The Mott Memo is a message for Friends in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) to know what happened during sessions activities. Some Friends reading this message joined online this past weekend, while others didn’t directly participate but still want to know what had taken place.
However you were able to connect this past weekend, we hope this update provides you with the opportunity to stay close to your community of Friends.
Friends are also encouraged to take the Sessions Survey, even if you did not attend Spring Continuing Sessions. Your feedback will help navigate these gatherings in the future.
Friday (March 13, 2026):
Spring Continuing Sessions continued last year’s theme for sessions, Members One of Another, which will carry through to the rest of the year’s sessions.
Friday evening, Friends met online for a virtual Meeting for Worship with attention to healing. Nikki Mosgrove, Presiding Clerk of PYM, opened the time by sharing directions for participation and centering Friends, saying, “As we center on healing. Healing in the world, healing in our communities, families. Dealing within ourselves. Healing within our soul.”
Friends then split up into small groups for worship sharing where they had time that allowed them to bring forward their own concerns for healing, whether for themselves, loved ones, or wider issues in the world.
Saturday (March 14, 2026):
Friends began the day in worship and a land acknowledgment for the Lenape people, whose ancestral land includes much of the region where Friends joined online. The land acknowledgment shared who lived on this land first and why that history matters. Friends were provided a few queries; one included: What do I know about the relationship between the Indigenous people in the region I live, and the federal and state government?
Meeting for worship with attention to business followed and included an update from Joint Council, an update from the Addressing Racism Collaborative, and a report from Chris Mohr, General Secretary of PYM.
More information and minutes will be added to the Sessions webpage. Friends can also find more on the updates and reports in the advanced documents.
During the Addressing Racism Collaborative’s update, the collaborative helped split participants of the meeting into groups of two or three to answer a query: Has your meeting found blessings or tools in your work on racism you wish to share with others?
After the breakout groups, Friends shared resources that they or their meeting use or recommend that they felt answered the query.
Some of those resources include:
- Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship – Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye
- White Work and Reparative Genealogy: Reckoning with Ancestral Debt as a Path to Racial Reparations – Mary Watkins
- Racial Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit
After the time with the Addressing Racism Collaborative, Friends then received Chris Mohr’s General Secretary report. In the report, he shared that he hopes PYM Friends will take part in “One Pamphlet, One Yearly Meeting” later this year.
This would be an opportunity for Friends across PYM to read the Pendle Hill pamphlet Healing from Patterns of Racial Wounding and Racial Justice in Quaker Communities by Lauren Brownlee and Zenaida Peterson. Recognizing that all people make mistakes, the pamphlet offers practical examples of proactive ways to address mistakes when they happen.
After meeting for business concluded, Friends were let go to enjoy lunch and then return to the afternoon activity, a workshop, Ministry, Membership and Radical Faith in Early Quakers and Today. It utilized Matt Rosen’s 2023 Pendle Hill lecture, “Awakening the Witness,” in which he explores how the experience of Quaker faith interacts with the process of becoming a member of a meeting.
Friends watched portions of the video and then split into breakout rooms, where they considered what connects us as Friends and remembered the roots of our Quaker tradition through queries, including the query: How do we learn, remember, and remind ourselves to turn to the inward presence?
Sunday (March 15, 2o26):
Sunday, Friends participated in waiting worship virtually. It was opened with by a reading from Terri Whiteford (Downingtown Meeting), who read the passage from PYM’s Faith and Practice around prayer to add centering before Friends settled.
Friends will gather again later at Annual Sessions, held at Cheyney University, July 22 – July 26, as the theme Members One of Another continues through the remaining sessions.
Some of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Staff who helped with organizing and facilitating parts of Spring Continuing Sessions.
