COVID-19 has left many Americans in dire situations. With millions of people filing for unemployment, this pandemic has had a devastating effect on American workers struggling to survive.
Congress passed a $2 trillion stimulus package to help the American economy. It is hoped that stimulus checks recently distributed will help those struggling with sudden painful poverty most; however, for some people this is ‘found’ money – something they do not actually need.
Marcelle Martin to ground virtual PYM Annual Sessions in worship
Marcelle Martin, a member of Swarthmore Meeting, has led workshops at retreat centers and Quaker meetings across the United States. She was the resident Quaker Studies teacher at Pendle Hill for four years and is a core teacher for the 9-month program, “Nurturing Faithfulness.” On her blog, A Whole Heart, she shares inspiration to help us be all that God has created us to be. She is the author of Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey and A Guide to Faithfulness Groups. She lives in Chester, PA with her husband, Terry. [Read more…] about Announcing Virtual Annual Sessions 2020 Speakers and Performers
Photo by Miyo Moriuchi
Monthly and quarterly meeting leadership gathered for a third time on Thursday, April 9. We began our meeting at 6:30 PM with online worship. A discussion about pastoral care in our meetings followed.
Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch, as Clerk of PYM’s Ministry & Care Committee, spoke about the desire to frame the spiritual self-assessment practice and the resulting state of the meeting reports as reflecting upon the story of our meetings. She noted that we profit from each other’s stories. Through storytelling, we deepen a sense of our condition and open ourselves to greater spiritual growth. We celebrate with each other, mourn with each other, and also ask for help.
[Read more…] about Ministry and Care: April 9 Zoom Call with Clerks and Community Leaders
A snapshot of the Community Engagement Team’s work by Zachary Dutton, Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life
[Read more…] about PYM Staff Snapshot: One Month of Shelter in Place
Linell McCurry has served PYM’s community as Associate Secretary for Business & Finance for the past eight years.
COVID-19 has thrust the United States, along with the rest of the world, into a period of recession.
The last major downturn in 2008 found PYM unprepared. The yearly meeting had posted a string of operating losses that decade and depleted cash to fund deficit spending. During the slow recovery that followed the Great Recession, PYM reduced staff by half through a series of painful layoffs. Other spending declined. Operations went into the black in 2012, and the bottom line has been positive for eight consecutive years.
We believe PYM is positioned today to ride out a period of economic uncertainty and continue providing services to meetings and our communities of young, mid-life, and elderly Friends. Thanks to Friends Fiduciary’s distribution, which is based on a rolling 12-quarter average, investment income should only flatten a bit in 2020-21. We also have a cash cushion in a rebuilt operating reserve that stands at six months’ worth of operating expenses. Staff remains small, but operating efficiencies and an embrace of technology allow us to provide as much or more service as in earlier years, all while spending less. PYM’s total expenses in FY 2019 were $200,000 less than its FY 2012 spending.
PYM has been working remotely since Monday, March 16. In the two prior weeks, as we prepared to work from home in the event of COVID-19-related limits on non-essential activity, PYM:
The staff has adjusted to working from home amazingly well, and everyone is being paid their full wages.
The work of streamlining and automation has been in service of the broader community. For the March quarter just ended, more than one-third of PYM’s monthly meetings have been sent a check for gifts made to them on PYM’s website, a service where PYM absorbs the costs and remits 100% of the contribution. PYM offers meetings Zoom support, and 115 Friends of all ages worshiped together by Zoom on March 28.
PYM’s General Secretary, Christie Duncan-Tessmer, concluded that meeting by saying PYM wanted to create “an architecture of love in community” Everyone at home was joined across the geography of multiple states, and we shared spirit among us.
Dear Friends,
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and after careful discernment, the Sessions Coordinating Committee and the yearly meeting clerking team have thoughtfully and carefully decided that this year’s Annual Sessions (July 29 – August 2, 2020) will move to a virtual space in order to preserve the care and well-being of our community.
Although sadly we will not be together in a physical sense, there are many exciting opportunities before us for a spirit-led, fellowship-filled, and fun Annual Sessions. With blessings and support from the Sessions Coordinating Committee, members of the Community Engagement Team have begun looking at our options and capabilities to offer workshops as interactive video ‘gatherings’ online or at future events.
