A collection of Quaker related links published occasionally.
Quakers & Quakerism
Together: Intergenerational Sundays
On Sunday of Spring 2022 Continuing Sessions weekend, local meetings were encouraged to “create your own” intergenerational gathering of Friends. Shared here are stories from meetings who created time for togetherness. Other meetings are planning future programs, and we would love to keep hearing and sharing those stories! [Read more…] about Together: Intergenerational Sundays
“Together” Sunday of Spring Sessions
On Sunday of Spring Continuing Sessions weekend, we encourage meetings to “create your own” intergenerational gathering of Friends. While the pandemic has opened the possibility to join together from across the PYM region without travel, which we’ll do on Saturday online, our local meetings are where we gather most often across generations for fellowship, worship, learning, and business. Let’s continue the energy of being together at Sessions in the time after worship on Sunday morning, March 27. Shared here are resources and suggestions to plan simple opportunities for togetherness!
Friends Committee on National Legislation Priorities Process
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) will again determine its legislative priorities by asking Meetings and Churches to discern their own lists for work in Washington. During January and February, each monthly meeting in PYM will receive an invitation from FCNL to discern what issues should be the focus of FCNL’s work in Washington over the next Congress.
[Read more…] about Friends Committee on National Legislation Priorities Process
Quaker Educators: Ayesha Imani, PhD, and Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School – Part 2
Ayesha Imani, Ph.D., is a Quaker educator who serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sankofa Freedom Academy. She is also one of the founders. This is part two of a two-part interview with Ayesha about community energy, spiritual focus, Quaker educational ideas, and the creation of the Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter school. [Read more…] about Quaker Educators: Ayesha Imani, PhD, and Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School – Part 2
Grace Sharples Cooke Farewell Interview
Grace Cooke, Associate Secretary for Advancement and Relationship, has been stewarding fundraising at PYM for the last five years. Since May, 2018, she has also been leading the communication team at PYM. This February, she will be leaving PYM to begin a new job at the Science History Institute. While we are sad to say farewell, we are glad to share this final interview. [Read more…] about Grace Sharples Cooke Farewell Interview
Ujima Friends Peace Center Is a Ministry of Ujima Friends Meeting
Ujima Friends Meeting announced in June 2021 that: “In an act of declaration and commitment, we, a people of African descent, our families and friends, respond to the movement of the Spirit among us to form Ujima Friends Meeting within the Religious Society of Friends. Ujima Friends Meeting is a community of faith without borders, dedicated to bearing witness to peace, justice, and love.”What follows is republished From Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting’s January Newsletter.
[Read more…] about Ujima Friends Peace Center Is a Ministry of Ujima Friends Meeting
Quaker Educators: Ayesha Imani, PhD & Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School – Part 1
When a visitor arrives at Sankofa Freedom Academy, a Philadelphia charter school, the first feeling is one of love. A second feeling is calm – Sankofa students and teachers are full of intention and purpose. The third is respect and joy.
These school walls may hold moments of stress or success, but either way, no one is going to be left unsupported or un-loved, and the community is there to value and lift each soul, and all minds, up.
Ayesha Imani, PhD, is the Quaker educator who serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sankofa Freedom Academy. She is also one of the founders. The kindergarten to grade 12 school – which opened in 2009 and is currently the only Freedom School in Philadelphia – was inspired by Ayesha’s children’s positive experiences in Quaker schools, the Quaker faith, the need for a culturally African-centric instructional model, and the charter school movement.
This is a story of Quaker energy and spiritual focus.
Birmingham Friends Meeting: Exploring Quakerism with Newcomers
Sallie Jones and Leslie Leonard from Birmingham Friends Meeting, West Chester, PA, share a story about their program, Exploring Quakerism for Newcomers. The program provides an overview of Quakerism and how Friends meetings work. Two members of the meeting lead the program and orient seekers to the faith and help them build relationships within the meeting.
[Read more…] about Birmingham Friends Meeting: Exploring Quakerism with Newcomers
John Munro of Unami Monthly Meeting on the Carbon Forest Project
Unami Monthly Meeting recently introduced a Carbon Forest Project through their Peace and Social Concerns committee. As one of their first projects, they have made plans for a ten-acre site to build Old Growth forests, an ecologically diverse native forest that can sink carbon permanently by planting 435 trees per acre, tending to the need for organic surface, shrubs, and herbs. They plan to steward these forests as they grow to maturity. [Read more…] about John Munro of Unami Monthly Meeting on the Carbon Forest Project
