Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Youth Programs

Young Friends Program Announcement

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This communication was shared with Young Friends Program contacts on April 24, 2019
Dear Friends,
I’m writing to share with you a change in the youth programs staffing for this summer and some of the next steps.
Lori Sinitzky has shared that, for health and family reasons, she needs to step away from the Young Friends Program Facilitator position. She has recognized that the issues before her will be a demand on her time and her ability to be fully present for this important work. We are grateful to Lori for the loving care she has given the role and the Young Friends community. She brought thoughtful planning and deep listening as well as grounding in Quakerism and support for young people on their spiritual journeys. She has our gratitude and love as she goes forward.
There will be a search conducted to find a new Young Friends Facilitator, and the voices of Young Friends and others in the youth work community will be involved in the process. Aeryn Luminkith continues in her role as Young Friends Assistant, and she will be part of the search committee.
Camp Swatara (May 3-5) will be Lori’s last event with Young Friends. There will be several adults in attendance at Swatara to support Lori and Young Friends, including Aeryn as Assistant. Robert Rosenthal, Karen Gallagher, and Kody Hersh, former Young Friends staff, and I will be serving as Friendly Presences.
There will be time to bid Lori farewell at Swatara. The weekend will also focus on the transitions our youth are celebrating. A traditional ceremony will be held during which Middle School Friends graduate into Young Friends, and Young Friends into the Young Adult community.
Two other upcoming events to anticipate:
Young Friends will gather in residence together with the PYM community at Annual Sessions, July 24-28, and the late summer gathering for Young Friends will be at Camp Onas from Wednesday, August 21 to Saturday, August 24. The late summer gathering is a shorter week this year as an experiment better to accommodate the needs of Camp Onas and hopefully make it possible for more Young Friends to attend at a time when there are other demands on time, like summer jobs and preseasons for sports and music. More information about both events will be shared in the coming weeks, including plans for staffing. We are clear that the priority is to create space for the Young Friends community to gather, grounded in a stable, supportive community of adults and other youth who know and care about this program.
Zachary Dutton, Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life, and I will host an online conversation for f/Friends interested in asking questions or sharing their thoughts with us. The conversation will be hosted on Zoom (you can join by videoconference or phone call) on Tuesday, April 30 at 8:00pm. You can join us by using this link that evening: https://zoom.us/j/845327012 or dialing (646) 558-8656 (Meeting ID: 845 327 012).
If you would like to reach out at another time, my office number is: 215-241-7171.
We wish Lori well as she embarks on the next chapter. While we are sad to see Lori go so soon, we celebrate that others will get to receive her gifts as warmly as we have.
In faith and service,
Melinda Wenner Bradley
Youth Religious Life Coordinator
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

Love Thy Neighbor at Continuing Sessions

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Friends of all ages are welcome to join the action at Berks on Saturday, March 23, as well as the alternative multigenerational program at Reading Meeting that morning, from 10am-Noon.

At Reading Meeting that morning, we will welcome Friends who are not participating in the action at Berks and would also like to participate in a morning program focused on community and witness. Youth Programs staff Amy Connelly and Melinda Wenner Bradley will be present to facilitate a multigenerational program that includes fellowship, worship, and an exploration of welcoming the stranger and loving our neighbors.

Like the action at Berks, the morning at Reading Meeting will be grounded in semi-programmed worship for all ages together. Following a Faith & Play -style story and worship, all ages will participate in a workshop on how we welcome one another in our homes, schools and work, meeting communities, and PYM. There will also be an activity to write letters to Governor Wolf and make cards for children held in detention centers.

In addition to the all-ages program at the meetinghouse, child care for our youngest Friends will be available there throughout the whole day, beginning at 9:30am. Parents are welcome to drop off children at Reading Meeting and proceed to Berks for the morning action there.

Children and youth of all ages are also welcome to participant at the Berks action. Children in 5th Grade and younger should be in the care of their family; the Children and Families program Facilitator Kimani Keaton will be present with families.  Middle School Friends and Young Friends (high school) will gather with their Youth Programs staff on site at Berks: Elizabeth Croce and Colleen Hayes with MSF, and Lori Sinitzky and Aeryn Luminkith with Young Friends.

Children and youth will convene at Reading Meeting for lunch, and in the afternoon Kindergarten-12th Grade will gather for a “one room schoolhouse” activity to debrief their participation at the Berks action or the morning program at the meetinghouse before spending time with their program age-group. For more information about Youth Programs in the afternoon at Reading Meeting visit the Youth at Continuing Sessions event page.

