Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Pendle Hill

BD 101 Gender & Sexuality

Written on:

Beyond Diversity 101 – Gender & Sexuality:

Beyond Diversity 101: Gender & Sexuality (BD101G&S) is an intensive, five-day workshop, based on, Beyond Diversity 101 first designed and facilitated by Niyonu Spann in 1999. This program is grounded in the belief that when it comes to gender and sexuality each of us seeks healing and wholeness, which necessarily calls forth our inner wisdom waiting to be remembered and reclaimed.

Pricing:

Pay it forward- $1,700

Standard Single Room- $1,500

Standard Shared Room – $1,300

Commuter- $800

 

Learn more at https://www.bd101.org/gendsexuality

Epistle from Quaker Trans Day of Visibility Gathering

Written on: 

This Epistle was written by Friends who participated in the Quaker Trans Day of Visibility in Swarthmore, PA in intention that it be read aloud.

ACCOMPANIMENT IN A TIME OF ADVERSITY

An Epistle from the Trans Day of Visibility Gathering at Swarthmore Friends Meeting and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and online on March 29, 2026 [Read more…] about Epistle from Quaker Trans Day of Visibility Gathering

Pendle Hill Reading Group:

Written on:

Worship sharing on Lauren Brownlee and Zenaida Peterson’s Patterns of Racial Wounding and Racial Justice in Quaker Communities (PHP #495). 

Pendle Hill’s Reading Group focuses on Pendle Hill pamphlets and other Quaker readings, gathering to consider queries about the reading in a spirit of worship sharing.

Register: https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com/registration-form/?formId=40efacf1-64dc-4a37-9908-b872d5edb144&envId=p-vB3vIq40ekeTe60ejI_4PQ&zone=usa

[NOTE TO LARRY: Submitted by Chris Mohr, FYI.]

Continuing Revolution 2026 (Young Adults!)

Written on:

Pricing

  • On Campus Overnight: $$50/$75/$100
  • On Campus Commuter: $15/$30/$45
  • Zoom Only: $5/$15/$25

We offer a subsidized price for those with less financial resources and a subsidizing price for those with the ability to help support those with less. We invite your reflection in choosing which rate is the best fit for you.  

If you are seeking funds or alternate payment options (like someone else paying for you), please wait to register and first complete our Financial Assistance Application. 

Description

A hybrid weekend workshop for young adults to connect, learn skills for community resistance, and deepen their personal spiritual practices.  

Grounding in our personal spiritual journeys and community-level resistance and resilience work, this program will bring together young adults ages 18-35 eager to deepen their personal spiritual landscape in community, connect with others, and learn skills to meet this moment. 

2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the United States. Philadelphia is a focal point of the celebrations. What can we learn from the last 250 years? What do we want our world to look like 250 years from now? What is our role in caring for one another? How can we build the skills and spiritual grounding necessary for building community and resisting oppressive systems? How can we deepen our personal spiritual practices? 

Like past Continuing Revolution programs, this offering is simultaneously grounded in Quaker values and practices and open to those with no prior knowledge or experience with Quakerism. We welcome all seekers who are interested in exploring the intersection of their personal spiritual journey and community needs, regardless of faith or ideology. 

Stay tuned for more details about workshops. We hope to explore themes of creating community safety beyond policing, mutual aid, spiritual embodiment, and the past and future of resistance in Philadelphia.

Schedule

On-site (the full program schedule)

  • Friday June 26: 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm at Pendle Hill
  • Saturday June 27: 9:00 am – 8:30 pm at Friends Center (including an off-site walking tour)
  • Sunday June 28: 9:00 am – 5 pm at Friends Center

On Zoom (the full program schedule)

  • Friday June 26: 7:15pm – 9:00 pm
  • Saturday June 27: 9:30 am – 8:30 pm (with breaks)
  • Sunday June 28: 9:30 am – 5:00 pm (with breaks)

This program is made possible by generous support from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Travel and Witness.

Collaborating Organizations and Leader

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is the association of Friends meetings and communities across the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware, southern New Jersey, and eastern and central Pennsylvania. PYM connects and supports Friends in our region.

American Friends Service Committee works with communities worldwide to challenge injustice and build conditions for lasting peace. We are steadfast in our commitment to nonviolence and our belief in the transformative power of love to overcome conflict and oppression.

