Pendle Hill and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting held two collaborative meetings for worship on November 3rd, Election Day. The meetings offered a space for spiritual comfort and connection during the vortex of an unusually drawn out 2020 Presidential election. 19 attendees joined afternoon worship and 39 attendees participated in evening worship. Friends joined locally and from places as distant as Canada and the West coast of the United States.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Parenting + Presidential Election + Pandemic
Parents have been holding a lot in these past eight months. In addition to the multiple stressors of life during a pandemic and social unrest and violence in the news and neighborhoods, the intensity of the election cycle is an experience both for us as adults and for our children. Depending on their age, children and teens may be aware of the anxiety of the adults around them and experiencing their own anxiety about the outcome of the election next week. [Read more…] about Parenting + Presidential Election + Pandemic
Restoring Civility Across the Political Divide: Author Interview with Karen Tibbals
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.
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
PYM Launches Leadership Meetings to Support Monthly Meeting Fellowship
On the evening of Tuesday, October 13, 2020, about 125 leaders from monthly meetings met in community and mutual support via video conference.
Facilitated by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s (PYM) General Secretary, Christie Duncan-Tessmer, supported by PYM co-clerks Frank Barch and Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch, and organized by PYM’s Community Engagement Team (Olivia Brangan, Melinda Wenner Bradley, TJ Jourian, and Zachary Dutton) the event shared information, gathered data about needs, and organized conversations aligned with community interests.
Breakout groups were led by Friends Counseling Coordinator, Janaki Spickard Keeler, Community Engagement Coordinator, Olivia Brangan, and Youth Religious Life Coordinator Melinda Wenner-Bradley. [Read more…] about PYM Launches Leadership Meetings to Support Monthly Meeting Fellowship
100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment: Merion Meeting features the Suffragist Movement on Zoom
With thanks to the Merion Meeting for submitting the content for this article in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. During the Saturday, October 3rd virtual event, facilitated by Ross Mitchell, Pat Jordan performed the role of Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The event was organized by Merion Meeting’s History and Archives Committee and was paired with an article on local Quakers who participated in the protests and demonstrations for universal suffrage.
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
Full Circle: A Quaker Farm, Quaker Meeting and Quakertown Today
This is part III of our story about a Quaker farm and a Quaker Meeting in Quakertown, NJ.
In this final section, Quakertown Meeting attender and farm owner, Marty Campanelli brings us into the year 2020 with news of the Potter-Allen-Vail farm during the 1929 stock market crash (Herbert Hoover, an Iowa Quaker, was president), the creation of a local scout troop by Willis Vail, the planting of 1000 Christmas trees, and wool Marty now harvests for local crafters.
[Read more…] about Full Circle: A Quaker Farm, Quaker Meeting and Quakertown Today
PART II: History of a Quaker Farm + Quaker Meeting + Quakertown NJ
This is part II of our story about a Quaker farm and Meetinghouse in Quakertown, NJ. We share this with thanks to Quakertown attender and farm owner, Marty Campanelli. Marty is writing about the farm she inhabits and the Meeting she attends.
Marty begins where she left off last week, with the Allen and Laing family farm on the outskirts of Quakertown, NJ.
Think back to the first part of the 19th century. It was a time of horse drawn carriages, coal-fired factories, steam engines, and the birth of the railroads…
[Read more…] about PART II: History of a Quaker Farm + Quaker Meeting + Quakertown NJ
