Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

News

Staff Transitions: Chief Financial Officer & Director of Program and Religious Life

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This month, we are posting job openings for two important positions that have been held by Friends who have been involved with PYM for decades.  We are posting the Chief Financial Officer position, held by Linell McCurry for a dozen years, and the Director of Program & Religious Life position, which Melinda Wenner Bradley stepped into two years ago after serving as the Children’s Religious Life Coordinator since 2017. Linell and Melinda have both been pivotal in their own ways and will have a lasting impact on the capacity of PYM to connect Friends and meetings. 

Chief Financial Officer 
Linell manages the business and finance of PYM in a manner that takes care of the routine and big-picture responsibilities, addresses a constant need for reform, simplification, and clarification of our complex finances, and manages a steady stream of projects that often require institutional knowledge.  We know from experience that it can take a good bit of time to hire for financial positions.  For these reasons, we want to plan well for turnover in the CFO position, giving plenty of time for a search as well as for onboarding and training.  We also want to take advantage of Linell’s long and deep knowledge of PYM, so we have developed a succession plan as follows: 

  • We will post the CFO position imminently and will accept applications until the position is filled. 
  • When the position is filled, we will plan for a healthy overlap to allow for onboarding and training as needed. 
  • When it’s time for Linell to step away from the daily CFO responsibilities, we will contract with her to continue to work on specific projects that are needed but that she does not have enough time for.   

This plan allows us to prepare well for the transition in the position in a way that supports the yearly meeting, suits Linell’s interests, and keeps her close by.  

Director of Program & Religious Life 
This position was developed a few years ago to create a narrower portfolio than the previous Associate Secretary for Program & Religious Life. Melinda is the first incumbent in the role. Through the engagement and relationships nurtured between all the program and religious life staff and the body, the director is in a position to have a strong sense of how Spirit is moving through the yearly meeting community. The director combines that understanding with the discernment of the body, and collaboration with directors of communications, grantmaking & data, and development, to support meetings and ministries and nurture their interconnectedness.   

While Melinda has been serving the yearly meeting in this role, she also attended seminary and graduated in May with a master’s degree in Ministry and Leadership. She is a co-founder of two volunteer-led Quaker organizations: Faith & Play Stories and the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative. Faith & Play has received a generous two-year grant from the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund. Starting in the early fall, Melinda will be the project director for “Finding Ourselves in the Story: Growing Faith for Friends.” Even though she will no longer be on PYM staff, her ministry will continue to deepen the roots of our religious society.  

Following the Annual Sessions, Melinda will focus on supporting the planning for programs and events in the fall and leaving Program and Religious Life operations in good shape for the next director.  

Listen and Lobby

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In March of this year, the Administrative Council laid down the policy it had approved on lobbying and advocacy in favor of a new process of listening and collaboratively building an approach to the issue with Friends in the yearly meeting. An update will come to the body at Annual Sessions on July 6th. In the meantime, this story provides information on the steps and conversations that have happened so far.

A sprint (a short-term project with a specific charge and set of outcomes) was set up to engage all Friends who are interested in the issue and to result in a proposed policy. The charge of the sprint is:

This sprint will craft a spirit-centered, well-seasoned draft lobbying policy that is grounded in our faith and practice. The policy will meet the needs of PYM Friends whose ministry is grounded in advocacy, the needs of the PYM community, and our responsibility to maintain PYM’s resources and nonprofit status. The draft policy will be arrived at through a two-stage process:

a) Making space for many PYM Friends to share and listen to diverse experiences of spirit-led activism and advocacy and responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the institution of PYM.

b) Crafting a draft policy based on the listening.

The draft policy will be brought to the body for consideration and approval.

Administrative Council asked three members and the presiding clerk, with support from staff, to see this charge through with PYM Friends. This core group is responsible for the logistics of keeping the process moving. A working group which includes up to seven additional people is responsible for crafting a policy.

