Spring Continuing Sessions: Members One of Another
Registration for Spring Sessions is now open!
Register for Spring Continuing Sessions
Spring Continuing Sessions invite us to come together as a body, recognizing the vital role each Friend plays in our shared spiritual life. Join us from home or at one of five monthly meetings hosting in person! Together, we will explore the new 2025 Sessions theme: Members One of Another.
In a time when division and polarization feel increasingly present, Members One of Another offers a counter-message. It encourages us to create spaces of inclusion and care—affirming the importance of belonging. The agenda for Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business and the intergenerational afternoon program invites Friends to attend to the continuing business of the yearly meeting while enjoying fellowship across generations.
Schedule and Agenda
Saturday, March 8: Onsite, Online, and Hybrid
8:30 AM – Arrivals
9:00 AM – 9:30 AM – Meeting for Worship
9:30 AM – 12:30 PM – Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business*
12:30 PM – Break
1:00 PM – Lunch (determined by each host meeting)
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Members One of Another interactive program (all ages)**
* Meeting for Business will be hybrid. Clerks will gather at Arch Street Meeting House, and regional locations will welcome Friends to participate in a hybrid format, joining the clerks via Zoom.
** The afternoon program will be onsite or online. You may join in person at a regional location or participate with Friends online.
Sunday, March 9: All Together Worship
Three times a year, Friends across all four states in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting region have the opportunity to join together for an online meeting for worship for all ages. All Together Worship happens from 10-11am on the Sunday morning of every Continuing and Annual Sessions weekend. We come together from meetinghouses and homes for an intergenerational, semi-programmed worship held in care by the Yearly Meeting elders and Presiding Clerk.
The Zoom link to join All Together Worship will be the same one being used for that Sessions weekend; individuals and meetings will receive it when they register for Sessions.
Business Agenda Spring Continuing Sessions 2025
9:00 – Worship 9:30 – 12:30
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- Welcome
- Updates from the presiding clerk: The clerk provides an overview of our day together, laying out key items to hold as we attend worshipfully to business
- LGBTQIA minute from Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting: PQM approved a minute in the fall and has asked for endorsement by PYM.
- Affirmation of Church World Service Membership: PYM has a decades-long relationship with CWS. CWS recently changed their governance structure and PYM Friends are asked to affirm our status as a “covenant member.”
- Status of Unity Meeting: New life is rising in Unity Meeting as Ujima repopulates it.
- PYM’s Lawsuit: In January PYM and other yearly meetings filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security’s revised policy on access to sensitive places. An update will be shared.
- Lobbying Guidance: After a year of listening and discernment, Guidance on Advocacy and Lobbying for PYM will be considered for approval.
- Nominating Report: Nominations for PYM governance roles will be shared for approval
- Break
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- Approve minutes
- How are we called at this moment: Friends will consider how PYM and our meetings can be safe spaces for those impacted by recent changes in the United States.
- General Secretary Report: The General Secretay will report on the strengths and possibilities for connection in our yearly meeting
- Sessions update*: Join our annual sessions this summer at Cheyney University, the first HBCU. Plus an update on PYM Friends’ thoughts about Sessions.
- Joint Council Report*: The Joint Council is the governance structure that cares for the yearly meeting in between Sessions. The co-clerks will report on the council activity since the Fall.
- General Secretary Search Committee*: The committee responsible for seeking our next General Secretary will report on the status of their charge.
- Approve minutes*
*We hope to move through the entire agenda on Saturday. However the Clerk recognizes that we may need extra time. In the event that spirit moves us in such a way that requires an extension, we will add an hour of time on Zoom on Sunday, 3/8 from 11:30am to 12:30pm. We will make this call by noon on Saturday.
Come Together with One Another
Spring Sessions is a special opportunity to gather in new ways! Friends are encouraged to research the locations below and discover which host meeting is closest to them. This is a wonderful chance to meet new Friends by journeying outside of your local meeting or Quarter.
Building our community by coming together speaks to the heart of our theme: Members One of Another. Friends are encouraged to attend the full day, but those who can only join for the morning business session or the afternoon community gathering are also welcome.
- Arch Street Meeting House | 320 Arch St. | Philadelphia, PA, 19106 | Directions
- Lehigh Valley Meeting | 4116 Bath Pike | Bethlehem, PA, 18017 | Directions
- London Grove Meeting | 500 West Street Road | Kennett Square, PA, 19348 | Directions
- Mount Holly Meeting | 81 High Street | Mount Holly, NJ, 08060 | Directions
- State College Meeting | 611 E. Prospect Avenue | State College, PA, 16801 | Directions
- On Zoom
Sessions Survey
PYM Friends are encouraged to contribute their thoughts and visions to the future of Sessions, you are encouraged to complete this survey to share your perspective. By sharing, you’ll help shape the ways we gather as a community of faith. Providing your ideas will guide how we connect our spiritual journey, and support each other in living our testimonies.
What is Sessions?
Annual Sessions is one of the oldest Quaker traditions! Today, all over the world, yearly meetings gather once a year to bring together members and attenders from their local meetings. We call them “Sessions” because meeting for worship with attention to the business of the Yearly Meeting is central to these times together. Continuing Sessions are our one-day events on the second Saturday of November and March, where we attend to the continuing business of the Yearly Meeting and enjoy fellowship across generations. During all these times we ask: What is God’s big idea for PYM Friends?
closed
Meeting for Business Agenda Saturday
Annual Sessions is one of the oldest Quaker traditions! Today, all over the world, yearly meetings gather once a year to bring together members and attenders from their local meetings. We call them “Sessions” because meeting for worship with attention to the business of the Yearly Meeting is central to these times together. Continuing Sessions are our one-day events on the second Saturday of November and March, where we attend to the continuing business of the Yearly Meeting and enjoy fellowship across generations. During all these times we ask: What is God’s big idea for PYM Friends?
Fall Continuing Sessions, Nov. 8-10 2024
Our Fall Continuing Sessions at Arch Street Meeting House, and online, gathered us into a shared journey of worship, fellowship, and reflection as we closed our theme of “Called to Healing”.
Read more about what happened at Sessions in the Mott Memo.
View the keynote speakers from Friday and Saturday night below.
Tom Gates: Healing Across Cultures: Two Stories
Nov. 8, 2024
Tom Gates is a member of Lancaster Friends Meeting, where he serves on Worship and Ministry. He is a retired family physician, and he and his family lived and worked at Friends Lugulu Mission Hospital in Kenya, from 1991-94. He is called to a ministry of the written word, is the author of several Pendle Hill Pamphlets, and is the 2024 Kenneth Carroll Biblical and Quaker Studies Scholar at Pendle Hill.
Katy Hawkins: The Somatics of Centering: Quaking and Stillness
Nov. 8, 2024
Katy Hawkins, PhD (pronouns: she/her) is a lifelong Quaker and a member of Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, where she serves on the Worship and Ministry Committee. Ten years ago she opened Shiné: Mind/Body/Spirit at the meetinghouse, a practice space for integrating the whole self in the work of centering. She has offered courses, workshops and weekend retreats at FGC, Pendle Hill, and area colleges. Her book, Thinking Feelingly: Somatic Approaches to Poetry, experiments with how poetic language can bypass the rational mind to touch deeper layers of our being. She is currently taking part in School of the Spirit’s “Participating in God’s Power” program on deepening Quaker ministry. More information on her work can be found on movingpoetics.com
