On closer inspection, a tag from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission says the AFSC sign is down for maintenance. Whew!
Finally, here is a view of the actual sign when it was in place (and before the Philadelphia Family Courthouse was built).
For good measure, here’s the other historical marker on our campus, for Civilian Public Service. It’s still in place. This is the same photo we used on our History page.
You too can book your event at Friends Center. Our event venue is conveniently located in Center City Philadelphia. And there’s always a nonprofit discount! Learn more.
As always, thank you for making our city, state, nation, and world a better place. We appreciate that you choose to do it here at Friends Center. In these urgent and uncertain times, it is more important than ever to have the community, connection, and collaboration here. We are grateful that Friends Center serves as a container to hold space for your work. We count on you to keep going forth and doing it, even as circumstances change daily!
—Chris Mohr, Executive Director
Around Friends Center
Closed for Juneteenth, June 19
Friends Center will be closed on Thursday, June 19, for the Juneteenth holiday. Here are some activities and resources for the day:
Friends Center’s heating, ventilation, and cooling system will be off for needed maintenance on June 19. It will be off at least through Friday morning, 6/20. It may be warm in the facility on Friday. You may wish to work from home that Friday if you can.
EVENTS
Acts of Reparation Film Screening, Sun., 6/15, 7 pm
Acts of Reparation follows two friends as they explore what reparations means to them. Selina, who is Black, and Macky, who is white, have been friends and filmmaking partners for 25 years. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Breanna Moore, whose scholarly expertise is the abolition of the slave trade in the 19th century. Sponsored by Central Philadelphia Friends Meeting, reparationWorks, and the Grassroots Reparations Campaign.
Friends Center events: A great value for a Center City venue!
As always, please let your colleagues, peers, and friends know about our meeting spaces. We provide a great value, robust facilities, the convenience of Center City, and a friendly staff—and always a nonprofit discount! Thank you.
Equity Partner News
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM)
Registration is Open for Annual Sessions
PYM Annual Sessions takes place in late July at Cheyney University and on Zoom. The theme is “Members One of Another.” PYM is glad to partner with Cheyney—the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU). They were founded in part with a grant from a Quaker family. Friends are invited to join as a community, either in person or online, based on what works best for you.
AFSC is part of a coalition called “Fridays with Fetterman.” They recently held a “people’s tribunal” here. Read the WHYY article.
Central Philadelphia Friends Meeting (CPFM)
CPFM Hosts Quakers Walking from Flushing, Queens, NY, to Washington, DC
In May, a group of Quakers walked from Flushing, Queens, NYC, to Washington, DC. They stopped at Friends Center to present to CPFM. They brought a copy of the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance, a petition from Dutch settlers in Flushing to Pieter Stuyvesant after he banned Quakers, then a new sect. The neighbors said they would be good neighbors to the Quakers and treat them by the Golden Rule.
Decal on Quaker walk support vehicle, while at Friends Center.
Tenant News
Joyful Readers
Not Joyful news, unfortunately
» Philadelphia tutoring program focused on student literacy cut by DOGE. Chalkbeat News.
» Philly lost $10.2 million in the latest round of DOGE funding cuts to AmeriCorps. The cuts targeted eleven education programs, including CityYear, Teach for America, and Joyful Readers: Inquirer.
Ordinarily we would not necessarily focus on an organization’s new website in this newsletter, but in this case, it gives us an opportunity to tell you more about one of our quieter Quaker tenants!
Founded in 1816, the Tract Association has published pamphlets, essays and books on Friends beliefs, concerns, history, and practice. They also have a calendar numbered with the months and days according to traditional Quaker practice (Firstmonth and Firstday, etc.).
» Follow up on June 10: Philadelphia Gas Works says it is seeking facts in the rate hike case. Climate advocates say the utility is trampling on First Amendment rights. Read more.
The American Friends Service Committee supersized their yard signs into banners for our fences on 15th Street and Race Street.
They say, “Quakers welcome migrants with dignity.”
Read more about what Quakers are for, not just what we’re against, by reading AFSC’s six principles for welcoming, dignified, and just immigration: afsc.org/welcome.
Participants in the Quaker Walk 2025 visited Friends Center on 5/11/2025.
A group of Friends from Brooklyn Quaker Meeting organized the walk as a Quaker/interfaith pilgrimage for peace and justice. They are walking from Flushing, Queens, to Washington, DC, to “affirm & defend everlasting human rights across all borders.”
They are carrying with them a copy of the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657. The remonstrance was a letter from settlers in Flushing (now part of Queens, NYC) to Peter Stuyvesant, Director General of New Holland, who had banned Quakers and Quaker worship. They wrote to say they would not, but would welcome any Quakers, and people of other faiths, who approached them with love. They said they would do unto others as they would have done unto them.
Today Quakers are well established. These Friends today call us to welcome new immigrants and other faiths in the same way that our neighbors in Flushing welcomed us in 1657.
Here is a photo of their support van in our loading zone. You can see the windows of the Race Street Quaker Meetinghouse reflected in the van windows!
Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative, one of our many excellent nonprofit office tenants, has their 10th anniversary kickoff celebration here Friday, 5/2/25. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker will speak and show her support for sports-based youth development programs!
Check out this brief video from Beth Devine, PYSC executive director.
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?