Let us know you’re coming by filling out the Registration for Continuing Sessions and clicking “Going” to RSVP on Facebook!

Crossing the Threshold: Preparing to Welcome Families

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How do meeting communities prepare and engage in active invitation to families and children?

Three sets of needs. When a family walks through the door of a meeting, there are three sets of needs we should be prepared to support: the spiritual formation of their children, the spiritual journey of the adults as individual seekers drawn to Quakerism, and the family unit as they search for a spiritual community for their family to grow and contribute in. Welcoming a new family is the work of the whole meeting — youth religious education, worship and ministry, care of community, etc. Pastoral care for children begins with pastoral care for their parents or primary caregivers, and this care is best served at an intersection of multiple committees and ministries. Along with welcome and inclusion, child safety (which is really community safety) is another place for the meeting community to work together to address resources and practices. When my meeting wrote our child safety policy, the ad hoc committee included members of children’s religious education, worship and ministry, and the meeting clerk, who worked together to bring forward a policy for the whole meeting to approve as a body. There is a powerful message in the shared nature of that work.

Listen. When we welcome a family at the meetinghouse threshold, we need to be prepared to reach out and communicate about what they will find there. We also need to be ready to listen. What is a family looking for in a faith community? What do they want you to know about their children, their hopes and needs? After we listen, are we willing to create flexible structure and routines in programs for families to participate? How can we make space for Friends with a variety of gifts to participate in our spiritual community?

I had a humbling experience that lifted up the need to listen, as well as to share about Quakerism and our meeting: In a year when we had many new attenders, we decided to have a shared lunch to invite them more fully into the life and work of the meeting. We prepared a handout about committees, there was an agenda and program (and childcare and pizza for children!). The program opened with the simple request to go around the room and share what had brought each of us to our meeting? Where were we on our spiritual journey? I thought we would do introductions and then get to the “real work” of sharing about our committees and how newcomers could participate. Ninety minutes or so later, we had gotten around the circle of people present. We didn’t get to anything else we had planned. The real work of that time together was sharing, listening, and gathering as a spiritual community. The time for finding a place for people to serve would happen, but we needed to know each other better, first. Integrating families and other newcomers into the spiritual life of the meeting doesn’t need a committee. It’s just about placing primacy on the spiritual experience of worship, listening deeply to one another, and walking with one another in the travails and celebrations of life. People want to share their stories as they come to walk with us. Are we listening?

The unspoken messages of spaces. When my children were very young, I spent most of hospitality hovering over them on antique horsehair furniture where they balanced with glasses of juice and china plates of cookies. I rarely had an adult conversation of any depth, during a time when wonderful connection can happen — and when I needed it. It finally occurred to me to ask if we could add to the social room a small table and chairs for children. The result was transformative! People who are parents can get their children set up there, and then spend coffee hour talking to other adults. The other happy outcome? Children in fellowship with their peers, knowing one another in community outside of a program or worship. Spaces give unspoken, immediate clues to a new family about how prepared the meeting is to welcome them: is there a place to change a diaper? a booster seat or highchair? a small table and chairs in a fellowship space? Does the worship space have a basket of books, coloring, and other quiet things to support children be settled — and included — in worship? Does the greeter have information about child care and youth religious education programs, to hand to visitors along with announcements or information about the meeting? None of these things need to be fancy, but they send a powerful message of inclusion.

Friends may be interested in receiving:

  • “The Tote Bag” PYM e-newsletter for Religious Education and Family resources.
  • “Quaker Meeting and Me” from the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative. This little book in English and Spanish is wonderful to hand to a visitor or newcomer, or as a gift to young children in the meeting.

To learn more about these resources, or plan a conversation about outreach and support for families in your meeting, contact Melinda Wenner Bradley, the Youth Engagement Coordinator, at mwennerbradley@pym.org.

Families Sharing Stories in the Christmas Season

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“Parents are their children’s first and most important teachers,” was wisdom I learned from my mother, who was an advocate for children and families in all her work. It was some of the most important learning I took into the classroom with me as a teacher. It is of course true as well in religious education, though I would widen the role to include grandparents and other caregivers helping to raise a child. Stories often provide common ground across generations for sharing what’s in our hearts and teaching about our faith.

Amy Owsley from Third Haven Friends Meeting shares how families in the meeting came together to share the Christmas story with their children, and with one another. In a season often focused on worldly delights and diversions, how could the time before Christmas — a day that Friends did not traditionally celebrate as a holiday — also be about exploring the “meaning and relevance of the Christmas story in our lives today.”

