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Africa Quaker Archive Begins
The Africa Quaker Archive at Friends Theological College, Kaimosi, Kenya is a collaborative project of the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative and Friends Theological College (FTC), a ministry of Friends United Meeting (FUM). This vital and time-critical work gathers, documents, and preserves key pieces of contemporary Quaker history. It combines recording and transcribing oral histories with the collection of personal documents and institutional records going back to 1902 when Quakerism came to East Africa.
The leading for the Africa Quaker Archive rose at a QREC Sunday School teacher training at Friends Theological College in January 2019. The facilitators told the story of East African Friend, elder and minister, Priscilla Makhino, to demonstrate the Faith & Play style of storytelling. When the 26 East African participants heard a piece of their own history for the first time, a deep yearning to know more took hold! They wanted to have the resources to share stories of Quaker faith from earlier generations of African Friends with their Sunday School classes. Dr. Robert J. Wafula, Principal of Friends Theological College, and others in the FUM family, shared a similar leading to document and preserve Quaker history in Africa. A group of East African Friends formed a QREC Steering Circle, East Africa to help carry this work.
This is a multi-year project. Its scope will cover all of Africa and it will serve an international community. A digital collection will make materials and oral histories available to Friends and scholars around the world. Some of the stories of faith and witness among East African Friends will be shared in translation with Friends around the world as religious education resources. The Africa Quaker Archive Working Circle worked with Mary Crauderueff, Curator of Quaker Collections at Haverford College. Mary was the first visiting Quaker archivist to guide cataloging of materials, train others to continue this work, and consult on future directions for the project. We are grateful to the Thomas H. and Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund and the Friends Historical Association for seed funding to begin this work and to Haverford College for supporting Mary’s participation.
The Africa Quaker Archive is pleased to accept donations of documents, photographs, letters or personal journals related to Friends in Africa. For questions about the Africa Quaker Archive, please contact Beth Collea at quakercollaborative4re@gmail.com.
The Africa Quaker Archive Working Circle
- Judith Nandikove (Nairobi YM), QREC Steering Circle, East Africa
- Dancan Sabwa (East Africa YM-North), QREC Steering Circle, East Africa
- Robert J. Wafula, Ph.D., Principal. Friends Theological College
- Marian Baker (New England YM), long-time Quaker teacher and minister in East Africa and member of QREC
- Beth Collea (New England YM) QREC, Steering Circle
An Introduction
The Quaker Religious Education Collaborative (QREC) is an international, cross-branch, grassroots network of Friends sharing a stewardship for lifelong Quaker faith formation through religious education. We formed in April 2014 and now serve more than 300 Friends in our network. We actively engage and support each other across languages and continents. We gather for regional and annual conferences and offer monthly Conversation Circles via an online conferencing platform.
Steering Circle
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We share leadership as part of our collaborative mission, making decisions using the Quaker ‘sense of the meeting’ process, sitting in expectant, worshipful waiting for the emergence of shared truth. Read more…
Working Circles
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Our work takes place in ‘circles’ or small groups of Friends who labor on a common task, usually meeting by video conference due to the geographic diversity of the membership. Read more…
The Resource Library
Finders Guide, a sampling of the collection
The QREC Resource Library is a place to share lessons and other educational information in support of our work as Quaker religious educators. This library is a forum for curricula, articles, videos and other educational materials on Quaker themes. You will also find principles, policies and procedures to strengthen operation of your child, youth and adult religious education programs.
Children's Education
Adult Education
Family
African Quaker Library
Youth Education
Small Meetings
Young Adult Friends
Biblioteca QREC
Events
Find renewal, companionship, and help for nitty gritty issues in Quaker religious education, all the while opening spaces for Spirit to work and listening together for God’s way forward.
QREC holds an annual conference and retreat. In addition we hold online Conversation Circles and post other religious education events as we learn about them.
Conversation Circles
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Online conferences for Quaker religious educators to share about their work. Conversations are scheduled for two sessions per topic to encourage international participation. Join the conversation…
Other Events
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Religious education events of interest to Quakers from all parts of the world. Please let us know about upcoming online or in-person events happening in your area. See the list of upcoming events…
Love at the Heart
Spiritual Practices
Discernment
Active Caring
Quaker Family Culture
Finding the Light
Faith at Home
Home is the heart of faith formation for all families. This is especially true for Friends. As an experiential religion, Quakerism is best learned through living in loving community. Indeed, the vast majority of faith formation for our young Friends happens at home in the busy swirl of daily life.
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Get Involved
QREC depends on all of us sharing our gifts and skills as religious educators. Here are some of the ways you can get involved…
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