Friends across our yearly meeting have been sharing about the trees they are planting on PYM Connect!
An initiative launched on Earth Day. We hoped that Friends, individually and collectively with their local and quarterly meetings, would plant 381 trees by the Climate Witness Thread Gathering on October 25.
How did we get 381 trees as our goal?
The Climate Witness Thread Gathering will take place the day after William Penn’s 381st birthday. Penn’s legacy of land stewardship, rooted in his Quaker faith, inspired us to set a goal that honors this connection—381 trees for 381 years.
Our Outstanding Progress as a Yearly Meeting
Friends have planted willow, pine, oak, and many other types of trees in their homes, meetings, and neighborhoods. With less than a tenth of our timeline complete, Friends have already demonstrated the value and urgency of living into our testimony of stewardship. Together, we are continuing our collective witness in addressing climate change.
The immediacy of this response reflects a truth long known in our community: the legacy of land care is deeply rooted in our practice. Friends in this region do not separate themselves from the natural world. With that of God in each person, we also recognize the beauty and truth in the land around us. No matter which meeting we belong to, or how and where our spirituality speaks to us, as a body of more than 100 local meetings across New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, we remain committed to nurturing, healing, and contributing to the wellbeing of our shared environment.
Friends are encouraged to continue to monitor the progress on PYM Connect! As a result, we are considering raising our target number of trees as we build toward the Climate Witness Thread Gathering. With a theme of Let Our Actions Speak, Friends—you already have.
Keep posting about the trees you’ve planted on PYM Connect Trees so we can continue to update our progress. Be sure to share photos, too! And if you haven’t yet, encourage Friends from your meeting to sign up for PYM Connect and be part of this initiative.
