For Earth Month, we got a new recycling bin outside our front door. Now you can dispose of your recyclable containers even before you enter our office building or the Race Street Quaker Meetinghouse. Reduce, reuse, recycle. And compost when you can!
Learn more about our green building and Quaker testimony on care of creation on this page.
Our courtyard gardens between the Race Street Quaker Meetinghouse & our office building are an oasis of peace in Center City Philly. Now showing: Carolina silverbell, lilacs, and a shrub. Could it be alnifolia, aka summersweet or coastal sweet pepperbush?
The Tri-College Philly Program of Bryn Mawr, Haverford & Swarthmore colleges held a social sciences colloquium on the topic of “elites” here on the evening of 4/17/2025.
We are pleased to have Tri-Co Philly as one of our many office tenants! Tenants also have access to the event spaces in our office building & Quaker Meetinghouse.
In these days of uncertainty, this kind of advocacy at the local, state, national, and international levels is more important than ever. Friends Center is glad to be a facility and a community for PPC and all of the organizations here who are working to create a better community and world.
Please join me in welcoming Pennsylvania Policy Center, our newest tenant. According to their website, PPC “creates the tools that political officials, opinion leaders, grassroots organizations, and the people of Pennsylvania need to expand our vibrant democracy, secure our freedom, and seek economic justice in Pennsylvania.” They conduct research, develop policy ideas, educate legislators and advocates, and partner with grassroots organizations.
—Chris Mohr, Executive Director
The Friends Center’s annual Earth Day E-waste and shredding day is upon us. Collection for this will start Monday April 14th and will continue until Monday April 21st.
Collection will take place in the front lobby. Please refer to Erick’s email for materials that will be accepted. Yes, you can bring items from home!!
Let Erick know if you have other questions: (215) 241-7190 or eemerick@friendscentercorp.org.
Thank you for your participation!
In late 2023, the Worship Room in the Race Street Meetinghouse was the setting for a scene in “Dope Thief,” based on the novel by Dennis Tafoya. In the book, one of the characters takes a break and decides to attend a Quaker meeting for worship.
The show is now streaming on Apple TV. If anyone watches it, please let us know if Friends Center made the final show or if we ended up on the cutting room floor!
» Show streaming on Apple TV
» Inquirer feature article
Friends Center continues to provide a great value, with robust facilities, a convenient Center City location, and our friendly and staff. We serve a wide variety of community organizations, both local and non-local, in addition to all of our tenant organization. We can also host weddings and memorial services.
Please let your colleagues, peers, and friends know about our meeting spaces, and be sure to tell them we always have a nonprofit discount! Here’s a shareable link:
» Book your next event at Friends Center!
As mentioned last time, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting sued the Department of Homeland Security in January for reversing the “sensitive sites” policy, which would allow ICE to conduct immigration enforcement actions inside houses of worship, among other locations. A judge granted a temporary injunction to prevent ICE from entering the plaintiffs’ houses of worship without a judicial warrant.
Many Quaker monthly meetings—the local congregations of Friends—have approved minutes of support. They are collected on PYM’s website here.
The AFSC Corporation is the highest level governing body of AFSC. This year’s theme is “Healing Through Justice: Our Collective Journey.” Publicly accessible programs include several workshops and a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The event will include a conversation with AFSC’s Archivist, Don Davis.
» Learn more.
April 27, 12:45 pm
CPFM is one of eight meetings in Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting of Friends. As its name implies, the Quarterly Meeting (PQM) meets once a calendar quarter, except in the summer, when Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has its Annual Sessions.
CPFM will host the next meeting of PQM here at Friends Center. The featured speaker will be David Grey, head of Brummana High School, a Quaker coeducational day and boarding school in Brumanna, Lebanon. It was founded by British Quakers in 1873.
Spadework is In-Advance’s community organizing training program. This training will focus on “Back to Basics”: base-building. developing leadership, and organization as spaces for transformation.
» Learn more and register here.
Thursday, May 1, 7:30 p.m.
Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel
8339 Old York Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027
Sunday, May 4, 3 p.m.
The Church of the Holy Trinity Rittenhouse Square
1904 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Singing City and Nashirah, Julia Zavadsky, director, will collaborate on a concert featuring music with themes of resilience and hope, including Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Mari Esabel Valverde’s When Thunder Comes, and Rollo Dilworth’s Weather.