Last September at a First Day School family open house, the PYM Youth Engagement Coordinator, Melinda Wenner Bradley, spoke to us about “Children, Families, and the Quaker Community.” One of the resources she shared was a story about the Advent season, adapted for Friends from the Godly Play story.  It was just one of a whole batch of rich resources, but the idea of this particular story caught the heart of several families.  We wondered if we could use this story to imbibe the busy, hectic Christmas season with more meaning?   And we could we do this individually with our families at home, but in a way that built community among our families in the Meeting?

Right after Thanksgiving, several families gathered together with reams of felt, little wooden peg figures, paint and sewing needles to make the materials needed to tell the story.  One our Meeting members, Susan Claggett, began the evening by sharing with the parents a Faith & Play story, and giving us some pointers on storytelling at home. Together we then made a handful of “Advent story kits” that we could take home.  The kits are humble little collections — not a bit of polish to them!   They are simple, made with heart, and carry our collective hope for creating connection and quiet in our lives during the holiday.

The Advent story can be told in four parts, so on each of the four Sundays of Advent, we share one more part of the story with our family at home.  Then we informally share our experiences the next Sunday among our group at Meeting.  The weeks unfold the Christmas story from the perspectives of the knowing prophets, the waiting and journeying of the holy family, the shepherds in the fields who are first to receive the news of the baby’s birth, the travels of the three Magi, and then the animals who witness the wonder of the birth of Jesus.  We are finding such magic in a quiet moment with our families each week, dwelling on the meaning and relevance of the Christmas story in our lives today.  Again, there isn’t any elegance or perfection here, as we are all fumbling a bit as we learn . . . but somehow this imperfection makes the experience sweeter and accessible, as our kids deepen their curiosity about the mystery of Christmas, and we parents deepen our kinship with others in the Meeting.

Exploring Vocal Ministry with Young People

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“In worship we listen very carefully. Sometimes a person feels something happening inside that won’t go away. That person listens very hard to answer questions: “Is this from God or from somewhere else? Is this for me only, or for the group? If it is for everyone, do I share it now or later?” Sometimes the person feels words inside that are from God, that are for everyone, and that are for now. Then the person shares the message in a clear voice so everyone can hear the message.”  These words are from the Faith & Play story, “Prayer and Friends Meeting for Worship,” that explores the spiritual practices in meeting for worship, including vocal ministry. How can we use experiential learning to explore with young people how Friends share Spirit-led vocal ministry as part of our communal worship? How can we provide opportunities to learn about and practice discerning the source of what we’re led to share, and lifting up our voice in community?

Openings for children to share their Light begin with creating safe spaces for them to share. The time we spend gathering and “building the circle” in programs for children and youth welcomes young people into spiritual community. Inviting each other to share and practicing deep listening when we do introductions or begin programs should be part of our process every time we gather. Before starting a lesson or story in the circle of children at meeting, we take the time to introduce newcomers and share something from our week. An exercise that I sometimes use in a new group is to invite each person to bring and share about a small object that is special or has significance to them. Set up a small table in the center of a circle and invite Friends when ready to share why the object they have brought is special to them, and place it on the table. You build a scared space together where images, words, and feelings can all be shared.

A way to approach worship sharing with children or in multigenerational groups is “Heart Sharing.”  In Heart Sharing, we lift up a query for response, inviting the response to be “from the heart” and just a word or two. Rather than a thought-out response from the mind, it is from the heart. You can do Heart Sharing in a whole group, or break into smaller multi-age groups of 3-4 with suggested queries. Heart Sharing taps into the here-and-now of children’s spirituality. Children don’t necessarily differentiate between worship time and play time or work time. When we move beyond (or back from) the intellectual nuances and details often in adult responses, we make space for everyone to share from where they are.

Faith & Play stories are tools for teaching children about our faith and practice as Friends. The “wondering questions” that follow sharing a Faith & Play story make space for children to listen and reflect inwardly, or to wonder out loud with the group. The open-ended wondering questions can be used in response to any kind of story, whether it’s a Bible story, a children’s book, or asking how a child’s day at school went. The questions are open, invitational, and there are no “right” (or “wrong”) answers when we wonder together. It’s a place where all voices are invited, and yet not forced (children in the circle are not called on to answer the queries). There is also room for silence in this practice; when no one shares out loud, we can trust that wondering is happening inside. We can allow the pauses and spaces to model our Quaker practice of waiting worship and practice deepening how we listen inwardly. After many years of storytelling, I came to see the wondering time after the story as a place for children to practice sharing vocal ministry and hear their voices lifted up in the spiritual community.

