The Friends Counseling Service (FCS) serves members and attenders of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) who are in search for guidance, comfort, and assistance. This service offers accessible mental health care to Friends across PYM with counselors providing individual therapy, couples counseling, and family therapy sessions. We connected with Janaki Spickard Keeler, Friends Counseling Service Coordinator, who provided additional insight into the service by answering some key questions.
Young Adult Friends
Where Two or Three are Gathered–Young Adult Friends International Gathering
Join an international group of Young Adult Quakers (18-35) to explore how we are transformed and gathered together by the Spirit.
We are pretty sure that our gathering won’t look like the painting above! However, we do want to explore what The Presence in the Midst (painted at Jordans over a century ago) could mean for us today. Is it just an old-fashioned image or does it have a connection to our lives? What would this experience of the living Christ in our midst, transforming and guiding us, be like today? What empowered earlier Friends to witness and suffer with such audacity, and how might we encounter that same source of hope and light?
Join Oxford Young Adult Friends and other young Quakers and seekers from across the Quaker world for this time of renewal, worship, fun, and exploration.
Accommodation will be at a Friendly budget rate, and we will be preparing our own meals. Kitchen access and eating areas are available at the Jordans Quaker Centre. The Centre is easily accessible by train or underground (just half an hour) from London. It’s surrounded by beautiful open areas for hikes and country walks. To apply for financial assistance to attend this YAF gathering please see the PYM link below. Note: This assistance is limited and the application must be received by June 1, 2024.
Travel & Witness Grant Application
Please consider making this journey to join us and see how the Spirit is moving among young adult Friends today, in Britain and further afield. The daily schedule is still to be discerned; we will join local Friends for worship on the Sunday morning.
Asma’s First FGC Gathering Story
May 19, 2023
by Joan Botto, (first published on the Friends General Conference website)
Asma arrived at her first Gathering in 2022 after driving 10 hours with Friends from her monthly meeting in Florida to Radford University in Virginia. [Read more…] about Asma’s First FGC Gathering Story
Young Adult Friends Pizza Social Gathering, Following Spring Continuing Sessions
Calling young adult Friends ages 18-35 to bring your voices to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for Spring Continuing Sessions. As a multigenerational body of Friends, PYM is Called to Healing — healing ourselves, our local communities, and our world. At Spring Continuing Sessions, we will begin a year-long exploration of what healing means to us as Friends. We are thrilled for you to contribute throughout the weekend’s programs. Be sure to register online and view the full schedule.
On Saturday, following the afternoon program, young adult Friends who have gathered at the historic Arch Street Meeting House (see other regional locations, too!), are invited to meet up in the East Room for a social gathering! This will be a chance for us to wrap up the day in each other’s company with fellowship and pizza!
Registration and Dietary Restrictions/Allergies
Why I go to Friends General Conference (FGC) Gathering
In 2000 I attended my first FGC Gathering in Rochester, NY. My daughter had been campaigning to go, and it was the last year she could be in the High School Program (which got rave reviews from her PYM friends), AND I had grown up in the Rochester Friends Meeting. I took a workshop on spiritual growth where we had prayer partners and shared deeply with each other. I felt so nurtured that I was able to take a big step in my personal life. We planned to go back the following year. [Read more…] about Why I go to Friends General Conference (FGC) Gathering
FGC Changing Times Conference
Registration is open for the January 18-21 2024 online FGC Changing Times Conference – In these changing times, how is spirit moving among us?
Come and together we will see where Spirit leads us as we seek deeper connection to Spirit, explore next steps in becoming an actively antiracist faith community, see what structures will support the Religious Society of Friends, and hear from younger Friends as they consider the future. Join us and we will grow together.
Westtown Monthly Meeting Statement on the Shooting of Palestinian Students
November 27, 2023
Westtown Monthly Meeting is holding in the Light Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid, and Tahseen Ahmed – the three Palestinian students who were the victims of a senseless gun attack in Burlington, Vermont, the evening of November 25, 2023. [Read more…] about Westtown Monthly Meeting Statement on the Shooting of Palestinian Students
Gest Fellowship at Haverford College Libraries
Quaker & Special Collections at Haverford College is now accepting applications for its 2024-2025 short-term fellowship programs. [Read more…] about Gest Fellowship at Haverford College Libraries
A Look Back at 2023 Fall Continuing Sessions
It was a brisk Saturday morning on November 11th as Friends gathered at Arch Street Meeting house in Philadelphia from all over the PYM network of meetinghouses for our 2023 Fall Continuing Sessions. [Read more…] about A Look Back at 2023 Fall Continuing Sessions
Meetinghouse by Candlelight
Arch Street Meeting House’s annual winter program, Meetinghouse by Candlelight, returns this holiday season on Friday, December 1st, 2023!
Step back into the 19th Century this winter at Arch Street Meeting House! On the First Friday of December, get into the holiday spirit with crafts, raffles, and light fare. Keep an eye for William Penn himself wandering about and listen to enchanting performances from the talented students from local Quaker schools.
Musical performances include students from the George School, Frankford Friends School, Media-Providence Friends School, and Germantown Friends School.
Complimentary light fare will be provided, and drinks courtesy of Yards Brewing Co.
Support provided by Yards Brewing Co, Conshocken Brewing, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.
