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
Young Adult Friends
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.
Young Adult Friends Social Gathering, Following Fall Continuing Sessions
You’re invited! Calling all Young Adult Friends (18-35) to join the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting at the Historic Arch Street Meeting House on November 11th during Fall Continuing Sessions. In this season of sharing and giving, we will focus on sharing our gifts in community and our peace testimony. We are thrilled for Young Adult Friends to share their thoughts and contributions throughout the weekend’s programs with the larger body of the yearly meeting.
Then, Young Adult Friends will meet at the rise of the Fall Continuing Sessions in the East Room of the Arch Street Meeting House for a social gathering. We will enjoy pizza together, and this will be a chance for us to be in each other’s company following the day’s programs.
Please dress warmly, bring games, and join us to celebrate the fall weather with your fellow friends. Register below! RSVPs are encouraged, but not required.
Registration and Dietary Restrictions/Allergies
AFSC Meeting for Worship with Attention to Peace in Palestine and Israel
The Quaker Engagement Office of the American Friends Service Committee invites you to join us in a Meeting for Worship with attention to peace in Palestine and Israel. This is a time for Friends to come together in worship and solidarity as we grapple with the tragic events and lives lost as a result of ongoing conflict. Please share this invitation with your meeting or church and members of your community.
Young Adult Friend Alex Emmert Shares Experience With Quakerism and Annual Sessions
We sat down with 19 yr. old Young Adult Friend, Alex Emmert to find out what drew him to Quakerism from his upbringing as Baptist, what he enjoyed most about Annual Sessions and what he is looking forward to seeing from Quakers in the next decade. Alex shares his personal, truthful experiences with Quakerism and insights on outreach to other young adults seeking solid spiritual grounding. [Read more…] about Young Adult Friend Alex Emmert Shares Experience With Quakerism and Annual Sessions
What’s Up with Young Adults?
Presbyterian author and theologian Frederick Buechner writes,
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep needs meet.”
Greg Woods opened a workshop with this quote when young adults from across the yearly meeting gathered at Haverford Friends Meeting in early May. During our time together, young adults supported each other in deep discernment around who we are called to be in the world. The Spring retreat was the first overnight retreat since the pandemic shutdown in early 2020, and from the strong attendance and thoughtful reviews shared after, it is clear the young adult community hungers to gather, go deeper in Spirit, and learn from each other.
2020 Poor People’s Campaign: A 52 Year History Renewed
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
Trenton Meeting of Friends Approves a Minute in Support of the 2020 Poor People’s Campaign
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has partnered with the American Friends Service Committee to support local community organizing around the Poor People’s Campaign. The Quaker Life Council minuted an endorsement of the Poor People’s Campaign alongside our Young Adult Friends community. Both bodies invited monthly meetings to endorse the campaign as well. Trenton Meeting of Friends has recently approved an endorsement, which was forwarded to us recently: