Ujima Friends Peace Center is a Quaker worship community consisting primarily of Friends of African descent. Last year, our Quaker Life Council granted Ujima Friends fifteen thousand dollars to help with their rent and repeated the grant this year. It is the least that could be done to embody the truth that Ujima Friends Peace Center is part of our wider yearly meeting community. A story about Ujima Friends was published on the PYM website.
Faith & Practice
Submit Your Spiritual Self-Assessment by May
Dear Friends,
Submit your state of the meeting report here!
Greetings from Quaker Life Council of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. How does the Truth prosper with your meetings? If you are ready to let your spirit shine out, we are ready to receive your spiritual self-assessments! Many thanks to those who have already submitted their report for this year! Anything we receive before May, we will be sure to include in our summary report for our yearly meeting community.
To submit a report, click on the above link or forward your report to zdutton@pym.org via email. You can also mail hard copies of your report to:
Quaker Life Council
c/o Zachary T Dutton
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
1515 Cherry St
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Last year, we began the transformed practice across our monthly meetings of performing spiritual self-assessments and sharing them with the Yearly Meeting at annual sessions. Quaker Life Council compiled a summary of these reports that was shared during the summer, and PYM staff has now posted all of these state of the meeting reports on the PYM website for all meetings to see. (Available at https://www.pym.org/category/state-of-the-meeting-report/, December 15, 2018). Read them! Rejoice in our full PYM Quaker community. You may find help for an issue that your meeting is facing in the way another meeting has handled a situation. You may find inspiration. You may find a different way that your meeting would like to do the Spiritual self-assessment this year after reading these.
Above all, we hope that you again focus on the Spirit in the process of assessing the Spirit. We encourage you to have the process be rich and energizing, rather than depleting. I have included the Faith and Practice guidelines which outlines a process you may choose to undertake. However, do not hesitate to be creative in your process and in your reports. If your meeting needs more worship, do your assessment in worship. If you need to know your hard numbers or want to write an intellectually based historical report, go for it. If your meeting sews in the Spirit, do your spiritual assessment in a quilt. Write songs or stories together if you would like, or play games and share back the rules of how to play that makes your community shine. We can receive videos, pictures, written reports, whatever you would like to share that captures your meeting’s Spirit. Make it a good and rewarding experience for your meeting, because this is done for you and for the Spirit of our whole PYM.
We, the Friends in Quaker Life Council extend our love to you and your meetings. We want our Spirits to shine together. Thank you for holding us in the light as we do our work, we are doing the same for you. Please know that we are here to help nurture your Spiritual growth. Call on us if you think we might be able to help. We are so glad that your meeting is a part of PYM and we are thankful to be serving you.
Here is the Faith and Practice Section on Conducting Spiritual Self-Assessments:
When early Friends met one another, they would ask “How does the Truth prosper with thee?” rather than asking “How are you?” They wanted to know about each other’s spiritual condition and relationship with the Divine.
Undertaking a prayerful assessment of the Friends meeting’s spiritual condition and needs and issuing a state-of-the-meeting report on a regular basis can provide a deep and meaningful opportunity that draws the community together. The meeting’s self-examination process may involve several steps. The meeting could begin with queries that address its spiritual strengths and weaknesses and also efforts to foster growth in the spiritual life of each member and of the meeting as a whole. The meeting may use the queries suggested below; it may use selections from the general queries above; it may decide to use queries from some other source; or it may formulate its own queries. The meeting may charge one of its standing committees, such as worship and ministry, or an ad-hoc group to prepare a response to the chosen queries or to oversee a process of gathering information more widely in the meeting from which to prepare a response. In the latter case, the committee may hold discussions with committee clerks, the meeting’s young Friends, or new attenders, for example; or it could conduct worship sharing by small groups within the meeting or by the meeting as a whole. The committee will prepare a draft report in a format that is most helpful to the meeting. The report is then submitted to the meeting for discussion and approval.
After approval by the monthly meeting, the meeting may agree to share its spiritual self-assessment with other meetings.
Suggested Queries for a Spiritual Self-assessment of the Meeting:
· What practices and strategies are employed by our meeting to help members and attenders of all ages prepare for worship—whether in meeting for worship or in meeting for business?
· What are the challenges to and opportunities for enhancing the worship of our meeting, and what are we doing to address these?
· What opportunities are provided to address topics important to deepening both personal spiritual journeys of members and the spiritual life of the meeting?
· What is most needed to strengthen the communal witness of the meeting to the local community and beyond?
· To what priorities does God call our meeting? How do our annual budget, our meeting’s standing committees and other aspects of the meeting’s life reflect those priorities?
Love,
Quaker Life Council (QLC)
Kate Bregman, Central Philadelphia Meeting (Philadelphia QM)
Amy Taylor Brooks, QLC Clerk, Birmingham Meeting (Concord QM)
Julia Carrigan, Mickelton Meeting (Salem QM)
Melanie Douty-Snipes, Fallsington Meeting (Bucks QM)
Gray Goodman, QLC Recording Clerk, Providence Meeting (Chester QM)
Bryn Hammarstrom, Wellsboro Meeting (Upper Susquehanna QM)
Ayesha Imani, Germantown Meeting (Philadelphia QM)
Cathleen Marion, Downingtown Meeting (Caln QM)
George Rubin, Medford Meeting (Haddonfield QM)
Anthony Stover, Germantown Meeting (Philadelphia QM)
The State of our Meetings
Introduction
Friends of the Quaker Life Council have collected these kernels of wisdom from Quarters, Monthly Meetings, and Worship Groups throughout the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. We hope that others will delight in these practices as we have. We hold this information up to you not as a burden but as a source of strength and inspiration from God’s presence amongst Friends.
When composing minutes, meetings either had an individual or a team prayerfully consider how to respond to PYM queries or queries the meeting community created. After collecting answers, Friends brought the report to a business meeting for further amendment and final approval. The Quaker Life Council formed a Sprint to read the reports from 2018 and most of 2017. Insightful responses or concerns were compiled into categories:
Deepening the Spiritual Community: Worship, Spiritual Growth, First Day School
Friends found a variety of ways to enhance worship and find a closer bond with Spirit. Some prepared for worship by collective singing and reading sacred texts aloud. Others sank into the Silence with the children present. During worship, some meetings preferred an unprogrammed format while others used a monthly prepared message or query. In closing worship, some groups preferred the children to enter a settled meeting. Others sang to end worship. Many meetings shared joys, concerns, after-thoughts, introductions, and announcements after worship.
Friends used many different methods of spiritual improvement. Yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and extended worship were practiced. Classes such as Spiritual Formation, Quakerism 101, Quaker Quest, and a speakers’ series were additional paths to fostering growth.
First Day School was often enhanced with trained, hired instructors aided by volunteers. Weekly sessions for all age groups using spiritual text, video, and/ or speakers were helpful.
Building Community: Social Contacts, Membership, Business, Anti-Racism, Concerns
Community was best built through social activities that bring joy and fellowship to all ages such as: intergenerational games, movies, star-gazing, meals, singing, scavenger hunts, etc…
Greeters at doorways makes others feel welcome. Notes to Friends at college or lifecare communities lets them know they are remembered. Notes on holidays and birthdays help everyone. Having social dinners for attenders welcomes them to the community.
Caring for the meeting’s business is a spiritual practice filled with concrete, practical tasks. Creating brochures introducing Friends’ ideas and practices educates all. Sending Friends to clerking workshops provides future trained leaders. Reviewing practices involving committees, records, bylaws, and finances helps Friends maintain best modern practices. Providing time between MFB and MFW helps Friends adjust their spiritual focus
Community often means helping each other with challenges. For majority Friends, acting on racism often begins with looking within oneself. It is helpful to join a group, preferably outside one’s comfort zone. There is a great deal of literature and media available for educating oneself and others. What is important is to begin the process and maintain humility. Challenges can also involve how to adapt to a changing community, aging buildings, and declining membership.
Involving the World: Local organization, Friends institutions, Witnessing to the World
Friends find their spiritual strength and growth not just within their houses of worship but also outside in their surrounding community, letting their lives and actions speak to others. Many meetings encourage outside groups to use the meetinghouse and grounds. Others invite the outside community in for special events. Having a strong, positive relationship with neighbors solves many problems in advance. This is also true when a meeting may share space with another organization like a school. Neighbors provide opportunities as well as challenges.
If a meeting is connected to a Friends institution, it is important to set up a Care Committee to nurture the spiritual, financial, and physical assets the two organizations use. Invite families to worship on First Day. Provide financial support for Friends of all ages to participate in Friends institutions as well as contribute to and publicize activities of FCNL, AFSC, FGC, etc…
Witnessing one’s Spirit-led beliefs, ideals, and actions often means public action in one’s own community and in the broader world. Public vigils of protest or commemoration can inspire others to act. Some meetings share monthly meals with those in need as an act of shared experience instead of only charity. Other Friends give material aid to refugee families including ESL and citizenship classes. Collecting goods + books to be shipped elsewhere may be expensive but still needed. Quarters and meetings can organize service trips on their own or with other faith communities. Service involves learning about one’s community and discerning what help is needed especially if Friends are open to being transformed by the experience.