The core group set up three listening sessions for Friends to share and hear from one another on the subject of lobbying and the yearly meeting. At each session Friends were invited to respond to a query: In the context of continuing revelation, how might the Spirit guide me to affirm, adjust, and evolve my perspective on Spiritual leadings while participating in and honoring the corporate discernment of PYM Friends?

118 people registered for the one or more of the three sessions and 98 attended (there were some people who registered for and/or attended more than one of the sessions). There were a number of common themes among Friends’ sharing, including:

  • Importance and urgency of ensuring effective, strategic social justice (policy) change and its alignment with Quaker testimonies
  • Need for accompaniment in change-making work
  • Concerns about the process leading to the policy
  • Questions about and understanding of IRS rules and their relevance relationship to PYM
  • Fear and frustration, lack of trust and unity
  • Gratitude
  • Hope for recovery and reconciliation

The working group was then formed; eight Friends who attended at least one of the listening sessions and who represented a variety of view points were asked to participate and six agreed to serve. The full roster includes:

  • Jeanne Elberfeld (clerk; core group; admin council)
  • Carter Nash (core group; admin council)
  • Kruskal Hewitt (core group; admin council – Kruskal stepped off when the working group was formed)
  • Melissa Rycroft (core group; presiding clerk)
  • Jean-Marie Barch (working group; Quaker Life Council)
  • Debbie Murray-Shepard (working group; Quaker Life Council)
  • Lynn Oberfeld (working group)
  • David Leonard (working group)
  • Martha Bryans (working group)
  • Michael Homans (working group)
  • Linell McCurry, Salvador Orellana and Christie Duncan-Tessmer (staff; core group)

The working group has held one meeting and is calendaring more for the summer months. At their first meeting the group first spent some time getting to know one another. Then, their discussion was structured by 3 queries which they focused on one at a time:

  • What are the needs of PYM Friends whose ministry is grounded in advocacy and activism?
  • What are the needs of the PYM community for advocacy and activism?
  • What is our responsibility to maintain PYM’s resources and nonprofit status?

The working group then began to summarize the common ground and the points of concern and disagreement. They also identified what additional knowledge or understanding is needed, such as what is the actual risk to PYM posed by lobbying.

The Sprint will meet regularly to work through the process of education, understanding and discernment. Their goal is to have a draft to discuss with Administrative Council in the fall and to bring to Continuing sessions in November.

Fox Forward: 400 Years and Beyond

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July 2024 marks the 400th birthday of Quakerism co-founder George Fox. For more than a year, Friends around the world have been pondering and planning how to celebrate the life and legacy of this 17th century spiritual leader. Fox was a gifted speaker who drew on his Christian faith to challenge societal injustice in his time, but he is not a “famous Friend” without aspects of his life and ministry that we are called to consider in the light of today. Almost four centuries after his public ministry shaped the beginnings of the Religious Society of Friends, across the globe Quakerism continues to evolve and contribute to our wider society. Shared here are available resources for summer celebrations and year-round learning about the legacy of George Fox at 400.

[Read more…] about Fox Forward: 400 Years and Beyond

Land Acknowledgement Statement

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A consistent practice during opening worship of Yearly Meeting Sessions is an acknowledgment that the places where we gather are the ancestral land of native people who were here for millennia before settlers arrived from other continents. Over the years, our practice for generating this acknowledgment has varied. For a while, the same person crafted and shared the statement at each Sessions. After that, a different person was asked each time we gathered to be responsible for the acknowledgment. In every case, the individual providing the statement wrote independently of others and shared it in their own words.

Last winter, Quaker Life Council wanted to establish a consistent, meaningful, and manageable practice that all Friends recognize as the way we acknowledge the land we meet on. To accomplish this, QLC created a sprint with the charge of recommending a practice to guide PYM in the use of land acknowledgements.

The sprint was expected to include people who were active in yearly meeting activities and in Sessions, and who have engaged in land acknowledgment practices and/or deeply understand the issues related to stating a land acknowledgment. The people appointed were Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch (Schuylkill Meeting), Jeanne Elberfeld (Reading Meeting), Tyrone Dancing Wolf Ellis (Lenape Tribe), sandra boone murphy (Mickleton Meeting),  Sean Connolly (Arch Street Meeting House Executive Director), and Robert Greene (Princeton Meeting).

