Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s General Secretary, Christie Duncan-Tessmer, invited Friends in monthly and quarterly meeting leadership roles to gatherings on Zoom on September 21 and September 28. Many leaders attended to share, listen, and learn from each other.
Welcome and Worship:
In both the Quarterly and Monthly Meeting Leadership Gatherings, Christie invited the groups into worship; after breaking worship, she illuminated the Top 5 ways that PYM connects Friends, meetings, and ministries together. Click the links to find out more:
- PYM-wide witness on addressing racism and addressing climate change
- Resources
- Gifts & Skills Collection
- Support for Belonging in meetings
- Working Together
Yearly Meeting Interconnectedness:
In both gatherings, Melissa Rycroft, Presiding Clerk, invited Friends to join her for the Upper Susquehanna Fall Family weekend. Melissa also encouraged Friends to invite her to visit their meeting and to invite Friends to attend monthly and quarterly meeting events (intervisitation).
The Clerk noted that Sunday, October 1, 2023 is World Quaker Day and the weekend is full of events in many Quarters during Super Quaker Weekend.
Staff Announcements:
Melinda Wenner Bradley, Director of Program and Religious Life, shared about the upcoming and engaging fall programs:
- October 5, 2023: Threshing Session (Zoom) PYM Advocacy Policy.
- October 21, 2023: Thread Gathering on Outreach and Communications (in person at Downingtown Meeting).
- November 11, 2023: Fall Continuing Sessions (hybrid).
- January 27, 2024: Thread Gathering, Governance and Stewardship, property and burial grounds. Details are forthcoming.
Monthly Meeting (MM) Topics – Small Group Discussions About the Ways to Support a Healthy and Generative Life of Committees:
Olivia Brangan, Community Engagement Coordinator, shared about the topics for small group discussions as distilled from the registration.
A query for the small groups: How can we support the healthy and generative life of committees and clerks in the meeting when:
- the meeting is small.
- folks are older.
- people have other ways they want to be living their Quaker life.
Friends came back together and shared some of these thoughts from the small groups:
- reduce the committee numbers and the structures to match the active people willing to serve,
- create Sprints for short-term projects in lieu of committees,
- use the idea of short-term projects as outreach to our neighbors (less time commitment is appealing),
- share meals together,
- engage and invite a new, more diverse group into leadership roles.
Quarterly Meeting (QM) topics. Small group Discussions on the Topic of Collaborating:
In the three small groups, folks shared about what collaboration looks like in the Quarter on social justice and witness, support for small meetings, and general activity.
Queries to guide the small group discussions:
- Where does this collaboration already happen?
- What can QM leadership do to facilitate it?
- What are the challenges of collaboration?
Learning from Small Groups:
- Multiple QMs can have a shared website.
- Move QM to a different day than Sunday so it doesn’t conflict with MM activity.
- Helps to have paid staff to manage communications and do the connecting work for the QM.
- We need to talk more about QM so more people know about it.
- Make your meeting house space available for groups to meet in.
- Hold an expectation that everyone goes to QM, and so have no MM activity that day.
In our large group discussion, folks shared stories about Quarterly Meeting engagement and were guided by this bonus query: any thoughts about collaborating across quarter? (hint: the yearly meeting!)
We closed with worship with gratitude for the evening together.
Please Save the Dates:
Quarterly Meeting Leadership Gatherings:
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 7pm;
- Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 7pm.
Monthly Meeting Leadership Gatherings:
- Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 7pm;
- Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 7pm.
