Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has multiple October events that will provide ways to engage within our community before Fall Continuing Sessions. Three opportunities include fellowship of the thread gathering, a family-centered peace-building event, or the collective discernment over climate during a virtual threshing session. Each of these events offers a unique opportunity to engage with the PYM community and prepare ourselves spiritually for the work ahead. Whether you are seeking fellowship, family engagement, or discernment on critical issues, these events will help ground us as we come together as a faith community:
Peace & Social Justice
Friends Counseling Service: Key Questions Answered for Accessible Mental Health Care
The Friends Counseling Service (FCS) serves members and attenders of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) who are in search for guidance, comfort, and assistance. This service offers accessible mental health care to Friends across PYM with counselors providing individual therapy, couples counseling, and family therapy sessions. We connected with Janaki Spickard Keeler, Friends Counseling Service Coordinator, who provided additional insight into the service by answering some key questions.
Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting on “Going Veggie” and Using “Creating a Playbook for Climate Action”
Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting has embraced a new initiative to support climate action by “going veggie” on the third Sunday of each month. This meeting-wide project is the result of collaboration between the Climate Action and Hospitality Committees, reflecting a shared commitment to addressing climate change.
Sarah Whitman, a member of both committees at Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, shared her perspective and the behind-the-scenes on this new initiative. “Last spring, we started a Climate Action Committee to help the meeting address climate change,” Sarah shared. “There have been individual leadings and practices related to climate change, but not a project that the whole meeting does together. I happen to be a member of both Hospitality and the Climate Action Committee, so I felt like this was an opportunity for synergy between those two committees.”
Update From the Listening and Lobbying Sprint of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Authorship of this update is attributed to the Jeanne Elberfield and the Listening and Lobbying Sprint of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Friends, I am writing this update with much optimism in my heart and mind. The Listening and Lobbying Sprint is working diligently towards a draft policy and guidance addressing political lobbying for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Over the past few months, we have learned from a nonprofit expert and PYM’s lawyer about the IRS definitions and limitations on lobbying for a 501(c)(3). We have had regular conversations about how this information helps us to find a solution that mutually satisfies Friends who are led to political advocacy, the PYM Quaker community with diverse leadings and ministries, and the PYM as a 501(c)(3). We continue to ask Spirit to guide our hearts and minds as we navigate our way forward. [Read more…] about Update From the Listening and Lobbying Sprint of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Answer the Call: Share How Your Meeting is Engaging for Election Day
As Election Day, November 5th, approaches, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is asking members and monthly meetings to share how they are preparing and engaging Friends and their communities. From participating in the election efforts to spirit-led discussions. Friends are called to act, and PYM wants to hear how your meeting is living out that call. Whether your meeting is doing voter registration drives, holding discussions on community responsibility, or engaging in prayerful reflection, let us know what Friends are doing near you to inspire and mobilize your region for the upcoming election!
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Work for Peace: A Call from the Middle East Collaborative
Authorship and thoughts in this story are attributed to the Middle East Collaborative of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
On October 7, 2023, the world was awakened to the horror of an armed attack in Israel. For those who were not familiar with the ongoing struggles that Palestinians had been experiencing, it felt unprovoked and antisemitic. Certainly, for some, the work to lift up the issue of Palestinian oppression was going to be much harder. And so it has.
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Contribute to PYM’s booklet on Addressing Racism: Share Your Ideas and Resources
In 2015 the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting committed to a yearly meeting-wide witness on addressing racism.
PYM is currently seeking content ideas to develop a booklet for meetings and communities to address racism. This initiative is similar to the booklet “Creating a Playbook on Climate Action,” a resource made in mind of a second yearly meeting-wide witness addressing climate change. The content you can contribute to the booklet could include queries, blogs, books, videos, financial tools, and activities that cover the Five Action Areas: Activism, Education, Addressing Personal Impacts, Finances, Mourning Loss and Instilling Hope as they pertain to racism.
[Read more…] about Contribute to PYM’s booklet on Addressing Racism: Share Your Ideas and Resources
PYM signs on to AFSC statement about Israel and Palestine
Eight national and international Quaker organizations jointly shared a vision for peace in Palestine and Israel that points toward a different future. They invited all Friends meetings, churches, schools, and organizations to join them in endorsing their call for peace with justice. PYM has signed onto the statement.
[Read more…] about PYM signs on to AFSC statement about Israel and Palestine
“Fox Forward” Recording of June 29 Roundtable
At the 400th Birthday Celebration for George Fox at Arch Street Meetinghouse on June 29, the “Fox Forward” roundtable discussion featured leaders in the Quaker community today speaking to how we can learn from the past as we vision the future of the faith and its witness in the world. The video recording of the panel shared below includes the voices of (left to right in photo) Dwight Dunston, host of The Seed podcast from Pendle Hill; Robin Mohr, Executive Director of FWCC Section of the Americas; Brian Blackmore, Director of Quaker Engagement for the American Friends Service Committee; and Hazele Goodridge, clerk of the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia and trustee of the Friends Pantry & Community Fridge at Arch Street Meeting House.
Queries were shared with the speakers in preparation for the event:
- Which aspects of the Quaker tradition speak to you? How do they apply in the 21st century?
- Which aspects of the Quaker tradition are most important to pass on to the next generation and to newcomers?
- Are there aspects of the Quaker tradition that it’s time to release, for Quakerism to thrive?
- Early Friends’ actions were seen as radical and ‘cutting edge’ in their time. How can we respond to the challenges of the 21st century in a way that builds on Quaker insights?
The visionary sharing from each speaker led from their different areas of ministry; they both challenged listeners to think “forward” and grounded their vision in love for community. Watch the full conversation below!
Norristown Meeting’s “Memorial to the Lost” Addresses Gun Violence
Norristown Quaker Meeting will hold a public witness to the lives lost to gun violence in Montgomery County this June. Over 40, 000 die from gun violence every year in the United States. The first event, installing a visible memorial, will take place on June 15, 2024, at 10:30am at the Quaker meeting house at 20 Jacoby Street, Norristown, PA. All are invited to attend and join the interfaith prayer vigil and singing afterwards.
Norristown Friends Meeting, part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, is partnering with Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence to install a Memorial to the Lost on the meeting grounds. Each person killed by gun violence in Montgomery County will be honored with a t-shirt with their name, birth and death dates, and age at the time of death. The Memorial is a visible representation of the harm that is done to our communities through gun violence.
On the following Saturday, June 22, at 10:30, Norristown Friends Meeting will host a community event to provide more information and education about gun violence and what people can do to help enact commonsense gun laws and promote safe gun ownership. There will be speakers, testimonials, singing and messages from local organizations. Refreshments will be served. These programs and activities are designed to engage people of all faiths and all meetings, churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques.
“We seek to energize communities of all faiths into activism using positive messaging and inspiring local activities, intended to mobilize and organize”, says Mary Green, organizer for the event.
Norristown Quaker Meeting opened its doors at in 1853, welcoming Friends including Lucretia Mott, a widely known Quaker preacher and leader in the anti-slavery movement. Norristown Friends continue to practice the Quaker values of peace, equality, and community out in the world and gather for the rich silence of unprogrammed worship at the corner of Jacoby and Swede Streets in Norristown, PA.
Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence is the outgrowth of a peace conference organized by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Quakers and two other historic peace churches, the Mennonites and the Brethren, in 2009.
In 2023 PYM launched the Friends Ending Gun Violence Collaborative, a network of concerned Quakers that work with partners to support local meetings to take action to reduce gun violence through public witness and education.