These ideas listed here come directly from PYM’s monthly and quarterly meetings as we renew the old tradition of sharing year-end reflections of our practices with each other. This first year is a step towards learning more from each other as well as where Spirit is guiding us. The Friends on the Quaker Life Council gathered this information as a service to Friends and Meetings throughout the Yearly Meeting. Our hope is that this year’s reports will inspire more Meetings to take the time to renew the art of collective reflection on the past year to guide Friends to where God is leading them in the coming year.
Ujima Friends: Part of Us
At a recent meeting, the Quaker Life Council considered and celebrated the expression of Quaker Faith & Practice that is our Ujima Friends Peace Center. In the year that it has existed, the center has forged profound connections with the community in which it is located in North Philadelphia. Friends at the center established a summer freedom school, teaching young people an adapted peace curriculum called the Mpatapo Curriculum, which synthesizes African principles and Quaker values. The Ujima Friends Peace Center community also offers tenants’ rights classes every Saturday at 11am and organizes a monthly food give away. The community meets for worship every Sunday, and many PYM Friends who are members at monthly meetings also count themselves as members of the Ujima Friends Peace Center. Learn more about the center at ujimafriends.org.
As stated on their website, the work of the Ujima Friends Peace Center is to reduce violence and provide a safe haven with educational, cultural and recreational opportunities for adults and young people. The [center] is a ministry of the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent.
The word Ujima conveys the intention to make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together. At its meeting held on Saturday, September 15, 2018, the Quaker Life Council honored this intention by recognizing that the Ujima Friends Peace Center is an imperative part of the wider body of PYM of Friends. The center’s ministry expresses a central message of Quakerism: with worship and spiritual practice at its core, it is possible for faith to reveal insights in unexpected and liberating ways that bring us closer to justice. Indeed, the emergence of the Ujima Friends Peace Center has tremendous historical significance. This is the first worshiping Quaker community conceived of and maintained entirely by Quakers of African descent. The center was envisioned first by the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent in their 2016 Minute Regarding State Sanctioned Violence. Read the full minute here. Some excerpts of the minute are included at the end of this story.
The Quaker Life Council approved the following minute of action:
“Friends around the table gave joyful and tearful spirit-led testimony to how Ujima Friends Peace Center in a short period of time has changed the neighborhood around the Peace Center, the lives of individual Friends, and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Friends sensed the joyful presence of the Spirit being witnessed and fed at Ujima. QLC sensed Spirit calling members to support the programs and efforts of the Center. Supporting the Center is in alignment with PYM strategic directions. Members acknowledged that the Ujima Friends Peace Center arose from a 2016 minute from the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent. The minute exemplified a minute of concern with clear action and designated resources committed to following it through. At the time, there was not a clear path for bringing a minute of concern to PYM.
1.Friends APPROVED $10,000 to Ujima Friends Peace Center from its General Fund and $5,000 from the Strategic Reserve Fund.”
The Ujima Friends Peace Center has asked that we hold their ministry in the Light. They are happy to hear from friends through email or receive words of encouragement through the mail.
For those who are interested in donation, you can give through their website here or by mailing a check made out to Ujima Friends Peace Center at 1701 W. Lehigh Avenue, 19132.
Excerpts from the 2016 Minute on State Sanctioned Violence:
“We grieve the loss of any human life, including the lives of police. However, the presence of the police too often seems like an occupying force designed to protect and serve an invisible elite instead of protecting those who reside in our communities. We also recognize that the violence and tragic killing of innocent civilians have touched so many in our communities. We believe that these evil forces cannot be overcome through retribution and retaliation, and can only be overcome through respect, resources and love. Jesus taught us that the love of God and our neighbor is the greatest commandment.”
“In the absence of real opportunities for employment and economic self-sufficiency underground economies rise up in our communities to fill the gap. People in these economies are criminalized and prosecuted even though they are only seeking to provide enough resources to support their families. We realize that we cannot have a meaningful conversation about ending racial oppression without also addressing classism, joblessness and wealth inequality.”
“In response to these realities, we, as Quakers and as people of African descent call for the following:
…2. PEACE CENTERS. The development and support of “peace centers” in our communities which will provide safe havens and educational, cultural and recreational opportunities for young people in our communities. Quaker Alternatives to Violence trainings can be redesigned to be rooted in the cultural experience of African people. These centers will function as spaces where Quaker worship and values can be modelled and developed…”
Order Faith & Practice
Hooray! The 2018 Edition of Faith & Practice is now available for order (and to be shipped) on the Quaker Books Website.
How-To: State of the Meeting Reports
This is the story of how one monthly meeting developed a great way to write a state of the meeting report that can also serve as a community-building tool.
