Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Community

PYM Young Friends – December Monthly Gathering!

Written on:

Youth in grades 8 through 12 are invited to participate in our monthly Young Friends (YF) gathering!  Join us as we gather together to build relationships and community, learn about Quaker practice and issues of social justice, and have fun together!  The day will include community-building games and activities, a program/discussion, and lunch.

NOTE: All participants must have a copy of the PYM Health/Permission form for 2024-2025 on file with youth staff.

*More details about location and program topic will be available soon!

 

Questions?  Please contact Kristin Simmons, Youth Engagement Coordinator: ksimmons@pym.org

PYM Young Friends – October Monthly Gathering!

Written on:

Youth in grades 8 through 12 are invited to participate in our monthly Young Friends (YF) gathering!  Join us as we gather together to build relationships and community, learn about Quaker practice and issues of social justice, and have fun together!  The day will include community-building games and activities, a program/discussion, and lunch.

NOTE: All participants must have a copy of the PYM Health/Permission form for 2024-2025 on file with youth staff.

*More details about location and program topic will be available soon!

 

Questions?  Please contact Kristin Simmons, Youth Engagement Coordinator: ksimmons@pym.org

Young Friends Peace Fair and Overnight!

Written on:

All Young Friends (grades 8 to 12) are invited to the 24th Annual Peace Fair and Overnight at Buckingham Meeting/Buckingham Friends School in Lahaska, PA!

The Peace Fair features local crafts, artwork, traditional and vegetarian food, kids’ games, a dunk tank, and Bucks County area non-profits that focus on peace, community service, healthy living, and the environment.

Young Friends arrive at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning, September 21st and serve as volunteers for the Peace Fair, helping with tasks such as set-up and clean-up, running kids’ games, and food preparation and service. Young Friends will also have the opportunity to explore Peddler’s Village during their break.

Following the clean-up of the Fair, Young Friends will join together for a pizza party and overnight at Buckingham Meeting. There will be an opportunity for community building, conversation, worship, and fun. The overnight will end on Sunday morning, September 22nd, following Meeting for Worship with Buckingham Friends. Bring a friend!

NOTE: All participants must have a copy of the PYM Health/Permission form for 2024-2025 on file with youth staff.

 

**Please register here!

For more information, please contact Kristin Simmons, PYM Youth Engagement Coordinator: ksimmons@pym.org

December Family Meetup

Written on:

 

SAVE THE DATE!

Calling all PYM families!  Please join us on December 7th for the opportunity to gather with and get to know other children and families from around PYM.  There will be an intergenerational activity, time for parent/guardian worship sharing, children’s activities, and dinner as a community.  Pizza and beverages will be provided.  Families are invited to bring a snack/side dish/dessert to share. All ages are welcome, along with grandparents!

Time: 3 to 6 PM

Meetinghouse Location: TBD

 

**More detailed information and registration coming soon.  We look forward to seeing your family on December 7th!

For more information, contact Kristin Simmons, Youth Engagement Coordinator: ksimmons@pym.org

Death Café at Arch Street Meeting (MMFP)

Written on:

The Care and Funeral and Interment committees at Arch Street (Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia) recently organized a two-part Death Café series for our members and attenders. Its purpose was to talk openly about death, facing our own mortality and how to make the most our lives going forward, as well as to provide useful information on end of life planning. The first session was modeled on the popular “Death Café” concept which began in France and England. Similar to worship sharing, this is a safe and confidential space to express fears, hopes and misgivings about death and dying. The topics of community, family dynamics, end of life planning, financial and legal issues were touched on during this session. In addition, Friends learned much about each other and about how our beliefs and traditions can honor our wishes and preferences for a memorial service in the manner of Friends.

In the second part of the series, useful information and forms were shared. Most importantly, Friends were urged to write a will. (PYM’s website provides a very useful resource from Faith and Practice: A Checklist for the Settlement of All Outward Affairs.) MMFP has a form called “Planning for Death and Burial Arrangements” which meeting members can fill out and file at home and have another copy stored at the meeting house in the care of the Funerals and Interments committee. This document is a vital part of leaving our affairs in order so that family members do not have to struggle to make decisions for their departed loved one and they can find all the pertinent details in one place. Other forms such as a medical directive, power of attorney, medical durable power of attorney were made available. Lastly, the clerk of Funerals and Interments gave a short presentation on the Friends Southwestern Burial Ground, which is available for green burials and welcomes all faiths in its park-like setting.

Friends who attended one or both Death Café sessions were grateful for the opportunity to learn and share with other members and attenders about this important topic. MMFP hopes to make this effort every few years and encourages other monthly meetings to do so. If your monthly meeting would like a copy of our planning document, or would like to know more about how we organized our two-part series, please be in touch.

Submitted by Sandra Williams, Clerk of Care committee, MMFP and Mike Kachur, Clerk of Funerals and Interments, MMFP

Media Meeting’s Courageous Conversation About Restorative Justice.

Written on:

Media Meeting’s Courageous Conversation About Restorative Justice.

Media Meeting’s Quaker Religious Education Committee is sponsoring a series of ‘Courageous Conversations’ on the topic of Restorative Justice in May.

The Conversation will be held in three, one hour zoom meetings on May 8th, May 15th, and May 22nd from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. Each hour will be a separate conversation. All are welcome to join in any or all conversations. The format is intentional to allow those gathered to reflect on each conversation but not too long to lose anything as our busy lives reclaim us.