The sprint began by settling into worship to reflect on the principles needed in a land acknowledgment, in which the following basic concepts arose.

The statement will:

  • encourage people to embrace what they know and what they do not know.
  • create space for people to consider the indigenous peoples of the region in which they live; Philadelphia Yearly Meeting covers a large geographic region and the tribes represented are not homogenous.
  • acknowledge that change is difficult and also healthy.
  • incorporate resilience—we are stepping into a stream that is constantly changing; this will be a living document which can change and grow.
  • be simple and authentic.
  • propose a call to action of some sort—based on where each individual person finds themselves in this time.
  • encourage deeper exploration and understanding of the record of the historic involvement of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in relationships with indigenous peoples.
  • include a commitment to look at the present and the future, though we may learn from the past.
  • encourage understanding of the difference between federally-recognized groups and those who do not carry this designation.
  • remind us all of the request that there be “nothing about us without us” as we make movement forward in developing relationships with indigenous peoples of this region.
  • transcend the idea that an “acknowledgement” implies owning up to wrongdoing; rather it will help us all look forward to ongoing relationships where we are all seated together at the table looking at what serves all.

The sprint’s work created a set of queries and a simple statement that can be used for Sessions and any other gathering.  It was road-tested at Caln Quarterly Meeting, where it was found to be centering and activating for Friends. This statement will be shared in worship at Sessions on July 6th on the Haverford College campus and at future sessions.

The Statement

  • What do I know about the indigenous people who live and have lived in the region in which I live? How can I grow more fully into that?
  • What do I know about the relationship between the indigenous people in the region in which I live and the federal and state government? How can I grow more fully into that?
  • How am I living into my responsibility to be a good steward of the region in which I live, including the land and the relationships with other living beings? How can I grow more fully into that?

We gather today as people of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting with affiliations to many groups of worshipers which occupy Lenapehoking, the ancestral lands of and home to many indigenous people. We each recognize and commit to the need to understand the historic and current relationship among all those who inhabit these lands and will each undertake to inform ourselves of these facts. We have much to learn and can only begin with what we know. We understand that knowledge and commitment must underpin action, and that reciprocal and respectful connection and communication must undergird right relationship. We intend to grow into this commitment, connection and communication, “…as long as the creeks and rivers flow and the sun, moon, and stars endure.”

A follow-up sprint is in the works now, which will provide the core information to inform the creation of comprehensive visual tools that illustrate the locations of indigenous nations across the geography PYM occupies. The visual representation of the PYM geography could be debuted as soon as November Continuing Sessions.

Norristown Meeting’s “Memorial to the Lost” Addresses Gun Violence

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Norristown Quaker Meeting will hold a public witness to the lives lost to gun violence in Montgomery County this June. Over 40, 000 die from gun violence every year in the United States. The first event, installing a visible memorial, will take place on June 15, 2024, at 10:30am at the Quaker meeting house at 20 Jacoby Street, Norristown, PA. All are invited to attend and join the interfaith prayer vigil and singing afterwards.

Norristown Friends Meeting, part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, is partnering with Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence to install a Memorial to the Lost on the meeting grounds. Each person killed by gun violence in Montgomery County will be honored with a t-shirt with their name, birth and death dates, and age at the time of death. The Memorial is a visible representation of the harm that is done to our communities through gun violence.

On the following Saturday, June 22, at 10:30, Norristown Friends Meeting will host a community event to provide more information and education about gun violence and what people can do to help enact commonsense gun laws and promote safe gun ownership. There will be speakers, testimonials, singing and messages from local organizations. Refreshments will be served. These programs and activities are designed to engage people of all faiths and all meetings, churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques.

“We seek to energize communities of all faiths into activism using positive messaging and inspiring local activities, intended to mobilize and organize”, says Mary Green, organizer for the event.

