Faith at Home
Love at the Heart of It All
A vision of beloved community
Active Caring
Helping & responding to nudges
Spiritual Practices
Opening ourselves to divine love
Discernment
Weaving faith into life
Quaker Family Culture
Stories from Quaker homes
Finding the Light
Nurturing gifts, affirmations
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. It’s happening all the time, often below our conscious awareness. As adults pay attention to task lists, carpool schedules, and homework, our priorities, values, and deep convictions about life, Love and Truth are on full display. We are always modeling for our children how we decide on a course of action and how we understand our place in the world and the responsibility we feel for others.
This section of the QREC website is an invitation to be more intentional and present to these moments. We offer practical jumping off points and resources to help us open ourselves and our children to God and faithful living through worship and service, the Bible, stories from Quaker lives, queries, and creative expression. Along the spiritual path, we have both human and divine accompaniment that invites us into relationship and deeper communion.
A Quaker family’s faith adventure is not another separate task to heap onto our over-busy lives! Rather, it’s an approach, rooted in Spirit, that we bring to what we are already doing. We begin to look at life through a Quaker lens and see the same landscape in new ways. Quaker faith formation can actually return energy to us by focusing our lives on what matters most and freeing us to let go of less important concerns.
Enjoy the offerings that follow. Come with a playful, open heart. Explore what resonates now. Might you have practices and wisdom to add from your home? What additional resources would be useful in your home? Let us know!
Love at the Heart of It All
Three Steps to Begin the Quaker Family Faith Journey
- Let the love flow in your family. Affirming the inherent worth and goodness of our children is Job #1. When they are surrounded by Love, children are ready to encounter a loving God. Adults need to remember, we are already loved by Spirit, too!
- Stop, Notice, and Reflect. This is one of the most important habits we can develop in our Quaker families. Where can we see Love changing lives? Where can we add more Love or Justice to a situation?
- Stay alert for feelings every step of the way. Do we sense an inner “nudge” to bring more kindness and justice to life? What does clearness feel like? What does gratitude feel like? Make space in busy times to wonder together and give voice to what we sense in our hearts.
The adventure of a lifetime awaits! The faith we have right now is enough to begin. Our Quaker faith will deepen and take on fuller Life as we listen for and follow the guidance of Spirit in daily life. The Quaker faith adventure goes forward in multi-faith homes, too!
Love at the Heart of It All Resources
Nurturing Children’s Spirituality
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Children’s Spiritual Lives
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Imagining a World of Love
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The Day You Begin
Everyone has times when they don't feel they belong, when they feel, and often are, outside the circle looking in. Maybe it is the way we look, or speak, or the food in our lunch bag that leaves us feeling like the outsider. Woodson warmly encourages us to dare to...
Enemy Pie
This delicious story proves that the best way to defeat an enemy is by making him your friend! A perfect summer is ruined when Jeremy Ross moves into town. He laughs when you strike out at baseball and is playing with your best friend. But Dad has some real wisdom...
The Invisible Boy
It's easy to be lost and overlooked in a noisy world of boisterous classmates. Brian lives on the margins in the lunch room, the playground, and even in class. That is until, Justin moves to town. Brian steps out of his comfort zone just a bit and finds a new friend...
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch celebrates how love can change lives and how our community can bring that love into action. Mr. Hatch's quiet, lonely world is delightfully turned upside down when the postman delivers a Valentine's Day box of chocolates from a secret...
Active Caring
Active Caring Resources
Active Caring
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A Ministry of Presence
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Expanding the Circle of Concern
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Peace Begins with You
Peace Begins with You frames peace as real and possible and peacemaking as right and actionable in our daily lives and on the world stage. It establishes universal human needs, the inevitability of conflict, and the possibility that resolutions to disagreements may...
The Best Gift of All
The power of a simple visit rings loud and clear in this story. It's a sweet primer in pastoral care for children. First, Mole has an awareness of missing his friend, Rabbit. He begins to take action and burrow a tunnel toward her home. Squirrel and Hedgehog are...
The Kindness Quilt
Kindness naturally and joyfully multiplies when we focus on opportunities to be helpful, courteous, generous, and encouraging! The Kindness Quilt is an invitation to illustrate our own acts of kindness and pull them all together in a lovely festive quilt. In the...
How Maps Change Things
A Conversation about the Maps We Choose and the World We Want I'd love to see this book in every Quaker home and Friends meeting/church library. It's a surprisingly short and utterly engaging journey from world maps to questions of social justice and it's worth it...
