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
Religious Education
Part I: Where have we been? Where are we going? Supporting Families and Religious Education
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
Reflections on the Light and Languages of Pentecost
How do Friends experience the fire of the Holy Spirit? What questions and images do we offer in religious education to contemplate the inner Light? How does Pentecost help us to come close to these ideas? Pentecost was absent from my own religious education in an unprogrammed Friends meeting, and it was through work in another church that I came close to this story and found how it resonated for me as a Quaker.
[Read more…] about Reflections on the Light and Languages of Pentecost
Earlham School of Religion offers a New Graduate Certificate
Earlham School of Religion has a new graduate certificate: Spiritual Formation.
This 6-course certificate is designed for individuals with undergraduate or graduate degrees in many different fields who want to explore a Seminary education rooted in Quaker thought and practice, without committing to a degree program: new retirees, career changers, those seeking vocational discernment, and others in the midst of transition. The required courses are core courses of the MDiv degree; the certificate can be applied toward the MDiv once finished.
[Read more…] about Earlham School of Religion offers a New Graduate Certificate
The Mystery of Christmas: A Nativity Story
Stop. Listen. Something incredible is about to happen . . .
This is the Nativity story as told by Melinda Wenner Bradley, who serves PYM as the Youth Religious Life Coordinator. She is an accredited Godly Play Trainer and storyteller and a co-author of Faith & Play: Quaker Stories for Friends Trained in the Godly Play Method.
[Read more…] about The Mystery of Christmas: A Nativity Story
For Our Children: A Quaker Parent’s Perspective
Abigaile Brace-Higgins is a member of Mickleton Meeting and serves on the planning circle for PYM Giant Children’s Meeting programs. This article originally appeared in the Salem Quarter News, Fall 2020.
On March 16th, 2020, I laid down in the cool, muddy-grass at the foot of a tree in my backyard and looked up at the bare branches crackling like brittle-veins across the clear sky in the stark morning light. My two and a half year old son, Keegan, played quietly in his sandbox next to me. The heavy news of Covid-19 was thrashing like a storm all around us, but in that moment we were still. Nowhere to go, anytime soon. The impossible sadness of tragedy befalling thousands of people around the world pounded deep inside me. As a parent of a young child, my mind swelled with questions: How should my child understand this? How should I help him adapt? To cope? To stay safe? How long is this going to be? How are we going to move forward and stay connected to all those in our lives we hold dear? [Read more…] about For Our Children: A Quaker Parent’s Perspective
Cadbury Library (Your PhYM Library) reminder! Visit! Borrow!
Remember the Yearly Meeting library? It is at Friends Center, was on the first floor, now on the balcony of the Cherry Street Room!
- It continues to be open without staff (Rita retired in 2010), thanks to volunteers.
- It shows up at Yearly Meeting in session, and on the web, from which you can borrow by mail.
- Call 215-241-7220 or email library@pym.org
We are open weekly, and can be open for events if you contact us in advance.
Come & Visit *Your Library in person* – change in Thursday hours.
- Tues 12-6 pm
- Thurs 12:45 – 5:30 pm
- Sundays 12:30 – 1:30 pm (thanks to CPMM volunteers.)
WATCH for additional time to be announced, 1 Saturday monthly, 10-2
- Call 215-241-7220
- See the catalog listing on the web 24/7: www.pym.org/library
- LIKE us on FACEBOOK!
*closed holidays & times that Friends Center is closed.
NJ Superior Court Rules Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape are Sovereign Tribe
The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation citizens are neighbors of Salem Quarter Friends. As posted on the Salem Quarter Indian Affairs Committee web site, the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation is engaged in a lawsuit seeking reaffirmation, from the state of New Jersey – NLL v. NJ. Comprehensive ongoing media articles are posted by their legal council, Cultural Heritage Partners; and an update has also been posted by Lisa J. Ellwood, August 31, 2017 for Indian Country Media Network, providing clarity to the realities imposed upon this Native Nation and their citizens today. Please read this latest insightful release; a link has been posted on the First Contact Reconciliation Collaborative website.
Guided by the still small voice within, Friends have accompanied the contemporary condition of authentic, sovereign Native Tribal Nations who have remained on their homeland, Lenapehoking, giving witness to the call for action and approval by the PYM Quaker Life Council (March 2017) for the formation of the First Contact Reconciliation Collaborative.
While fully discerning our PYM Minute of Action (2015,) it is important for non-natives to understand how racism continues to be embedded in structures of the dominant society and to hear first-hand, genuine Native voice. The resilience witnessed in Native communities may spark that which has grown dim, righting us toward faithfully and intentionally building a most inclusive Beloved community.