PYM Quakers seek to experience God within ourselves and in our relationships with others.
We believe that the Divine spirit continues to reveal new truths to us.
We are a community of meetings, members and seekers who support each other in faith, practice and witness.
PYM Quakers are committed to living lives that outwardly attest to our inward spiritual experience.
We express our faith in action and work for a better world through pioneering, inspiring programs and services.
Everything we do is founded in our testimonies of peace, integrity, equality, simplicity and community.
A comprehensive listing of all the collaboratives and sprints who are doing the work of our yearly meeting community.
PYM Quakers seek to create and steward resources to help individuals, communities and the world.
We provide spiritual and tangible assistance to those in need.
All our resources stem from our desire to bring light to the world and implement our testimony to the power of the Divine spirit.
PYM is undergoing a structural change.
Read about how this affects the PYM website.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is both a Faith Community and an Organization.
PYM is one of the oldest yearly meetings of the Religious Society of Friends in the United States.
Meetings, members, seekers and staff work together to nurture Quaker faith and practice in today’s world.
PYM Quakers share experience, leadings and witness with one another and the world.
We have a long tradition of expressing our shared divinity by working to be in community with one another.
We invite you to bookmark this page and come back often to stay up to date with conversations and activities in our faith community.
"We contribute to the Annual Fund because we value the way PYM connects us to a wider Quaker fellowship and supports our beliefs and actions."
Cathy Gumlock, Lehigh Valley Meeting
Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Religious Education”
It is with sadness that I announce Benjamin Camp’s departure from service on Philadelphia Yearly Meeting staff as Children’s Religious Life Program Coordinator. Until recently, Ben also served as our Youth & Young Adult Programs Team Leader. He will be working through the 2016 Annual Sessions, and his last day will be Tuesday, August 2, 2016. Ben’s authentic sense of humor and cheery demeanor …
It is with a joyful sort of sadness that I announce the coming departure of Matt Sanderson from PYM staff, effective April 6, 2016. He started as Middle School Friends Assistant in 2009, and since 2012 he has served as Middle School Friends Coordinator. Yet, actually, Matt has served our community in other ways for many years. Beginning with a ...
Quaker Religious Education Collaborative Forms August 17 and 18, 2014, thirty-three Friends gathered at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, PA to envision the future of religious education among Friends. We left feeling exhilarated, believing that way had opened for a collective effort in Quaker religious education that reaches across the current yearly meeting, organizational and geographic boundaries. “Elegant in its simplicity, …
Four Friends with deep ties to Quaker Religious Education from four Yearly Meetings (including PYM) are feeling moved to invite others to join them in a Quaker religious education community of practice. We are calling it a Quaker RE Collaborative (QREC). We invite Friends who hold a sense of stewardship for the faith formation of Quaker children to join with …
We invite Friends who hold a sense of stewardship for the faith formation of Quaker children to join with us. We are Friends with deep ties to Quaker Religious Education from four Yearly Meetings (including PYM) who are feeling moved to invite others to join them in a Quaker religious education community of practice. We are calling it a Quaker …
This story is from Zac Dutton, the Coordinator for Western Quarterly Meeting I was curious. Some kind of mental bifurcation formed in the minds of those for whom I began to work about two years ago as Coordinator for Western Quarterly Meeting. Somehow our Monthly Meetings were so separate from the Quarterly Meeting that it was up to the Quarterly …
The first Thread Gathering we ever held was in September of 2012 on the ministry of First Day School. There were 12 people in attendance at that first effort. This year’s First Day School Thread Gathering was held on Saturday, November 16th at Princeton Meeting in Burlington Quarter. It was attended by 25 Friends – more than a 100% increase …
If you look up the word “neighborhood” in the dictionary, among the definitions is “Distinctive area: a district with characteristics that distinguish it from the areas around it.” Each year at Summer Sessions, just such a neighborhood is born — a place where families whose children are in Children’s Sessions (infants-grade 5) can gather, hang out, play and be in …
Twenty years ago I set out on a journey to attempt to parent our children in a Quaker manner, based on the beliefs and values as I understood them. While in theory it seemed to be an achievable goal, in practice it was much less clear. My strong desire to learn to connect my Quaker beliefs to my parenting at …
Paths to Quaker Parenting Using Quaker Beliefs, Testimonies and Practices Edited by Harriet Heath This book is the sharing of a group of parents who have struggled with concerns common to most parents. We asked ourselves questions such as: How should I respond to my three-year-old’s whining for a cookie at 5:30 in the afternoon? Should my nine-year-old have both …
Stephen Dotson has served Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as the Middle School Friends Coordinator for the last three years. During this time his spirit-led enthusiasm has inspired, challenged and engaged Quaker middle schoolers. The gatherings have been intentionally crafted to exercise the mind, body and spirit as well as to foster community and lasting friendships between the MSFs and each other …
At Christmastime, as at other times of the year, Friends look for programs that reflect values of inclusivity and simplicity values of Friends at Christmastime. Many meetings make up their own programs and curricula and others use books that tell stories of the meaning of Christmas. Below is an annotated list of some favorites as well as the introduction to …
Cookie Caldwell is exactly the kind of person his dog Lucy thinks he is. Fun. Kind. Gentle. Full of happy energy. A wonderful baker. The best friend. Always up for a good walk. The alpha male. These are qualities that Cookie brought to every one of his 34 years with PYM and continues to bring to his every endeavor: to …
As we approach the winter holidays, many of us struggle with the balance between celebrating joyfully and maintaining a simple household. In her article Hope, Tears and the Holidays, Pamela Haines (Central Philadelphia Meeting) shares some reflections about what we can gain from perceiving gift-giving and abundance from our children’s point of view. In A Holiday Offering, she offers ways …
From my first experience of the holiday season at London Grove Monthly Meeting, some 25 years ago before I had children through the decades to this year, I find myself experiencing the beauty of holding both the silent worship that is upheld by our Worship and Ministry Committee and the pageants and programs that are supported by our Religious Education …
Melinda Wenner Bradley serves as the clerk of the Children’s Spiritual Life Committee and the Faith and Play Working Group. She is an accredited trainer for Godly Play ®, has taught First Day School at her meeting as well as history at a Quaker middle school for many years. In this story she shares some of the concrete touchstones she …
First Day Schools in our meetings are the familiar, nurturing, and sometimes challenging spaces for our children to be challenged, to grow in the Spirit and to grow in our community. There is a wide variation in the approach, the resources and the capacity for First Day Schools across the Yearly Meeting. Some meetings have one class for a small …
It’s a commonly proclaimed sentiment among Quaker adults: youth are a vital part of our Meetings. However, as children become teens they often drift away from Monthly Meeting communities, much to the discouragement of First Day teachers and other adult attenders! In order to keep teens relating to Meeting, adults need to figure out what works for young people in …
