Pennsauken, NJ, native Calvin Bell graduated from Moorestown Friends School in 2020 with an impressive roster of accolades, including a Yale Award for Community Engagement, the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, a White House visit as a video game innovator (for an app that enables residents to report environmental hazards, in English or Spanish, to local government), and a lead role in ‘The Drowsy Chaperone.’ At MFS, Calvin served on the Diversity Committee; today he’s a junior at Morehouse College, an historically Black college. He’ll join Moorestown Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee to talk about his experiences at MFS, at Morehouse, and through many richly varied experiences of a young life. You are welcome to join us on Zoom, at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81587816369 or meeting ID 815 8781 6369.
Undoing Racism
Let’s Talk…
Join F/friends from Moorestown Meeting and beyond for a free-ranging conversation about race and racism. Share stories, experiences new and old, questions, concerns, recommendations, testimony – whatever comes up is welcome. We meet on Zoom at 7:30pm EST, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81587816369, meeting ID 815 8781 6369.
Let’s Talk About One White Man’s Witness
In 2020, traditional country music artist Tyler Childers released an album of Appalachian fiddle tunes and one original song supporting those protesting the deaths of George Floyd and others. Join Moorestown Friends Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee, watch a couple of short videos together, and discuss what they suggest about whether and how “white” equals “normal” in America today. To preview the videos, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_I3Rp1CQak and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ3_AJ5Ysx0.
Let’s Talk About Whiteness
Thirty years ago, Toni Morrison told a newspaper interviewer, “In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” For most of us, whiteness is still the default, the norm, in our communities – and that makes identifying and eradicating racism more difficult. Our Friend Prof. Janet Gray, currently editing a book of feminist writings on whiteness, joins us online to discuss the idea of whiteness, and how it affects us as individuals and in community. We all have much of value to contribute to the conversation – so Let’s Talk. All are welcome at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81587816369 on Thursday 15 December at 7:30pm for this conversation sponsored by Moorestown Friends Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee.
Exploring a Quaker Commitment to Reparative Justice
An online weekend collaboration with Pendle Hill and Woodbrooke Study Centre
Saturday at 9:30am Eastern Time through Sunday at 4pm. Optional pre- and post-workshop sessions.
Reparative justice is an essential part of living out Quaker faith. This workshop explores the spiritual imperative and deep need for Quakers to commit to repairing harms done by Quakers and others through their involvement in slavery and its afterlives.
As an approach, a goal, an ideal, and an ethos, reparations provides a promising path towards healing, repair, and transformational social change. It addresses the dimensions of Spirit, relationship, and resources. As such, it offers a tool for Quakers and Quaker communities to understand our complicity in causing harm, and to explore our options for contributing to the repair of the harms of slavery and its afterlives, the penitentiary system, and settler colonialism, past and ongoing.
This workshop will share an actionable framework for understanding reparations, and the basic concepts and skills required for successful reparative action. Participants will learn about experiments of others, discuss your own thoughts, actions, and plans, and practice applying the framework.
We will examine the patterns of behavior in Quaker meetings that may emerge around anti-racism initiatives, the beliefs that underly these behaviors, and what stops us from taking collective action.
Through resources and an online discussion forum we will explore the issue of reparative justice and relational and financial reparations.
We will gather for four live zoom sessions over a weekend, to witness where other Friends are in the process of making reparations, to learn from each other’s struggles and learnings, and to support each other in discerning our next steps in individual and corporate reparative justice.
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.
Young Friends Epistle, Sessions 2016
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July, 31st 2016
To Friends everywhere,
Twenty-three Young Friends gathered for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s 2016 Annual Sessions at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This year we welcomed many new Young Friends attending their first Young Friend gathering. We welcomed them first by introducing ourselves and learning their names, monthly meetings, pronouns, and favorite ice-cream flavors. We also did partner circles where we answered questions such as something deep about yourself that others will not know. The Nurturing Committee prepared queries for us to answer during worship sharing with our small groups. Then we went to bed to prepare for the next day.
The second day we went to intergenerational worship sharing. Then we came together as Young Friends to incorporate the theme of Annual Sessions of transforming in a workshop about conformity which we held outside. Then we checked in with the entire Yearly Meeting. After a delicious lunch, we created and identified Affinity Groups. Then the Young Friends separated to go to Affinity Groups, Committees, and Adult Workshops. During dinner, the Young Friends group “Mantis Shrimp” met and discussed what it’s like to be in the LGBTQIA community. Later in the day, we came together for “All Together Time”, a multigenerational activity to connect the Young Friends community with the larger community. Then we learned about Business Meetings from Traci Hjelt Sullivan. We practiced what we learned with a long, intense Business Meeting. We focused on Sweat Lodges and their potential cultural appropriation. We also spent time on the difficult bathroom situation, which was that only the female-identified bathroom had showers and we wanted everyone of every gender-identification to feel comfortable.
Friday, our planned hike was cancelled, due to weather, resulting in a generally open day. We played many games, including a frustrating game called Four On a Couch and Running Charades. We also completed our business meeting from the previous day, and we managed to come to unity on the bathroom matter. In the evening, we joined the adults to hear a proposal from the Undoing Racism Group and witnessed a heated discussion regarding that proposal. We debriefed the issue in small groups. Finally, Young Friends finished the day with worship sharing.
On Saturday, we began our day with the usual pattern of a healthy breakfast and a spiritual worship sharing, regarding the end of Racism and White Supremacy. Later that day, we participated in a brief workshop regarding the indigenous peoples of our land. Unfortunately, that event was cut short due to a change in the scheduling. We promptly attended a continuation of the previous day’s adults’ conversation. We reviewed what it takes to become anti-racist society and assessed that we have a long way to go. Then, led by wonderful women, a stand-in was put in place to persuade the Yearly Meeting to address the Undoing Racism Group’s proposal.
Young Friends, once again, participated in “All Together Time”. Afterwards, the Young Friends listened to a beautiful, motivational, emotional and overall amazing speech from the lovely Tonya Thames-Taylor. Many Young Friends were extremely inspired by this event and they personally thanked her later. Further into the night, Young Friends got to attend Vespers and worship sharing. Even further into the night, Young Friends got to stay up until 1:00 AM as they played games, strained hair, and gave makeovers and had a lot of fun during late night.
On Sunday, we finished up our final session of business meeting discussing the approval of this Epistle. Then we went to do more work with the Undoing Racism Group’s proposal. Later, we shared our Epistle with the wider Yearly Meeting community. We separated ways to go home and waited to meet up again.
In conclusion, we would like to thank our program Coordinator, Hannah Mayer, and all the other Friendly Presences who made this gathering possible. We would also like to thank the Yearly Meeting for supporting our program. The Young Friends have learned a lot from working with the Yearly Meeting on fighting Racism and White Supremacy. We are eagerly awaiting when we can come together again, to make an impact on Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and fight racism throughout the world. We have had a wonderful time, and it’s going to be incredibly hard to wait for next year’s Annual Sessions.
Young Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
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