We will have more to share in the coming weeks. Be well and be safe, Friends.
Questions?
Dear Friends,
This is a check-in to see how you and your meeting are doing in these unique times. The physical distancing required by the Covid-19 pandemic has created unexpected opportunities for discerning how to feel connected when physical contact is not possible. Some meetings are also struggling with how to complete their Spiritual State of the Meeting Report given the challenges of Covid-19. We offer some guidance here. [Read more…] about Ministry & Care Letter to Our Meetings
When planning for Saturday, March 28 and youth programs at Spring Continuing Sessions took an unexpected turn with COVID-19, it didn’t take long for staff to shift gears and think about what is important when we gather in our youth communities, and how to recreate that same energy in a virtual setting. Both Middle School Friends and Young Friends gathered virtually during the weekend of March 28-29 using Zoom. MSF brought the positive middle school energy and their typical warm welcome to a gathering with both new staff members and new faces among the youth participants. Young Friends used two meetings to do much of what they usually engage in at gatherings: fun and fellowship, committee work, meeting for business, worship, and loving one another in community. [Read more…] about Youth Programs Zooming!
At 9:45 on Saturday March 28th, Friends began logging into our PYM all All Ages Sessions Worship. By 9:48 we had 50 people; four minutes later we reached 78; and finally we reached 115. Friends used the chat function for helpful messages about how to manage the technology and offered their greetings. Computer screens were filled with images of Friends everywhere, and some five or six friends also called in by phone. It was wonderful for Friends to see everyone.
Jonathan Rhoads, Alternate Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM), welcomed the community to PYM’s virtual joining in Worship. We were meeting under conditions of physical distancing imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but our virtual community is strong and growing.
Melinda Wenner Bradley, PYM’s Youth Religious Life Coordinator, offered her own message of welcome to the all-ages gathering. She noted that whether families were worshiping in Zoom at their meetings, or together at home, we were all connected by spirit. She reminded friends that even as some hearts may be heavy with our condition, when children are present Friends can be mindful of lightening that weight.
Soon afterwards, we heard, in a humble acknowledgement, that today’s gathering place is part of the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape; land where Lenape Tribal Nations people have continuing presence and relationship with their territory. We affirmed the aspiration of harmony between the Lenape people of this land and early Quakers.
Outside many of our homes rain fell, and the sky promised that the land would not suffer drought.
Friends shared several messages of Spirit and hope during the hour of worship. It is Friends’ practice not to record vocal ministry so we’ll simply capture here that the messages included a prayer, a hymn, a biblical passage and gave some shape to the practical and spiritual experience of being in this time.
Melanie Douty Snipes and Johnathan Snipes broke worship with the song “Give me Oil in My Lamp.” It was remarkable to see some 100 faces singing together at one time. After a second song, “Jubilate Deo,” Melanie and Jonathan closed with the African-American Spiritual “Every Time I Feel the Spirit.”
Christie Duncan-Tessmer, PYM’s General Secretary, then concluded our Spring Continuing Sessions with a statement that we Friends of PYM create an “architecture of love in community” when we are together. She offered; “what a joy it is for us to be with one-another in this way. This day has been a perfect illustration of what a yearly meeting is and can be. Each of us–from our home spaces–are joining across the geography of multiple states; we share spirit among us. As we walk across the larger world – we are here together. Be well!”
A group of Friends continued to share their reflections in conversation at the rise of meeting via the zoom call. Friends were reminded that virtual events can be posted on the PYM website and were also invited to log in to other Friends’ Zoom Meetings for Worship as they wish.
Melinda Wenner Bradley noted that Middle School Friends are doing a virtual hangout later today and Young Friends are continuing with their virtual meetings and sharing digital space as well. All Virtual Events are listed on the community calendar at pym.org/virtual-events/
PYM is launching a new digital program of Wednesday Evening Worship for Children and Families at 7:30 each week.
Meg Rose, our Young Adult Friends Coordinator, noted by Zoom chat that Young Adult Friends meet for worship each Thursday.
Friends with pastoral care needs can email our Care and Aging Coordinator George Schaefer.
With rain still falling in the background, our Zoom call closed at 11:50.
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