When the afternoon sunshine softens and the crickets take over for the cicada chorus, I know it’s back to school time. The former classroom teacher in me feels the tug to get ready for the new year, and of course in meetings we may be getting ready to welcome children and youth back from summer adventures to school-year routines. One of the ideas I’m thinking about a lot is rethinking “First Day School” — both that language and the scholastic model. It’s not “the way we’ve always done things” as Friends, and the interruptions of the pandemic continue to create opportunities for new ways of exploring, listening, and being community in our meetings. Join me for a conversation on this! Below you’ll find resources for Fall and events for conversation, service, and fellowship.
[Read more…] about Religious Education Resources & Events for Fall
Communications & Outreach
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Epistle for Annual Sessions 2022
Annual Sessions 2022 gathered Friends from across the PYM four-state region and beyond. Visitors from other yearly meetings and Quaker organizations were warmly welcomed. Following yearly meetings’ annual gatherings, outgoing epistles “to all Friends everywhere” are shared widely in our global Quaker community. (You can read others from 2022, some of which were read during our Sessions, posted here on the FWCC website.) Shared below are links to this year’s epistles from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Please read and share widely, especially with Friends who might not have attended Annual Sessions. The epistle committee seeks to capture what occurred during our time together and how Spirit moved among us. [Read more…] about Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Epistle for Annual Sessions 2022
State of the Meeting Reports, 2021-2022
Spiritual State of the Meeting reports give all of us a glimpse into the communities of meetings in our Yearly Meeting. Together, they create a tapestry that tells the story of our yearly meeting in the last year; a vibrant community engaged in spiritual formation and witness across four states and many experiences of the Spirit. When we are together in residence at an Annual Sessions gathering, there is a thick book with the collected ‘State of the Meeting’ reports. During the years we have gathered online, the special joy of leafing through those printed reports has needed a new model. This year, we again created a virtual “book” of all of the reports. You can access them in this news story and they will also be published in a booklet following Annual Sessions.
In the Light: The Yearly Meeting’s Print Newsletter
Earlier this month, we sent out a print newsletter to Friends in the yearly meeting. We plan to send out a print issue of the newsletter quarterly. This issue of the newsletter illustrates a new way in which our yearly meeting has been called—and our faithful response to it—the call to witness against racism. You can read it online. [Read more…] about In the Light: The Yearly Meeting’s Print Newsletter
An Urgent Call to the Religious Society of Friends
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has endorsed the following Urgent Call to the Religious Society of Friends. This call to action was authored by an ad hoc group of nineteen Friends, more than half of whom are from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. In it they share that they see forces at work in our country that undermine some of our basic values: equality of all people, truth-telling, and deep listening.
Christie Duncan-Tessmer, PYM’s General Secretary says, “This call represents our Quaker faith in action: It expresses Truth as discerned in the discipline of relationship and prayer; it calls all to examine how this revelation can lead them to witness and act. It offers us all fellowship on a challenging journey.”
[Read more…] about An Urgent Call to the Religious Society of Friends
Yardley Quakers Step Outside for Spiritual Growth and Medicinal Herbal Gardening
This summer, the Friends at Yardley Meeting (Bucks Quarter) are building a labyrinth and a set of raised bed gardens on the grounds of the meetinghouse. The community is committed to create a space for meditation, and to provide a growing site for medicinal herbs to be shared with the Singularity Botanicals supplying health-related products to the Chester, PA community. [Read more…] about Yardley Quakers Step Outside for Spiritual Growth and Medicinal Herbal Gardening
Birmingham Meeting Has a New Sign
Birmingham Meeting needed a new sign as the old wooden one was deteriorated and so small as to be difficult to read by the ever faster traffic on Birmingham Rd. We were concerned that the old style sign made us look like museum rather than a living and active faith community. [Read more…] about Birmingham Meeting Has a New Sign
Workshop Saturday: Growing Our Meetings: Two Models and The Resources We Need
In this series of stories, we’ll highlight the workshops being offered on Workshop Saturday, June 25. Sessions Coordinating Committee and staff experimented this year with offering a one-day online event that includes five workshops on different topics of interest to Friends in our yearly meeting. We will gather and listen deeply together on a day of connection, learning, and meaningful conversations.
Read on to learn more about the facilitators and intentions of this Workshop Spotlight, and register for a workshop by Thursday, June 23.
[Read more…] about Workshop Saturday: Growing Our Meetings: Two Models and The Resources We Need
First Contact Reconciliation Update
Honor The Promise Campaign (Treaty of Amity: Perpetual Peace and Friendship)
Based on mutual attendance, Honor the Promise yard signs were taken to the 41st Annual Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Powwow, held at the Salem County Fairgrounds. Friends will be keeping alive the story of perpetual peace and friendship. Who is represented by this sacred wampum belt treaty; which rivers represent Lenapehoking; when might the yard signs be displayed? These and more relative inquiries are perpetuating The Treaty of Amity ‘story by the following monthly meetings: Atlantic City Area, Chestnut Hill, Kendal, London Grove, Woodbury, Woodstown; as well as Friends School Mullica Hill and Burlington Meetinghouse; and by request, gifted to the Native American Church/ St John UMC (Fordville) and Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation. [Read more…] about First Contact Reconciliation Update
Quaker College Fair, Vision & Renewal
The Quaker College Fair is for students interested in Quaker values-based higher education. Students in High School from across the country were invited to attend a series of conversations and panels held in March and April 0f 2022 to ask questions, meet current Quaker college students and reps, and get to know other Quaker(ish) students. [Read more…] about Quaker College Fair, Vision & Renewal
