Monthly Newsletters
Ujima Friends Peace Center July 2026 Newsletter
Ujima Friends Peace Center June 2026 Newsletter
This July 2026 newsletter, “Love in Motion,” celebrates the continued work of the Ujima Friends Peace Center and Unity Friends Meeting to build a Pan-African Quaker community rooted in Spirit, cooperation, healing, justice, and love in action.
It opens with Unity’s Clerk, Phil Lord, reflecting on the restoration of the 250-year-old Unity Friends Meetinghouse as a metaphor for building community and strengthening the Black Quaker movement through cooperation, shared history, spiritual discernment, and collective commitment.
The newsletter also highlights an active summer at the Ujima Friends Freedom School, the continued intergenerational work of With These Hands, and the food giveaway, which provided groceries to 177 families in July.
Looking ahead, Ujima announces the Black & Well Series and Harambee: A Celebration of Black Quaker Resilience, August 28–30, before closing with an Asé Corner honoring Paul Cuffe, an early Pan-African Quaker committed to equality, education, African self-determination, and global connection.
This June 2026 newsletter, “Love in Motion,” celebrates the work of the Ujima Friends Peace Center and Unity Friends Meeting as a community rooted in Spirit, love, resilience, service, and collective care.
It opens with Unity’s Clerk, Phil Lord, reflecting on Black fatherhood as a spiritual expression of love, challenging harmful stereotypes about Black fathers and affirming the resilience of Black families despite generations of forced separation and hardship.
The newsletter celebrates a joyful Juneteenth gathering, a Friends & Family worship and fellowship, the Being Here exhibit honoring Black and Brown immigration and ancestral resilience, and the launch of Ujima Friends Freedom School, where 40 servant leaders began training in community building, social justice, and Black history. It also highlights With These Hands and the food giveaway, which provided groceries to 244 families during the month.
Looking ahead, the newsletter announces the Unity Friends Meeting Day Retreat and Harambee: A Coming Together of Friends of African Descent, while the Asé Corner honors Vera Mae Green, a pioneering Black anthropologist and Quaker whose work advanced human rights, peace, racial inclusion, and greater representation for people of color.
Ujima Friends Peace Center May 2026 Newsletter
This May 2026 newsletter, “Love in Motion,” highlights the ongoing work of the Ujima Friends Peace Center and Unity Friends Meeting as a community rooted in Spirit, love, service, justice, and collective care.
It opens with Unity’s Clerk, Phil Lord, reflecting that restoring the Unity Friends Meetinghouse is not only about the physical building, but about building a spiritually committed community that stands with the oppressed and practices love through action. The newsletter then celebrates recent events, including the UFPC Open House with about 55 supporters, the Emancipation Fellowship visit, Friends & Family worship, a Ministerial Council gathering, and a new air quality sensor partnership connected to Frankford CDC and Thomas Jefferson University.
It also shares ongoing ministries: With These Hands, where SWAP elders are helping young ladies make pads and graduation stoles for Sankofa Freedom Academy students, and the food giveaway, which served 244 families this month. Looking ahead, the newsletter announces the Ujima Friends Freedom School: Friendly Spaces, beginning June 29, with hopes of welcoming 50 young people. It closes with an Asé Corner honoring Bayard Rustin as a Black Quaker, pacifist, civil rights strategist, and faithful witness for peace and justice.
Ujima Friends Peace Center April 2026 Newsletter
This April 2026 issue of “Love in Motion” highlights the Ujima Friends Peace Center’s recent community gatherings, justice-centered programming, and ongoing ministries.
The newsletter begins by grounding the work in the idea that love requires labor, connecting ancient African symbolism with the Quaker belief that love should be “the first motion.” It then celebrates past events, including a Kwanzaa celebration, the Of Art & Spirit gathering, an MLK Worship Share, conflict resolution training for middle and high school students, an intergenerational trip to City Hall, the launch of Unity Friends Meeting, and a potluck with the To Be Here/Journey Arts team.
The ongoing ministries include HealYourLovePeriod wellness circles, which are being hosted at Unity on second Sundays and third Saturdays; With These Hands, where young ladies completed cloth pads and panties that were delivered to a school in Gambia; and the food giveaway, which continues on the first and third Saturdays to serve hundreds of families. The newsletter closes by looking ahead to Ujima Freedom School: Friendly Spaces, a summer program rooted in the 1964 Freedom School tradition and shaped by African-centered and Quaker values.