How do we “teach” the practice of listening for God and knowing when a message is from Spirit and for us to share with the whole group? You can find several versions of “vocal ministry flow charts” from different Quaker sources online and see how they speak to you. One or more of them could be given to small groups and discussed, or you could make them into a kind of movement activity, like “red light, green light”: if the answer to one of the questions you ask yourself is yes, it’s a green light. If no, it’s “stop” and return to center. Teens at Friends Meeting of Washington were inspired by writing on this topic to create a skit for their meeting community about vocal ministry. The “Vocal Ministry Skit” is a playful and insightful resource to share, and can be found posted on the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative’s website. It’s a great conversation starter for a multigenerational group, as the skit requires “audience participation” and references contemporary tensions that can occur as we listen to the still small voice within.

Another resource that might be of interest to youth and multiage groups of teens and adults is the QuakerSpeak video, “How to Deepen Quaker Meeting for Worship.” At the 4:34 minute mark, a speaker lifts up several of the questions about when and whether to speak but stretches that discernment to include a question we might ask after sharing: “Do you feel that you were faithful in your speaking?” She opens a space for reflecting on our vocal ministry and seeing that practice as a skill we continue to develop.

Melinda Wenner Bradley,  Youth Engagement Coordinator  

(A version of this story first appeared in the November 2016 issue of “Spark” the New York YM newsletter.)

Featured image by Jacob Hoopes, Valley Meeting.

Young Friends Welcome Program Assistant

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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!”

Let love (and welcome, inclusion, knowledge, and action) be the first motion!

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In both my roles as a parent and educator, I’ve been part of many conversations since the 2016 election about “how do I parent/work with children/model activism/take care of myself” in response to events and news stories. In times of challenge, there is always more wisdom in the circle of people around us, whether in our families, meeting, or the wider world of Friends. During the time of greatest personal crisis in my life, when one of my children (then a toddler) had cancer, our family, local meeting, Friends school colleagues, and yearly meeting communities gathered around and journeyed with us. That was, in fact, what the pediatrician said to me when we first spoke after James’ diagnosis: “You are beginning a journey.”

Accompaniment on a journey can make an extraordinary difference, whether the journey is physical or spiritual. The times we’re living in certainly feel for some of us like a new path, and for others like a road walked too often. How can we provide accompaniment and spiritual nurture to children and young people in the days ahead? How can we support their interest in justice and participation in protest? How do we address worries and provide comfort? How do we recognize the Light in everyone — especially those who don’t hold the same views or values — and let love be the first motion?

Welcome: Among ourselves and to the stranger

Two of the best ways we can support our children are to take care of ourselves on this journey, and model for them both the giving and receiving of hospitality to others. Building connections and finding accompaniment is a powerful message to model for our children, who know how important friends are. In our yearly meeting, Youth Programs host Family Overnights for fellowship and worship together with all ages. We’re adding a Quaker Family Meetup event in April, and there are online communities for sharing information, like the “Families in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Area” Facebook page. Explore with children and youth how we make our circle wider, and welcome others, whether it’s a visitor to meeting on First Day or reaching out in friendship and service in our neighborhood or community.

Knowledge and Inclusion: Hand in hand

Providing children with stories and images of people who live/look/worship/love differently than them or their family nurtures their compassion and experience of inclusion. How can we support young Friends if they are confronted with racism, Islamaphobia, misogyny, homophobia? Stories are a potent source for exploring the experiences of people different from us, as well as finding part of ourselves in their story.  Check for and add to your meeting library books which center the lives of people of color (Friends and others), and also including stories like “Muslim Child” by Rukhsana Khan and “Before Columbus” by Charles C. Mann. This Fall, my meeting has focused our First Day program for children on, “Who is my neighbor?” and connected children’s books about refugee experiences with stories we’re witnessing in the news. Websites with excellent multicultural book collections and suggestions: 

Early Childhood Anti-Bias Education

We Need Diverse Books

Colours of Us

Children’s Books that Tackle Race and Ethnicity

Counter Islamophobia Through Stories of Muslim Kids As Heroes

Books to Help Kids Understand What It’s Like to Be a Refugee

Activism with Children and Youth

Several opportunities for children to be involved in age-appropriate activism are happening at this time. There are possibilities for each of us, at all ages, to find our entry into witness and activism. How do we know where our Light leads us to be God’s hands and feet and voice? One of the gifts we can give children is the tool of discernment. In PYM Youth Programs, our young people engage in this discernment as part of their retreats. Last summer at Annual Sessions we experienced the witness of Young Friends to Native Justice and gun violence concerns. Beth Collea, a Friend in New England YM, talks about giving a concern or a leading: “Give it the love test; Give it time; Give it over to a larger group.” She created a resource with these questions, to explore discernment with children: “When the Light it at Work in Us.” 

