Dearest Friends in PYM Monthly and Quarterly Meetings and other PYM Quaker Groups,
We trust this finds you seeking to be grounded in Spirit and in your community of faith. 2020 has certainly been a year filled with both opportunities and challenges! The Ministry and Care Committee of Quaker Life Council is once again asking for your help as we look to better understand the spiritual state of our yearly meeting through this past year.
To accomplish this, we are asking meetings to consider responding to the following queries:
Queries
- How have we sustained our commitment to be a covenant* spiritual community during this past year?
- What have been the joys and the learnings of this past year and where have we encountered challenges?
- How has our faith supported our social witness?
- How have our community members supported one another?
If these queries do not speak to your condition, please feel free to use the queries to be found in Faith and Practice or to provide us with a narrative that describes your meeting’s spiritual condition at this time.
How to submit your responses:
- You may email your responses to zdutton@pym.org
- Use the Spiritual Self-Assessment Reports Form
- You can also mail hard copy responses to:
PYM Ministry & Care Committee
c/o Zachary T. Dutton
1515 Cherry St
Philadelphia, PA 19102
We appreciate your responses by May 1, 2021 as this will facilitate providing a report to Quaker Life Council in a timely manner in anticipation of our summer sessions when this report will be shared. Reports received after May 1st may not be reflected in the report to QLC. Using your responses, M&C will craft a document that reflects the spiritual state of our yearly meeting at this time.
In the Light,
Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch, on behalf of the Ministry and Care Committee of Quaker Life Council
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Clerk
*Covenant Definition: One way to think of covenant is as a promise to stay in relationship with Spirit/God. Faithfulness is just a part of that promise; it is the commitment to stay in relationship that is the enduring part of the tradition we carry as Friends. Those who are interested in more information about covenant relationships may find Tom Gates offering “Seeing Beyond Our Differences: Meeting as Covenant Community.”