Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has multiple October events that will provide ways to engage within our community before Fall Continuing Sessions. Three opportunities include fellowship of the thread gathering, a family-centered peace-building event, or the collective discernment over climate during a virtual threshing session. Each of these events offers a unique opportunity to engage with the PYM community and prepare ourselves spiritually for the work ahead. Whether you are seeking fellowship, family engagement, or discernment on critical issues, these events will help ground us as we come together as a faith community:
News
Talking about the Election with Children and Youth
Authorship is credited to Melinda Wenner Bradley (West Chester Meeting), Quaker Religious Education Collaborative
The intensity of the election cycle is an experience both for adults and for the children and youth in our families and communities. Depending on their age, preschoolers to teens may be aware of the anxiety in the adults around them — and experiencing their own anxiety about the outcome of the election in November.
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Friends Counseling Service: Key Questions Answered for Accessible Mental Health Care
The Friends Counseling Service (FCS) serves members and attenders of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) who are in search for guidance, comfort, and assistance. This service offers accessible mental health care to Friends across PYM with counselors providing individual therapy, couples counseling, and family therapy sessions. We connected with Janaki Spickard Keeler, Friends Counseling Service Coordinator, who provided additional insight into the service by answering some key questions.
Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting on “Going Veggie” and Using “Creating a Playbook for Climate Action”
Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting has embraced a new initiative to support climate action by “going veggie” on the third Sunday of each month. This meeting-wide project is the result of collaboration between the Climate Action and Hospitality Committees, reflecting a shared commitment to addressing climate change.
Sarah Whitman, a member of both committees at Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, shared her perspective and the behind-the-scenes on this new initiative. “Last spring, we started a Climate Action Committee to help the meeting address climate change,” Sarah shared. “There have been individual leadings and practices related to climate change, but not a project that the whole meeting does together. I happen to be a member of both Hospitality and the Climate Action Committee, so I felt like this was an opportunity for synergy between those two committees.”
Update From the Listening and Lobbying Sprint of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Authorship of this update is attributed to the Jeanne Elberfield and the Listening and Lobbying Sprint of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Friends, I am writing this update with much optimism in my heart and mind. The Listening and Lobbying Sprint is working diligently towards a draft policy and guidance addressing political lobbying for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Over the past few months, we have learned from a nonprofit expert and PYM’s lawyer about the IRS definitions and limitations on lobbying for a 501(c)(3). We have had regular conversations about how this information helps us to find a solution that mutually satisfies Friends who are led to political advocacy, the PYM Quaker community with diverse leadings and ministries, and the PYM as a 501(c)(3). We continue to ask Spirit to guide our hearts and minds as we navigate our way forward. [Read more…] about Update From the Listening and Lobbying Sprint of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Answer the Call: Share How Your Meeting is Engaging for Election Day
As Election Day, November 5th, approaches, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is asking members and monthly meetings to share how they are preparing and engaging Friends and their communities. From participating in the election efforts to spirit-led discussions. Friends are called to act, and PYM wants to hear how your meeting is living out that call. Whether your meeting is doing voter registration drives, holding discussions on community responsibility, or engaging in prayerful reflection, let us know what Friends are doing near you to inspire and mobilize your region for the upcoming election!
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We Invite You to Join a PYM Granting Group!
Granting groups are a very meaningful part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM), and each group is thankful for the volunteers who give their time and effort as granting group members. PYM Friends are encouraged to join a granting group to have the opportunity to practice philanthropy through discernment and to be part of distributing grants on behalf of all of PYM’s members.
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Work for Peace: A Call from the Middle East Collaborative
Authorship and thoughts in this story are attributed to the Middle East Collaborative of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
On October 7, 2023, the world was awakened to the horror of an armed attack in Israel. For those who were not familiar with the ongoing struggles that Palestinians had been experiencing, it felt unprovoked and antisemitic. Certainly, for some, the work to lift up the issue of Palestinian oppression was going to be much harder. And so it has.
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Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Staff Updates: Introducing Ember Eldridge and Isaac Garrison
There were many changes for the PYM youth staff over the summer months. Sadly, we said goodbye to Alix Vallery (MSF Co-Facilitator) and Clare Chalkley (YF Co-Facilitator), who have moved on to new adventures. Alix and Clare served PYM youth with such kindness and commitment, and we are so grateful for all that they contributed to our programs. We will miss them, and we wish them many blessings as they continue their life journeys.
Contribute to PYM’s booklet on Addressing Racism: Share Your Ideas and Resources
In 2015 the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting committed to a yearly meeting-wide witness on addressing racism.
PYM is currently seeking content ideas to develop a booklet for meetings and communities to address racism. This initiative is similar to the booklet “Creating a Playbook on Climate Action,” a resource made in mind of a second yearly meeting-wide witness addressing climate change. The content you can contribute to the booklet could include queries, blogs, books, videos, financial tools, and activities that cover the Five Action Areas: Activism, Education, Addressing Personal Impacts, Finances, Mourning Loss and Instilling Hope as they pertain to racism.
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