Books and Resources for Young Activists:

35 Picture Books for Young Activists

8 Empowering Middle Grade Novels for Kids Interested in Social Justice

Student Activism on Campus

19 Books to Help Children Find Hope and Strength in Stressful Times

Teaching Radical Hope and Resistance

The wider circle of Friends is on this journey together. For adults who work and live with young people, there is wisdom in the advice to take care of yourself, pay attention to where young people are (do not assume or project feelings about events), provide accurate information, move to action you can take, and make space for prayer and silence as well as support from those around you.  Let us walk together, and let love be the first motion.

Melinda Wenner Bradley,  Youth Engagement Coordinator  

(A version of this story first appeared in the March 2017 issue of “Spark” the New York YM newsletter)

Youth Programs Sprint Completes Work: Thank You!

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With gratitude for their service, Youth Sprint III has been laid down, having completed their work on the Vision and Mission statements for Youth Programs, and with the formation of a Youth Programs Advisory Committee (YPAC), approved by the Quaker Life Council at its meeting on October 20, 2018.

The Quaker Life Council (QLC) Youth Programs Advisory Committee will consist of eleven people, including two Middle-School-age and two High-School-age members. The committee will have at least one parent of a current participant in a youth program of PYM (at a monthly, quarterly or yearly meeting level) as a member, and the PYM Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life and the Youth Engagement Coordinator will also be members of the committee, serving ex officio.

“With Divine assistance, the Youth Programs Advisory Committee sets the overall direction of PYM youth programs under the guidance of the vision and mission. The committee works closely with pertinent PYM staff, monthly and quarterly meeting staff and community members who care for our youth. The committee helps to season issues, respond to concerns, and hold youth programs in loving care. A key operating principle of this committee is to empower youth voice and share power in the context of beloved community. The committee embodies this principle through the way it conducts its affairs and fulfills its charge outlined here.” – from the Quaker Life Council Corollary Handbook, page 7

A powerpoint presentation on the Vision and Mission for PYM Youth Programs was shared at Annual Sessions in July 2018, and is linked below.

Deep gratitude to the Youth Sprint III members, and all who contributed to the process of articulating a vision grounded in community, accessibility, Quaker faith and values, and meaningful participation.

PYMVisionMissionYouthPrograms

2018 Annual Sessions – Children’s Epistle

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To All Friends Everywhere,

We, the Children of PYM, came together for Annual Sessions at The College of New Jersey, July 25-29, 2018.

We gathered to discuss Earthcare, one way we can let our lives speak. Resident artist Anna DeCaria hosted a sustainable weaving workshop. We used recycled fabric to make pom poms and bags. We had a meeting for business where we discerned and we’re in unity to plant flowers at the next Children & Families gathering, to compost and recycle more, and to raise money for a nonprofit centering Earthcare by hosting a bake sale. We learned that taking care of the Earth is very important. We urge the community to follow our lead and love the Earth by planting seeds, helping people, and sharing the joy!

We urge adults to ask the children because we know how to take care of the Earth.

2018 Annual Sessions – Young Friends Epistle

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Dear Friends Everywhere,

The Young Friends program of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) gathered at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey, for the days of July 25, 2018 through July 29, 2018. Our community welcomed Friends, both old and new as well as the new incoming Young Friends Facilitator, Lori Sinitzky.

The gathering program began with light-hearted introductions, part of ensuring that there were a variety of different opportunities throughout the gathering for self-care and fun. We enjoyed spending time Thursday evening playing games with the rest of the youth programs. The Young Friends  community continued its traditions, including the vigorous physical activity of Wink and the playing of board games while connecting during Late Night. A new addition was a fun personality test. We had the opportunity to cool off with Frank (the unicorn who spouts water out his horn) and a slip-and-slide. Young Friends were also led in a weaving workshop led by Anna Decaria. Numerous Young Friends were  inspired to continue practicing this new skill throughout the gathering, and are grateful for Anna sharing with them.