History:
Lancaster Friends Meeting has been doing state of the meeting reports for a long time. At least by the mid-1990’s, the meeting designated three people to write the report. These three individuals pulled things together from across the various groups and committees active in the meeting. With this process, the report gradually deteriorated into a very lengthy list of the all the things the meeting had done in the past year; it seemed the meeting’s newsletters accomplished the same basic task of listing all of the community’s activities. When this conundrum finally became apparent, no one really knew what to do.
There were a couple of years when there weren’t any state of the meeting reports written at all. [Read more…] about How-To: State of the Meeting Reports
Faith & Practice Release Celebration is Saturday July 28th at Annual Sessions
Our new version of Faith & Practice is currently in production. You can order a copy for yourself, or place a bulk order for your Meeting that you can pick up at PYM offices in the Friends Center. Order Now!
Mail Orders to your home or meeting will be handled by the FGC bookstore in the fall.
You Are Invited to Celebrate
Saturday, July 28, at 5:00 p.m.
With thanks to the Faith & Practice revision team and the Publication Sprint who formatted it for publication, our whole community is invited to attend the Faith and Practice Release Party. A 5:00 p.m. Dinner will be followed by an ice cream party.
You can attend, either as a ‘resident’ (for full or partial programming at Annual Sessions), or come as ‘a commuter’ just for a Saturday Workshop and the launch party. Dinner costs $16 and you can buy tickets on site or register ahead of time.
Faith & Practice is PYM’s most important book. Like our faith, it grows and changes with the times, undergoing periodic revision to bring it up to date with current practice. It also moves us forward, towards shared religious and community-centered goals.
Resource Friends at Annual Sessions!
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!
Some Thoughts from the 1955 Friends Journal
I received a mailing from Friends Journal, which describes its goal today “to serve the Quaker community and the wider community of spiritual seekers through the publication of articles, poetry, letters, art, and news that convey the contemporary experience of Friends.” I signed up for the one-year subscription, and in today’s world of instant gratification, I immediately became able to download the latest issue, and peruse the archive of all issues going back to 1955, the year that both the Journal and I got our start in the world.
I selected the issue closest to my birth date and began reading. The discussion of the Korean conflict, of the arms race, of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, could all have been written today. And for a lunch-time meditation, this article, on preparing for meeting, was just the right size for reading over my soup and sandwich. Nothing earthshaking – just some suggestions for preparing for silence. But part of the process is always reviewing what you may already know, and hearing how others come to the same point. So, let me share that article with you all – a voice from 1955 – but passing along timeless advice.
Preparing for Meeting
JANET WHITNEY’S article “Some Thoughts on the Meeting for Worship” in the first issue of FRIENDS JOURNAL was cogent in its description of the type of ministry which all too often violates the silence of our meetings. Smaller groups often sense a real feeling of embarrassment rising from the fear that visitors or newly convinced Friends might find a silent meeting too difficult. Also when the children come to worship, someone is sure to feel that they need a message. It is, indeed, one way of “relieving the silence,” and achieving a more active sense of participation.
The author then asks, “Do we … need to bring nothing to meeting but our need?” The answer was, perhaps, not quite satisfactory. Surely we need to bring with us more than a need and a smattering of the week’s intellectual accumulations. May I suggest a few thoughts on the three modes of preparation I have found helpful before going to meeting?
First, I want a bit of serenity gained by deliberately abandoning the Sunday paper and household chores for the half hour before meeting. Often it has to be done by walking to meeting, and I recommend the practice. Meditation and reverent reading of Scripture is not always possible in the midst of a large family. The meeting hour itself is too precious to be used for settling down.
Second, I want an active feeling of respect, interest in, and love for the members of the group. I anticipate being with them. While one may very well worship with strangers, the bonds of fellowship will always assist in uniting us. Love of man is the first step toward love of God.
Third, I feel I must bring more than hunger and hope. I need the firm expectation that I shall be filled. All worship is an act of faith. No one knocks convincingly at a door when he does not really expect to be answered.
When we come to worship thus prepared, our feeling of participation is so concrete that silence needs no relief. When many Friends attend in this same mood, the unity of love will embrace even newcomers, and we have heard them speak about it with appreciation. We do not carry food to a banquet; nor do we bring a sermon to a meeting. But we should come with good appetite, an awareness of fellowship, and the confidence of enjoying the occasion.
WILLARD E. MEAD (September 1955 Friends Journal)
If you would like to subscribe to Friends Journal, go to the website – link given below – and for the sum of $25 you will get not only a one year subscription, but access to the wisdom of the ages – or at least ages back to 1955. “ That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.”
Friends Journal: https://www.friendsjournal.org/subscribe/
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.
