Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Young Adult Friends

Young Adult Friends Beach Day!

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Young adult F/friends and seekers (ages 18-35) will be gathering at Brigantine Beach in New Jersey to celebrate the summer with a Beach Day on Saturday, June 20th. You can meet us at the beach and there will be carpools departing from Arch Street Meeting House at 10 a.m.!

Bring a F/friend or two, let’s have a great day!

Please bring your own brown paper bag lunch and any food or snacks you’d like to share with F/friends. Please bring all the food and water you’ll need for the day with you.

Register Below

Please note that this is a program for YAFs, and you must be between the ages of 18 through 35 to participate.

The young adult F/friends community is one that shares collective responsibility toward the care and support of the community. This means that responsibilities with the logistics, cleaning, and taking care of public spaces is shared among all F/friends. Each F/friend is expected to contribute to help with the tasks that come up throughout the day.

We’re excited for this day in the sun together, which will be an incredible opportunity to spend time in community with each other!

Don’t forget your sunscreen, towels, beach chairs, umbrellas, boogie boards, paddle balls, etc.!

Beach Day Registration

Name(Required)
Carpool(Required)
All carpools, whether you need a ride or are able to give a ride, will depart at 10 a.m. from Arch Street Meeting House.

Young Adult Friends: Spring Potluck & Game Night!

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Calling Young Adult Friends and Seekers (ages 18-35) to gather for a Spring Potluck and Game Night

Saturday, May 16th beginning at 5pm in Richboro, PA.

The address will be shared with you as we get closer to the date of the event. In the registration form below, please note what dish or beverage you will be bringing to the potluck, and any food allergies/restrictions you may have.

  • Bring a dish and a game you want to share.
  • The closest public transportation is from the Warminster Train Station (Regional Rail). Please note in your registration if you will need a pick up from there or if you need to be connected to the carpool list.
  • Please note that there WILL be alcohol present at this event. We have included the YAF Alcohol Policy below.

“The Young Adults Friends community of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting accepts that alcohol consumption may occur at select social events (such as a happy hour or quiz night.) Any such social event will be open and welcoming to all YAFs throughout our age range (18-35), regardless of whether or not YAFs are able or choose to consume alcohol. All attendees are expected to follow the law; those under 21 will not consume alcohol at YAF events. The YAF community will work together to hold each other accountable and maintain a safe, responsible, and respectful social environment. As we continue to deepen our fellowship with one another, we can use this policy to grow a Young Adult Friends community that is inclusive, safe, and intentional.”

If you have any questions, please email Claire Kinnel at ckinnel@pym.org.

Potluck Registration Form

Name(Required)

Opportunities for Young Adults with Quaker Organizations

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The American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Emerging Leaders for Liberation Program and the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s (FCNL) Advocacy Corps program are taking applications from young adults who are interested in community organizing or federal policy work.

FCNL’s Advocacy Corps pays young adults ages 19 to 30 to organize their communities around federal legislation over ten months; the upcoming cohort will focus on health care access and nutrition assistance. Applications are open until March 2.

Follow this link to learn more about FCNL’s Advocacy Corps: https://www.fcnl.org/act/young-adult-advocates/advocacy-corps

AFSC’s Emerging Leaders for Liberation program accepts applicants ages 18 to 22 who have a connection to an AFSC program, a Quaker meeting, a Quaker organization, or a Quaker college; participants attend two in-person gathering and also join monthly virtual meetings, The application deadline is March 8.

Follow this link to learn more about AFSC’s Emerging Leaders for Liberation Programs: https://afsc.org/programs/emerging-leaders-liberation

[Read more…] about Opportunities for Young Adults with Quaker Organizations

YAF Spring Retreat: Sex and Sexuality (Young Adult, 18-35)

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Spring Retreat: Sex and Sexuality and Quakerism

April 17th – 19th | 6:00 p.m. Fri. – 12:00 p.m. Sun.

Newtown Friends Meeting | 219 Court Street. Newtown, PA 18940

Calling the Young Adult F/friends community (ages 18-35)

Register

This is an overnight event, and we will be staying at Newtown Friends Meeting on Friday and Saturday night.  Don’t forget to pack your sleeping bags, pillows, clothes, necessary bathroom items, medications, and anything else you might need!

If you are not able to stay overnight, we invite you to join us instead on Saturday! It is also okay if you are only able to come on Friday or Sunday. Please let us know in the registration that you will be staying for only part of the retreat so we can plan meals accordingly!

This will be a time for fellowship, worship sharing, and community building. Young Adult Friends will participate in a workshop, small groups, and other activities touching on sex and sexuality and the ways they intertwine with our lives and Quakerism. There will be time for worship throughout the weekend ending with us joining Newtown Friends Meeting on Sunday.

