Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

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For Our Children: A Quaker Parent’s Perspective

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Abigaile Brace-Higgins is a member of Mickleton Meeting and serves on the planning circle for PYM Giant Children’s Meeting programs. This article originally appeared in the Salem Quarter News, Fall 2020.

On March 16th, 2020, I laid down in the cool, muddy-grass at the foot of a tree in my backyard and looked up at the bare branches crackling like brittle-veins across the clear sky in the stark morning light. My two and a half year old son, Keegan, played quietly in his sandbox next to me. The heavy news of Covid-19 was thrashing like a storm all around us, but in that moment we were still. Nowhere to go, anytime soon. The impossible sadness of tragedy befalling thousands of people around the world pounded deep inside me. As a parent of a young child, my mind swelled with questions: How should my child understand this? How should I help him adapt? To cope? To stay safe? How long is this going to be? How are we going to move forward and stay connected to all those in our lives we hold dear? [Read more…] about For Our Children: A Quaker Parent’s Perspective

Interview with Sean Connolly, Executive Director of Arch Street Meeting House

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Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust preserves, operates and interprets the meetinghouse and grounds which will serve to increase public understanding of the impact and continued relevance of Quakers and Quaker history. Executive Director, Sean Connolly talks to us about his work at the historic Meeting House. [Read more…] about Interview with Sean Connolly, Executive Director of Arch Street Meeting House

Providence Meeting Unites on Racial Justice and Anti-Racism Statement

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Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This fall Providence Meeting united around the following statement on Racial Justice and Anti-Racism.

Consistent with our mission, Providence Friends Meeting seeks to involve members and attenders as partners in the ongoing work of racial justice, advancing equity, and undoing the effects of racism. This work requires us to examine and transform our own individual beliefs and actions, the beliefs, actions and policies of our meeting as a corporate body, and to challenge the effects of racism in the larger society. These include, among others, disparities in healthcare, economics, housing, voting access, climate justice, the workplace, criminal justice, and education.

Goals

  1. As Providence Friends Meeting acknowledges and honors the fundamental value and dignity of all individuals, we strive to be a culturally safe space where all individuals and groups are treated with respect in regard to their unique cultural needs and differences.
  2. We strive to build a pluralist, anti-racist community that encourages participation and leadership among all Friends, and supports and elevates partners and community members most affected by racism and bias.

Providence Friends Meeting resolves to use these queries to further these goals.

Corporate Queries

  • How does our meeting support, model and encourage active and ongoing anti-racism work? How do we move all members forward on their journey to being their best selves?
  • How are we working to change the ways that our meeting benefits from privilege and systemic inequality?
  • How do we create “space at the table” for all individuals and groups?
  • How do we actively consider the effects of our decisions on those who have been harmed by racism?
  • How do we use Spirit-led decision making to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion rather than support structures that reinforce inequities?
  • How do we carry this work into our worship and committee work?

Individual Queries

  • How do I regularly examine myself for attitudes and behaviors that indicate any hidden prejudice?
  • If someone suggests that something I have said or done is racist or discriminatory, do I listen and consider their point of view?
    ● How do my lifestyle choices affect the causes of justice and injustice in our nation and the world?
    ● How do I seek ways to make my local community, state and nation more just and equitable?
    ● How do I challenge statements, practices, behaviors, and interactions that diminish, demean, disempower, or otherwise harm others and their identities?

How do I do this with loving kindness that honors that of God in each person?

Quakers in The News: a Centering Faith with Conviction

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The Quaker Faith has been called a “quiet faith,” by others, but it comes with a practice of acting with conviction, and a belief in being open to the Divine.

Multiple sides of this faith equation were named and discussed in the Philadelphia Inquirer this week, with interviews with the activists Eileen Flanagan and George Lakey, and with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s General Secretary, Christie Duncan-Tessmer. [Read more…] about Quakers in The News: a Centering Faith with Conviction

Fall Continuing Sessions: Opening Remarks and Land Acknowledgement

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For those who could not attend continuing sessions, the Clerks’ opening remarks and the land acknowledgement are excerpted in the story below. Please note that the land acknowledgment prayer delivered by s. boone o’scheyichbi uses unconventional capitalization and language.
[Read more…] about Fall Continuing Sessions: Opening Remarks and Land Acknowledgement

A Spiritually Centered Continuing Sessions

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A total of 81 Friends gathered for a morning of worship at continuing sessions on Saturday November 7th. Presiding clerks, Jean-Marie and Frank Barch welcomed convening Friends, as  participants joined and “box after box” appeared on Friends’ computer, I-pad and I-phone screens. [Read more…] about A Spiritually Centered Continuing Sessions

Pendle Hill and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Host Collaborative Meetings for Worship

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Pendle Hill and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting held two collaborative meetings for worship on November 3rd, Election Day. The meetings offered a space for spiritual comfort and connection during the vortex of an unusually drawn out 2020 Presidential election.  19 attendees joined afternoon worship and 39 attendees participated in evening worship. Friends joined locally and from places as distant as Canada and the West coast of the United States.

[Read more…] about Pendle Hill and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Host Collaborative Meetings for Worship

Conversations on Civility

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There is a ‘shadow side’ to civility that has led to the following story and resources. There is also an emotional and experiential part of civility that can suppress honesty necessary to growth or serve as tool to oppress.  As a religious community we hope to expand understandings around the different perspectives Friends have and so provide this follow up on the civility topic.

[Read more…] about Conversations on Civility

Parenting + Presidential Election + Pandemic

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Parents have been holding a lot in these past eight months. In addition to the multiple stressors of life during a pandemic and social unrest and violence in the news and neighborhoods, the intensity of the election cycle is an experience both for us as adults and for our children. Depending on their age, children and teens may be aware of the anxiety of the adults around them and experiencing their own anxiety about the outcome of the election next week. [Read more…] about Parenting + Presidential Election + Pandemic

In These Times: A Pastoral Message

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George Schaefer serves Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as the Care and Aging Coordinator. He works with meetings, aging Friends, and individuals to support PYM’s spiritual growth, pastoral care, and community wholeness. This essay is his response to the burdens we may be carrying today and in the coming weeks. Tea with George is always perfect. Please sit with these thoughts and have a favorite cup of tea close to hand. [Read more…] about In These Times: A Pastoral Message

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