It’s Summertime!
If your family is like mine, you’re planning for a different shape to this summer. Many day camps and sleep-away camp experiences are cancelled. Some parents are continuing to work from home. But alongside the continued Covid changes and challenges, we’re also finding new ways to enjoy nature, be in community, and create summer memories. Popsicles will still be cold and delicious in the summer heat! There are adventures ahead.
Looking at the summer calendar, we hope PYM families will join us for the gathering of our wider Quaker Family: PYM Annual Sessions.
Why come to Annual Sessions? The opportunity to be with Friends from across the four states in our Yearly Meeting region to worship, learn, discern, and bear witness together to our hopes for our Religious Society and wider society. For young people, the experience of being with a bigger group of “Quaker Kids” than most of them experience in their home meeting. This year, the added possibility that these programs may be a help to parents and children at home, seeking online “camp” and community — we’re got you covered!
July 29-August 2 in virtual spaces using Zoom, we will gather for worship, All Together Time, and Youth Programs during the days, and dynamic keynote addresses in the evenings. The week is capped off with an all-ages concert led by City Love on Saturday evening, offering us, “Music for the world we need. From the heart. For the people. Painting a tangible vision of love, hope, equity, justice, virtue, gratitude, peace, sustainability and freedom in this world.”
Children and Youth gather in their groups (Children K-5, Middle School, High School) 1-2 times a day in age-appropriate length program times. Young people are invited in all-ages worship each morning, which will end with 20 minutes of “All Together Time” and multigenerational, spiritual fun led by youth programs staff.
Children’s Sessions for rising K-Grade 5 combines a camp experience and spiritual community for children with stories, play, art, and music. We’ll explore the Children’s program theme “Using Your Voice!” in ways that celebrate the power of our voices, kindness, and knowing each other in community. Children will receive a “Spiritual Care Package” in the mail before Sessions starts, with materials to use during all-ages worship and Children’s program times.
Saturday evening after the City Love concert and getting the kids in bed, join us for Parent Worship Sharing. Parents, primary caregivers (including grandparents), foster parents, and guardians of infants to teens are invited to a virtual “neighborhood gathering” hosted by the Young Adult Friends community, August 1 from 9-10pm.
MORE Summertime Fun with Friends!
Next week! Register by Friday, June 26
Friends General Conference Virtual Junior Gathering
Sunday, June 28 to Saturday, July 4
Virtual Junior Gathering is a loving space for families and children of all ages to join in Spiritually-centered and creative practices together daily during the week of the FGC Gathering. Most days, 4:00-5:30pm EDT. Click this link for daily activity descriptions!
Youth Standing Strong Together Storytelling Camp
Week One: June 29 – July 3
Week Two: July 6 – July 10
Registration is open for Youth Tellers and applications for Mentors and Hosts. Learn more on the program FLYER!
Virtual Peace Camp August 3-14 
offered by Gwynedd Meeting — August 3-7 and 10-14, 2020! “Your elementary school aged children will enjoy three interactive Zoom sessions per day and three videos per week with experienced Peace Camp teachers, following the theme “Open Heart, Open Mind, Open Hands are the Keys to Peace”. Games, songs, art projects, creative problem solving, communication practice, relaxation methods and service projects all contribute to peacemaking skills and peaceful experiences. Children learn to value and appreciate themselves and others, while celebrating differences. With the guidance of teachers, they discuss how to be good stewards of the earth.
To learn more about the 2020 Gwynedd Friends Virtual Peace Camp, and to register your child for one or two weeks August 3-7 and/or 10-14, please go to GwyneddMeeting.org/PeaceCamp.html. Tuition cost is $100 per child per week, from which $25 is due at the time of registration and the balance due by July 15. For scholarship assistance, please call 215-699-3055 and leave a message for Peace Camp. Checks should be made out to “Gwynedd Friends Meeting”, with “Peace Camp” and your child’s name in the memo, and mailed to Gwynedd Friends Peace Camp, 1101 DeKalb Pike, Gwynedd PA 19454. We are looking forward to this new, creative, Virtual Peace Camp experience!”
Joining the Families in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Area Facebook Group is another way for us to to stay in touch! Family resources and support are posted there. Visit PYM Children & Families on the PYM website for updates on program and events. Questions? Reach out to Melinda Wenner Bradley, Youth Religious Life Coordinator, MWennerBradley@pym.org
