On Saturday, October 12th, the three councils that support Philadelphia Yearly Meeting—Quaker Life Council, Administrative Council, and Nominating Council—held their first meeting in a new joint format. In this structure, all three councils meet together as one Joint Council to worship, discern, and conduct business collaboratively. A key feature in the joint format is the approval of minutes during the meeting. This allows the Joint Council to share the minutes in a news story with the PYM community in the week following the meeting.
The clerks of the three councils decided to experiment for one year with holding joint council meetings. There are a number of reasons for the councils to meet jointly, including that agenda items have the benefit of seasoning and decision-making from the perspectives of all councils, and the artificial separation of spiritual and administrative responsibilities will be removed. A news story about this experiment was shared in August, and further descriptions of the rationale and practicalities can be read there. There will be a report from the Joint Council on Sunday, November 10th during Fall Continuing Sessions.
One of the many pieces of work the Council addressed was a request from Friends Ending Gun Violence Collaborative. The Collaborative sought “…to install a Memorial to the Lost, sponsored by Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence, on the grounds of Arch Street Meeting House during PYM’s Continuing Sessions…”. The Council considered the potential impact of the installation for addressing our concerns about gun violence as well as for family members and friends for whom gun violence has been a personal experience. In order to address concerns regarding the impact on Friends and family members, the Council requested that the Collaborative provide a plan for pastoral care to be available for people viewing the installation, if requested. In addition, the Clerks are planning to set aside time after the Meeting for Memorial on Friday evening, when Friends who so choose may spend time in a silent vigil among the t-shirts that are part of the memorial installation.
Thirty-one people attended the meeting, split between in-person participants at Arch Street Meeting House and others joining via Zoom. The minutes were read and approved at the midpoint and again at the end of the meeting. Meg Barney (Providence Monthly Meeting) and Emily Blanck (Mickleton Monthly Meeting) served as recording clerks.
The two recording clerks were joined by Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch (Schuylkill Monthly Meeting), who clerks the Quaker Life Council; Jeanne Elberfeld (Reading Monthly Meeting), who is the clerk of the Administrative Council; and George Schaefer (Abington Monthly Meeting), the clerk of the Nominating Council. Together, the clerks led the business meeting.
Joint Council will meet again on December 14th.
Friends can reach the council clerks directly with questions:
Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch, barch@pym.org
Jeanne Elberfeld, jelberfeld@pym.org
George Schaefer, gschaefer@pym.org