The cost for this event is $40. The fees help to offset the costs of food, activities, and the honoraria for the facilitators. If this cost is at all prohibitive, please reach out to Claire Kinnel at ckinnel@pym.org. There is scholarship money available.

This will be a mask optional event. We will prepare all our meals together. We will be sleeping on the floor of the Meeting House. Please email ckinnel@pym.org if you have any accommodation needs.

Community Expectations:

The Young Adult F/friends community is a collaborative community where we share responsibility and work together to support each of our gatherings. This means, each F/friend is expected to support making and setting up meals, cleaning up dishes and shared areas, collecting and disposing of trash, organizing spaces and activities to their original layout, and other such responsibilities. We welcome each F/friend contributing to the collective work of the Young Adult community in ways that feel comfortable and accessible. We share responsibility to align with our Quaker values of community and service, and to ensure that the task of tending to our community is distributed fairly among F/friends.

Registration closes Wednesday, April 15th, 2026. 

Register

The Drinkers & Prisoners of Congress at Arch Street Meeting House

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Norman E. Donoghue, II, will discuss his book, Prisoners of Congress: Philadelphia’s Quakers in Exile, 1777-1778, and Philadelphia Quaker, Henry Drinker, during the American Revolution on March 19, 2026, at ASMH.

  • 5:30 PM – Refreshments

  • 6:30 PM – Keynote Speaker: Norman E. Donoghue, II, Prisoners of Congress: Philadelphia’s Quakers in Exile, 1777-1778

  • 7:30 PM – Book Signing: Author Norman E. Donoghue, II will be available for questions and book signings.

In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who would not take up arms in support of the War of Independence as “the most Dangerous Enemies America knows” and ordered Pennsylvania and Delaware to apprehend them. In response, Keystone State officials sent twenty men—seventeen of whom were Quakers—into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for a year.

Prisoners of Congress reconstructs this moment in American history through the experiences of four families: the Drinkers, the Fishers, the Pembertons, and the Gilpins. Identifying them as the new nation’s first political prisoners, Norman E. Donoghue II relates how the Quakers, once the preeminent power in Pennsylvania and an integral constituency of the colonies and early republic, came to be reviled by patriots who saw refusal to fight the English as borderline sedition.

Surprising, vital, and vividly told, this narrative of political and literal warfare waged by the United States against a pacifist religious group during the Revolutionary War era sheds new light on an essential aspect of American history. It will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the nation’s founding.

Continuing Revolution 2026 (Young Adults!)

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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. 

Get notified when registration opens

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Collaborating Organizations

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. 

National Adult Young Friends Midwinter Gathering

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Join us for a national midwinter gathering for young adult Friends, Feb. 13-16, 2026 at Camp Onas, PA!  This retreat is organized by the adult young Friends community of Friends General Conference, and it welcomes Quakers and the Quaker-curious between the ages of 18-35.

 

The theme of the gathering is Quilting Community. There will be  lots of time spent nurturing f/Friendship: breaking bread together, joining for worship, board games, workshops, exploring nature, evening chats, and celebration! Our programming will focus on how the community we quilt together—how we treat, welcome, and organize ourselves in a shared space—seeds a vision for the future of Quakerism. Whether this is your first time in a Quaker space or your one-hundredth, this gathering is for you!

 

Learn more and register here: https://lucemel.mmm.page/ayfmidwinter.

YAF Winter Potluck

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Calling Young Adult Friends and Seekers (ages 18-35) to gather for our Winter Potluck on Saturday, December 13, beginning at 5:00 p.m. in Delaware County, PA.

The address will be shared with you as we get closer to the date of the event. In the registration form, please note what dish or beverage you will be bringing to the potluck, and any food allergies/restrictions you may have.

  • Please do NOT bring any food with peanuts or tree nuts.
  • Please note that there WILL be alcohol present at this event. We have included the YAF Alcohol Policy below.
    • “The Young Adults Friends community of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting accepts that alcohol consumption may occur at select social events (such as a happy hour or quiz night.) Any such social event will be open and welcoming to all YAFs throughout our age range (18-35), regardless of whether or not YAFs are able or choose to consume alcohol. All attendees are expected to follow the law; those under 21 will not consume alcohol at YAF events. The YAF community will work together to hold each other accountable and maintain a safe, responsible, and respectful social environment. As we continue to deepen our fellowship with one another, we can use this policy to grow a Young Adult Friends community that is inclusive, safe, and intentional.”

If you have any questions, please email Claire Kinnel at ckinnel@pym.org.

 

Register Here!

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