Friends Committee on National Legislation is a national, nonpartisan Quaker organization that lobbies Congress and the administration to advance peace, justice, and environmental stewardship.

Pendle Hill is a Quaker study, retreat, and conference center located on 24 acres in Wallingford, PA, seeking to create peace with justice in the world by transforming lives through experiential learning, silent worship, and a commitment to the historic testimonies of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), including peace, equity, and community. 

Lewis Webb, Jr. is the Peacebuilding Director at the American Friends Service Committee and is responsible for leading AFSC’s work towards a future free of militarism and violence. Lewis previously led AFSC’s New York-based healing justice work for over 12 years and since 2017 has been the coordinator of the organization’s national healing justice network. Since joining AFSC, Lewis has built an advocacy program that focuses on sentencing and the school-to-prison pipeline, established a growing youth advocacy training program, and guided the collective development and eventual organizational endorsement of “Our North Star: A Vision for Community Safety Beyond Prisons and Policing.” Lewis holds degrees in philosophy and law and has many years of experience as an educator. He is based in Philadelphia.

August Summer Saturday Storm Recovery Volunteering

Written on:

Pendle Hill is hosting a community work morning to help campus recover from the recent storm damage. Helpful hands are needed for medium-, and heavy-duty outdoor tasks: cleaning small branches, removing invasives, spreading mulch, and rebuilding trails. Volunteers should bring work gloves, tick spray as concerned, sunscreen, and sturdy shoes. Pendle Hill will provide tools, refreshments, camaraderie, and opportunity for worship.  

Requests for Meetings and Groups: Please consider carpooling,  and ask everyone to register individually. Spaces will be limited . 

Weather: This is an outdoor event. If raining, event will be cancelled. Please make sure your contact information is correct when you register so we can contact you if needed.

FWCC World Plenary Events: August 5-12

Written on:

Living the spirit of Ubuntu:
Responding with hope to God’s call to cherish creation – and one another

In the works for many years, the next Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Plenary Meeting is August 8-12. This is a time to worship and connect with Friends from around the world and to help set the direction for where FWCC goes next. The theme for the 2024 World Plenary is, “Living the Spirit of Ubuntu: Responding with hope to God’s call to cherish creation and one another” and Friends from all over the world will gather both in South Africa and online.

The World Plenary Meeting is a meeting for representatives from all four FWCC Sections — Africa Section, Asia West Pacific Section, Section of the Americas, and Europe and Middle East Section — to tend to FWCC business, surrounded by worship and fellowship with Friends from around the world. All Yearly Meetings and other bodies that are affiliated with FWCC are invited to send delegates to the World Plenary Meeting. There will also be a gathering of Young Adult Friends in the days before the World Plenary, August 1-5. PYM representatives to FWCC will be attending both in South Africa and online: Amy Duckett-Wagner (Fallsington Meeting) and Peterson Toscano (Millville Meeting).

The world office has shared resources to connect with the theme and prepare to engage with the program. These include a World Plenary Meeting Study Guide and a World Quaker Songbook. Amy Duckett Wagner has recorded a playlist of songs from the songbook, which can be watched (and joined in song!) on YouTube.

August 5 First Monday Lecture at Pendle Hill: Robin Mohr

On Monday, August 5, Pendle Hill’s First Monday Lecture series (7:30-9:00 PM ET) will welcome Friends into the spirit of the FWCC gathering. Robin Mohr (Green Street Meeting), who is completing her time as Executive Secretary for FWCC Section of the Americas this summer, will share stories of where she has seen ubuntu in action, as she concludes thirteen years in her position.  Information about how to join online or on campus at Pendle Hill is on the Pendle Hill website.

Over fifty hubs to join the World Plenary Meeting online — including Pendle Hill! 

Pendle Hill will host one of the online “hybrid hubs” across the globe, joining the World Plenary online. More information about the Pendle Hill hybrid hub is shared here. and a flyer to share is also available.

Image from FWCC World Office website.

Using technology available to us today, the opportunity for people in Congo Yearly Meeting, Lake Forest Friends Meeting, Japan Friends, Canberra Quakers Hub, Belgium & Luxembourg Yearly Meeting, Dublin Meeting and a Russian-speaking hub to join Friends gathered in South Africa is deeply aligned with the mission of FWCC.

