Quaker Religious Education Collaborative
Fall, 2019
Dear Friends:
Warm greetings from the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative (QREC). We are an international, crossbranch,
grassroots community of practice carrying a stewardship for lifelong Quaker spiritual formation
through religious education. We are reaching out to you to extend an invitation into active partnership with
QREC.
QREC is delighted to announce that the Thomas H. and Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund has awarded us a
grant to seed regional QREC circles of practice in three unstaffed yearly meetings. We believe that regional
gatherings and working circles will be conducive for fruitful and economically sustainable work in religious
education in the years to come. Might a local meeting or quarterly meeting in your yearly meeting
consider hosting one of the pilot sites for a QREC Regional Working Circle? A formal decision on
behalf of the whole yearly meeting would not be required.
This would involve:
• getting to know the QREC network and community of practice by sending two or three Friends to our
annual conference. We have travel support for 2-person teams from the three unstaffed yearly
meetings to attend our annual conference for three years in a row.
• helping us to connect with one or two local meetings which are poised and eager to blossom as we
seed regional working circles in three different unstaffed yearly meetings—one in the south, one in
the middle of the country, and one in the Pacific area. We will mentor and “walk with” them over the
three years of our project.
• sponsoring a team of QREC mentors to travel to a location in your yearly meeting once during this 3-
year period to offer a workshop on a topic named by your religious education community. We would
avoid scheduling this during your annual business sessions as that time is usually very full. About
three-quarters of the cost of travel and registration would be funded by the grant. The local and/or
yearly meeting partners would fund about one-quarter of the cost.
It has been our experience that revitalization and encouragement of Quakerism happens most effectively at
the grassroots. In 2018, two East African Friends attended our annual conference. As a result, they invited us
to send two QREC members to work with East African Friends involved in religious education. The attached
epistle gives voice to the clarity and sense of call of East African Friends gathered at the first East Africa
QREC meeting held at Friends Theological College, Kaimosi, Kenya, in January 2019. The QREC presence
was a catalyst for this blossoming of their ministry. We would hope that a similar dynamic would take root in
your yearly meeting.
We are listening for places where Spirit rises and Friends are eager to dig in, sharpen their skills, get creative,
and tune up their ministries and programming in religious education to best serve Friends of all ages. Please
share this opportunity with your religious education community. Ask them to be in touch with Beth Collea,
bethcollea@aol.com, or Liz Yeats, liz.yeats@outlook.com, members of the QREC Steering Circle.
In faith and friendship,
Beth Collea, New England Yearly Meeting Sita Diehl, Northern Yearly Meeting
Kody Hersh, Southeastern Yearly Meeting Marsha Holliday, Baltimore Yearly Meeting
Liz Yeats, South Central Yearly Meeting Yanire Zamora, New England Yearly Meeting
and Mexico City
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.
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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…