Conversation Circles: Intergenerational Religious Education

Rebuilding the Beloved Community

After two years of the pandemic, in person meetings are on the rise but we’ve been apart for so long that children and adults may not know each other. As families begin to seek community, we can create opportunities for interaction between all ages, and breathe life into the sense of beloved community. Intergenerational religious education – where adults and children learn together – can build deep, authentic relationships.  Naming and welcoming the spiritual gifts of children, youth and adults can enrich the whole Meeting. As adult Friends engage with children and youth in various ways, our teacher and helper volunteer pools may be replenished.

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED

Join in conversation with fellow Quaker religious educators on seizing this moment to build intergenerational community. We invite you to bring one piece of wisdom to share in a ‘spiritual potluck’, whether an experience, resource, question, or challenge.

Queries:

• How can we bring children, youth and adults together in intergenerational learning, caring, service, fun and worship in a way that enriches all?
• How can we help our Meetings name and welcome the spiritual gifts of children, youth and adults?
• What blocks in our practice must we overcome to infuse intergenerational learning into the life of the Meeting?

Facilitators: 

• TUE: Sita Diehl, Madison Friends Meeting, Northern Yearly Meeting
• THU: Cameron Hughes, Goose Creek Friends Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, and           Andrew Wright, Durham Friends Meeting, North Carolina Yearly Meeting Conservative

Resources:

• Build It! A toolkit for Nurturing Intergenerational Spiritual Community, FGC Youth Ministries Program.
• Engage Together: More than Worship, More than Sunday, Chris Barnett, Emma Parr, Melissa Neumann, Uniting Church in Australia.
• Family Worship, Christel Jorgenson, Friends Meeting of Cambridge, NEYM.
• How to Retain Young Families in Quaker Meeting, Amy Corleto-Bales, Christine Barnaby, David Corleto-Bales, David Keiser-Clark, Janaki Spickard Keeler, Kat Griffith, and Maya Wright, Friends Journal, February 2022.
• Intergenerational Community: the 12 How-To’s, FGC Youth Ministries Program.
• Navigating the Multigenerational Retreat, Christie Duncan Tessmer, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
• Nurturing Multigenerational Spiritual Community – South Jersey Quakers, Episode 9, video presentation with Melinda Wenner Bradley.
• Together: Intergenerational Sundays, Melinda Wenner Bradley, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, March 30, 2022.
• What is Intergenerational Ministry?, Jenna Campbell, First Presbyterian Church, Stillwater OK.
• Young Families and Quakerism: Will the Center Hold?, by Tom Hoopes, Friends Journal, May 2008.

Learn more: Visit the QREC Resource Library and subscribe to our announcements