Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Families

Giant Children’s Meeting on 3rd Sundays

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Giant Children’s Meeting continues on 3rd Sundays in 2022!

Join Friends and Families from across the Yearly Meeting for a monthly religious education program. It’s “giant” because everyone is invited! It’s “children’s meeting” because we’re making a space to nurture the spiritual lives and Quaker identity of young people.

We hope this online community will support families and the Friends offering children’s programs in their meeting; the 9:00 start is intended to allow folks to attend worship in their own meeting later that morning.

Each 30-45 minute program is for preschool and elementary-age children and their families. Each time will feature a theme and seasoned facilitators leading us through grounding, exploring, wondering, and creating. Our program will connect with the Youth Programs theme for this year,  “Building the Quaker Community We Want to Be” and HOPE! 

  • May 15: Growing Feelings

Register below to receive the Zoom link to join! A welcome email with Zoom link will be sent on the Thursday before each Sunday program.

*If a meeting would like to share the Zoom information directly to families in your meeting, please contact the Youth Religious Life Coordinator, Melinda, directly: mwennerbradley@pym.org

Giant Children’s Meeting Registration

Giant Children's Meeting Registration

Note: If you are a meeting religious education contact or committee member and you will share the program and Zoom information with families in your meeting, please answer the questions for yourself (not for children). Thank you! We will not record this Zoom event or take screen shots of participants during the program. We will ask that participants not take “screen shots” on their own devices. We are not asking for photo permission for these reasons, for this event. More information about PYM Child Safety in Online Spaces can be found here: https://www.pym.org/religious-education/guidance-and-practices-for-online-youth-gatherings/
  • Please list all children who will participate and their current grade in school (name, grade):

Spring Family Overnight 2022

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The Spring Family Overnight at Camp Dark Waters in Medford, NJ is BACK this year!

Youth Programs staff will welcome everyone on Saturday afternoon, and families will have time to settle into bunk houses. There will be time to gather and connect, as well as explore the camp. After dinner prepared together, the evening will include a campfire and then we’ll settle in with yoga and stories. After the kids go to bed there will be space for parents to spend time with each other. On Sunday we gather for breakfast, have “Giant Children’s Meeting” in person, and finish up with plenty of time for families to get home and prepare for the coming week.

Family Overnights are designed for children in K-5th Grade, and family members who are younger than 5 and older than 5th Grade are also welcome to attend!

Cost and Registration

$35 for the first three family members age 5 and older, and $10 for additional people and for any child under age 5. Do not let cost keep you away! The registration form explains in more detail and has options for scholarships.

Registration has been closed! Watch the PYM calendar for upcoming Youth Program hosted events, particularly for Annual Sessions this summer. Or invite Youth Program staff to your meeting or Quarter event! 

COVID Safety*

  • Participants will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative test within 48 hours of the start of the event. (This is for all ages.)
  • When we meet, we will use the practice of “2 out of 3” observed at all times — masked, distanced, and outdoors.
  • Currently, we are requiring that everyone over age 2 be masked except when in their family rooms or when distanced outdoors. Staff will have K95 masks on hand. We will reassess this practice closer to the event.
  • Dinner and breakfast will be prepared and served by individuals with masks and gloves.
  • PYM staff hosting the event will be COVID tested prior to the retreat.

Bench Yoga

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Join us at 11:30 on April 10th at the Little Egg Harbor Friends Meetinghouse where Shanti Revolution will incorporate our meetinghouse benches into a 45 minute session of gentle stretching and breathing exercises. A key aspect of Quaker spiritual formation is communal spiritual practice, by opening our doors to the wider community we intend to create space in which this can take place. All are welcome. A free-will donation will gratefully be accepted.

Giant Children’s Meeting on 3rd Sundays

Written on:

Giant Children’s Meeting continues on 3rd Sundays in 2022!

Join Friends and Families from across the Yearly Meeting for a monthly religious education program. It’s “giant” because everyone is invited! It’s “children’s meeting” because we’re making a space to nurture the spiritual lives and Quaker identity of young people.

We hope this online community will support families and the Friends offering children’s programs in their meeting; the 9:00 start is intended to allow folks to attend worship in their own meeting later that morning.

