Patricia Finley, Earth Care activist and Clerk of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Quakers) Eco Justice Collaborative will speak at the Newtown Quaker Meetinghouse, 219 Court Street, at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday, October 19, 2025. Following the presentation, there will be worship in the manner of Friends at 11:00 a.m., with people speaking out of the silence as they are moved to do so. The public is welcome at all events.
Patricia Finley says, “The Eco Justice Collaborative developed the Friendly Households Challenge as a management tool to build community and to address climate work and environmental justice. Over the years it has been adapted to address racism, ending modern slavery, and other community concerns.
Friendly Households challenges us to align our lives more fully with our concerns and binds us together through food (potlucks) and our shared compassion for suffering in the world. The work before us is huge and we can’t make significant changes by ourselves. We need to find ways to work and play together if we want to make a difference in the world.
This program calls us to make commitments to learn, share ideas and take practical steps – small and large – to live more lightly on the earth and to embrace opportunities for positive societal change, all the while deepening our spiritual grounding with one another.
The Eco Justice Working Group invites everyone to join a PYM laboratory in support of lifestyle choices that promote healing and transformation in our communities and ourselves.”
Patricia Finley has been an activist for over fifty years. She did doctoral work in Philosophical and Political Foundations of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and has a Master of Science degree in Human Service Management from Drexel University. She previously worked in administration at Temple University as well as working and living in a war zone during the 1980s in Beirut, Lebanon, teaching at the American University of Beirut.
Newtown Friends Meeting, co-founded by the Quaker artist and minister, Edward Hicks, in 1815, holds services every First Day (Sunday). During the school year, First Day classes for children and adults are at 9:45 a.m. and Meeting for Worship is at 11:00 a.m.. Child Care is provided, and coffee and snacks are served in the Gathering Room after meeting for worship. All meetings are open to the public and visitors are warmly welcomed.