Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Quakers & Quakerism

Exploring Thoughtful Planning with Compassion and Care

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Discussing the stages of life is  never easy, but it still remains  one of the most essential acts we can offer both ourselves, our loved ones, and members of our meeting. The upcoming workshop, Creating Your Advance Directives and End of Life Plan, which will be one of the three at the Grief, Loss & Bereavement: A Pastoral Care Thread Gathering On October 19th, will provide a welcoming space for Friends to navigate this delicate subject.  Participants will gain insight into critical documents, such as living wills and healthcare directives, that help ensure their values and wishes are honored. The facilitators, Susan W. Hoskins (Newtown Friends Meeting) and Susan K. Garrison (Media Friends Meeting),  will lead a discussion on completing important materials, offering peace of mind to us and those we care for.  

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FWCC World Plenary Events: August 5-12

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Living the spirit of Ubuntu:
Responding with hope to God’s call to cherish creation – and one another

In the works for many years, the next Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Plenary Meeting is August 8-12. This is a time to worship and connect with Friends from around the world and to help set the direction for where FWCC goes next. The theme for the 2024 World Plenary is, “Living the Spirit of Ubuntu: Responding with hope to God’s call to cherish creation and one another” and Friends from all over the world will gather both in South Africa and online.

The World Plenary Meeting is a meeting for representatives from all four FWCC Sections — Africa Section, Asia West Pacific Section, Section of the Americas, and Europe and Middle East Section — to tend to FWCC business, surrounded by worship and fellowship with Friends from around the world. All Yearly Meetings and other bodies that are affiliated with FWCC are invited to send delegates to the World Plenary Meeting. There will also be a gathering of Young Adult Friends in the days before the World Plenary, August 1-5. PYM representatives to FWCC will be attending both in South Africa and online: Amy Duckett-Wagner (Fallsington Meeting) and Peterson Toscano (Millville Meeting).

The world office has shared resources to connect with the theme and prepare to engage with the program. These include a World Plenary Meeting Study Guide and a World Quaker Songbook. Amy Duckett Wagner has recorded a playlist of songs from the songbook, which can be watched (and joined in song!) on YouTube.

August 5 First Monday Lecture at Pendle Hill: Robin Mohr

On Monday, August 5, Pendle Hill’s First Monday Lecture series (7:30-9:00 PM ET) will welcome Friends into the spirit of the FWCC gathering. Robin Mohr (Green Street Meeting), who is completing her time as Executive Secretary for FWCC Section of the Americas this summer, will share stories of where she has seen ubuntu in action, as she concludes thirteen years in her position.  Information about how to join online or on campus at Pendle Hill is on the Pendle Hill website.

Over fifty hubs to join the World Plenary Meeting online — including Pendle Hill! 

Pendle Hill will host one of the online “hybrid hubs” across the globe, joining the World Plenary online. More information about the Pendle Hill hybrid hub is shared here. and a flyer to share is also available.

Image from FWCC World Office website.

Using technology available to us today, the opportunity for people in Congo Yearly Meeting, Lake Forest Friends Meeting, Japan Friends, Canberra Quakers Hub, Belgium & Luxembourg Yearly Meeting, Dublin Meeting and a Russian-speaking hub to join Friends gathered in South Africa is deeply aligned with the mission of FWCC.

FWCC was formed in 1937 to bring Quakers together across theological and cultural diversity. The primary task of FWCC today is to help Friends appreciate and develop unity within the diversity of the Quaker family. This includes differences of language, culture, and tradition, and in the emphasis placed on different aspects of our common Christian and Quaker heritage and witness. From the FWCC World Office website: “Friends worship in a variety of ways, and by increasing understanding of these differences, FWCC helps Friends both deepen and enlarge their own understanding of their faith and life as Quakers.”

Click on image to link to this flyer on the FWCC website.

FWCC opens doors to friendship and learning

FWCC has been a transformative influence on my journey as a Friend. In 1987, I participated in the FWCC Quaker Youth Pilgrimage as a rising senior from Westtown School, along with two classmates. Youth from around the US and across parts of Europe participated in a three-week travel and learning experience that took us to Pendle Hill and Swarthmoor Hall in 1652 country, and also to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. It was the first time my home meeting (Millville Meeting) wrote a minute of travel for me. It was my first experience of community with Quakers from parts of the US who belonged to programmed, pastoral congregations, and also with Friends from other parts of the world. It opened new possibilities for me as a young Friend, including spiritual growth. I made friends who I am still connected with today living in other parts of the globe, and it put my feet on a path that has included travel in all the FWCC Sections. I would not have imagined as a sixteen-year-old the idea of being in public ministry among Friends, but FWCC opened doors that included traveling to the last World Plenary in Peru in 2016, where I was invited to bring the message in worship on a morning the Section of the Americas had care of worship. Most recently, FWCC connections led to the invitation by The Yearly Meeting of Aotearoa/New Zealand (Te Hāhi Tūhauwiri) to travel in the ministry there in August 2023.