Each 30-45 minute program is for preschool and elementary-age children and their families. Each time will feature a theme and seasoned facilitators leading us through grounding, exploring, wondering, and creating. Our program will connect with the Youth Programs theme for this year,  “Building the Quaker Community We Want to Be” and HOPE! 

  • May 15: Growing Feelings

Register below to receive the Zoom link to join! A welcome email with Zoom link will be sent on the Thursday before each Sunday program.

*If a meeting would like to share the Zoom information directly to families in your meeting, please contact the Youth Religious Life Coordinator, Melinda, directly: mwennerbradley@pym.org

Giant Children’s Meeting Registration

Giant Children's Meeting Registration

Note: If you are a meeting religious education contact or committee member and you will share the program and Zoom information with families in your meeting, please answer the questions for yourself (not for children). Thank you! We will not record this Zoom event or take screen shots of participants during the program. We will ask that participants not take “screen shots” on their own devices. We are not asking for photo permission for these reasons, for this event. More information about PYM Child Safety in Online Spaces can be found here: https://www.pym.org/religious-education/guidance-and-practices-for-online-youth-gatherings/
  • Please list all children who will participate and their current grade in school (name, grade):

Giant Children’s Meeting on 3rd Sundays

Written on:

Giant Children’s Meeting continues on 3rd Sundays in 2022!

Join Friends and Families from across the Yearly Meeting for a monthly religious education program. It’s “giant” because everyone is invited! It’s “children’s meeting” because we’re making a space to nurture the spiritual lives and Quaker identity of young people.

We hope this online community will support families and the Friends offering children’s programs in their meeting; the 9:00 start is intended to allow folks to attend worship in their own meeting later that morning.

Each 30-45 minute program is for preschool and elementary-age children and their families. Each time will feature a theme and seasoned facilitators leading us through grounding, exploring, wondering, and creating. Our program will connect with the Youth Programs theme for this year,  “Building the Quaker Community We Want to Be” and HOPE! 

  • May 15: Growing Feelings

Register below to receive the Zoom link to join! A welcome email with Zoom link will be sent on the Thursday before each Sunday program.

*If a meeting would like to share the Zoom information directly to families in your meeting, please contact the Youth Religious Life Coordinator, Melinda, directly: mwennerbradley@pym.org

Giant Children’s Meeting Registration

Giant Children's Meeting Registration

Note: If you are a meeting religious education contact or committee member and you will share the program and Zoom information with families in your meeting, please answer the questions for yourself (not for children). Thank you! We will not record this Zoom event or take screen shots of participants during the program. We will ask that participants not take “screen shots” on their own devices. We are not asking for photo permission for these reasons, for this event. More information about PYM Child Safety in Online Spaces can be found here: https://www.pym.org/religious-education/guidance-and-practices-for-online-youth-gatherings/
  • Please list all children who will participate and their current grade in school (name, grade):

Winter Family Overnight 2022

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SOLD OUT! If you would like to be on the waiting list, please email the Youth Religious Life Coordinator: mwennerbradley@pym.org

The Winter Family Overnight at Camp Onas is the perfect setting for indoor/outdoor fun. Children & Families Program staff, Mars Hohenstein and Crystal Hershey, will welcome everyone on Saturday afternoon, and families will have time to settle into rooms of their own in winterized buildings with beds. There will be time to gather and connect, as well as explore the camp through a scavenger hunt. After dinner prepared together, the evening will include a campfire and then we’ll settle in with yoga and stories. After the kids go to bed there will be space for parents to spend time with each other. On Sunday we gather for breakfast, have “Giant Children’s Meeting” and finish up with plenty of time for families to get home and prepare for the coming week. Family Overnights are designed for children in K-5th Grade, and family members who are younger than 5 and older than 5th Grade are also welcome to attend!

Cost and Registration

$35 for the first three family members age 5 and older, and $10 for additional people and for any child under age 5. Do not let cost keep you away! The registration form explains in more detail and has options for scholarships.

COVID Safety*

  • Participants will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative test within 48 hours of the start of the event. (This is for all ages.)
  • When we meet, we will use the same practice that Camp Onas did during summer camp with “2 out of 3” observed at all times — masked, distanced, and outdoors.
  • We are requiring that everyone over age 2 be masked except when in their family rooms or when distanced outdoors. Staff will have K95 masks on hand.
  • Dinner and breakfast will be prepared and served by individuals with masks and gloves.
  • PYM staff hosting the event will be tested prior to the retreat.

