Combined Report of Five Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Standing Committees

Residential Sessions July 31, 2009

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Education

General Services

Peace & Concerns

Support & Outreach

Worship & Care

Standing Committees (in alphabetical order)

Garden at 4th and Arch Street Meeting House

Standing Committees 101Standing Committees are called to nurture

and support the membership, work, and

mission, of the groups under our care.

Within the guidelines established by the

priorities of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting,

the Standing Committees have the

authority to create, oversee, and lay

down services and projects of the

Yearly Meeting, subject to budgeting and

programmatic direction from Interim

Meeting or Yearly Meeting in session. 3

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Each Standing Committee:• Must approve, any proposed change of mission for working or

granting groups

• Approves policies and/or procedures of the various working groups under its care, in consultation with those affected.

• Approves use of the Yearly Meeting name in endorsing events or projects sponsored by other organizations.

• Has the authority to approve and renew members for groups that have granting and policy making roles.

• Oversee and evaluate external alliances formed by Working and Granting Groups.

• Oversee the work of representatives to affiliated and external organizations.

Each Standing Committee (continued):• Serves as a channel for bringing Friends with

similar concerns together. The Standing Committee will assist in the development of services and projects and may or may not recognize new working groups to further the work of Yearly Meeting.

• Determines the financial resources available

to individual working groups, based on program priorities, income available, and planning by that working group.

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Queries from the Standing Committees:

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George Fox

• Are we doing God's work most effectively under our current structures?

• What is your vision for our work? How can we remain in touch with that vision?

• Is it possible to have systems and structures and remain faithful to the spirit or "way opening?"

• Should Standing Committees be involved with connecting Monthly Meetings to each other?

• How shall we pass on our traditions and processes to each other and to our children?

Education Standing Committee

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The Education Standing Committee provides guidance, and support to the PYM services and projects, which directly concern the religious and academic education of young people and adults and those who serve them.

Friends Schools and Friends Religious Education

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Education Standing CommitteeGroups & Projects

Religious Education

• Children’s Religious Education

Programs

• Children’s Sessions at Yearly

Meeting

• Children’ Spiritual Life

Committee Including the Faith

and Play Working Group.

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Education Standing CommitteeGroups & Projects

• Committee on Friends Education

• Public Education Working Group

• Quaker College Fair Project Group

Scholastic Education

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Education Standing Committee Groups & Projects

• Middle School Friends

• Young Adult Friends (age 18 to 35 +/-)

• Young Friends

Youth and Young Adults

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Education Standing Committee Groups & Projects

• Nonviolence & Children WG

• Quaker Parenting Initiative

• Quaker Pilgrimage to England PG

Adult Programs

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Education Standing Committee Groups & Projects

• George School

• Westtown

• Friends Education Fund Inc.

Affiliated Organizations

General Services Standing Committee has a MINISTRY OF ADMINISTRATION

that supports the work of the other

standing committees including:

accounting and audit,

fund development and stewardship of

funds,

grant coordination and financial

assistance,

computer services,

records and archives,

personnel services and staff benefits,

conference management (including

planning for and managing Yearly

Meeting in session), and

property management. 13

General Services Standing Committeeis still:

• Weaning• Cleaning• Greening

Weaning ourselves off of old designations on unrestricted bequests. De-designation is beginning now with 50% of Chace funds this year and will continue over five years with other funds. Chace & Bequests WGs have merged into Legacy WG which is managing a mix of unrestricted but still designated funds and restricted funds.

Cleaning of Arch St., Burlington & FOWG:a) Arch St. is being handed over to a new standing

committee with less squeaks & squirrels inside, improved handicap access, & renovated parking lot.

b) There is a big improvement in the appearance and utilization of Burlington Conference Center thanks to Carol Strawson & BMH Working Group.

c) Financial Oversight Working Group has been remade with 3 departures & 5 new appointments. Further dialogue needed on, What is an “audit committee”?

Greening of Friends Center is near completion with Open House on Sept. 12.

