Children’s spirituality is something we still have much to learn about, is so important, and is something that can change the world. Caryl Cresswell, a recorded minister in Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting, a member of West Hills Friends Meeting in Portland, Oregon, and...
Sharing Resources
Teaching the Language of Children’s Spirituality
We as human beings need stories. It's this primal part of who we are as a human race — from the very beginning. That's how we have always made meaning. Telling stories, over and over again. Caryl Cresswell, a recorded minister in Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting, a...
The Gardener
Lydia Grace Finch brings a suitcase full of seeds to the big gray city, where she goes to stay with her Uncle Jim, a cantankerous baker. There she initiates a gradual transformation, bit by bit brightening the shop and bringing smiles to customers' faces with the...
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Lesson plan for the home with a book and activities. When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William spent his days in the library — and figured...
Lucky Beans
Lesson plan for the home with a book and activities. 1930's Great Depression is the setting of a boy's ingenuity in helping his family. Like so many people during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Marshall Loman's dad has lost his job. There's little money, but there...
Quiet
Lesson plan for the home with book, videos and activities. The author reminds us that mindfulness‚ "being quiet, still, and present with one another" is a very special thing. Everything is in such a hurry, busy as busy can be. The birds are flying so fast, the...
Flowers for Sarajevo
Lesson plan for the home with a book, music and activities: Young Drasko is happy working with his father in the Sarajevo market. Then war encroaches. Drasko must run the family flower stand alone. One morning, the bakery is bombed and twenty-two people are killed....
Good People Everywhere
Lesson plan for the home with a book, video and music. Good People Everywhere is a soothing story to help children become mindful of the beautiful, caring people in their world. Each page delightfully unfolds with vibrant, engaging illustrations and endearing stories...
What is Given from the Heart
A little boy and his mother fall on hard times, but discover that they can still give heartfelt gifts. A touching story of compassion, this is the last picture book authored by one of America's best loved children's authors. "Misery loves company," Mama says to James...
Loaves and Fishes
This picture-book version of the Biblical parable of the loaves and fishes tells the story from the perspective of the young boy who offers up his simple lunch of rye bread loaves and fish he'd caught at his quiet fishing spot to Jesus, who uses them to feed the...
Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey
Our Life is Love describes the transformational spiritual journey of the first Quakers, who turned to the Light of Christ within and allowed it to be their guide. Many Friends today use different language, but are still called to make the same journey. In our time...
Deepening Meeting Life
This curriculum enables Friends to explore central tenets in the shared life of a Friends Meeting. Topics include: Quakerism as an adventure in direct, unmediated, ongoing guidance by Spirit. Exploring our faith with each other. Deepening worship — how we can...
Friendly Holiday Gift Fairs!
Join us in an exciting pop-up partnership between Friends Peace Teams and the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative! We are starting a pilot project organizing Friendly Holiday Gift Fairs as a way to learn about, celebrate, and support peacemaking through "gifts...
Holiday Traditions at Birmingham (PA) Friends Meeting
Three Christmas holiday traditions at Birmingham Friends Meeting (West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA) are described in the attached document: 1. The Giving Tree, a service project of the Birmingham Meeting Youth Committee in collaboration with a local homeless shelter....
Reverse Advent for Friends
Reverse Advent: For Families and RE Programs, An Activity to Teach the Spiritual Discipline of Reaching Out In December, young people and their families have an opportunity to connect a story of the season with service to a local food cupboard or shelter. While...
Quaker Children and the Bolivian Water Crisis
In 2016, when global warming left the entire city of La Paz without drinking water for weeks, the Friends International Bilingual Center (FIBC) seized the teachable moment to educate children about the crisis and what they could do to help. Through QREC, Friends in...
The Power of Goodness
TThe Power of Goodness: Art and Stories for a Culture of Peace is a short story book with children's art from Chechnya, Russia and around the world illustrating narratives of nonviolence, healing and reconciliation. Together, the words and images capture the...
World Quaker Day Website
Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) has relaunched the World Quaker Day Website to celebrate the 5th annual day of international Quaker celebration. We have updated the look and feel of the site and added more resources to help Friends plan their...
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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
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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…