Issue 80, July 2022
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S NOTE
The big news is about construction!
—Chris Mohr, Executive Director
AROUND FRIENDS CENTER
Construction Update 1:
Friends Child Care Center
General contractor MJ Settelen projects work will be completed for the new Friends Child Care Center facility in the Lower Level of the main office building in mid-September. FCCC will need time to move in and to complete the inspection process. Once they move, we will freshen up the main meeting rooms, and those will once again be available for tenant events and meetings. We hope all spaces will be available by October 1, if not sooner. However, as with any construction project, especially in today’s economy, there may be unanticipated delays.
Refresher: Friends Center’s Shared
Event and Meeting Spaces
- List of rooms: Click here
- Check availability and make reservations with Shakirah Holloway, our Events and Administrative Manager, sholloway@friendscentercorp.org or (215) 241-7098.
- If you like, you can also use our online Room Reservation Form.
- Read our Conference and Meeting Room Policy: Click here.
Construction Update 2:
1520 Race Street
Friends Select School expects to occupy 1520 Race Street as their new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) building by the end of August. They will be doing exterior brick work in the next week or so, so there will be more activity in the courtyard. Please use caution when visiting the courtyard.
EQUITY PARTNER NEWS
PHILADELPHIA YEARLY MEETING (PYM)
In the Light:
The Yearly Meeting’s Print Newsletter
Earlier this month, we sent out a print newsletter to Friends in the yearly meeting. We plan to send out a print issue of the newsletter quarterly. This issue of the newsletter illustrates a new way in which our yearly meeting has been called—and our faithful response to it—the call to witness against racism. You can read it online.
Engaging in PYM-wide corporate (meaning of the body) witness is one of the strategic directions we approved in 2014. Six months after accepting those directions, we committed to a witness to address racism. The minute we approved expressly declares that the ministry is not one to be given to a group of people to carry on behalf of PYM but that we are all to find our way in it. All Friends, all households, and all meetings are asked to consider what their own response to the call is.
Many of the stories in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting reflect our journey to eradicate racism, create spaces of belonging, and transform our inner lives. This newsletter is filled with a selection of those stories from local monthly and quarterly meetings and PYM groups. Read, be inspired, and share your meeting’s stories on the PYM website so we may continue to know one another.
The next newsletter will be sent out in the Fall and will include a gathering of stories about all topics from across the yearly meeting. If your meeting has a story to submit, please do so at pym.org/news/share-a-story/.
Also, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is conducting its 342nd annual sessions this week!
AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE (AFSC)
Read about AFSC New Mexico’s Farm to School project, an effort to create a replicable model for school food procurement that supports local producers for sourcing fresh, healthy produce for school children.
CENTRAL PHILADELPHIA MONTHLY MEETING (CPMM)
“What is First Day School?”
“What if I have babies or toddlers?”
“What if I have school-aged children?”
“What does Quaker Spiritual Education for Kids Look Like?”
“What is your child safety policy?”
The answers to all of these questions and others resources concerning religious education for children can be found here.
TENANT NEWS
CASA Scheduled to Receive $1.8 Million
Pennsylvania CASA is excited to share that Governor Wolf signed the budget adopted by the General Assembly into law and CASA is scheduled to receive $1.8 million.
“This is an exciting time for CASA in Pennsylvania. It is the result of years of work by the state office including staff, board, and volunteers. We were lucky to be supported by local programs at different points in the process. There is still a lot of work ahead for all of us, but the opportunities this funding provides for CASA are great and worth all the effort.”
Women in Housing & Finance PA Event 2 :
Philadelphia
Address: Triple Bottom Brewing 915 Spring Garden St, Philadelphia, PA 19123
When: Friday, July 29, 2022 6 PM – 8 PM
We’re back! Women in Housing & Finance PA (WHF-PA) is returning to in-person with events in three locations across Pennsylvania in late July and early August. Join us for some or all of the summer events!
Join us as WHF-PA returns to in-person events for an outdoor happy hour at Triple Bottom Brewing in Philadelphia! The beautiful patio on Spring Garden Street will be reserved for our members and guests. Registration includes one alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage and snacks. Register here, we’ll see you there!
QuakerSpeak Video:
“On Quaker Deathways: Practices Around Death and Dying”
QuakerSpeak is a production of new tenant Friends Publishing Corporation. FPC also publishes Friends Journal magazine.
“Working as a healthcare chaplain—you know, almost all modern healthcare chaplains are interfaith chaplains. It’s actually against the chaplain’s code of ethics to proselytize any particular faith, and so my Quaker faith set me up very well for that—just to understand that there’s that of God in every person and to be genuinely curious to meet them where they are.”
—Carl Magruder (The Accidental Chaplain) Video: https://youtu.be/jc6ajthaedE