Spiritual Practices
Spiritual Practice Resources
Welcoming Children into Prayer
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Making Prayer Part of Daily Life
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Creating a Prayer Corner
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Praying in Color
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A Body Prayer to Try at Home
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Worship Sharing with Children
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A Forgiveness Practice
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A Gratitude Practice
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Being Present
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Discernment
Discernment Resources
Speaking Up Against Bigotry
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Prayer Changes Us
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Queries for Families
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Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins
When four courageous black teens sat down at a lunch counter in the segregated South of 1960, the reverberations were felt both far beyond and close to home. This insightful story offers a child's-eye view of this seminal event in the American Civil Rights Movement....
The Empty Pot
Honesty and integrity can often require real courage of us! In this classic Chinese children's story, we learn once again that "Honesty is the best policy." Ping was a young schoolboy who loved to grow flowers. He embraced the Emperor's challenge to grow the best...
Say Something
Say Something takes us on the short but significant journey from being a silent bystander to an engaged community member with small, simple acts of inclusion like acknowledging a new student in a class or sitting next to someone on the bus. Bullying and teasing can be...
Four Feet, Two Sandals
This is a tender inspiring story of resilience, friendship, creative problem-solving, and peacemaking set in a refugee camp in Pakistan. After weeks of privation and the arduous journey walking out of Afghanistan to escape the fighting, great excitement fills the camp...
Quaker Family Culture
Quaker families live in the same reality as everyone else—the same challenges, same distractions, same pressures. How we interpret those situations and respond to them is what can set Quaker families apart. The more we weave Quaker faith and practice into daily life, the more a distinctly Quaker Family Culture takes shape. Albeit with endless variation family to family, there are hallmarks around spiritually-grounding elements and relationship styles that are distinctive. Explore how to create this Quaker Family Culture; celebrate touchstones of Quaker life from other Friendly families.
Quaker Family Culture Resources
Queries for Children & Parents
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Queries for Teens & Parents
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Quaker Family Film Nights
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Storrs Meeting at the Movies
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Articles of Faith
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Jesse’s Coming of Age Story
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Seeking Wonder and Light in the Christmas Season
In the season of Christmas and festivals of light, we consider how to celebrate in the manner of Friends: How do we approach this season as Friends? What can we share with Quaker religious education colleagues from our experience? What can we share with families in...
Do Our Children Know Enough About Quakerism to Play Quaker? Dover Meeting Dollhouse
Children learn through play. They play school, they play house, they even play COVID, giving everyone shots. Do our children know enough about being Quaker to play Quaker? Children are fully spiritual beings. Meeting life needs to be as open and comprehensible to them...
Teaching Conflict Resolution through Children’s Literature
This curriculum is a gem. Designed for 5-7 year olds, it is useful at home and in First Day School. Each lesson is based on an excellent storybook. Kreidler was a Quaker and brilliant educator. His curriculum normalizes conflict as an inevitable part of life in...
Passages: A Guide to Developing a Coming-of-Age Program
Many faiths mark the transition of young people to teenage/adult status with a special process: learning, performance or ceremony. Quakers do not have a particular tradition for doing this. Some Friends have felt a yearning to honor this transition within their...
Easter Light: Seeking in the Spring of the Year
From Wellesley (Massachusetts, USA) Friends Meeting (New England Yearly Meeting), a thoughtful set of queries for this season of renewal and rebirth. Download the article Easter Light: Seeking in the Spring of the Year
Finding the Light
Finding the Light Resources
Queries
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Quaker Affirmations
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Children’s Spirituality
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I Think, I Am! Teaching Kids the Power of Affirmations
I Think, I Am! can be a bridge for children from hearing about their gifts to embracing those words and incorporating them into their understanding of themselves. Being able to acknowledge our gifts is a crucial step on the Quaker faith formation journey. "Your...
Eighth Day of Creation: Discovering Your Gifts and Using Them
Our spiritual gifts and our special talents exist at the vital intersection of daily life and divine Love. A key element of our spiritual journeys is coming to appreciate our gifts and to understand that they are given to us for the benefit and building up of our...
Jack’s Talent
"You must be good at something," said Miss Lucinda. "Everyone has a special talent." On the first day of school, Miss Lucinda asks the students to share their special talents. Francesca is a star soccer player, Matthew can catch huge fish with his grandpa, and Candace...
Home Religious Education Guide – Sharing Our Gifts
Activities to Pair with Books and Music HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE Please use these ideas in ways that work best for your children. The Concepts listed and Bible Readings are for grown-up background material to support you. Reading aloud the book together, or watching...
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
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
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
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
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.
Become a Member
Submit Resources
Get Announcements
Donate
Attend an Event
Contact Us
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…