News and Resources from the FGC Religious Education Committee
Issue 8 / Autumn 2004

In this Issue:

Child Safety
Divine Connections
Exploring Godly Play
First Day School as Weekly Wonder
Food, The Great Awakener
Video Scavenger Hunt
FGC Conscientious Objector Curriculum

 

Child Saftey

by Christel (Chris) Jorgenson, Friends Meeting at Cambridge

From the Christian Education Newsletter,New England YM, February 2004, altered.

Several factors have brought the issue of child safety to Quaker meetings: scandals in other churches and insurance companies setting standards in order to cover liability. We may have never given it much thought and now it seems to be important.

Of course,we Quakers could be priding ourselves on “it could never happen here. ” It is a hard issue to consider, for any person, for any meeting. We quite naturally resist it. After all, with our small and close-knit community, our emphasis on honesty and compassion, the peace testimony—don’t these give us a strong foundation for a healthy environment for our children? Yes, but not a guarantee. It can happen here and it can happen when children are not under the care of the meeting. Studies show disturbing statistics—that ten percent of boys and twenty percent of girls have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18 (some studies show a higher percentage). Compassion for children requires that we take seriously our responsibility to minimize the risk of child abuse in our meetings and in our communities.

Since this is a new idea for many of us, educating ourselves and our meetings is a place to start. I am on a small task force that is investigating what other denominations and groups are doing by way of training programs, guidelines and procedures, with the goal of developing appropriate guidelines and procedures for our yearly meeting’s youth programs. We are considering how best to disseminate what we are learning and how it can be most helpful for the yearly meeting.

The most useful information I’ve found to date can be found at www.reducingtherisk.com. For $49. 95 you receive a manual, a training manual, a DVD with six video segments, and a year’s access to the training materials on their web site. Updated in 2003 to reflect an emphasis on the well being of children and the religious community, rather than solely on liability concerns, it is thorough and full of applicable examples and principles. The DVD has a twenty minute introduction that could be used effectively to lay out the reasons why a policy is important. The remainder of the two hours or so can be used for training, since it covers the major points of the manual. The training manual gives step by step meeting plans for various constituencies who will need to be informed and trained. The on-line training could be a solution for the problem of training people at a distance or who sign on after a group training. I think it’s excellent.

Two other resources could also be helpful:

• www.nonprofitrisk.org is the web site of an organization that does not sell insurance or endorse providers but deals with lots of risk issues that nonprofits face. Their publication titled A Season of Hope:A Risk Management Guide for Youth-Serving Nonprofits has lots of clearly presented useful information. You can order it in electronic or print form from their web site.
  
• Safe Sanctuaries: Reducing the Risk of Child Abuse in the Church by Joy Thornburg Melton, is a resource/workbook developed by the Methodist Church. It provides pragmatic information and step-bystep process suggestions. This book has already been helpful as Cambridge (MA) Meeting has begun a process to look for ways to be more pro-active in protecting the youth of the meeting.

One thing emphasized in all publications is that a program will fail if it is not a priority for the whole group/congregation. In the Quaker tradition of discernment, engaging the hearts and minds of the whole community around a serious issue would deepen the process and allow for more light and grace. In any process, our goal is not to lay blame, but to keep the focus on the children and our adult role as their protectors. Part of the process in Cambridge is also “to educate and empower children and youth to advocate for themselves and to speak up when they see or experience something that feels wrong. ”

Criminal background checks can be a part of a screening process, but are limited in effectiveness and are not a substitute for applications and reference checking. In Massachusetts, there are laws requiring Criminal Offense Record Information (CORI) checks for volunteers in organizations whose work is primarily to provide programs for children under 18 years of age. Many churches have determined that they should do these background checks. Amesbury Meeting (MA) was advised that they should do this, and all members and attenders who work or might work with the children agreed that their records could be requested from the state.

This may also be an opportunity for working with other faith communities in your area. Find out what other churches are doing, draw on their experience and find “fellow travelers” or participate in their training program. Share what you learn with other meetings in your quarter and yearly meeting.

One weekend I completed a four-hour volunteer training program in a Catholic parish. I think they are rising from their crises with a very effective program. At the same time, it was deep-in-the-gut disturbing to hear testimonies from perpetrators and survivors. As a whole, the message was hopeful that awareness can prevent these tragedies. I asked myself if it creates an atmosphere of apprehension and suspicion—and in the end, I think it does not. Soberness about our responsibility is more my sense of it. And it does not drown out the joy. The next day in worship, I found myself cherishing our children all the more—each little wiggle, giggle, and whisper. We have the privilege of being in community with such engaging, lively spirits. We need to protect this great gift from God.