*We postponed this event until mid-February because of the Omicron variant surge. Camp Onas cancelled their January events, and we followed suit and are grateful for their flexibility in rescheduling. 

Giant Children’s Meeting on 3rd Sundays

Written on:

Giant Children’s Meeting continues on 3rd Sundays in 2022!

Join Friends and Families from across the Yearly Meeting for a monthly religious education program. It’s “giant” because everyone is invited! It’s “children’s meeting” because we’re making a space to nurture the spiritual lives and Quaker identity of young people.

We hope this online community will support families and the Friends offering children’s programs in their meeting; the 9:00 start is intended to allow folks to attend worship in their own meeting later that morning.

Each 30-45 minute program is for preschool and elementary-age children and their families. Each time will feature a theme and seasoned facilitators leading us through grounding, exploring, wondering, and creating. Our program will connect with the Youth Programs theme for this year,  “Building the Quaker Community We Want to Be” and HOPE! 

  • May 15: Growing Feelings

Register below to receive the Zoom link to join! A welcome email with Zoom link will be sent on the Thursday before each Sunday program.

*If a meeting would like to share the Zoom information directly to families in your meeting, please contact the Youth Religious Life Coordinator, Melinda, directly: mwennerbradley@pym.org

Giant Children’s Meeting Registration

Giant Children's Meeting Registration

Note: If you are a meeting religious education contact or committee member and you will share the program and Zoom information with families in your meeting, please answer the questions for yourself (not for children). Thank you! We will not record this Zoom event or take screen shots of participants during the program. We will ask that participants not take “screen shots” on their own devices. We are not asking for photo permission for these reasons, for this event. More information about PYM Child Safety in Online Spaces can be found here: https://www.pym.org/religious-education/guidance-and-practices-for-online-youth-gatherings/
  • Please list all children who will participate and their current grade in school (name, grade):

How Do We Pray with Children?

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How do you pray? What personal practices do you have that bring you into relationship and conversation with the Spirit? How do prayer practices nurture your spiritual life and anchor your experience of gathering with others for meeting for worship? In my experience, we don’t talk a lot about prayer in Quaker religious education — how to pray with children, teach prayers to children, or why we might offer this as a practice for their “spiritual toolbox.” I’ve been collecting ideas and resources over time, hoping to bring together interested Friends to talk about prayer with children. On December 2, several Friends gathered for an online Religious Education Conversation on “Prayer with Children,” and what is shared below is from a presentation, participant sharing, and group reflections. [Read more…] about How Do We Pray with Children?

Part 2: Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education

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Queries from PYM Faith and Practice are read at the beginning of worship each month at my meeting; one of the youth in our Young People’s Group is the reader.  In May, they were the ones about religious education: Nurturing Our Community: Religious Education in the Home and Meeting. As we think about returning to weekly programs for our children and youth, what guidance do these queries offer? This summer is a moment to pause and consider the experiences and lessons of these past months and how they might shape our programs and support for young Friends and families in our meetings. The PYM queries ask us is place in the center of our religious education programs preparation, formation, and belonging.
 [Read more…] about Part 2: Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education

Part I: Where have we been? Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education

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This is the first of a two-part story focused on local meetings and their experiences with programs and support for children and youth, and their families, in the last fourteen months of “pandemic times.” Families in our local meetings come in all different varieties; these stories are focused on families with children and the people parenting them (who also come to that relationship in a variety of ways, including foster parents and grandparents).

The people who support children and youth programs in meetings, in their Quarter, and the Yearly Meeting have expressed many feelings in this time — sadness at separation, joy in creativity, mourning for connections lost, delight in new ideas, frustration with lack of support, fear that families will not “return” when others resume community in person. I’ve written about the liminal time we’re in, and the opportunities this disruption/interruption provides to think in new ways. I’m also holding a keen awareness of the exhaustion and longing to return to “normalcy” that Friends may be feeling; it feels important to balance encouragement about new possibilities and succor for what feels lost or overwhelming. [Read more…] about Part I: Where have we been? Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education

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