Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

PYM

Fall Continuing Sessions 2021

Written on:

Across the generations as we repair broken foundations,
we become unified in our beloved Quaker community

Schedule for our Multigenerational Sessions

Friday, November 5th at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom

Molly Hicks
Molly Hicks

We’ll be led by Molly Hicks of Old Haverford Meeting, who created such a beautiful space with song for Spring Continuing Sessions last March. In her professional life, Molly is a music therapist and bereavement coordinator with Penn Medicine Hospice, serving grieving adults through individual counseling and support groups. A songwriter who believes in the power of music, Molly also values the silence between the sound as a space for us to reflect on our thoughts and feelings and any messages we might be receiving. All ages are invited to come together for an evening of uplifting and creative musical fellowship to begin our Fall Sessions as a PYM Family!

Check out one of Molly’s original songs on YouTube, as well as her SoundCloud page with some more tracks.

Register for Friday →

Young Adult Friends (YAFs) are invited to gather Friday evening from 8:30-9:30pm for an informal ‘fireside chat’– bring your favorite cold weather beverage, a game, an activity you may want to share, and connect virtually and hang out with other YAFs. Reach out to Afroza Hossain, Interim Young Adult Friend Coordinator, ahossain@pym.org  for the zoom link.

Deborah Cooper
Deborah Cooper

Saturday, November 6 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. via Zoom

  • 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. — Meeting for Worship
  • 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. — Mindfulness Meditation with Deborah Cooper, M.Ed. Deborah will present a talk on the connection between Quakerism and Buddhism with an emphasis on its usefulness for pastoral care.  After her talk, she will lead a guided meditation for the gathering.  A licensed counselor and member of Germantown Friends Meeting, Deborah is a former Friends Counseling Services Coordinator and continues to serve there as a therapist.
  • 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 pm — Lunch break
  • 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. — Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Register for Saturday →

Young Adult Friends will meet virtually on Saturday evening from 8:30-9:30pm to discuss the future of YAF leadership and the PYM staffing changes; what do YAFs envision going forward for leadership roles and how can we encourage people to step up into leadership roles as all the YAF leadership terms are ending this year?  Reach out to Afroza Hossain, Interim Young Adult Friend Coordinator, ahossain@pym.org  for the zoom link.

Draft Agenda for Saturday’s Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business (1pm – 4pm):

  • Worship
  • Clerks Table Introductions
  • Zoom Support
  • Worship Sharing on this year’s Theme:
    • “Across the Generations as We Repair Broken Foundations, We Become Unified in Beloved Quaker Community”
    • How does this speak to me?
  • Minutes

Yearly Meeting-Wide Witness

  • Climate Change
  • Clarification of a Yearly Meeting Witness & processes
    • ii. PowerPoint of actions of monthly meetings as collected by Eco-Justice Collaborative and the yearly meeting
    • iii. Breakout rooms
      • Discussion about activism
      • Discussion about education
      • Carbon footprint
      • How has this Witness engaged your monthly meeting?
      • Finances
      • Mourning loss and instilling hope
      • Concerns about the witness
    • Report Back

Minutes

Short break

Council Reports

  • Nominating Council
  • Quaker Life Council
    • Membership & Belonging- report
  • Administrative Council

Worship Sharing

  • what did you learn?
  • What is one thing that happened today that you want to share with someone in your meeting?

Minutes

Closing Worship

Sunday, November 7 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in-person at the Arch Street Meeting House

Anastasia Higginbotham

Anastasia Higginbotham, the author of the Ordinary Terrible Things series will be with us for an intergenerational program (for all ages) exploring her books: Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness and What You Don’t Know: A Story of Liberated Childhood. Not My Idea tackles white supremacy and was named a 2019 International Children’s Library White Raven Book. Anastasia makes her books by hand in collage on grocery bag paper, using only recycled materials, and she’ll be sharing a collage workshop with participants. She writes for social justice organizations and her work has been featured in The Believer, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Women’s Media Center, Ms., and The Sun.

Register for Sunday →

 

To Friends with a Concern for Black Lives in America: 2020 Letter and 2016 Minute

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We are republishing a 2020 letter and 2016 minute regarding state sanctioned violence from the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent

This group of African American Friends was formed at a Gathering at Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania in 1990. It arose from a leading among a group of committed Friends, and was born of a desire for Quakers of African descent to get to know each other. Their 1991 mission statement is:

  • To publish and respond to the concerns of Friends of African descent within the Religious Society of Friends.
  • To provide for the nurture of Friends of African descent, their families and friends.
  • To address and respond to issues affecting people of African descent in their communities.

[Read more…] about To Friends with a Concern for Black Lives in America: 2020 Letter and 2016 Minute

Quakers in Education: Nitobe Inazo, Elizabeth Gray Vining, and Joseph Wharton

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This is the second in a series of articles about Quakers who’ve impacted the fields of education and contributed to global scientific, medical, political, or economic leadership. The first article was published on September 23 and covered Elise Goulding, Ezra Cornell, and Johns Hopkins.

Nitobe Inazo (1862-1933) was a Japanese Quaker who became the first Under Secretary General for the League of Nations. Nitobe was born into a samurai family on Honshu, the main island of Japan. While in college, he became a Christian and later a Friend. In 1884, He moved to the US for post-graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University. There he began attending Quaker meetings, telling friends, “I very much like their simplicity and earnestness.”

[Read more…] about Quakers in Education: Nitobe Inazo, Elizabeth Gray Vining, and Joseph Wharton

Quakers in Education: Elise M. Boulding, Ezra Cornell, and Johns Hopkins

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Quaker education has always been grounded in basic principles of the Religious Society of Friends. Each child has that of God within, and Friends’ education is centered in truth, practical learning, scientific inquiry, simplicity, and concern for civic society.