  1. May 8th’s topic will be, Relationships: You and Your Community.
  2. May 15th’s topic will be, Deep Listening.
  3. May 22nd’s topic will be, Building a Culture of Reparations.

The Zoom link that will be sent to you after registering will remain the same for all three conversations. The facilitators for these courageous conversations will be Guinevere Janes and Ken Park who are both members of the Rise up for Reparations Campaign Community of Practice, a campaign to bring in 100 white majority congregations to engage meaningfully with reparations. The campaign began at the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission for Faith-based and Interfaith Affairs conference in January 0f 2023. A number of PYM members were there representing their meetings.

Guinevere Janes is a PYM member at large and a member of Media Meeting. She is also currently serving PYM on the Quaker Life Council and two separate granting groups. Ken Park is a member of Providence Friends Meeting and a member of the meeting’s recently formed Reparations Committee. He has served PYM in the past in various volunteer positions.

Please consider spending time with us for these courageous conversations. The facilitators have arranged at least two Elders per session to be present to hold us in our work. If participants need support, breakout spaces will be provided.

A list of supporting resources will be sent out after you register. You will also receive information at the conclusion of the conversations

Media Meeting’s Courageous Conversation About Restorative Justice.

Written on:

Media Meeting’s Courageous Conversation About Restorative Justice.

Media Meeting’s Quaker Religious Education Committee is sponsoring a series of ‘Courageous Conversations’ on the topic of Restorative Justice in May.

The Conversation will be held in three, one hour zoom meetings on May 8th, May 15th, and May 22nd from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. Each hour will be a separate conversation. All are welcome to join in any or all conversations. The format is intentional to allow those gathered to reflect on each conversation but not too long to lose anything as our busy lives reclaim us.

  1. May 8th’s topic will be, Relationships: You and Your Community.
  2. May 15th’s topic will be, Deep Listening.
  3. May 22nd’s topic will be, Building a Culture of Reparations.

The Zoom link that will be sent to you after registering will remain the same for all three conversations. The facilitators for these courageous conversations will be Guinevere Janes and Ken Park who are both members of the Rise up for Reparations Campaign Community of Practice, a campaign to bring in 100 white majority congregations to engage meaningfully with reparations. The campaign began at the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission for Faith-based and Interfaith Affairs conference in January 0f 2023. A number of PYM members were there representing their meetings.

Guinevere Janes is a PYM member at large and a member of Media Meeting. She is also currently serving PYM on the Quaker Life Council and two separate granting groups. Ken Park is a member of Providence Friends Meeting and a member of the meeting’s recently formed Reparations Committee. He has served PYM in the past in various volunteer positions.

Please consider spending time with us for these courageous conversations. The facilitators have arranged at least two Elders per session to be present to hold us in our work. If participants need support, breakout spaces will be provided.

A list of supporting resources will be sent out after you register. You will also receive information at the conclusion of the conversations

Media Meeting’s Courageous Conversation About Restorative Justice.

Written on:

Media Meeting’s Courageous Conversation About Restorative Justice.

Media Meeting’s Quaker Religious Education Committee is sponsoring a series of ‘Courageous Conversations’ on the topic of Restorative Justice in May.

The Conversation will be held in three, one hour zoom meetings on May 8th, May 15th, and May 22nd from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. Each hour will be a separate conversation. All are welcome to join in any or all conversations. The format is intentional to allow those gathered to reflect on each conversation but not too long to lose anything as our busy lives reclaim us.

  1. May 8th’s topic will be, Relationships: You and Your Community.
  2. May 15th’s topic will be, Deep Listening.
  3. May 22nd’s topic will be, Building a Culture of Reparations.

The Zoom link that will be sent to you after registering will remain the same for all three conversations. The facilitators for these courageous conversations will be Guinevere Janes and Ken Park who are both members of the Rise up for Reparations Campaign Community of Practice, a campaign to bring in 100 white majority congregations to engage meaningfully with reparations. The campaign began at the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission for Faith-based and Interfaith Affairs conference in January 0f 2023. A number of PYM members were there representing their meetings.

Guinevere Janes is a PYM member at large and a member of Media Meeting. She is also currently serving PYM on the Quaker Life Council and two separate granting groups. Ken Park is a member of Providence Friends Meeting and a member of the meeting’s recently formed Reparations Committee. He has served PYM in the past in various volunteer positions.

Please consider spending time with us for these courageous conversations. The facilitators have arranged at least two Elders per session to be present to hold us in our work. If participants need support, breakout spaces will be provided.

A list of supporting resources will be sent out after you register. You will also receive information at the conclusion of the conversations

Support & Resources for Caregivers

Written on:

Following my participation at Haverford Quarterly Meeting in January, I spoke with Friends Winnie Shaw Hope, who spent many years as a Special Education teacher and as a Social Worker, and Meg Lytton, a retired Family Medicine physician. In 2023, Haverford Quarter made a concerted effort to reach out to caregivers. They identified a need that many caregivers have emotional and financial concerns with great differences. Their goal was to “insert into people’s consciousness” the needs of caregivers, themselves. [Read more…] about Support & Resources for Caregivers

Update your contact & Meeting information at pym.org/updates

© 2024 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting · Privacy Policy