As Quakers from across the United States descended on the capital today, the density of the Quaker population increased significantly in Washington, DC. Friends came to the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) to talk about faith and witness, sharing their Quaker beliefs and work in support of civic society. [Read more…] about Friends Convene in Washington to Lobby for Bipartisan Legislation with FCNL
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
General Secretary Report to Councils
General Secretary Report on Staff Activity to Councils
Mid-October Through Mid-November 2018
Business and Finance:
- As shared in the written GenSec report to Continuing Sessions, PYM operations ended FY18 in a solid, positive position. Lower covenant and annual fund contributions year-over-year were mitigated by higher investment income and by expense reductions. The balance sheet remained strong. There was little change in net assets apart from investment gains, which are posted once a year at the FYE.
- Completed audit preparations and welcomed the auditors who have been in the office all week.
- Completed and signed an access agreement between PYM and US Construction, developer of a townhome project next door to the Arch Street Meeting House. The agreement sets out terms for scaffolding and lift access on the Arch Street property so work on the townhouse facades can be completed. US Construction will rebuild at their expense a failing section of the non-historic brick wall closest to 3rd Street, which is currently braced.
- Completed the process for supporting teachers’ retirement funds in small schools and for providing tuition aid for PYM students in Quaker schools.
- Completed a compelling December appeal mailing and sent it to the printer. It will be mailed shortly after Thanksgiving. It includes a message that is personalized to the giving history of each of about 6,500 households. We designed and sent a “no-ask” alternate version to 400 households that have requested not to be solicited. This way they still access the information included in the mailing.
Program and Ministry:
- Continuing Sessions: 160+ Friends gathered for Continuing Sessions on Saturday November 3rd, filling the Arch Street Meeting House with children, families, and Friends coming together for business and Quaker conversations. All of the reports and meeting materials can be found on the continuing sessions webpage and the minutes are online.
- Launched Bridge Contacts! Bridge Contacts are those identified by their meeting or other constituency to serve as a communications and relationship bridge between the activity in their meeting (or other constituency) and the activity in the yearly meeting and monthly meetings. We launched at Continuing Sessions and met our two-month goal in one day and are nearly 50% of our way to our mid-fiscal year goal.
- Launched One Quilt One Yearly Meeting! This initiative invites every yearly meeting constituency – monthly meetings, collaboratives, any group that identifies as part of our community – to complete a fabric square which will be sewn together in a single quilt. The staff produced a video to share with meetings and others to encourage their participation.
- Initiated a conversation of coordinated outreach and communications efforts across Quaker organizations.
- Began the process of updating support for monthly meeting background checks with a more holistic view toward supporting child safety with meetings
- Began developing a first draft of a harassment policy for PYM Friends.
- At the invitation of the organizers, took part in a multi-faith news conference held at Friends Center following the shootings at the synagogue in Pittsburg and outside the church in Kentucky
- Collaborated with the staff of Arch Street Meeting House to support the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia in their ministry to provide safe space during an anti-Semitic rally in Philadelphia.
- Published a summary of the State of the Meeting reports on our news feed.
Communications and Technology:
- Began developing a communications and publicity plan for Annual and Continuing Sessions. This has been on the Wish List for so long and we now have the capacity to jump start it.
- Communicated to all PYM Friends about what happened at Continuing Sessions at lightning speed – by the next morning it was posted as a news story and sent out by email.
- Completed entering database backlog of updates and fiscal data so it is now functional.
- Made huge headway on reorganizing the data migrated from the old database so it accurately reflects the household configurations.
- Redesigned the website’s home page so it now loads in 2 seconds, includes a more robust calendar and a reconfigured and well-populated news section.
- Completed six months of technical background work on the website so that when WordPress updates our website will still function.
Staff and Administration:
- Finalized a draft of annual goals for staff, built upon strategic directions and staff plans for the coming year. All outcomes and objectives were reviewed and approved by responsible staff. PYM governance leadership reviewed them, and staff has had a first opportunity to review them as well.
- Our Controller, Cliessa Nagle resigned effective Friday, Nov. 16, the last day of the audit. We’ve made arrangements for short-term interim support for the controller responsibilities with Your Part Time Controller (YPTC) which provides nonprofits with highly skilled controller-level accountants on a temporary basis.
- Renewed our relationship with the consultant who provided HR support to PYM for six months earlier this year to ensure that the benefits management is well supported during this time of transition.