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A central conviction of the Peace and Concerns Standing Committee is that Peace, Justice, and an Earth Restored are integral to one another  and that they operate across three areas, global, local, and within our own faith community. Each year we continue to review and discern

Peace & ConcernsVision of Work for Peace Justice & an Earth Restored

our priorities. Our discernment continues to lead us to the awareness of God’s presence in all creation and to pay attention to the way we live our lives and to the social and economic structures that create injustice, war, and degradation to the earth and its climate. Peace

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Peace & ConcernsA Vision of New Work

• Raise awareness of the urgent need for a significant and immediate response to climate change and to call on Friends to live in "Right Relationship" with the earth

• We ask all Quarterly and Monthly Meetings and all committees and working groups in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to be attentive to their relationship with the commonwealth of creation.

• We ask Friends to pay attention not only to simplifying their lives but to engage in the creation of a sustainable economic structure that provides rationally and fairly for all people

Right Relationship with the Earth

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• Encourage and support Young Adult Friends and Friends of all ages in Service

• Work to establish a Philadelphia Quaker Service House and program for Young Adult Friends especially, but inclusive of other age groups, as well

Peace & ConcernsVision of Work

• Work with Heeding God’s Call, the interfaith initiative to Decrease Gun Violence

• Gather a new Working Group to facilitate the diverse outcomes of Heeding God’s Call a Gathering on Peace and oversee the Peace Gathering Website

• Follow up on the Committee to Revision the Peace Testimony

• Focus on healing the consequences of war. Justice

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Peace & Concerns Services and Projects

• Earthcare Working Group• Friends Testimonies and Economics Project• Fairhill Friends Ministry • Friends Conflict Resolution Program• PYM-FCNL Network• Hope Bulletin • India Friends Working Group• Middle East Working Group• Traveling Friends for a Ministry of Peace, Justice and an

Earth Restored • United Nations & Abolish Nuclear Weapons Working Group• Weekend Workcamp of PYM at Friends Neighborhood

Guild

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Peace & Concerns

• Fund for Suffering Granting Group Was created by Interim Meeting to provide meaningful material support to individuals and to Quaker groups who suffer because of their witness to our Quaker testimonies.

• Indian Committee Granting GroupDedicated to the support and funding of Native American initiatives that develop leadership and self-sufficiency, and preserve cultural heritage. We also serve as a resource for Friends seeking a better understanding of Native American issues.

• International Outreach Granting GroupSupports visitation and projects to further international understanding, peace, and other Friends concerns.

Affiliations and Partners

Granting Groups

• American Friends Service Committee

• Coordinating Council of Friends Peace Teams

• Center for Conscience and War

• Friends Committee on National Legislation

• National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund

• Quaker Earthcare Witness

• Eco-Justice Working Group of the National Council of Churches

• Policy Advocacy Action Team of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches

• United Nations, Department of Public Information

• Friends Rehabilitation Program

• Friends Neighborhood Guild

• Energy Coordinating Agency of Phila.

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Support & Outreach Standing Committee

Our mission is to oversee the good works that will produce a healthy, vibrant Religious Society of Friends in the PYM area, which naturally attracts new and existing members, creating a stronger faith community. The word "support" refers to supporting each Meeting as a unit.

Facsimile of The Original Charter of Charles II to

William Penn, for Pennsylvania, 1681.

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From the Support & Outreach Epistle

Dear Friends, we rejoice with you in our sense of God’s grace in all that we do in Support and Outreach for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. We reflect upon a passage from the Journal of George Fox , . . .: “Great things did the Lord led us unto, and wonderful depths were opened unto us, beyond what can by words be declared, but as people come into subjection to the spirit of God, and grow up in the

image and power of the Almighty, they may receive the word of wisdom that opens all things, and come to know the hidden unity in the Eternal Being.” As we go forward, we hold firmly in mind our sense of Divine purpose in our work to help strengthen Friends way within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and to further Quaker Witness in the world. Journal 1648.

