At the 2018 Annual Sessions this year, there will be a booth during free time and dinner time on Thursday and Friday where Resource Friends will be available to talk with you about their work and what they might be able to support for you and your meeting. They will also be offering workshops on Friday and Saturday. Resource Friends help our community thrive by providing support in specific areas of concern in our monthly and quarterly meetings. They offer a diversity of gifts and an extensive “how-to” knowledge-base. [Read more…] about Resource Friends at Annual Sessions!
Quaker Life Council
39th Annual Nanticoke Lenape Powwow
The 39th Annual Nanticoke Lenape Powwow held on the Salem County Fairgrounds June 9th and 10th may now enter into history. Pow-Wow, from the Wampanoag Indian word “pauwau,” refers to a gathering, conducted by a holy man/ medicine man, to heal the souls and bodies for his people. In western states and Canada, it is a time for hunting, feasting, ceremonies, trading, friendly competitions. Today, these two ideas in combination are representative of the Powwow as well as an opportunity for Native Americans to reach out to share their culture with non-natives.
Chief Mark Quiet Hawk Gould commented in part, to “All My Relations and Supporters… Since 2012 we have been under attack by the NJ state government trying to break our spirit. Not because we did something wrong but because they wrongly think we might want something (casinos) that we have proven we believe is against our spiritual values. We must continue to help one another, like our families before us; support our youth and help them to advance; teach our history, teach survival, teach respect and spirituality…Whatever happens in the courts, whatever the verdict we hope will come soon…we have won!”
By invitation, the Salem Quarter Indian Affairs Committee was present with a table display. Ensuing conversations highlighted the booklet by Pastor JR Norwood (Nanticoke-Lenape), “We Are Still Here”; the work of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition; Toward Right Relations with Indigenous Peoples, workshops by invitation; and Mickleton MM’s last of their Series Toward Radical Justice and Fearless Faithfulness (set for Sept. 16 at rise of fellowship ~11:30.) An additional handout featured all 7 of our SQ meetings’ addresses and times for worship; the reverse side showed our SQ Minute of Support for the Nanticoke-Lenape Tribal Nation toward Reaffirmation by the state of NJ.
The 6-hour fundraising effort raised over $60 for the Nanticoke-Lenape Tribal Nation and priceless stories. In conversation, we were one step away from friends of F(f)riends, perhaps you know a few of them too: Lisa Garrison, Judy Suplee, Peggy (Colson) Warner, Mary Waddington, Thompson family, Mary Crauderueff, Arla Patch, Christie Duncan-Tessmer, Mary Ellen McNish, Donna Boyle (Choctaw-Cherokee descendant), Mary Ann Robins (Onondaga/Seneca), Sandra Cianciulli (Oglala Lakota), Jeremy Newman, Cara Blume. Add to the personal connections, the Opening Ceremonies; Tribal Prayer Circle Ministry; Royalty; dances (Fancy/ Shawl, Grass, Traditional, Jingle, round, Sneak-Up, Snake, Rabbit/Two-Step, Ribbon, Hoop); birds of prey and a car show; it takes two days to just begin to experience the beauty.
So, find your calendar now…mark the second weekend in June for the Annual Nanticoke-Lenape Powwow! See you for the 40th, June 2019!
Youth Programs, Give Feedback on Vision & Mission
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The Proposal
- This group should meet no less than 4 times per year, and be available for consultation as needed with the Youth Engagement Coordinator
- Support the staff and volunteers in carrying out the mission and vision of the PYM youth programs
- Serve as a sounding board for Youth Engagement Coordinator
- Ongoing evaluation of the MSF and YF guidelines to ensure that they still meet the needs of the group and serve to support the vision and mission of youth programs
- Support the organization and coordination of Youth Resource Friends
- Consult with Administrative Council on any matters related to Youth Program staff
- Provide policy guidance for staff and volunteers throughout the yearly meeting, including those related to child safety
- Assisting with communication between youth programming and various communities within the YM
- Regularly evaluate that the YM youth programs are supporting the Strategic Directions of the YM and that programs are serving the needs of youth (recommend surveying youth who are involved and those not involved to identify areas of improvement)
PYM Staff Join National Walk Out Day
Quakers in our region have a long history of concern about gun violence. Individual monthly meetings and the yearly meeting have approved minutes and spoken with lawmakers about it. A campaign that grew out of PYM peace work successfully closed a Philadelphia gun shop with a tremendous reputation and record for straw purchases. At this time when the youth of our nation are taking leadership on addressing gun violence we have opportunities for joining them and for learning and action.
Today, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting staff who were moved to do so joined youth across the country in a national walk out. At 10 AM, PYM staff stood with students from Friends Select School and others in front of City Hall. The students read aloud the names of those who were killed at the Parkland, FL high school shooting and called on our leaders to take action. More information about the walk out is on the web here.
You can follow live updates on walk outs happening all over the country on the New York Times website.
Reviving State of the Meeting Reports
Download a PDF version of this letter.
Dear Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting,
It is with joy that we write to you about our revival of state of the meeting reports! We, the Quaker Life Council, invite all monthly and quarterly meetings to restart or continue the annual custom of conducting a spiritual self-assessment. As our new Faith & Practice illuminates, this tradition provides, “a deep and meaningful opportunity that draws the community together.”
Issuing a state of the meeting report that details the process the meeting community undertook and the insights at which the meeting arrived also helps other Quaker communities. When we see what others are celebrating, mourning, and witnessing across our yearly meeting, we can be inspired, drawn even closer together, and moved in our spiritual development.
We have been working on how best to steward the revival of the practice of issuing state of the meeting reports. Overtime, we will develop an online archive of state of the meeting reports so that anyone in our yearly meeting community can be inspired at any time! Of course, we will redact anything that needs to remain confidential.
We outline below the process that we will use to steward state of the meeting reports:
- All monthly meetings are encouraged to forward their state of the meeting reports to their respective Quarterly Meetings.
- In turn, the Quarterly Meetings are encouraged to forward their own state of the meeting report in addition to the reports of their monthly meetings to the Quaker Life Council.
- Worship groups and any other community that is part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting may also submit a state of the meeting report, forwarding it directly to the Quaker Life Council.
- If desired, monthly and quarterly meetings can use this online form to submit their state of the meeting report. Friends can also email the reports directly to the PYM office. Or mail hardcopies to: Quaker Life Council, c/o Zachary T. Dutton, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1515 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
- The Quaker Life Council will read every state of the meeting report that it receives and use the reports as a basis for its assessment of the state of the spiritual and religious life of our whole yearly meeting community.
- The Quaker Life Council will issue its own state of the meeting report to be presented at the July 2018 Annual Sessions and then shared widely with Friends thereafter.
This year, we encourage meeting communities to refer to the queries in our new Faith & Practice as a guide for conducting a spiritual self-assessment and for writing the state of the meeting reports. We also encourage meetings to include a description of any specific issues of concern they have experienced in the past year.
Lastly, the Quaker Life Council is especially curious about how meeting communities are thinking about the purpose and importance of membership. We’d also like to hear about any anti-racism work that any meeting communities might be exploring, large or small.
We hope to receive and review state of the meeting reports during our meeting in June of 2018 and request them by May 31, 2018, if possible. We acknowledge that every monthly and quarterly meeting has their own way of writing and managing their state of the meeting reports. Some meetings will not yet have completed their most current report, so we invite meetings to send the report from the most recent year in which one was completed by May 31, 2018.
Sincerely,
Amy Taylor Brooks
Interim Clerk, Quaker Life Council