Quakers have a long history of questioning power and engaging in social action for human rights and peace. Today, many Quaker schools or Quaker affiliated institutions of higher education frame their learning environments with social or civic responsibilities and define community expectations through the lens of Friends’ values while still honoring the individual.

As the United States grew from colony to nation, the Quakers advocated for and delivered universal pubic education in Pennsylvania, built colleges, and created private Quaker secondary and elementary schools. The motto of the William Penn Charter School; “Good Instruction is Better than Riches” dates back to its founding in 1689 and still serves to describe Friends’ fundamental belief that knowledge outperforms wealth over time.

In the United States, Quakers were key to the founding of Haverford College (Pennsylvania), Guilford College (North Carolina,) Earlham College (Indiana), Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania), Johns Hopkins University (Maryland), Cornell University (New York), and the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania). All that does not mean that Quakers were perfect. As we see in the stories below, the were human and also strongly influenced by their own time and place.

[Read more…] about Quakers in Education: Elise M. Boulding, Ezra Cornell, and Johns Hopkins

Introducing Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch and Frank Barch, PYM’s Co-Clerks

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Redefined clerking roles filled by some new faces

Annual Sessions 2020 saw some important changes in leadership. First, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s (PYM) clerking roles were re-adjusted to be better aligned with volunteer capacities and PYM’s needs, and Nominating Council then proposed a roster of skilled Friends to fill these redefined roles.

Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch and Frank Barch, members of Schuylkill Monthly Meeting, were appointed to a two-year non-renewable term as Co-Clerks of PYM. Our Alternate Clerk, Jonathon Rhoads, was released from his stewardship role clerking for the community with much gratitude. Melissa Rycroft, formerly clerk of Nominating Council, and a member from Upper Susquehanna Quarter, accepted the position of Rising Clerk. James (Jim) Waddington was appointed Clerk of the Administrative Council.

[Read more…] about Introducing Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch and Frank Barch, PYM’s Co-Clerks

Zenaida Peterson Leads A Poetry Project for All

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Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Poem 2020

Our Annual Sessions poet-in-residence, Zenaida Peterson, will weave
together a yearly meeting POEM based on your reflections!

All ages are invited to participate and Families with children can work together. You can assist younger children in writing their lines of poetry, or scribe for them. We hope everyone in a household will share as they are led!

The queries

How do we find Spirit in the shadows during this time?

What does it mean to be Faithful now?

  • Begin your poetry experience:
  • Pick one of the queries to reflect upon. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
  • Reflect. Discern. Write!
  • Tease out your favorite lines.
  • Email those lines to poetry@pym.org

Mail your poetry

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Attn: Annual Sessions
1515 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102

The poem will be revealed at Annual Sessions

Zenaida will receive the reflections, and weave together all the lines Friends of our yearly meeting have submitted to create a Yearly Meeting Poem 2020. This will be revealed during the week of Annual Sessions, July 29-August 2.

2020 Poor People’s Campaign: A 52 Year History Renewed

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In 1968, the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) was first named as a key concern of Friends in America. American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Associate Executive Secretary, Stephen Cary,  remarked that the PPC “…has made poverty in America visible, and never again will it be possible to pretend that it is not real.”

52 years later, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) recognizes that we need to work together as a community to continue to make poverty and all the injustices that contribute to it more visible.  As part of that process, PYM’s Quaker Life Council recently minuted an endorsement of the PPC, as has PYM’s Young Adult Friends community, Trenton Meeting of Friends and Haddonfield Quarter. PYM has also offered youth programming (described later in this story) around this initiative and will continue to support the community’s energy on addressing the causes and consequences of poverty in America today.

[Read more…] about 2020 Poor People’s Campaign: A 52 Year History Renewed

A Message Regarding State Sanctioned Violence from Fellowship of Friends of African Descent

Written on:

The Fellowship of Friends of African Descent was formed at a Gathering at Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania in 1990. It arose among a group of committed Friends out of a desire for Quakers of African descent to get to know each other. It was incorporated with the following mission statement in 1991:

  • To publish and respond to the concerns of Friends of African descent within the Religious Society of Friends.
  • To provide for the nurture of Friends of African descent, their families and friends.
  • To address and respond to issues affecting people of African descent in their communities.

[Read more…] about A Message Regarding State Sanctioned Violence from Fellowship of Friends of African Descent

Friends Emily and Julia Visit the Friends International Bilingual Center in La Paz, Bolivia

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The Friends International Bilingual Center (FIBC) is a Bolivian program that offers educational programs for children, young people, and adults in la Paz, Bolivia. Their programming is focused around human value and Quaker principles, and participants experience spiritual and intellectual growth centered in the belief that there is that of God in everyone.

[Read more…] about Friends Emily and Julia Visit the Friends International Bilingual Center in La Paz, Bolivia

Black Lives Matter: Quaker Schools Share Powerful Messages and Resources

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Over the past week, people have been assembling in peace to express grief and voice concern over police brutality and racism in the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky; and Ahmaud Arbery in Southeastern Georgia.

Like many monthly meetings, Friends School communities were deeply affected by these issues. As a result, school administrations and trustees at schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware published powerful messages on their websites that were centered in the Quaker belief that there is that of God in everyone and Friends’ testimony of Equality. These have been basic tenets of the faith since the time of Margaret Fell and George Fox.

[Read more…] about Black Lives Matter: Quaker Schools Share Powerful Messages and Resources