After 16 years as Executive Director, Lauren Anderson will retire at the end of May. As a long-time member of the choir, she hopes to enjoy many more years singing with this remarkable ensemble. Her grandfather, the Rev. A. Herbert Haslam, in his work with Philadelphia’s Fellowship House in the 1940s, was the catalyst for the choir’s creation. Founded by Elaine Brown, it began as Fellowship House Choir in 1948.
After an extensive search, Singing City has hired Michael Bolton, to start June 1. Michael has worked on community initiatives at Opera Philadelphia and as a host on WRTI, among many other pursuits.
Congratulations, Lauren, and we look forward to welcoming Michael!
PYSC’s report highlights a year of growth, impact, and momentum for the future of youth sports in Philadelphia. This past year, PYSC:
✅ Launched the Philly Youth Sports Fund, securing city investment to support community-based programs.
✅ Hosted the PYSC Summit: Sports & Mental Health, bringing together experts, coaches, and advocates.
✅ Expanded partnerships to provide more kids with access to quality coaching, safe spaces, and life-changing opportunities through sports.
Friends Select School is now hosting a community pantry on the 1600 block of Race Street.
A year ago, they initiated a pantry pilot program for spring semester. The pilot was incredibly successful, and the school decided to formally continue the pantry, which is now open to anyone in the community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Please help spread the word by sharing the following announcement:
Friends Select School Community Pantry
If your organization is interested in hosting a drive for pantry items and would like to schedule a drop-off time, please contact Margaret Smith (margarets@friends-select.org).
A play based on Marcus Rediker’s book The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist,is coming to Philadelphia’s Quintessence Theater in Mt. Airy. Given the themes, we thought folks at Friends Center might be interested.
From the theater:
“2025. In the silence of a Quaker meeting house, Benjamin Lay – shepherd, sailor, revolutionary, and the British Empire’s first revolutionary abolitionist – returns from the grave almost 300 years after his death, as feisty and unpredictable as ever.
“The 4ft “David” confronts the “Goliath” of slavery as he demands once again to be readmitted into the Quaker community that disowned him for ideas considered dangerous and disruptive.”
Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) is now accepting applications for a new Executive Director. You would be a great fit for this position if you believe Quaker spirituality has something to offer social justice movements and young adults; you have interest and skills at administration and financial management; and you have experience working with nonprofit structures, including board collaboration and staff supervision and management. See the full job description at https://quakervoluntaryservice.org/employment/.
How to apply: Email a cover letter and resume to the QVS Board Executive Director Search Committee, at ExecSearch@quakervoluntaryservice.org. Interviews will be scheduled on a rolling basis as applications arrive, with priority given to applications received by April 15, 2025. Desired start date is July 1, 2025, but can be flexible for the right candidate.
Central Philadelphia Friends Meeting is hosting an advocacy team training for Quakers with the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) on Sunday, 3/30, 1 pm, here in our Rufus Jones Room.
Learn more and register with FCNL here.
You too can host your community training, nonprofit workshop, or organizational staff meeting at Friends Center!
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting posted a story about the community meeting for immigrant rights and concerns that was held here at Friends Center on 3/16/2025.
Read the story at PYM online.
The cherries on Cherry Street are blooming in front of the Race Street Quaker Meetinghouse this week. Blessings for spring 2025!
Friends Center’s newest tenant, In-Advance, will hold their Spadework training here May 8-9, 2025.
Spadework is a program to build organizing rigor and a movement culture that sustains organizing for the long haul.
Learn more: https://spadework.community.
You too can have your nonprofit training, workshop, all-staff meeting, or community gathering at Friends Center!
See the Event Space section of our website.
New yard signs from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) just dropped:
“Quakers welcome migrants with dignity.”
We posted our sign next to the statue of Mary Dyer, Quaker witness for religious freedom, by our front entry.
One of AFSC’s four strategic goals is just responses to forced displacement and migration.
As covered in our last newsletter, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends (PYM) and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for changing policy to allow ICE to detain or arrest people in houses of worship. (See PYM below.) After a court injunction, the Race Street Quaker Meetinghouse here and all the others in PYM’s four-state footprint are again off limits.
Several immigrant-serving organizations reached out to PYM and to Friends Center and asked us to cohost a community meeting on immigrant rights and concerns in the Meetinghouse. Given the urgency of the situation, we quickly planned this meeting. It will include updates from faith organizations, city officials (invited), and nonprofit partners.
» Click for more info and to register.
» Download this flyer to share.