"George Fox on the Mount of Vision", mural, Governor's Reception Room,

State Capitol, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. - Violet Oakley

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Support & Outreach Services and Projects• PYM Library Services

Operates the library at 1515 Cherry Street, walk-in and mail service; visit meetings and support Meetings’ libraries; support Friends School librarians; display and lending at Annual sessions; opening a new branch in Burlington Quarter. The library has a new web page and is now located in the balcony at Friends Center.

• Quaker Interpretation Program

Arch Street attracts 40,000 visitors a year. They learn about the roots of our religion; that we believe there is that of God in every one. They learn how we worship in expectant silence in our quest for peace & equality.

The new quarters for the PYM Library

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Support & Outreach Services and Projects

• Yearly Meeting Publications PYM News & Yearly Meeting Directory

• Publications Services Group Publication and distribution of free and subsidized Quaker-oriented material.

• Quarter Coordinator Programs

• Quaker Information Center

• Friendly Crafters

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Support and Outreach Working Groups and Initiatives• Quaker Quest Working Group

Creates, encourages, and leads Quaker Quest Programs for both Monthly and Quarterly Meetings within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

• National Historic Landmark Working GroupTaking forward the process to gain National Historic Landmark designation for the Arch Street Meetinghouse

• Music Among Friends & Telling Our Stories Working Groups Working groups to explore ways to inspire and capture dialogue of Friends

• Vibrant Meetings Review What makes a Meeting “hum” is worship,

fellowship, Friendship, hope, love, and laughter.

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Support and Outreach Granting Groups• Friends Institute Granting Group

Provides grants to young adults to attend conferences for the purpose of developing Quaker leaders and witness.

• Membership DevelopmentFunds efforts to increase visibility of Quaker faith and activities

• Willits Trust Granting Group

Distributes books of Quaker/Christian interest to African Americans in the South and people and groups in Liberia. Friends Center

Worship & Care Standing Committee

The Worship and Care Standing

Committee is charged to

support and encourage

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

members and meetings in

enhancing their temporal and

spiritual lives. The year 2008-

2009 has been a continuing

exploration of the challenges

and joys of that leading.29

Worship & Care Working & Granting Groups

• Center for  Deepening and Strengthening Our Meetings

• Meeting on Worship and Ministry

• PYM Ministry for Racial Justice and Equality in the Religious Society of Friends

• School of the Spirit, A Quaker Ministry of Prayer and Learning       

• Spiritual Formation

Worship

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• Friends Counseling Service• Adult Religious Education • Pastoral Care Newsletter  • Aging Granting Group • Greenleaf Granting Group• Anna T and Joseph Jeanes

Granting Group      

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Care

Worship & Care Working & Granting Groups

4th and Arch Street Meeting House Yearly

Meeting Worship Room

Worship & Care From the Worship and Care 2009 Epistle

Our Standing Committee labors under the weight of a concern that we regard

as urgent. Repeatedly in our work, we have been confronted by working

groups under our care whose ministries, while essential to our life as a faith

community, struggle to maintain a viable level of membership. We believe, in

the spirit of continuing revelation, that it is time to consider whether we are

doing God’s work most effectively under our current structures.  We sense

that there are essential ministries under our care which need our assured

support regardless of their ability to find volunteers to facilitate them.

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-

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

808,675

609,929 750,968

878,714 1,001,625

419,993

1,460,150

Financial Oversight by PYM Standing Committees

• The Standing Committees are responsible for overseeing 75% of the total expenditures in the annual PYM budget.

• Total Budget: $5,930,054

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Fiscal Year 2009 Budget

Queries from the Standing Committees:

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George Fox

• Are we doing God's work most effectively under our current structures?

• What is your vision for our work? How can we remain in touch with that vision?

• Is it possible to have systems and structures and remain faithful to the spirit or "way opening?"

• Should Standing Committees be involved with connecting Monthly Meetings to each other?

• How shall we pass on our traditions and processes to each other and to our children?

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And finally, here is the much discussed elephant in the room.