FWCC was formed in 1937 to bring Quakers together across theological and cultural diversity. The primary task of FWCC today is to help Friends appreciate and develop unity within the diversity of the Quaker family. This includes differences of language, culture, and tradition, and in the emphasis placed on different aspects of our common Christian and Quaker heritage and witness. From the FWCC World Office website: “Friends worship in a variety of ways, and by increasing understanding of these differences, FWCC helps Friends both deepen and enlarge their own understanding of their faith and life as Quakers.”

Click on image to link to this flyer on the FWCC website.

FWCC opens doors to friendship and learning

FWCC has been a transformative influence on my journey as a Friend. In 1987, I participated in the FWCC Quaker Youth Pilgrimage as a rising senior from Westtown School, along with two classmates. Youth from around the US and across parts of Europe participated in a three-week travel and learning experience that took us to Pendle Hill and Swarthmoor Hall in 1652 country, and also to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. It was the first time my home meeting (Millville Meeting) wrote a minute of travel for me. It was my first experience of community with Quakers from parts of the US who belonged to programmed, pastoral congregations, and also with Friends from other parts of the world. It opened new possibilities for me as a young Friend, including spiritual growth. I made friends who I am still connected with today living in other parts of the globe, and it put my feet on a path that has included travel in all the FWCC Sections. I would not have imagined as a sixteen-year-old the idea of being in public ministry among Friends, but FWCC opened doors that included traveling to the last World Plenary in Peru in 2016, where I was invited to bring the message in worship on a morning the Section of the Americas had care of worship. Most recently, FWCC connections led to the invitation by The Yearly Meeting of Aotearoa/New Zealand (Te Hāhi Tūhauwiri) to travel in the ministry there in August 2023.

The worship during the days together at the World Plenary in Peru illustrates the spirit of FWCC and our global Quaker family. Each morning was unique and grounded in the practices of the people from that Section – we sang, danced, were led in a guided meditation, and heard sermons. Throughout, the sense of the Light among us was strong, and we were listening together for God through these different ways. Our Quaker faith connected and uplifted us.

Let’s hold in the Light those Friends gathering and participating in the 2024 World Plenary!

A version of this story first appeared in the July 2024 Concord Quarterly Meeting newsletter. Shared with permission. 

Pendle Hill Chorus – Many Voices with One Song

Written on:

Have you ever been part of a project that has different parts working together? Like building something, gardening with others, planning an event? It can be challenging – especially when you think you don’t know what you need to do. Will you be given the right tools? The right instructions? Will the product or event be what we want? With a bit of coordination and commitment, something both memorable and magical can happen! [Read more…] about Pendle Hill Chorus – Many Voices with One Song

Quaker Spotlight: A Woman of Note

Written on:

As we began our interview with Demie Kurz, a long-time member of the Religious Society of Friends and retired professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, who also co-directed the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program, we were immediately impressed with her flow of conversation and emphasis on the history of Quaker women. Nowadays, Demie Kurz spends her time in retirement writing a book on parenting, written from a sociological perspective. This is her story. [Read more…] about Quaker Spotlight: A Woman of Note

Companions Open to Spirit & Each Other at Pendle Hill

Written on:

On a glorious weekend in October, the Spiritual Formation Collaborative hosted a workshop/retreat at Pendle Hill with a focus on becoming Spiritual Companions. We had four leaders: Nadine Hoover, Joann Neuroth, Cassie Cammann and Barbara LaSage, who volunteered their time, experience and Spirit to lead us closer to the Quaker way of being in the world. [Read more…] about Companions Open to Spirit & Each Other at Pendle Hill

Pendle Hill Releases Historic Lecture Series

Written on:

From 1916 to 1966, the Young Friends Movement of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting hosted a lecture series, which they called The William Penn Lectures (later renamed the Seeking Faithfulness Lectures). The Young Friends Movement began the lecture series “for the purpose of closer fellowship; for the strengthening by such association and the interchange of experience, of loyalty to the ideals of the Society of Friends; and for the preparation by such common ideals for more effective work through the Society of Friends for the growth of the Kingdom of God on Earth.” These lectures were published by the Book Committee of PYM, and PYM has granted Pendle Hill Publications permission to digitize them for the public.
[Read more…] about Pendle Hill Releases Historic Lecture Series

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

© 2026 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting · Privacy Policy