Join these listening circles to explore children’s participation in Quaker Meeting for Worship. These conversations will support a Friend’s seminary research from which will emerge a guide for how to be an intergenerational spiritual community and how to encourage reciprocity across generations.
Teaching Variations Resources
Faith & Play: Stories of Quaker faith, practice, and witness for Friends
Join this conversation to explore Faith & Play™: Stories of Quaker faith, practice and witness told in the manner of Godly Play® The conversation on Thursday will be simultaneously interpreted into Spanish
Sparkling Still: A Core Quaker Curriculum for Ages 3-8
Join this conversation to learn about Sparkling Still, the core Quaker curriculum for ages 3-8 based on children’s picture books.
Summary: Radical Acceptance of Children & Youth in Quaker Meetings
This conversation explored how to help meetings fully include all children in the Meeting community, especially those whose interest, behavior, energy level, or identity, make adults Friends feel uncomfortable.
Radical Acceptance of Children & Youth in Quaker Meetings
Join this conversation to explore how to our meetings fully include all children in the Meeting community, especially those whose interest, behavior, energy level, or identity, make adults Friends feel uncomfortable.
Service Learning Guidelines for High School Students
Maryland was the first state in the U.S. to mandate service learning for high school students. Service learning is a teaching method that combines meaningful service to the community with curriculum-based learning. Students improve their academic skills by applying...
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...
Quaker Time Machine: An intergenerational exploration of historical Friends
Friends, young and old, play through Quaker history in this hands-on exploration of historical Friends from George Fox to present-day Friends in your monthly meeting. Adult volunteers prepare for the class by studying a historical Friend to prepare for role-playing in...
Conversation Circle (July 2020) — Program Planning in Uncertain Times
Topic: In April and May we held conversations on how Friends were managing Religious Education and supporting families during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we look forward, the virus is still with us - and will be for some time to come. Join the conversation on how we can...
Conversation Circle (May 2020) — Online Quaker Religious Education
Topic: Online Quaker Religious Education: What have we learned so far in our roles as pastors and educators? Welcome and Introductions Centering Silence The COVI-19 pandemic has been a time of struggle and heartbreak, hitting some parts of the society and the world...
Despair, Hope and the Great Turning
Anxiety about the state of the world is common among young Friends. From the widely acclaimed Powell House Youth Program, this experiential retreat curriculum provides a safe place to voice the fear that burdens so many who seek to live with awareness and...
The Light: A Story for December
Cultures all over the world celebrate festivals of Light, often in December. This story, told in the Faith & Play style. uses symbols of Light in a simple, profound way to introduce these festivals in Quaker religious education.
Nurturing Quaker Children in a Small Meeting
From the child's point of view, living in a small Meeting can be very rich. The segregation between children and adults that is the norm for popular culture and many large Meetings is impossible here. It is like living in a small town, or a large family where everyone...
Settling Routine
We use this settling routine from Ann Arbor (MI) Friends Meeting with all our kids, sometimes omitting a line or two. It's important to have chairs an appropriate height for all children so their toes can touch the floor. Sitting on the floor with knees bent and feet...
Religious Education for the Home and Small Meeting
This is an idea packet assembled for families and small meetings who seek to educate children in Quaker faith and practice. Originally published in 1986, this is a treasure trove, worthy of adaptation and revision given that most Quaker meetings still face these...
Children and Youth Resources for Exploring Racism and Racial Justice
This is a growing list of resources for exploring racism and racial justice with young Friends. The document begins with queries to frame the task. The list includes websites, blogs, online articles, curricula and children's literature. Queries: How do we...
Discovering Our Faith through Story and Play
Part one of the booklet contains the classic Quaker stories of George Fox, Elizabeth Fry, Stephen Grellet, William Pickett, Mary Fisher and John Woolman. Part two has stories of the experience of meeting for worship. The third part consists of two biblical...
Shaking Out the Truth
This curriculum explains processes of making decisions in Quaker meeting. In three lessons, students learn about meeting for business, clearness committees, and threshing sessions are described along with age-appropriate activties to increase understanding. For...
Earth Care for Children
This curriculum helps children walk gently over God's Earth through interactive and fun activities. Young Friends experience the Earth as our home, see how we share our home with God's creatures, and learn how we can behave in caring ways for our world. Quaker...
The Complete Guide to Godly Play
From the Godly Play Foundation: "Children have an innate sense of the presence of God. The Godly Play approach helps them to explore their faith through story, to gain religious language and to enhance their spiritual experience though wonder and play. Based on...
Top Ten List for New Teachers
What do you think is most important for a new teacher to know? This query was given to gifted and seasoned First Day School teachers in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Their responses were remarkably similar. They range from the practical (Make sure you have all of your...
Return to General Search
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…