HOME MISSION AND ADVANCEMENT COMMITTEE
QUAKER EDUCATION PROGRAMME

Mandate:

  • to foster learning about Quaker faith and practice
  • to communicate information about how Yearly Meeting serves Friends
  • to help build and encourage dialogue among Canadian Friends
  • to disseminate knowledge about Quaker history, discipline and organization
  • to promote understanding of the practice of spiritual discernment among Friends
  • to enhance the understanding of Friends' testimonies as lived experience

Organizational Framework:

I. Knowledge of Quaker History, Discipline and Organization

Friends have sustained a rich history and tradition in their spiritual discipline and seek to share their understandings of lived testimonies, faith and practice, discipline, history and organization. The Quaker Education Program will facilitate seminars,workshops, retreats, learning meetings, or courses such as Quakerism 101 for learning about these aspects of Friends' faith and practice and promote dialogue among Friends.

II. Corporate Nature of Faith & Practice

We seek to further understanding of the worship, faith and practice of Friends' spiritual life. This includes the business practices of Friends as a corporate body. All of these practices are fostered within an atmosphere of worship. We seek to gain a better understanding of the “gathered or covered meeting”. These practices are fundamental to our understanding of who we are as Friends.

III. Spiritual Care and Nurture
      We seek to strengthen Monthly Meetings who have collective responsibility for the spiritual care, nurture and pastoral care of their members, and the religious training of their children and young people. We seek to provide resources for Ministry & Counsel Committees and First Day School Committees to assist in this important work for our members.

IV. Membership in the Religious Society of Friends
Membership in the Religious Society of Friends is essential to our Quaker identity. The Quaker Education Program Coordinator will assist in facilitating open discussions at Monthly Meetings, Regional Gatherings and Yearly Meetings about the meaning and the process of membership and how it relates to our Quaker identity.

V. Friends' Testimonies as Lived Experience
Friends do not require adherence to a creed or dogma. They do, however, have common testimonies which give Friends guidance in how they live their lives. The testimonies include simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality. We seek to further understanding of how these testimonies become meaningful in our spiritual journeys and daily living.

VI. Diversity Among Friends
Friends are known for their diversity of spiritual thought and practice, their Christian heritage, and the practice of being tolerant and non-judgmental. The  lack of creed and dogma presents each Friend with the opportunity to shape his or her own spiritual path. This may present the danger of an “anything goes” religion with the eventual loss of coherent identity. This may also cause divisions among Friends who establish different language usage to communicate their beliefs or to confirm their Christian heritage. The Quaker Education Program Coordinator will be available to facilitate better understandings of diversity among Friends. 

VII. Conflicts Within Meetings
Friends' testimonies, discipline, and instruction in faith and practice focus on the positive value of good relationships among us. However, conflicts do arise from time to time. The Quaker Education Program Coordinator will develop a model to assist Friends in resolving conflicts that may arise, and will facilitate Friends' efforts to establish guidelines for their own meetings.

VIII. Traveling Ministry
Friends have a long history and tradition in traveling ministry. This has been done by those who answer a call to travel among Friends with a specific concern, or to serve as a visiting Friend in ministry. We seek to establish a Visitation Program to foster communication and religious education. Experienced Friends, and those whose call to travel in ministry has been appropriately seasoned, will visit Monthly Meetings and Worship Groups to foster communication and facilitate an educational dialogue with Friends in Canada.

IX. Ministry to Young Children and Young Friends
Friends' value the nurturing and guidance of our children and Young Friends. 
The Quaker Education Program Coordinator will work to enhance First Day School programs, to develop and provide resources for children and youth programs, especially web based resources. The Quaker Education Program Coordinator will liase with the Youth Secretary to further the life of children and Young Friends among us.

Implementation:

A Quaker Education Program (QEP) Coordinator has been hired to implement this religious education program for Friends. Duties and responsibilities are:

Databases:

1 – Develop and maintain databases of Monthly Meetings, Worship Groups, and Regional Gatherings who will participate in the QEP, in conjunction with the CYM office.
2 – Develop and maintain a database or alternate listing of Quaker educational resources, seasoned Friends in CYM, or elders who have much to share about “how we live”. Other resources could include Quaker Book Service, a Traveling Library, local meeting libraries, personal holdings of individual Friends, Quaker Quest information, bookstore and pamphlet information of FGC and Pendle Hill.
3 – Assist all meetings and Friends to be aware of these resources.

Web Sites:

1 – Develop and maintain a web site for HMAC and the QEP.
2 - Create an interactive blog which can be utilized by both the QEP Coordinator and Friends.
3 – Maintain close monitoring and updating of information.
4 – Explore and encourage collaborative Internet educational sites. eg. Social Networks/Wikis/ Forums.
5 – Make the RE resources highly visible and easily accessible on the web.
6 - Create ways of making sure Friends know about these resources.

Visitation Program:

1 – Develop and administer a procedure to be followed by individuals who experience a sense of leading to travel in the ministry, and also a procedure for Meetings who sense a need to be visited.
2 – Develop a model or Power Point presentation on the steps a Meeting needs to take for visitations or other facets of the QEP as developed by HMAC.
3 – Maintain a database of MM's and individuals who participate in the Visitation Program.
4 – Maintain a file or database of issues that are lifted up by members and monthly meetings.

Religious Education Program Resources:
 
1 – Develop, create and maintain a database of materials for the web site that can relate to the religious education of Friends of all ages. This could include videos, traveling libraries, CD's, DVD's, games, any medium appropriate for the purpose of communicating or increasing knowledge about Friends in Canada. These could be used for Religious Education programs within Meetings, Regional Gatherings, or Yearly Meeting. These would cover topics such as Quaker history, discipline, organization, testimonies, membership, faith and practice, and diversity among Friends.
2 – Develop and administer workshops for clerking and recording clerks.
3 – Develop and administer resource materials for Monthly Meetings' Ministry & Counsel Committees.
4 - Develop materials for use in the children's and youth programs.
5 – Assist First Day Schools in curriculum materials.
4 - Create models for dealing with conflict in Meetings.
5 – Facilitate the creation of a DVD of Canadian elders.
6 – Create informational material for describing the Quaker Education Program.

Communication Resources (Program Promotional Material):

1 – Organize and maintain a packet of informational materials for yearly meeting, gatherings, events and workshops.
2 – Periodically review and/or revise the documents that have been created for the QEP.

Other Duties:

1 – Attend HMAC meetings in an ex officio capacity.
2 – Attend CYM and Regional Gatherings as needed.
3 – Travel to Monthly Meetings as needed.

 

Back to top of page
Back to Home Mission and Advancement Committee
Back to Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Page last updated 2011-01-20 0:37 AM