The Young Friends are also a seriously introspective, spiritual group, and attended many various forms of meditative activities. Apart from regularly attending meeting for worship, we also had daily sessions of worship sharing and had many thoughtful discussions. We also were a part of the multigenerational All Together Time, a time where young and old alike explore spirituality as a single group. Those of us who identify as LGBTQ+ and Allies took part in a unifying time during dinner, to strengthen bonds between those Friends. Some of us finished our evening with a multigenerational vespers, which allowed us to settle in for the night with a state of calm.

Our Nurturing Committee enjoyed providing opportunities for deeper connections and spiritual growth by writing worship sharing questions both for Young Friends and for all of Annual Sessions. Young Friends decided during their business meeting to affirm our work of writing worship sharing questions for Annual Sessions in 2019.

A very controversial issue among the Yearly Meeting and the Young Friends alike was the PYM Staff Voice Policy, which limits the ways PYM staff can share information and opinions related to PYM policies and operations. Led by a call to unify Young Friends, some of us sat in on a discussion with the PYM Personnel committee, in order to give our individual opinions, which were received by the committee.

The “World of Loss” activity was a memorial to victims of gun violence from the Philadelphia area, as well as victims of the Parkland School instances of gun violence. Names, ages, and death dates were written for each victim onto a t-shirt. These were then placed on a stake to represent the victim in a handmade memorial. Those that participated were deeply moved.

Later, the Young Friends conducted their business meeting, where they attended to various pieces of business for the care of their community. They then heard a presentation from the Undoing Racism group about challenges in the broader PYM community regarding anti-racism work. The Friend from this committee shared that a report regarding a multicultural audit process was about to be shared with the adult business meeting. After reading and reflecting with this report, many Young Friends felt that Quaker process had not properly been followed. Some Young Friends felt strongly inclined to share their concern for this report and hustled over to adult Business Meeting. From that group, many Young Friends attended an extended portion of adult Business Sessions on the same topic. After sitting with this information and reflecting both individually and as a community, some Young Friends continued to show an interest in this work and attended the evening adult Business Session to hear the next steps for the Multicultural Audit Committee. They then brought their impressions back to the community for further reflection during worship sharing.

Another important issue that was discussed in the broader PYM body in the presence of Young Friends was the Youth Program Vision and Mission Statement. The Young Friends community shares its gratitude for having our input heard in the Vision and Mission Statements. As Friends entered the plenary space at the outset of the evening business session, Young Friends spontaneously sat at the clerks’ table and held the space during worship.

The Young Friends attended many different workshops. Young Friends had an opportunity to show leadership in the wider community of PYM by facilitating an intergenerational workshop, which was planned collaboratively in advance of the gathering by a group including Young Friends and adults covering a wide range of ages. The workshop topic was “Roots of Injustice, Seeds of Change”. The workshop, which was created by Paula Palmer working with Indigenous North Americans, provided participants with an opportunity to learn about, and to experience, the taking of the land of the Indigenous Peoples by European settlers. Participants took on roles of Indigenous Peoples, and facilitators took on roles of both Native peoples and Europeans. The workshop included a script that summarized 500 years of North American history from the view of Indigenous Peoples, as well as opportunities for group discussion and reflection. Each Friend who attended received a corn seed to symbolize reconnecting with Native Peoples.

Another workshop was a guided discussion in a worshipful setting relating to Liberation Theology and the application of the nativity story to today’s marginalized peoples. Young Friends opened with a discussion of our understanding of the nativity story. Many Young Friends created stories, artwork and poetry expressing their application of the nativity story to today’s world.

We were led in a combination of a Panel and a Workshop, or a “Panel-Shop”, in which three guests- Dana Robinson, Lane Taylor, and Sa’ed Atshan- told us a personal story about their work relating to Earth Quaker Action Team, Fat Acceptance, and education and Quaker involvement in other countries, respectively. The Panel-shop started by each Friend sharing a personal story that explained how they found their true calling. After these three Friends finished sharing individually, the community broke into small groups with our guests to share further about finding our true callings. The Panel-Shop helped us embrace the knowledge that we may find our true calling in life at any age.

After this long gathering, the Young Friends of PYM Young Friends have joined together to laugh, worship and make business. We were grateful to share this gathering with each other and the wider community, and we are looking forward to gathering as a Young Friends community again at Camp Onas in August, and to gathering as part of the entire PYM community again at Continuing Sessions this Fall.

Thank you, PYM.

Respectfully submitted,

– PYM Young Friends Epistle committee on behalf of the Young Friends body

– Committee members: Joe Schiffer, Kaise Coyle, with support from Adult Co-Clerk Robert Rosenthal

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