Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is a Welcoming Community
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting continues to be a place where seekers and Friends are welcomed through faith, fellowship, and action. Financial giving helps sustain this work by supporting gatherings, care, and communication across our meetings.
Support from Friends has allowed the yearly meeting to affirm a minute of support for LGBTQIA+ people, gather more than one hundred participants for climate witness, and pursue legal action protecting places of worship.
Through this giving and shared faith, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting remains a community active in peace and inclusion.
A Community of Belonging: Friends Approve LGBTQIA+ Minute of Support
During meeting for business at Annual Sessions, the body approved a minute of support for the LGBTQIA+ community. The minute not only affirms the sacred worth and dignity of all people, honoring each person’s right to love freely and to embody their true self, but also outlines ways Friends can stand among and as allies with LGBTQIA+ people.
However, Friends felt called to further action. After a Light-led discernment process, several volunteers agreed to continue meeting to explore ways to further this calling. Many Friends from the LGBTQIA+ community also met twice during Annual Sessions for the LGBTQIA+ Affinity Group and are staying connected today through PYM Connect, creating a community of empathetic and caring support.
Together for Earthcare: How Friends Are Acting in Faith for the Planet
Over 100 Friends from all over the region gathered virtually and in-person at Arch Street Meeting House for PYM’s Climate Witness: Let Our Actions Speak! Thread Gathering, which featured workshops and presentations on climate justice, sustainability, and spiritual action.
PYM staff worked with passionate volunteers to walk alongside participants as they explored how Friends across Philadelphia Yearly Meeting are building a collective mosaic of climate work.
Resources and insights shared with attendees included the Friendly Household Initiative, PYM Climate Playbook, and expert advice from session facilitators to guide local meetings and Friends in creating greener, more efficient spaces for gathering and engaging their wider communities.
Friends also engaged deeply with the spiritual dimensions of climate witness, reflecting on discernment, nonviolent action, and collective responsibility through workshops and presentations facilitated by leaders from groups such as Quaker Earthcare Witness and Earth Quaker Action Team.
Even the youngest Friends joined in, planting trees, singing songs, and learning how they can make a difference in their schools and meetings, reminding us all that the future of Earthcare begins with nurturing hearts of all ages.
Through PYM Friends’ support, it provided PYM staff the resources they needed to bring together representatives from 10 yearly meetings, 8 environmental groups, 6 Earthcare organizations, 5 Friends schools, 7 interfaith affiliations, and 31 monthly meetings to create a bright and healthy future on this planet for all.
Defending Sacred Spaces: The DHS lawsuit
On March 27, for the first time “in living memory,” police in London broke open the front door of a Quaker Meeting House and arrested activists preparing a Gaza War protest. While this may have happened overseas, we live in a world where this is a real possibility in our communities and meeting houses.
Friends are supporting our Faith community and are defending sacred spaces.
Meeting have been sharing minutes in support PYM and volunteers to take decisive actions, like suing the Department of Homeland Security to challenge a recent executive order allowing ICE agents to enter places of worship.
While similar cases have been denied the request for an injunction, PYM’s lawsuit is still active, which means that ICE agents cannot enter any PYM meeting houses without a warrant. You’re joining thousands of other Friends in taking a spiritual stand, ensuring that Friends may continue to worship, organize, and welcome others without fear.
Financial Giving in Connection and Care
Gifts from Friends help sustain our welcoming community and the shared work that continues from it. Each contribution, offered, strengthens the gatherings, programs, and relationships that keep our community open and inclusive for all who come. Follow this link to give to PYM: www.pym.org/donate/benchamin/