 

Divine Connections

My Experience of the Religious Educators Institute

By Helen Fields, West Chester MM, Philadelphia YM, Children's RE Coordinator for Philadelphia YM

“Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda . . . ” whispered in my head. I contemplated three days of indoor religious education workshops at a somewhat mildewy lakeside camp in upstate New York this summer, with torrential rains on the horizon. The FGC Religious Educators Institute, “Illuminating Our Divine Connections,” promised excellent workshops with experienced, grounded spiritual leaders, but I was not sure I was ready to “see the Light. ” I had signed up for the workshop “Daring to Teach Christianity,” and wondered how fifteen Quaker religious educators might resolve this challenge in three days.

The workshop leaders, Christel Jorgenson and Gail Thomas of New England Yearly Meeting, daringly created a spiritual safe space for all to name some of the blocks that keep us from easily teaching Christianity and the Bible. Among seasoned and new Friends involved in religious education, we shared a wide range of challenges: disdain for the patriarchal paradigms of the cultures depicted; confusion about whether a miracle is a miracle; finding a contemporary context for teaching from an ancient, and not always accurate, text; lack of actual knowledge of Bible stories and Christian history and doctrine, and more. There was some lively discussion about how much of our teaching should be content based, and how much experience based.

After naming our own ‘blocks’ (in the form of paper blocks used to build a wall) we then had a fruitful and fun discussion, followed by tender worship sharing, and enjoyed the leadings of several people who offered ways they are able to remove those blocks and deepen their own and others’ sense of spiritual understanding.

The second day of the intensive workshop we focused on ways to teach Christianity to different age groups through experiential learning. We experienced a storytelling of the Good Shepherd, using the Montessori-type of teaching called Godly Play. This method is created specifically for elementary age children, but several adults were deeply moved by the experience of this divine story.

To practice teaching Christianity to older youth and adults, our leaders asked us to work in small groups to create a skit, an interview or a story of a New Testament event or parable. It was a hoot! My group reenacted the story of Jesus turning water into wine, and I got to play the father of the bride and a servant; other groups took their turns telling, acting and using pantomime to share the Bible. After much fun and laughter, we then shared a period of deep worship. Many in the workshop felt deeply enriched, inspired and better prepared to teach Christianity in these new ways. Some confessed that they were still not comfortable with taking that step, but were open to thinking about new approaches to engaging in religious education, both at home and in the First Day School classroom.

As the weekend raced by, the very busy schedule included multi-age cluster groups for daily reflection and sharing, a cornucopia of interest groups, and evening programs which brought us all together to experience the divine connections ourselves through song and story with Niyonu Spann and Marlou Carlson. Late night small group discussions around a campfire and hot cocoa and long afternoon conversations about our workshops and our spiritual paths created a strong sense of spiritual community, for which I am thankful.

On Sunday, the sun finally came out as we gathered for outdoor worship. Each cluster dangled their reflective “stained glass” art from a basketball hoop, watching as the artwork caught the light of the sunrise and reflected it onto the gathered circle, once again illuminating our divine connections.

 

Exploring Godly Play

By Martha Murdock, Rockland Meeting, NYYM

Who doesn’t love a good story? Add anticipation of events as the story unfolds and simple visual aids gradually added and you have a captivated audience. This method of presenting Old Testament stories and the life of Jesus and his parables to young First Day School children was enticingly presented in a two morning immersion workshop by Laurie Rizzo of New England Yearly Meeting at the 2004 Religious Educators Institute, August 19–22, 2004. (The method was developed by Jerome Berryman. His many books are available through QuakerBooks of FGC. ) On the first morning, as we sat on small carpet squares in a circle on the floor, Laurie brought forth a gold box, explaining it was a present—perhaps a parable, which is a present to us all. We watched as she brought out of the box, one by one, the items to tell the story of “The Good Shepherd. ”At the end of the story she asked wonder questions such as “I wonder . . . were you ever lost from your parents? . . . How did you feel?” After the questions we were invited to choose art materials from a big array of media— paints, clay, crayons, and more—and respond to the story in any way we liked. Also behind us were the boxes containing the visual elements of other stories plus the one we had just heard, which we were free to play with, as are children in a typical Godly Play classroom.

On the first day of the Godly Play workshop, we chose a story and, using the story box appropriate for that story, rehearsed it with a partner. The next morning some of us tried our hand at presenting a story to the group. Materials for the story, we learned, can be purchased ready-made, or figures can be copied from a Berryman book. We also learned that very simple items can be used effectively. The Good Shepherd story, for instance, has been told with cotton balls for sheep and sticks for the shepherd. The most important things are the story, the wonder questions, and the opportunity for creative response. We were encouraged to create our own scripts from favorite Quaker stories, as Marlou Carlson did so ably with “Fierce Feathers” for our Saturday night plenary session, entrancing the whole group of children and adults. We came away from the RE Institute inspired and eager to present these new ideas to our meetings and to start using them. At age seventy-seven and with close to thirty years of teaching First Day School, I can’t believe I’ve jumped in again with both feet!

