Patricia McBee, member of Newtown Friends Meeting and former Executive Director of Friends Center in Center City Philadelphia, will speak about her spiritual journey, Wooed by the Spirit: Touchstones in the Life of a Contemporary Quaker Mystic, on first day (Sunday) March 11 at 9:45 a. m., Newtown Friends Meetinghouse, 219 Court Street. (http://newsite.newtownfriendsmeeting.org) Meeting for Worship in the manner of Friends will follow at 11 a.m. The public is invited.
Pat says since childhood she has felt the active presence of the Spirit touching and guiding her life. In the 1990s, seeking companions who share that experience, she helped organize two gatherings of Quaker mystics at Pendel Hill, the Quaker study center in Wallingford, PA. For several years she was one of the editors of the quarterly newsletter “What Canst Thou Say: Quakers, Mystical Experience, and Contemplative Practice.” (www.whatcanstthousay.org)
McBee has led workshops and retreats on Quaker spirituality and Quaker practice throughout the United States. Her essays have appeared in Friends Journal and other Quaker publications and her video “Quaker Spiritual Disciplines” is on QuakerSpeak.com.
Pat has her BA in Religion from Earlham College and her M.Ed. in Group Process from Temple University. She has been an administrator for various non-profit agencies and recently utilized her management skills by volunteering to help organize the Bucks County Interfaith Coalition for Refugee Resettlement (resettling two young Syrian families).
Patricia McBee grew up in Ohio, lived in Philadelphia for more than forty years and currently lives in Newtown with her husband of 46 years, Brad Sheeks. She has one stepson and one daughter, five grandchildren and enjoys bicycling, cooking, quilting, cross stitch, and kayaking.