Philadelphia Yearly Meeting held its 344th annual sessions last weekend, July 6-7. Friends gathered both on Zoom and at Haverford College for worship, business, and fellowship. Please read this story for more information about this year’s sessions, and the minutes are now posted and available.
During Sunday’s business meeting, Melissa Rycroft, our presiding clerk, made an announcement that had not been included on the advance agenda. Melissa announced that PYM’s General Secretary, Christie Duncan-Tessmer, intends to step down from her role in July 2025. Melissa also informed us that the Quaker Life, Administrative, and Nominating Councils will be working together to form a Search Committee. Further details about this transition and the next steps will be shared after the next meeting of the councils in two weeks.
The epistle – an outgoing letter about our sessions to Friends everywhere – was approved as the last order of business. Before sharing the epistle, a member of the committee shared a limerick about the writing process:
There once were five Children of Light
Who had a good summary to write.
They wrote an epistle,
Then let out a whistle,
Saying, we think that this one’s alright!
Greetings to our beloved Friends around the World,
We send you this epistle from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s 344th Annual Sessions. This year’s unusual sessions, which met June 25 (online) and July 6 and 7 (hybrid) on the Haverford College campus, were arranged to embrace the celebrations of George Fox’s 400th birthday at the historic Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia and Friends General Conference Gathering, also held at Haverford College.
“Called to Healing” was the theme this year. In four Bible Studies held online during June, each facilitator focused on the theme and a call to action to experience the Spirit. We need each other and, if we falter, there is a path to create listening and forgiveness. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (KJV).
Empowerment was a thread that wove through all three sessions of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business. Addressing racism is one of two corporate witnesses adopted by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. By acting together, we are empowered to witness, notice and then change the many patterns of racism here at Annual Sessions, in our homes, at our Meetings, and in our hearts and actions. It is crucial to listen closely to Friends of color, who may spot these serious, pervasive, and divisive issues. We commit to addressing the structures and patterns of white supremacy and racism wherever they exist.
The second corporate witness Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has adopted is the call to every person, every household, and every Monthly Meeting in the Yearly Meeting to address the climate crisis. A serious yet hopeful report from the Yearly Meeting’s Climate Witness Stewards was received with gratitude. In particular, Creating a Playbook for Climate Action (a Power Point presentation and workbook available for download on our website) offers guidance on ways to counter the climate crisis. We were shown a calculator that tallied the carbon dioxide emissions from the food choices we make. We learned that if all Friends attending Annual Sessions were to adopt a plant-based diet instead of a meat lovers’ diet, our CO2 emissions would drop by tons. Temperatures nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) outside our air-conditioned auditorium kept us mindful that our immediate action is needed.
Reports of the spiritual state of the Monthly Meetings provided uplift in their many approaches to worship, spiritual growth, community, and social action. This uplift had to be weighed against the dwindling participation at Annual Sessions and the many unfilled openings on Yearly Meeting committees and many committees in the wider Quaker community.
Urgent minutes from two Quarterly Meetings mourned the death and destruction from the conflict in Israel/Palestine. Reports from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Middle East Collaborative, a committee that has for many years studied the increasing tensions there, sought to empower us with further education, multiple resources and accurate information to inspire create thoughtful action and more involvement.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has implemented five strategic directions, one of them includes a focus on deepening worship and discernment as empowering and foundational practices for Quakers. As we talked of connection and acting on one’s leadings, one Friend noted that “brave spaces are more important than safe spaces.”
Before both Annual Sessions and Friends General Conference Gathering, there was a joyful celebration of George Fox’s 400th birthday held at the historic Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia. A Spirit-ed discussion called “Fox Forward” brought together four Friends in leadership positions who explored radical solutions to continuing concerns throughout Philadelphia Yearly Meeting: envisioning the future of faith, of Friends’ witness, and of propelling justice forward in a war-torn world. An “Angel of Merging” was one novel idea introduced to help address concern for the many small meetings with declining membership. Quaker Peace Teams presented the “Power of Goodness” workshop emboldening people to act from love, hope, and conscience.
At the hot All Together Meeting for Worship Sunday morning, almost one hundred Friends were in the room and some thirty-five individuals and six Monthly Meetings were on Zoom. The Spirit of all the Friends who have ministered in the historic Haverford Meeting House surrounded us. Vocal ministry rose up about our spiritual awakenings, about non-theist Friends, about the danger we are facing in our political lives, about moving out of our “silos” and joining with others, and about being more “weird,” stepping forward into our testimonies.
In the final Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, Friends were asked to consider what the essential aspects of Monthly Meetings were. Worship, work, meals, communications, children, diversity, cooperation, respect, friendship, recognizing gifts, and financial support are all part of a vibrant Meeting.
The General Secretary described two key tools available to Monthly Meetings and individual Friends: sprints and collaboratives. Sprints are short-term, focused committees that address a given concern and invite more people into the process. A collaborative grows out of an interest of two or more Monthly Meetings, who then join to work on that shared interest. Both sprints and collaboratives have access to resources and support from the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting staff and the larger community.
We are a strong group of committed Friends, sharing our joys and concerns, our work and worship. And we send to you, Friends around the world, this epistle sharing how the Light moved among us at our 344th Annual Sessions.