The worship during the days together at the World Plenary in Peru illustrates the spirit of FWCC and our global Quaker family. Each morning was unique and grounded in the practices of the people from that Section – we sang, danced, were led in a guided meditation, and heard sermons. Throughout, the sense of the Light among us was strong, and we were listening together for God through these different ways. Our Quaker faith connected and uplifted us.

Let’s hold in the Light those Friends gathering and participating in the 2024 World Plenary!

A version of this story first appeared in the July 2024 Concord Quarterly Meeting newsletter. Shared with permission. 

“Fox Forward” Recording of June 29 Roundtable

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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!

Fox Forward: 400 Years and Beyond

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July 2024 marks the 400th birthday of Quakerism co-founder George Fox. For more than a year, Friends around the world have been pondering and planning how to celebrate the life and legacy of this 17th century spiritual leader. Fox was a gifted speaker who drew on his Christian faith to challenge societal injustice in his time, but he is not a “famous Friend” without aspects of his life and ministry that we are called to consider in the light of today. Almost four centuries after his public ministry shaped the beginnings of the Religious Society of Friends, across the globe Quakerism continues to evolve and contribute to our wider society. Shared here are available resources for summer celebrations and year-round learning about the legacy of George Fox at 400.

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Are You Getting the Idea that FGC Can Change Your Life?

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Here is a snapshot of “my story” of being a part of Friends General Conference’s Gathering as an important part of my spiritual journey.

I have attended the Gathering since 1994 when it was held at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. And as a matter of history, 20 other members and attenders of Lehigh Valley Monthly Meeting also attended that year! Many of them brought their school-age and middle school children. The Gathering has excellent programming for children and youth from newborn through high school. Each adult person chooses a workshop, and that information is on the website registration.
My first workshop was entitled ” Finding the Goddess Within.” Women from all over the US created an altar with items relevant to each one’s spiritual practice. I put my copy of Faith and Practice there. We also washed each other’s feet in the pond on campus. It was magical and very empowering.

In 2012, I attended at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI with my dear friend Fran Dreisbach as my travel companion and dorm room roommate. I shared a workshop with others including one woman from Atlanta, Georgia with whom I am still communicating. Fran and I got interviewed as part of an ongoing public relations strategy to hear from current, modern-day Quakers about their practices. Then Fran and I went to a seaside bar on the Narragansett Bay and had mudslides!

In 2014 the Gathering was in California, PA at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh. I took part in a social justice event. Picture three school bus loads of Quakers going to downtown Pittsburgh to stage silent worship circles in lobbies of PNC banks to protest mountaintop removal. PNC was funding companies in Appalachia who supported that way of mining coal. They stopped shortly after that non-violent protest! After we returned from the trip to Pittsburgh and a delicious whole foods meal we sang Broadway show tunes with George Lakey at the piano!

In 2021 when the Gathering was all virtual due to the pandemic, a request was made for each person entering the Zoom meeting to type in the chat the state where they lived and acknowledgement of the First Nations people whose land you now inhabit! Wow. I took a workshop called “Eating With Christ: Spiritual Embodiment.” I have continued to gather to this day (3 years later) in a weekly Zoom with five of those workshop attendees supporting each other with eating disorders to honor our physical bodies in a spiritual way.

So, I hope you are getting the idea that FGC Gathering can change your life and contribute to your memories of a great summer vacation! If you want profound spiritual experiences, an opportunity to speak out to social justice, make lifelong f/Friends, bring your children to their own Quaker learning and just enjoy other like-minded Quaker folks from everywhere, then won’t you please join me at FGC Gathering?

Nancy Johnston
Lehigh Valley Meeting

PYM’s Joey Leroux to Lead Tour of Philly’s Quaker Business Influencers

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Join Joey Leroux, PYM’s new Director of Grantmaking & Data and co-founder of Beyond the Bell Tours, on Saturday, June 1, for Phriends Influencing Philly, a first-of-its-kind interesting and informative walk (with some surprises in store!) exploring Quaker business impacters in Philadelphia. Beyond the Bell Tours designs inclusive historical tours of Philadelphia highlighting people and communities typically left out of mainstream tourism. Joey holds a degree in Economics from Haverford College, where he was introduced to Quaker history in a course with Emma Lapsansky. He looks forward to sharing the hidden history of Philadelphia with you.