Now, more than ever, we need the power of community to stay resilient and to do the work we’re meant to do. So, as always: Thank you for being part of the amazing Friends Center community!
—Chris Mohr, Executive Director
This month we welcomed our newest tenant, InAdvance. InAdvance is a movement center for organizing to advance racial and economic justice in a globalized world. They invest time and resources in the people that do the hard work of improving conditions for the displaced and attacked for who they are. They nurture strategic campaigns and projects that build unlikely alliances and cut new ways of doing the work. They make sure that the lived experience of regular folks who live in disinvested communities, whether they’ve been there for generations or just arrived from making the dangerous trek across borders, guide the strategies and policies we fight for.
» Learn more: https://www.in-advance.org.
Brill has published Brian Blackmore’s new book, To Hear and to Respond: The Quakers’ Groundbreaking Push for Gay Liberation, 1946-1973. The book is based on his extensive academic research. Brian currently serves as AFSC’s Director of Quaker Engagement. Congratulations, Brian!
» Learn more: https://brill.com/display/title/72061
Many Quaker groups recently announced they were leaving the former Twitter. Friends Center stopped being active there some time ago.
Now there is a robust Quaker presence on BlueSky. If you’re on BlueSky, please follow us at @friendsctr.bsky.social. Oh, and we’re also on LinkedIn, too. We’d be happy to follow you back on both platforms!
Thanks to Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative’s Dontae Privette and Friends Center’s Carla Gamble and Shakirah Holloway for organizing a fabulous tenant tailgate before the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory. We look forward to planning another tenant gathering this spring.
Friends Center continues to provide a great value, with robust facilities, a convenient Center City location, and our friendly and staff. Please let your colleagues, peers, and friends know about our meeting spaces. Remember, we always have a nonprofit discount! Thank you.
» Link to share: https://friendscentercorp.org/event-space
In the last week of February, the U.S. District Court of Maryland temporarily blocked ICE from conducting immigration raids in the places of worship of PYM and the other plaintiffs. However, the judge did not extend that decision to all religions and the decision is temporary, so we still have some road to travel. Per the judge’s order, a list of meetings’ addresses was forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week to ensure they comply with the order.
» See PYM’s regular updates about the lawsuit on this page.
Mike Merryman-Lotze, AFSC’s Just Peace Global Policy Director, recently had an essay on Common Dreams calling for real cuts to U.S. military spending, and to direct those funds elsewhere:
“Money saved by such a reduction could easily be reinvested in conflict prevention, development, and poverty reduction abroad as well as green jobs, scientific research, environmental protection, medical research, health care, education, and other needs that benefit all of us.”
» Read the full essay here.
Recently the Quaker meeting that has worshipped in the Race Street Quaker Meetinghouse since 1856 decided to change its name. They are now Central Philadelphia Friends Meeting, or CPFM. You’re welcome to experience CPFM’s Quaker meeting for worship for yourself. It is on Sundays from 11 am to 12 noon.
Dontae Privette, PYSC’s Director of Engagement, was recognized by KYW as a Game Changer in Philly! His dedication to empowering youth through sports is making a lasting impact in our communities.
Not only that, but it was his idea to have the Tenant Tailgate before the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory. Congratulations, Dontae!!
» Read more about Dontae as a Game Changer here.
Community Ventures and Old First Congregational Church recently held a community meeting about the soon-to-open Old First House. This new development at the corner of 4th and Arch Streets will offer 34 permanent supportive homes for formerly homeless individuals.
There will be a community open house on April 23 and then an official ribbon-cutting, likely in May. Stay tuned!
Friends Select School now hosts a community pantry on the 1600 block of Race Street. It is open to anyone in the community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Please help spread the word!
If your organization is interested in hosting a drive for pantry items and would like to schedule a drop-off time, please contact Margaret Smith (margarets@friends-select.org).
World Café Live, 3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
March 26, 2025
Doors: 6:30 pm | Showtime: 8:00 pm
In celebration of Women’s History Month, Carla Gamble has curated an outstanding local lineup of ladies in our city’s vibrant R&B and soul scene. Enjoy performances from musicians Jada Lee, Natalie Imani, Tata Sherise, poetic soul queen Evita Colon, Queen of the Pen (Valerie McNear), Naima the Poet, DJ Queen Yaszy, and a special performance by Carol Riddick.
» Tickets available here: https://worldcafelive.org/event/voices-of-philly-soul-ladies-edition/