Norristown Quaker Meeting opened its doors at in 1853, welcoming Friends including Lucretia Mott, a widely known Quaker preacher and leader in the anti-slavery movement. Norristown Friends continue to practice the Quaker values of peace, equality, and community out in the world and gather for the rich silence of unprogrammed worship at the corner of Jacoby and Swede Streets in Norristown, PA.

Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence is the outgrowth of a peace conference organized by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Quakers and two other historic peace churches, the Mennonites and the Brethren, in 2009.

In 2023 PYM launched the Friends Ending Gun Violence Collaborative, a network of concerned Quakers that work with partners to support local meetings to take action to reduce gun violence through public witness and education.

Event Recap: Check-in on Creating a Playbook for Climate Action

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On Wednesday, May 29, Friends gathered to check in on their progress on working with Creating a Playbook for Climate Action. Participants ranged from those currently using the resource to those looking to mobilize their meetings.

The attendees talked about the efforts their meetings are making or intending to make. Ideas included updating heating systems and insulating buildings to be more efficient, carpooling, and planting gardens that support the environment. They expressed hopes to reach out further within their meetings and to other organizations within their communities.

Concerns about climate change in general were voiced. There is a feeling that people go about their daily lives, business as usual, but climate change is a reality that is already affecting the world, with rising sea levels, increased natural disasters, and record-high temperatures. Broader impacts on complex systems, including food and housing structures, and how the climate crisis impacts those were discussed.

It was lifted up that people are scared, feel disempowered, and are unsure how to take action. Participants discussed several documentaries and resources they have screened, though there is a collective concern about recommending them, as they want to make sure they are educating and supporting people in a way that doesn’t also overwhelm them.

The group discussed ways to take personal action, naming political action at the state level as an avenue. Spiritual commitment to remain seated in the Light and compassion is also a means to find comfort in a challenging topic.

Our named commitment to a yearly meeting-wide witness on climate change means we will continue to hold space for this work. The next check-in around Creating a Playbook for Climate Action will be on Zoom on October 10 from 7-8 p.m.

Learn more about the Creating a Playbook for Climate Action resource here.

Meeting for Learning with Attention to Quakerism

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Serving as a member of the yearly meeting staff includes ongoing learning as individuals and as a staff community. Staff meetings during any calendar year include collaboration and planning across departments, always with the Strategic Directions held at the center of our service to the yearly meeting. “Meetings for Learning” have included professional development topics and inclusion and belonging work together, and four times a year they are focused on Quakerism. The group of staff who plan these times actively listen for and collect topics of interest from colleagues. In May, our focus was on the testimonies in relationship with our lives and work. [Read more…] about Meeting for Learning with Attention to Quakerism

Making Spaces for Children In Worship

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A rising interest in intergenerational worship in the yearly meeting has also led to meetings creating spaces for children in the places where they worship. This is more than putting a “children’s area” in the places where we worship — It is a visible message to any newcomer, including families with children: “Children are welcome here.” [Read more…] about Making Spaces for Children In Worship

Monthly and Quarterly Meeting Leadership Gatherings

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Three times each year, Friends in local and quarterly meeting leadership (clerks, assistant clerks, treasurers, committee clerks) gather online with the presiding clerk and General Secretary. The gatherings include timely announcements and shared conversation, and are one way that we connect across meetings in the yearly meeting. The May 2024 gatherings included several announcements to share back to meetings, and small group discussions around topics of interest. [Read more…] about Monthly and Quarterly Meeting Leadership Gatherings

Come to the Table! Friendly Community Outreach

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As the summer months begin, local communities will be hosting festivals, street fairs, and events in parks and other outdoor locations where Friends meetings will find opportunities for outreach and community connections. “Tabling” at these local events is a great opportunity for conversations and sharing information about the meeting. For those who don’t know our meetinghouses are more than historic buildings, meeting Friends at community events lifts up our current presence and vital ministries. [Read more…] about Come to the Table! Friendly Community Outreach

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