- Hired an Assistant in the Young Friends Program following an extensive search process and interviews with several finalist candidates, PYM Youth Programs are delighted to welcome Aeryn Luminkith. She will begin her work with Young Friends at their Christmas Gathering.
- The part time data entry position was posted.
- Selected and approved staff health plan benefits for 2019. There are minimal changes in the benefit coverage and no changes in the way in which employees contribute to the plan (2% of base salary for the employee plus 1% for each dependent to a max of 5%). The increase in cost to PYM is slightly below budget.
- Met twice to discuss the staff voice policy and what we want to have in place to meet our needs in terms of policy, procedure and culture.
- The Director of HR and Inclusion is wrapping up final staff interviews to understand individual roles and determine concerns and suggestions for HR.
Inclusion and Anti-Racism:
- The Director of HR and Inclusion is reviewing the impact of past antiracism work on staff as well as planning for next steps with staff.
- All staff were invited to register in the coming year for a multi-day anti-racism training if they haven’t yet done so.
- Provided support for stepped-up communications for the Multicultural Audit Steering Committee.
Visits:
- Staff were invited to attend holiday events at monthly meetings on staff time.
- Grace Sharples Cooke, Associate Secretary for Advancement & Relationship worshiped at Woodstown meeting and met with Friends there about their fundraising.
- Christie Duncan-Tessmer, General Secretary, attended the FGC Central Committee meeting
- Christie and Lynne Calamia, Executive Director of Historic Arch Street Meeting House, worshiped at Chester meeting and attended an event about its history at which there were more than 50 people from many meetings and from the community.
- Christie worshiped at Darby Meeting
- Christie attended the Philadelphia Interfaith Leadership Council meeting
- Christie attended Friends Historical Association Annual Meeting and Lecture
A Year of Civil Conversations
Inspired by Krista Tippet’s On Being podcasts and the Civil Conversations Project, Interfaith Philadelphia has launched A Year of Civil Conversations throughout the Greater Philadelphia region. Engaging over 50 organizations and 1,000 people, Interfaith Philadelphia will offer multiple opportunities to learn how to “speak together differently in order to live together differently.” PYM is a member of Interfaith Philadelphia and PYM Friends have participated in many of their programs in the past.
These grassroots civil conversations will take place within communities throughout the region that build a thriving religiously diverse democracy. They began in September and will continue through May 2019. Their purpose is to increase understanding and challenge the divisive dualism of today’s public discourse by building civic muscles for speaking with passion and listening with openness. This will empower participants to be curious, venture out, welcome in, stand tall, and stand with.
At the heart of this project are local conversations — grassroots dialogues on a range of topics that encourage us to share and listen across difference. The model for these conversations is inspired by Krista’s interviews with poets, scientists, pastors, authors, psychologists, activists, and more. These conversations give us the opportunity to gather for meaningful dialogue designed to increase our understanding of each other, in the midst of times and voices that would have us turning away from one another. They give us the chance to practice, in the words of Krista Tippett, “speaking together differently in order to live together differently.”
To join a conversation, check out the Local Conversations page of the Interfaith Center’s website.
Would you like to host a conversation? There are four trainings for facilitators scheduled. These sessions offer community leaders and “bridge people” techniques for grassroots civil conversations that support a thriving religiously diverse democracy. Participants will also receive a Civil Conversations facilitator kit to use in their own work going forward.
- Sunday, December 9th | 2:00 – 5:00 pm
- Thursday, January 17th | 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
- Tuesday, February 5th | 5:30 – 8:30 pm
The trainings are all held at Interfaith Philadelphia’s office, 100 West Oxford Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122. The fee is $25 for individuals, $15 for groups and free for students.scholarships are available
Register for a training on Interfaith Philadelphia’s website. If you host a conversation, please post it on PYM’s calendar.
One Quilt One Yearly Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtXDQVy350Q
Things are getting quilty…
One Quilt, One Yearly Meeting brings us together across local meetings, collaboratives, youth programs, Young Adult Friends, councils, Friends schools, and other groups in PYM. Each entity will design and contribute a ten-inch quilt square, which will be gathered into a “quilt skirt” to wrap around the clerk’s table when we gather, holding them in the care of the body and witnessing to our gathered community.
One Quilt, One Yearly Meeting is an opportunity to gather with your local community — your local meeting and other groups in PYM — to create a representation that will become part of the larger whole. Out of many, one.
