February 18, 2021 Conversation Circle

Beyond Quakerism 101: How can Friends prepare to be a light in the world?

The crises of the past year have shaken humanity to the core. As we turn the corner, the Light is streaming in through the cracks. Wisdom, courage and compassion are needed if global society is to emerge from this time healed and moving toward a just and caring future. Early Friends, ignited by the Spirit during tumultuous times, ushered lasting change into the culture despite their small numbers.

Queries:

  • What is the relationship between inward Quaker practice and outward social action?
  • What can we learn from the patterns and examples of early Friends?
  • How can we, as Friends, test leadings and follow through with courage and faithfulness?
  • How can we, as Quaker religious educators, prepare Friends to accompany the world into a new way of being?

Registration is required:

Conversation Starters

Friends invited to seed the conversation with their experience and insight.

8pm (EST – USA) Thursday, February 18:

Marcelle Martin (Swarthmore PA, PhYM) is the author of numerous publications including, Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey. She was the resident Quaker Studies teacher at Pendle Hill for four years and was a core teacher in the School of the Spirit’s The Way of Ministry program. On her blog, “A Whole Heart,” she writes about spirituality today.

Steve Chase (Washington DC, BYM) has traveled in the ministry and served on the US Quaker Quest Training Team. He is the author of the book Letters to a Fellow Seeker: A Short Introduction to the Quaker Way and the Pendle Hill pamphlet Revelation and Revolution: Answering the Call to Radical Faithfulness.

Lina Blount (Pendle Hill) currently serves as Education Coordinator for Pendle Hill. She is an organizer, trainer, and nonviolent action strategist who has been working on environmental justice campaigns in the Philadelphia area and is the co-clerk of the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) board.

1pm (EST – USA) Tuesday, February 16:

Diego Navarro (Santa Cruz, PacYM) has traveled in the Ministry, speaking on developing sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit; and Presence of Truth in individual and Meeting life. He explores deep experiences of community, what enables true community to develop, and practices that enable Friends to discern the guidance of the Spirit together. He served as Presiding Clerk of Pacific Yearly Meeting from 2015-2018 and currently participates in the Racial Justice Subcommittee.

LJ Boswell (NEYM) is an educator, interfaith chaplain, social justice activist and artist focused on living and serving at the intersection of spirituality and social justice. Currently living in western Massachusetts, LJ is an anti-racism educator and works as a spiritual director and social justice coach.

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

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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

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.

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…