We’re counting down to Annual Sessions! Here are 12 great reasons to join, July 26-30. [Read more…] about 12 Days to Annual Sessions … 12 Reasons to Join!
News
Newtown Quaker Meeting Kids Raise $4,008 at Lasagna Dinner for MicroLending
NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The Quaker Kids at Newtown Meeting served its annual lasagna dinner for charity at the historic Quaker Meetinghouse and raised a whopping $4,008 for their designated charity, Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR)!
[Read more…] about Newtown Quaker Meeting Kids Raise $4,008 at Lasagna Dinner for MicroLending
History & Vision of Quaker Aging Resources
PYM’s Aging Support Coordinator, Sheila Sorkin, invites you to participate in an important survey on the Quaker Aging Resources website. The vision for this project may still hold true; however, we will value your input in discerning the future of this valuable website.
New York and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings of Friends (Quakers), through generous funding from Friends Foundation for the Aging and the Thomas Scattergood Foundation, collaborated to develop Quaker Aging Resources (QAR). The project was designed over 13 years ago to assist Meetings and individuals in responding to the needs of aging Friends including age related changes, chronic illness or disability. The resources are intended to uphold a culture of care for the body, mind, spirit and community of the individual, which is consistent with our Quaker faith, and address the following needs: [Read more…] about History & Vision of Quaker Aging Resources
PYM Call for Nominations!
Service on the committees and councils, and in clerking and treasurer roles, in the Yearly Meeting is nourishing for both the individual and their meeting. Friends who serve in this way help the yearly meeting both to be productive and communally follow where spirit is guiding us as a faith community.
[Read more…] about PYM Call for Nominations!
PYM Launches New Info Line
Do you have a Question? The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) office can connect you with someone who has the answer!
What’s After Quaker Cloud?
December 2023 marks the end of the Friends General Conference Quaker Cloud, which many meetings have utilized to host their websites for over a decade. The transition to creating a new website may feel daunting to some meetings, but it doesn’t have to. Creating websites can truly be as simple or as complicated as anyone wants to make it, and there is a tool that will meet everyone’s skill-level and interests. [Read more…] about What’s After Quaker Cloud?
Reparations: Responsibility & Relationship
“We are responsible for the world that we’ve inherited, and the world that we pass down.” — Reverend Naomi Washington-Leapheart
January Workshop Opens Conversations
At the start of the year, the Mayor’s Commission on Faith-based and Interfaith Affairs invited members of Philadelphia-area faith communities to spend four days examining the intersection between theology and systems of white supremacy alongside reparations and truth telling. Under the leadership of Reverend Naomi Washington Leapheart, Director for Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs for the city of Philadelphia, and the Commission’s ongoing “Rise Up for Reparations” campaign, inaugurated in June 2022, the January program was part of ongoing work to build a culture of reparations in the city – and one where faith leaders are at the front of the movement. [Read more…] about Reparations: Responsibility & Relationship
Chester Meeting Minute of Love for the Ugandan LGBTQAI Community
June 13, 2023,
Chester Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends,
To Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Friends,
In this time of pandemic, Chester Friends Meeting has held blended worship, and in these years we have been blessed with visitors. One, Karl Malchut from Evanston, IL, has become a regular attender. He has been zoom visiting with concerns for transgender and gender minority youth and has actively been supporting a faith community, the Talented Youth Community Fellowship of Uganda.
As that community has been facing increasingly punitive threats due to persecution unto death from the highest levels of government, Karl was moved to bring a minute to the meeting. It was shared by us broadly to our meeting community, and on Sunday, June 11, we heard it and united. We committed to sharing it widely, not knowing what response would be but knowing that out of love we had to do something. [Read more…] about Chester Meeting Minute of Love for the Ugandan LGBTQAI Community
Meet the Father and Daughter Co-clerking Duo of Old Haverford Meeting
When Kristin Simmons’ youngest daughter was born, her husband Tim was working at Delaware Valley Friends School. As lifelong Catholics, they were feeling disillusioned with church, and decided it was time for a change. Together the family turned to Quakerism, looking for a simpler, connected life to the divine Light. It was both faith and community that drew the couple to Old Haverford Monthly Meeting seventeen years ago. When Kristin was young, her mother worked as a librarian at a Quaker school for 20+ years and committed time focusing on social justice issues and sharing key insights among various faith groups. Kristin’s father, George Salloom, and his wife remained practicing Catholics until about seven years ago when George became a member of the Quaker community.
The father and daughter duo, George and Kristin, now serve as co-clerks at Old Haverford Meeting. They both hold master’s degrees in social work; George graduated from Howard University while Kristin graduated from University of Pennsylvania. Kristin also currently serves as PYM’s Youth Engagement Coordinator on the Program and Religious Life team. Their stories of how they became Quakers and co-clerks of Old Haverford Monthly Meeting are heartwarming and engaging.
[Read more…] about Meet the Father and Daughter Co-clerking Duo of Old Haverford Meeting
Quaker ‘Must See’ for Summer Family Fun
As summer approaches, families looking for enriching summer activities to enjoy together don’t have to search very far. Fun is right in our own backyard throughout the Delaware Valley area. Enjoyable excursions for the whole family connect Quaker history and our Friends community. We’ve gathered a list of “Must See” local Quaker Family Fun sites to visit this summer. [Read more…] about Quaker ‘Must See’ for Summer Family Fun