What you need
- 10” cotton square (provided by PYM)
- Conversation and discernment! How can this be an opportunity to explore the queries: What connects us? What differences enrich us? What images or words illustrate who we are collectively?
- Materials used to create an image on your square
Your Square
Where to start? Begin with creating a space to explore the queries and thresh ideas for your design. What are your stories, and where do they intersect? The design may be of your meetinghouse, a Friend out of history, an image related to witness and work today, a poem or quotation, or an abstract design. Since the quilt itself is a symbol of our commonality, the design of your square does not need to be specific to a theme or idea.
Community
Please be intentional about including all voices! Where appropriate, consider how to make this a multigenerational project, but not one that’s handed over to the Children’s religious education committee. While one quilt square is the product, how can your process be one that is inclusive and brings together Friends in unity?
Timeline
- One Quilt, One Yearly Meeting launches at Fall Continuing Sessions, November 3
- Bring the finished square to Spring Continuing Sessions on March 23, 2019, or, deliver/mail to the PYM office: 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102 before March 23.
- Squares will be assembled by quilters in the community, and our PYM Quilt will be revealed at Annual Sessions, July 24-28, 2019!
Questions? Contact a member of the Community Engagement Team, including Olivia Brangan, Community Engagement Coordinator, Melinda Wenner Bradley, Youth Engagement Coordinator, and Meg Rose, Sessions Coordinator.
The Election: Friends Served at the Polls, Ran for Election, and Volunteered
During last week’s election, many Friends were doing what they always do, engaging deeply in the political process to further beliefs they hold dear.
This took many forms. Grady Lights, an attender at Haverford Meeting, and long-time proponent of equality, stood at 30th Street Station with a poster that read “Keep Calm VOTE,” attracting the attention of documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. Moore, who loved Grady’s presentation, strode up to pose side-by-side for a photo. Enthused by the encounter, Grady shared his story of outreach with several Haverford Members over a cup of coffee, after worship.
Numerous Friends and Attenders served as bi-partisan democracy advocates covering neighborhoods, community events, and county-wide outreach initiatives to encourage voter turnout. Many also served their wards as election officials and volunteers, working from 6:00 AM until 10:00 PM, to log in voters, walk them to voting machines, answer clarifying questions, and provide cheerful, diligent, support to the election process.
Bill Heinemann, a Member at Newtown Meeting, is Majority Inspector for his local ward. He worked the polls at the Newtown fire station, and was captured in Mat Rourke’s photograph (see photo left) for the AP news feed, with three other members of the Newtown community also in the photo. That’s Bill (in the plaid shirt) on the far right going about his work among voting booths and fire trucks.
Bill says he does this work because “democracy depends on involved citizens, whether (that means) running for office, supporting those who do, or ensuring that the election process works effectively. At a time when we’re all very concerned about the state and future of our democracy, every person has the opportunity to be involved in some way.” Bill goes on to say there are many ways to serve, and many ways to have impact. “Jonathan Snipes, (Fallsington) he’s got a good story to tell about his chairing the Fallsington Township Board of Supervisors! And, Norval Reece (Newtown), also served (as PA’s Secretary of Commerce).”
There were Friends who ran for office in the current election, too. Joe Hohenstein, of Frankford Friends Meeting, was just elected State Representative in Philadelphia. Scott Wallace who ran for US Congress, and lost to Brian Fizpatrick, put his Quaker beliefs up on his election web page, stating “As I learned in Quaker meeting-Let your life speak!”
Monthly Meetings have lent their buildings to the election. Haverford Monthly Meeting serves as a community polling place. This year the Meeting supported the non-partisan efforts of Haverford College students to secure the right to vote there instead of two miles off campus. Students now walk just a few steps off campus instead of being bused to the old polling place.
Hard won, and critical to democracy, the right to vote is a muscle that needs to be exercised in support of our civic society. In engaging with our political process, Friends hope the light within people’s hearts—and throughout our community—shines past shadows.
As an attender, Grady Lights is new to the Quaker Faith. Yet his message, in worship during the weekend prior to the election, resonated with Quakerism’s sense of community. Pay attention to your impact on the hearts of others: “…Regard your attention as light–shining on my statements & propositions; also consider the possibility that some of your thoughts responding to mine are “shadows” cast by the light of your attention on the objects of my thoughts.”