The group will start at Arch Street Meeting House for a light breakfast, departing for the tour at 9:30am featuring: Philadelphia’s Forgotten Founder, Hannah Callowhill Penn; Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first medical school in the world to offer medical degrees to women founded by Quakers in 1850; Anna T Jeanes, Quaker philanthropist still impacting Friends today; Strawbridge & Clothier, a Quaker business dedicated to service to customers, community, and employees; Dr. Caspar Wistar, physician and anatomist; the Legend of the Penn Treaty Elm; and more!

Accessibility: There are restrooms and benches along the route if needed. Wheelchairs and strollers are welcome. The tour aims to take the pace of a casual stroll and will last approximately an hour and a half. The walk will traverse concrete and brick sidewalks and cobblestone streets. There are no steps to climb once departed from ASMH, and curb cuts on and off sidewalks will be followed.

What to bring: This is a rain or shine event. Please come wearing weather-appropriate clothing, comfortable shoes, and water to stay hydrated.

The tour will conclude with fellowship, food, and continued fun at National Mechanics. The deadline to register is May 28 and there is a limited number of spots available.

Phriends Influencing Philly Details
Saturday, June 1, 2024
Coffee, tea, and a light breakfast, 9:00 am
Tour departs ASMH, at 9:30 am
Tour concludes with fellowship, food, and continued fun at National Mechanics at 11:00 am
Distance covered: The tour is approximately 1.5 miles long
Parking is available at Arch Street Meeting House

Cost: $50
(Includes breakfast and tour. Food at National Mechanics is not included.)

Young Adult Friends Cost: $35
(Use code “YAF” when registering)

Register here by May 28 to secure your spot!

Questions? Contact Merri Brown at mbrown@pym.org or 215 241 7115

Quaker Call to Protect Our Elections and Save Democracy

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In February, 2022, Bruce Birchard, Sam Caldwell and Michael Wajda, all members of meetings in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, initiated what became “An Urgent Call to the Religious Society of Friends.”  This was a call to Friends and meetings to join in an effort to protect the integrity of the 2022 elections.  Many other Friends joined in drafting the call, which was released in June of 2022.  Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and many individual PYM members endorsed the Call.

We formed a “steering committee” of eight experienced Friends who have guided this work.  We are an ad hoc group, not a formal organization, no tax exempt status, etc.  Our mission is to bring Friends (and Friends meetings) together to take action to protect our federal, state and local elections, save and strengthen our democracy, and stand up for truth and integrity in our American political life. [Read more…] about Quaker Call to Protect Our Elections and Save Democracy

Funding Opportunities from the Friends Historical Association

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The Friends Historical Association is pleased to offer funding to support contributions to the field of Quaker history.

There are three grant opportunities: project support, publication subventions, and research funds.

All opportunities run on the same cycle, and applications are due May 15, 2024.

Details about each opportunity and application instruction are provided at https://www.quakerhistory.org/grants

Image: Library Assistant Linet Mmbone readies the space for the Africa Quaker Archives. Quaker Religious Education Collaborative (QREC) received a grant from FHA in 2020.

FGC Gathering Registration Update

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General Registration will re-open on Wednesday, May 01!

The Gathering of Friends has almost 800 Friends registered as of the close of early registration, and we expect that we will have to close registration before the May 31 deadline. When programs are full, they are full. Once the Gathering is full, we will not be able to add additional full-time registrants, and will have limited space for single day commuter registrants.

Our Gathering expectations state, “The Gathering is an event for registered attenders. The Gathering programs and facilities are restricted to registered attenders, except for use of the dining hall when cash sales are permitted by the host site. In no case is someone who has not registered for the Gathering permitted to stay overnight on campus.”

Haverford is a smaller, private campus, and will not have cash sales for non-registered guests to eat in the dining hall. We will sell tickets to commuters and day registrants for meals they wish to purchase. Pay-as-you-go meals are breakfast $10; lunch $13; dinner $16.

We will have tickets for the Evening Plenaries on Monday thru Thursday nights available for purchase. The tickets will be $25 per night, with a discounted rate of $10 per night for Haverford students. These tickets will allow anyone to attend the plenary only.

While in the past, Friends have been able to visit the bookstore without registering, we have suspended that as part of our COVID safety practices.

Attenders who want to connect with F/friends in the area who are not registered should make plans to do so off campus. Friends who are not registered will not be able to meet up on campus to visit attenders.

We ask that you understand that this is in the spirit of integrity, honoring our contract with the college, and preserving the safety of our community.

Attending The Gathering From Childhood Reinforced Lifelong Connections with Friends

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Attending the Gathering from Childhood Reinforced Lifelong Connections with Friends

When I was nine, my family’s move brought us to a different unprogrammed meeting in a new state. My newly- made friend’s warm, cheerful mother invited me to go to the Cape May, New Jersey, Conference (not called the Gathering yet) with her and my friend, since my family was not able to attend. I eagerly accepted. [Read more…] about Attending The Gathering From Childhood Reinforced Lifelong Connections with Friends

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