 

First Day School as Weekly Wonder

By Paul Ricketts, sojourning at Fort Wayne Meeting, and Michael Gibson, co-editor

Are you looking for ways to make your religious education programs engaging, dynamic, innovative and experiential? Fort Wayne Friends Meeting (FWFM) has found a method that is all of these things for their children. The meeting is a small unprogrammed meeting in northeast Indiana that is growing. Some members of this meeting have united membership with both Friends General Conference and Friends United Meeting, while others are solely FUM affiliated. In 1999, FWFM moved from their own meeting space to downtown Fort Wayne where they entered into a covenant relationship with Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, sharing their facilities. The two bodies, while continuing to meet separately for worship, decided to work collaboratively on religious education programming and social concerns projects. The religious education program they share with the UCC congregation is exceptional and has been a blessing to FWFM families. Paul Ricketts, a member of White Rose Meeting (OVYM), sojourning at Fort Wayne Friends Meeting and a member of the FGC Religious Education Committee, recently described FWFM’s exciting ecumenical venture to a gathering of Friends religious educators this past August.

On a typical Sunday morning, Friends gather at 10:15 a. m. for intergenerational hymn singing, followed by unprogrammed meeting for worship at 10:30. At 10:45, one or two adults join the children in leaving for a transitional period of art activities and games in preparation for the hour of joint religious education with children from Plymouth Congregational Church of Christ. They use a curriculum that is values centered, biblically based, and ecumenical in nature. The curriculum follows the same pattern each month.

In the method FWFM utilizes, children focus each month on one story—biblical or otherwise. Each week, children experience the story in a different medium. For example, the first week, after the story is told, the children may go to a music center for musical exploration of the narrative. The next week, after the same story is repeated, the children may go to an art center for creative visual response. In succeeding weeks the children may engage the story through drama, or yet another medium. Each of these media centers is referred to as a weekly wonder workshop, and each is utilized every First Day by a different age group. Each workshop experience opens up the story in fresh ways and serves to provide reinforcement and to deepen understanding and engagement.

The weekly workshops provided each month are staffed by volunteers who have both passion for and skill in their particular medium. Because a different age group visits the same weekly wonder workshop every Sunday of the month, storytellers and workshop facilitators, who may be members of Plymouth Congregational UCC or FWFM, have the opportunity to regularly interact with all the children in the program, from the youngest to the oldest. When the stories are extrabiblical they may be Quaker or come from another source. The method is consistent, but flexible, providing both the comfort of pattern with the excitement of variety. This approach has increased attendance and the children’s level of enthusiasm and wonder. The ecumenical religious education venture is also practical: FWFM has fewer than six children in the meeting, so working with another group helps them reach critical mass and increases the pool of available adults to lead.

For more information on the workshop rotation model, go to:
www.rotation.org/manual.html

To see how this model is used by Unitarian Universalists, visit:
http://www.uuokc.org/About/RE/quuesthome.htm

Food, the Great Awakener

By Gail Thomas, Cambridge Friends Meeting, NEYM

Hope’s Edge:The Next Diet for a New Planet. Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe. Jeremy P Tarcher/Putnam 2002; paper 2003. $14. 95

You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear. Frances Moore Lappe and Jeffrey Perkins. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2004. $18. 95

Diet for a Small Planet revolutionized the way I and many people in the United States thought about food. Now, thirty years later, Frances Moore Lappe finds herself once again challenging myths of fear and scarcity. Although not written from a religious perspective, her goal is deeply spiritual. She asks, how can I align my actions with my deepest values? How can we break through the climate of fear created by our government, our media, and the events of September 11? She argues we can seize moments of dissonance to push us toward the edge of hope. In Hope’s Edge, Lappe travels to five continents with her daughter, Anna, seeking out people and communities that have found their voice, exercised their power, and created something new and vibrant.

You Have the Power,written with Jeffrey Perkins, who worked with Lappe in her Center for Living Democracy, is a shorter, slicker book. It contains some of the same stories and each chapter is framed with an “old thought” and their proposed “new thought,” but it also lends itself more easily to a group study format. There is a blurb on the cover from Michael Moore: “Outwit the fearmongers. Read this gutsy gem!”And, again, it helps bring us to hope’s edge, helps us see how we can work through our deepest fears by holding on to our deepest beliefs.