Young Friends Welcome Program Assistant
Following an extensive search process and interviews with several finalist candidates, PYM Youth Programs are delighted to welcome Aeryn Luminkith as the new Assistant in the Young Friends program. She will begin her work with Young Friends at their Christmas Gathering, December 27-30. We’re really pleased to welcome her to the staff team. Aeryn brings experience with teens and younger youth, has worked as a teaching assistant, art teacher, tutor, and photographer. During the interview process, Aeryn impressed us with her warmth and concern for inclusive youth community, and her interest in creating a balance in programming between playful and grounded energy.
From Aeryn: While working at Greene Street Friends School over the past year, as an after school program assistant and substitute TA, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for Quaker beliefs and values.The Quaker commitment to social justice and equality, where the voices of all community members carry the same weight, resonates very deeply with me. During my time at Greene Street, it has greatly influenced the ways that I interact with students, peers, and colleagues. I have multiple years of experience working with children and youth including two years working with high school students as a photography teacher and tutor in a non-profit youth center. I have also done LGBTQ advocacy work with non-profit organizations in this city. I strongly believe in supporting youth leadership and emotional development through fostering environments of mutual respect, understanding, and equal opportunities. Guiding youth to help them understand and dismantle systems of oppression is something that feels especially important to me, particularly when working with teens and young adults.
Young Friends program Facilitator Lori Sinitzky shared: “I’m excited to work with Aeryn as we plan and facilitate upcoming Young Friends gatherings together. Aeryn brings many gifts to our community, including experience with photography and a commitment to working with youth. I know we have fun times ahead!”
Historical Marker for Mendenhalls Dedicated
On Saturday, November 10, 2018, over 50 people gathered at the intersection of Route 52 South (Kennett Pike) and Hillendale Road in Chadds Ford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, to dedicate the newest Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker to Isaac and Dinah Mendenhall, Quaker abolitionists. Many of the attendees were Mendenhall descendants. The marker nomination was submitted by Concord Monthly Meeting member Robyn Young and Isaac Mendenhall descendant Carol Luzak.
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.
Launching our Multicultural Audit – Preliminary Steps
Peace and Progress!
We, the Multicultural Audit Steering Committee (MASC), are looking forward to learning more about how our community builds and sustains relationships. In under a year, we have articulated a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Multicultural Community Assessment in Diversity and Inclusion. Essentially, this self-assessment will gather testimonies and witnessing of Friends and attenders to learn more about the ways we can support strengthening our beloved community.
So, what can you do now?
- Hold this work in The Light,
- Read details about the committee and the RFP
- Spread the news of this assessment among your contacts,
- Participate as your talents and gifts permit
Friend Carter Nash (Harrisburg MM), a member of MASC, shares, through testimony, what being in Quaker community means in his life. We are looking forward to learning how such testimonies resonate in your personal witnessing.
Read more about the Multicultural Audit Steering Committee and download the RFP.
Statement on Recent Acts of Violence
Quakers are holding in prayer and the light the families and loved ones of those who we lost at the Tree of Life Synagogue on October 27, 2018, at the Kroger grocery store in Kentucky on October 24, 2018, and in other acts of hate that will go untold.
We are called to name these as acts of antisemitism, racism, and bigotry. As a Faith centered in the belief that each person has God’s light within them, we are trying to address the culture of violence, isolation, and hate in our society. We are concerned that certain uses of internet and other media outlets foster a climate that embraces such acts of hate.
To heal from these, we are called to respond nonviolently, with love as our primary impulse.
Personally, between one shock to the system and the next, we may find this call to be tremendously difficult to follow. These days, we have little time even to mourn let alone consider how to move forward. We wonder what to tell our children.
The Civil Rights leader and author, Bayard Rustin—who was deeply influenced by Quaker and Gandhian nonviolence—wrote something that some may find helpful, in a letter to the children of Cleveland on December 3, 1969:
“…we cannot hope to achieve democracy and equality in such a way that would destroy the very kind of society which we hope to build. If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society…If we can build such a society, then we would have achieved the ultimate goal of human freedom.”
In the work that we do, we sometimes feel like we are digging holes in the ocean. But we are reminded that we all share a relationship with God and to each other. As long as there are people like us, centering our actions in love, holding each other up, there will be resilience.
In the words of A.J. Muste, another organizer influenced by Quakerism, “There is no way to peace; peace is the way.” We add: There is no way to love, love is the way. There is no way to beloved community, beloved community is the way.
*This statement was read today, 10/30/18, by Melinda Wenner Bradley, PYM Youth Engagement Coordinator, at a press conference organized by CAIR-Philadelphia.
