Karen Tibbals uses her background in market research and Quaker religious studies to help people understand how others–on opposing political sides and with different ethical frameworks–make decisions. This work, like the graphic image above, draws groups with differing opinions into relationship (pink and blue become purple!) Her book can help liberals and conservatives identify the truths they share, and it explains the success of modern societal accomplishments like gay marriage and outlines why guns feel safe to conservatives and scary to liberals. Here we interview her about who she is, and how she came to publish the very helpful books she writes.
Peace & Social Justice
In Their Own Words: Addressing Racism
Last summer, PYM created a series of zoom video interviews with members of our community. The videos were part of our addressing racism plenary. These videos are a snapshot in time, and they are a reminder that spoken truth from individuals shape our faith as Friends.
To Friends with a Concern for Black Lives in America: 2020 Letter and 2016 Minute
We are republishing a 2020 letter and 2016 minute regarding state sanctioned violence from the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent
This group of African American Friends was formed at a Gathering at Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania in 1990. It arose from a leading among a group of committed Friends, and was born of a desire for Quakers of African descent to get to know each other. Their 1991 mission statement is:
- To publish and respond to the concerns of Friends of African descent within the Religious Society of Friends.
- To provide for the nurture of Friends of African descent, their families and friends.
- To address and respond to issues affecting people of African descent in their communities.
[Read more…] about To Friends with a Concern for Black Lives in America: 2020 Letter and 2016 Minute
Non Violent Training for These Times
Different Friends and meetings in PYM and across the United States are responding to the upcoming election with prayer and concern. Here is a perspective:
Choose Democracy
As members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, we along with others are engaged in an effort to protect our country’s democracy from spoken threats to subvert the 2020 elections. We do so not as a partisan effort, but out of a concern for truth, integrity, and the nonviolent resolution of conflicts.
As Quakers, we are called to stand fast in Truth, not political truth but moral truth, that is capital T spiritual Truth. Lying is not Truth. Hating is not Truth. Killing is not Truth. Manipulation is not Truth. Truth is love. We are called to stand fast in love. [Read more…] about Non Violent Training for These Times
It’s Your Journey – We are Here to Walk at Your Side with Support
In the 1960’s Freedom Riders rode interstate bus lines in mixed race groups to advocate for desegregation in the south. Many Friends like Bayard Rustin, Norval Reece, and Samuel Snipes devoted their time to collaborative work on the civil rights movement.
Today, Friends and Friends Meeting communities are looking for modern equivalents as they work to embrace equity for all people.
That work often starts very close to home with an examination of one’s personal upbringing, habits, limits, and capacities. It also involves looking at the consequences of legislation designed to make it harder for people of color to access the same freedoms and rights that all people should benefit from. It’s important that this work not be done in isolation, and that it is spiritually grounded. Otherwise the work is much harder.
[Read more…] about It’s Your Journey – We are Here to Walk at Your Side with Support
Annual Sessions Final Keynote: “We Belong Together” With City Love
Overall, we’ve had 386 people attend during six days of annual sessions’ virtual programming, including young people who participated in Youth Programs.
While the Community Engagement team ran a multitude of keynotes, worship sharing/affinity spaces and meetings for Business or Worship, devoted Youth Program staff built meaningful All Together Time, and facilitated morning and afternoon programs supported by Friendly Presences. There were also Bible classes, tech sessions, and very helpful, previously curated, advance documents and videos. Young Adult Friends (YAFs) did spiritual practices including lectio divina, welcomed two YAFs as keynote speakers, and convened contemplative prayer. Parents gathered for an evening worship sharing as an online version of the “Family Neighborhood.” Five plenaries, 18 workshops, and five meditation classes preceded everything as part of the ‘Runway to Sessions.’ [Read more…] about Annual Sessions Final Keynote: “We Belong Together” With City Love
The Fire of the Light: Abolition, Conflict, and Being Known in Quaker Community
Friday night, July 31, before an audience of 160 people, Naomi Madaras made the case for faith to choose paths that embraced conflict, anger, protest and justice. A Master of Divinity candidate at Union Theological Seminary in New York, Naomi’s clinical training has been in hospitals and nursing homes in New York where she provides spiritual care to patients, families, and staff. [Read more…] about The Fire of the Light: Abolition, Conflict, and Being Known in Quaker Community
Plenary Session on Addressing Racism – Minutes
Friends gathered for the Saturday, July 25, Plenary on Addressing Racism. The last of five Plenary meetings in preparation for Annual Sessions July 28-August 2, the meeting began with worship at 10:00 AM, followed by S. Boone O’Scheyichbi offering a prayerful acknowledgment that we meet on “traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape People, a vast land supporting the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting region.” This was followed by the reading of minutes (noted in full below), a Poor People’s Campaign presentation, a discussion, a group photo for those who wished to participate, and breakout groups. The breakout groups met to discuss queries and gave verbal and emailed reports on their discussions. The meeting ended at 1:00. [Read more…] about Plenary Session on Addressing Racism – Minutes
Willits Book Trust Participates in A Community Reading of Frederick Douglass’ July 4 Speech
As a representative of the Willits Book Trust Committee, a grantmaking group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Lisa Stewart Garrison, a member of Greenwich Friends Meeting in Salem Quarter, was invited to take part in a community reading of Frederick Douglass’ “4th of July Speech” sponsored by the National Park Service and the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
A Report on the July 11 Plenary Session on Climate Change
Please stay connected with the PYM community on climate action by filling out the form at the end of this page.
Saturday, July 11, 2020, 70 people gathered in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Plenary Session on Climate Change to share minutes and discuss yearly-meeting-wide witness for climate action. [Read more…] about A Report on the July 11 Plenary Session on Climate Change