Friends Meeting at Cambridge, inspired by the 2003 Pendle Hill gathering on Economics, Ecology and Public Policy, has formed a group called the Common Roots of Justice. Believing the roots of justice are common to and cut across many Friends concerns, this group has developed a year-long study and action program. Reading Lappe’s books helped us to choose food over water as the topic for our first year. When we started to put together the plans for our monthly programs,we were amazed at the number of members in our meeting who were anxious to share this work as part of the program. I hope to report on the progress of this work in a later issue. Meanwhile, read one or both of these books about food. Food really can be, as Lappe suggests,“the great awakener. ”

 

Video Scavenger Hunt

Web-based Instructions for a Quaker Youth Activity

Review by Robert Duncan, Adelphia Meeting, BYM

This very full group activity by Rob Lamme (Durham Meeting (PFF)), edited and adapted by members of the FGC RE committee, is certain to create a memorable experience for a meeting's young people with potential to impact the whole meeting. The instructions are clear and complete and the logistics and equipment, although ambitious, should be within the reach of many meetings.

This fun activity has great potential. It will, however, require a high level of energy both on the part of adult leaders and youth. Acting out in public can be great fun but there is an initial hump of self consciousness to get over. The instructions have a good description of the nature of the adult leader required: “somewhat out of his/her mind crazy. ” I recommend that the planners also consider the personality of the youth group. This activity could fall flat unless at least 1 or 2 young people per group have a quality of outgoing self confidence and are not easily embarrassed. For small meetings who may not achieve the critical mass, this activity may be successful with a wider area group such as quarterly or yearly meeting. It may be adapted for joint use with local youth groups from other denominations.

Two purposes of this activity are to build young peoples’ self image as Quakers and build the community’s awareness of Quakerism. These are both excellent goals that Quaker youth programs often overlook. The success of this activity would depend, in large part, on how the scavenger hunt is implemented, how the young people conduct themselves in public, and how the post-hunt sharing and reflecting is handled. I would encourage youth workers to plan carefully so that the activity is both meaningful and fun.

I recommend that meetings who can gather together the required resources give this Video Scavenger Hunt a try and be prepared for riotous fun. Video Scavenger Hunt can be found at Fgcquaker.org.

 

FGC Conscientious Objector Curriculum:

A Blessing at Chapel Hill Meeting

By Catherine Elkins, Chapel Hill Monthly Meeting, PFF

Chapel Hill Monthly Meeting has been blessed with the fruits of our work with the 2003 Quaker Press of FGC publication, Raising Conscientious Objector Consciousness among Our Youth, by Curt Torell and Alice Carlton. We have been using the curriculum and the handouts associated with it with our young Friends who are approaching their eighteenth birthdays and the time to sign up for selective service. These Young Friends and their parents have found all the materials helpful. Ten of the eleven young men who have taken the class have come forward in the past three years to ask our meeting for official recognition as conscientious objectors in advance of sending in their selective service forms.

I have personally witnessed several aspects of this curriculum: as a mom of an 18-year old son, as a First Day School teacher when parts of the curriculum were presented, as a participant in a mock draft board, and as an attender at meeting for worship with attention to business when young men read their letters.

Parents have looked to their meeting for information and found it in this program. One parent felt thankful that “there had been so much help organizing and filing and completing the documentation process, I was relieved to have been spared the nagging. ”

Many families accessed a copy of the curriculum from the FGC website and found it comprehensive and informative. One participant thought the “roleplaying was a little hokey, but really the only way to prepare for sitting in the hot seat” in front of a real draft board. The young men involved in the program appreciated that the steps were clearly laid out and the process easy to follow. Pulling together their portfolio of previous events in their lives and documenting everything to be able to support their CO stance was an invaluable part of the course. Most young men wish they had started creating their files much earlier.

The young men all enjoyed the public affirmation of their beliefs, the vocal recognition of support from their meeting and hearing sentiments at business meeting which “made them feel appreciated as adults,” the new adults they have grown up to be.

The meeting itself also recognized a valuable benefit. One elder who attends most business meetings wrote:

There are few good opportunities for members of the meeting to get a real appreciation of the spiritual and ethical issues that our younger Friends are dealing with as they mature in the meeting, so when I listen to the letters that have been written by the young men requesting the meeting’s support for their positions as conscientious objectors, I feel both exhilaration and humility. The exhilaration comes from hearing the letters describe wrestling with issues of faith. To have these heartfelt considerations come down on the side of valuing that of God in each person and their request for their meeting’s support of CO status is terrifically affirming to ALL the efforts of the family, the First Day School teachers, and the members of the meeting in sharing our testimonies. This work sank in! The humility comes from the realization that these young men have been weighing/deliberating issues of faith far more seriously than I ever did at their age. I can’t help but feel proud of our collective efforts to support these young men.

Another elder noted,

With each letter that is presented to Capel Hill Monthly Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business requesting support of a young man’s CO decision, I feel that the meeting is honored. This is our opportunity to support a person who is really putting our faith into practice. What can be more rewarding than that?

Not only the young men of Chapel Hill Meeting who participated in the program, but their parents and the entire meeting were blessed through our engagement with this excellent curriculum.

Copies may be purchased from QuakerBooks of FGC or downloaded in PDF format from the web at www.fgcquaker.org.

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