With divine assistance the Quaker Life Council maintains the health and integrity of the community, spiritual depth and relationships within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The Council stewards yearly meeting activities, including nurturing meetings, supporting corporate work for peace and justice, and bringing members across meetings together to collaborate on projects of common interest.
Welcome to this Council
Members of the Quaker Life Council undertake a solemn responsibility to help provide the yearly meeting community with humble leadership in Quaker faith and practice. With divine assistance and in relationship with other council members, Friends on the Quaker Life Council maintain the health and integrity of the community, spiritual depth and relationships within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
The Quaker Life Council oversees the programs and activities of Yearly Meeting Friends, including nurturing monthly and quarterly meetings, supporting Friends work for peace and justice, bringing members across meetings together to collaborate on projects of common interest.
Get to know the members of the Quaker Life Council by clicking the button below.
See the minutes here. We have posted the minutes of the Quaker Life Council meetings of October 2017 through March 2018. April and May 2018 draft minutes are coming soon. Over the next few months, we will begin posting minutes of all Quaker Life Council meetings since its establishment in 2015.
Submit a State of the Meeting Report
Submit your state of the meeting reports below! As our new Faith & Practice illuminates, this tradition provides, “a deep and meaningful opportunity that draws the community together.”
Read the invitation letter from Amy. When we see what others are celebrating, mourning, and witnessing, we can be inspired, drawn even closer together, and moved in our spiritual development.
Submit a Work & Witness or Funding Application
Apply below! There is a place for all sorts of activity within our yearly meeting community! The Quaker Life Council will help discern the right direction for your work.
Do you have a common interest or concern? Are you under the weight of an emerging leading for work or witness ? From meeting for worship for chess to organizing for change…
Information about Thread Lists and Thread Gatherings
We now include all information about the life of our yearly meeting community in PYM Today Online, the PYM Calendar and News Section, and in print publications like Faith in Practice. If you’d like to receive print publications and currently do not, please email us. We used to send multiple Thread Newsletters. The Thread Newsletters were newsletters containing stories and announcements within several areas, including Pastoral Care, Worship & Ministry, Peace & Social Justice, Finances and Giving, Communications & Outreach, Religious Education, and Youth Programs. You can still sign up to be added to Thread Lists that are themed according to one of these threads. It will mean you receive periodic announcements (5 to 10 times per year) about upcoming events happening within the Thread.
Thread Gatherings are continuing! Check out the PYM Calendar for the upcoming Thread Gatherings or our Upcoming Thread Gatherings page. Check out this blog post about the new way in which Thread Gatherings will be continuing.
It is the job of the Quaker Life Council to name Threads, per our Governance Handbook. Until such time as the Quaker Life Council sees that our current Threads need to be revised, they are the set of issues that we acknowledge almost every community in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting faces. The Thread Gatherings and Thread Lists are our main ways of supporting the broader community in our work to attend to each Thread.