Philadelphia Yearly MeetingApril 2012
Message from the Clerk
Thomas Swain portrait

At April Interim Meeting, I shared my experience learning about "Centering Prayer" at a monastery north of Poughkeepsie, New York.  It is a simple discipline of claiming a word or a phrase to use as an anchor for entering worship. This word is associated with the Divine. 

 

As I enter into Meeting for Worship I make myself physically comfortable, I start repeating my short phrase - not as a mantra or an incantation but as a way to help me remember what I worship. Whenever I become aware that I am thinking, or that I am planning, or that I am drifting away from the focus of being with God, I gently repeat my anchoring phrase.

Read the complete message from the Clerk.  

  

Report from Interim Meeting - April 2012
Interim Meeting was held on Saturday, April 14 at Arch Street Meeting House. We considered Financial Stewardship's Fiscal Year 2013 budget, which proposes a balanced and sustainable plan for the next three years, including reductions to the size of staff, repaying obligations to restricted funds, creating an operating reserve, and laying down the Yearly Meeting's relationship with Burlington Meetinghouse and Conference Center.  

Finding the Heart of the Matter
LRPG Group
The Long Range Planning Group is looking ahead to help everyone in our faith community discern what our monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings may become and blossom into.  At this time we have scheduled eight regional Listening Sessions this spring to help begin the process.   Please join us in conversations we are calling Finding the Heart of the Matter:  Seeing our way forward as a Quaker Community!   Read more about the Listening Sessions and please join us at a local meeting.

Annual Sessions Registration Now Open
Sessions welcome bw
Registration is open for Annual Sessions 2012: "Living the Holy Experiment", which will take place July 25-29, 2012, at Arch Street Meetinghouse in Philadelphia and other nearby locations. Annual Sessions include opportunities for all ages for worship, learning, and fellowship along with the discernment of business. Register for Annual Sessions.
Volunteering in Yearly Meeting: It's You!
There is an abundance of opportunities for those ready to make a difference in our Yearly Meeting community, and some of those opportunities are just around the corner! Help is needed with the Annual Fund Phonathon and Annual Sessions, and there is ongoing need for Friends to engage with Office Support, Programming, and Committee Work. 

 

Upcoming Events

Quakerism Faces the Future
Jane Rushmore
"We Friends must move on; we shall never be like our forefathers - we should not be.  But as we move, we need to be inspired and guided by the spirit which made them pioneers.  We need to give attention to the development of leaders.  We shall find enough followers if we can provide leadership."

This is an excerpt from The Quaker Way by Jane Rushmore, first published in the 1930's.  Jane was a powerful figure in the Religious Society of Friends in the early 20th century and served as an outspoken Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for many years.  Her leadership and inspired writing, including the Testimonies and Practice of the Society of Friends, were seminal influences in the development of 20th century Quakerism.  We have been struck by how relevant her writing continues to be, 76 years after she originally published them in The Quaker Way.  We offer Jane's thoughts once again in her spirit of speaking truth to our present condition.

A Query:  What do you think our future holds?  What are your aspirations for our faith community?  What are you willing to contribute to our future?  Read the full text of Jane Rushmore's message.

 

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Interim Meeting
May 12, 2012

Interim Meeting will be held at Arch Street Meeting House on Saturday, May 12, 2012.  Gathering begins at 9:00 am; Meeting begins at 9:30 am.

Advance documents and materials for Interim Meeting will be available on or about May 4th.  To download advance materials, see the Interim Meeting page on the PYM website.

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