All Friends everywhere are invited to join Fall Continuing Sessions at Arch Street Meeting House. Our theme “Called to Healing” acknowledges that this is a vulnerable time in our world and as Quakers, we are charged with joining in the work of healing and renewal. Fall Sessions will begin on Friday, November 8th and conclude on Sunday, November 10th. Friday and Saturday will be hybrid, with both in-person and online options, but all activities on Sunday will be online or at a local PYM meeting.
We encourage Friends to consider making Fall Sessions an overnight weekend experience! Home hospitality worked so well for Annual Sessions that we are planning to do it again for Fall Sessions. Sign-ups coming soon for both hosts and guests. There are also several hotels close to Arch Street; a list of options will be provided.
2024 Fall Continuing Sessions Schedule
Items with an asterisk (*) are hybrid format
Events with two asterisks (**) are online-only
Tuesday, October 29th
7:00 – 8:30pm Threshing Session: Reaching Our Carbon Footprint Benchmark**
Friday, November 8th
- 3:00pm Registration opens
- 3:00pm – A Memorial to the Lost: A dedication to the lives lost to gun violence
- 4 – 5:30pm Memorial Meeting for Worship*
- 5:30 – 7:00pm Dinner hour on your own
- 7:00 – 8:30pm Plenary Speaker: Tom Gates: Healing Across Cultures: Two Stories
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.
Saturday, November 9th
- 8am – 9am breakfast on your own
- 8:30am Registration opens
- 9:00am Worship for all ages*
- 9:30am Youth programs begin
- 9:30am Meeting for Business*
- 12:30pm Lunch (provided by PYM)
- 1:30pm Meeting for healing
- 1:30pm – Worship Sharing Online **
- 3:30pm Afternoon break
- 3:30pm – Collaboratives and Sister Orgs table fair
- 5:00pm Potluck picnic dinner
- 6:30 – 8:30pm Evening program: Katy Hawkins: The Somatics of Centering: Quaking and Stillness.
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
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Meeting for Business Agenda Saturday
Worship – 5
Council Update – 20
The three PYM Councils are engaged in a one-year experiment of meeting together and increasing their communication with the body. The clerks of the councils will discuss this change.
- Link to story about the experiment
PYM Connect – 30
Get a sneak-peek at the web-based tool to facilitate connections among PYM Friends and meetings.
- Link to the story about Connect
The Future of Sessions– 15
A sprint is working on a survey for Friends to contribute your thoughts and visions to the future of Sessions. Whether you have attended regularly or have not yet participated, your voice is important.
Approve Minutes (for decision) – 10
- Recording clerks will read the minutes thus far for approval by the body
Meeting for Business Agenda Saturday
Setting the Table
Prepare for meeting for worship with attention to business with snack-sized learning moments
Nominations to PYM positions (for decision)
Nominating Council will bring forward names for Friends’ consideration.
General Secretary Search Committee
A Search Committee has been formed by the Councils to seek PYM’s next General Secretary. A review of the committee and its charge will be presented.
PYM’s Policy on Lobbying
A sprint (short-term, focused committee) formed to listen deeply to the needs of individual Friends, the PYM community and the institution of PYM and recommend a policy. The sprint will bring forward its work.
Approve Minutes (for decision)
Recording clerks will read the minutes thus far for approval by the body
Minute of Solidarity with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) Community
The minute from Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting will be shared and read into the minutes.
A Benchmark for PYM’s Witness on Climate Change (for decision)
A proposal on PYM’s carbon footprint was brought forward at Annual Sessions. The proposal was forwarded to monthly meeting clerks and a threshing session was scheduled for October 29. We will consider the proposal for approval.
Approve Minutes (for decision)
Recording clerks will read the minutes thus far for approval by the body
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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?
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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?
Sunday, November 10th
- 10:00am – 11:00am All Together Worship**
- 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.
- 11:00am break
- 11:30am – 1:00pm Meeting for Business**
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Meeting for Business Agenda Saturday
Worship – 5
Council Update – 20
The three PYM Councils are engaged in a one-year experiment of meeting together and increasing their communication with the body. The clerks of the councils will discuss this change.
- Link to story about the experiment
PYM Connect – 30
Get a sneak-peek at the web-based tool to facilitate connections among PYM Friends and meetings.
- Link to the story about Connect
The Future of Sessions– 15
A sprint is working on a survey for Friends to contribute your thoughts and visions to the future of Sessions. Whether you have attended regularly or have not yet participated, your voice is important.
Approve Minutes (for decision) – 10
- Recording clerks will read the minutes thus far for approval by the body
Meeting for Business Agenda Sunday
Worship
Council Update
The three PYM Councils are engaged in a one-year experiment of meeting together and increasing their communication with the body. The clerks of the councils will discuss this change.
PYM Connect
Get a sneak-peek at the web-based tool to facilitate connections among PYM Friends and meetings.
The Future of Sessions
A sprint is working on a survey for Friends to contribute your thoughts and visions to the future of Sessions. Whether you have attended regularly or have not yet participated, your voice is important.
Approve Minutes (for decision)
closed
Meeting for Business Agenda Sunday
Worship
Council Update
The three PYM Councils are engaged in a one-year experiment of meeting together and increasing their communication with the body. The clerks of the councils will discuss this change.
PYM Connect
Get a sneak-peek at the web-based tool to facilitate connections among PYM Friends and meetings.
The Future of Sessions
A sprint is working on a survey for Friends to contribute your thoughts and visions to the future of Sessions. Whether you have attended regularly or have not yet participated, your voice is important.
Approve Minutes (for decision)
Tuesday, November 12th
- 7:00 – 8:30pm Reports from PYM Collaboratives**
Memorial Meeting for Worship
“It has been our custom each year, when we gather for sessions, to set aside time to memorialize those who have shed their earthly form during the year past. The Ministry and Care Committee also invites Friends to consider if an additional recognition (for example, a planting of some sort) for those in the meeting community who have died during the past year speaks to your meeting’s needs. We will gather during fall continuing sessions to share our memories, as is our custom.“
