…] about A Care Package for Bible Study
Tuition Aid for Quaker Children in PYM Friends Schools
The Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Education Granting Group reminds meetings and families that local meeting members’ children who are applying to or attending Friends schools are eligible to apply for educational support for the 2023-24 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 Quaker Children in PYM Friends Schools
A Week of Gratitude Alongside Trauma
This week is one that wants to be filled with gratitude – especially for family and neighbors. In our beloved Philadelphia Yearly Meeting family there are stories on stories of our connections with neighbors. [Read more…] about A Week of Gratitude Alongside Trauma
A Care Package for Intergenerational Worship
One gift we may receive in Quaker worship is the way that one person’s experience of the Divine expands another’s. A gathering of Friends in worship brings many glimpses of the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. Like the many colors in a quilt, each person’s experience alongside the others creates the whole, and the pattern changes each time we worship together. Worship that is engaging for Friends of multiple generations is a kaleidoscope of the experience of Spirit. [Read more…] about A Care Package for Intergenerational Worship
Fall 2022 Continuing Sessions Recap
Gathering in Beloved (Hybrid) Community
Friends of all ages from across Philadelphia Yearly Meeting came together on Saturday, November 5, for our first fully hybrid (online & in-person) Sessions! Our Sessions theme “Living with our neighbors, growing into beloved community,” was alive in our community as we worshipped, played, discerned, and listened with care to one another and for Spirit moving among us. There were 250+ registrations with Friends attending from 67 local (monthly) meetings and visitors from six other yearly meetings. [Read more…] about Fall 2022 Continuing Sessions Recap
Rethinking “First Day School”
On Thursday, September 29, Friends gathered online for a presentation and discussion exploring the roots of Quaker religious education and our condition in meetings today. PYM Participants were joined by Friends from meetings across the US (all the way to Hawaii) and Costa Rica, to “rethink” the way we approach children’s religious education in meetings. Is it time to release a scholastic, lesson-based model focused only on Sunday morning?
Queries anchored both small group and whole group discussion and themes that emerged included: sharing about intergenerational programs, including youth in activism and witness, and understanding religious education as the responsibility of the whole meeting. It was an inspiring conversation! [Read more…] about Rethinking “First Day School”