Religious Education
Friends General Conference makes available resources for adults looking to support religious education.
Resources for Adults
Planning a multigenerational retreat is a balancing act. Children and adults need time with their peers to be balanced with the amount of time they spend together.
It can be of considerable benefit to carefully consider how one plans and announces different classes or forums within the life of the meeting. Often, the leaders will pick the date, time, and location of a class and then announce the details to the meeting.
Most Friends are familiar with the use of queries and discussion questions in adult religious education settings but might not be accustomed to wondering with adults. All three tools are valuable, but sometimes one is more appropriate than the others for a given topic or setting.
This method is an adaptation of lectio divina, a method used for many centuries in the monastic Christian tradition. Below is an outline of this adaptation. Using this method takes about 15 to 30 minutes for an individual, or 30 to 50 minutes for a group.
With outlines for experiential and informational/lecture-based learning.
Prepared by Sita Diehl, Nashville Meeting, SAYMA; Sallie Jones, Birmingham Meeting, PHLYM; Sally Lawson, Fredonia Meeting, NYYM; and Michael Gibson, FGC RE Coordinator, 2010.
The Quaker Parenting Project, a working group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, has given birth to a range of programs that address the interests and needs of parents and add another focus for adult religious education.
Central to Evanston Meeting's approach to adult religious education has been finding a variety of ways to nurture new attenders and longtime members.
What a challenge our form of worship is for children!
“I have long loved spaces that are quiet and apart . . .” So begins Fran Taber’s Pendle Hill pamphlet on personal retreats, Come Aside and Rest Awhile (see note 1, bottom of article).
What should Friends in the unprogrammed tradition teach about the Bible? About Jesus? I often hear these questions asked. Certainly, we should teach the classic narratives and poetry and the discursive passages which have spoken powerfully to people in every generation for thousands of years.
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