On Saturday, January 10, the three councils that support Philadelphia Yearly Meeting—Quaker Life Council, Administrative Council, and Nominating Council—held their meeting in the joint format. In this structure, all three councils meet together as one Joint Council to worship, discern, and conduct business collaboratively. Their practice is to share the minutes in a news story with the PYM community in the weeks following the meeting.
Each month, the council selects one item from its agenda or conversation to lift up. This month, the council is lifting up the Monthly Meeting/Quarterly Meeting Governance Sprint.
Friends shared next steps for the sprints report focused on how monthly meetings and quarterly meetings relate to the yearly meeting’s business process. The sprint noted that meetings connect to the yearly meeting in many different ways. Staff shared work to strengthen connections among monthly meetings and described a set of queries developed to support this conversation.
Friends said more work is needed before bringing a draft to Spring Continuing Sessions, and they asked where this material should live in the handbook. In discussion, some Friends said it matters to define the relationship clearly, both for clarity in decision-making and for being welcoming. One Friend added that the community’s shared spiritual practice can feel unfamiliar to people new to Friends, and that this history should be described in plainer language so new Friends can understand it.
