By Liz Yeats

It was a dark and stormy night when Friends arrived at the FGC Religious Educators’ Institute. From August 15-18, 1996 one hundred adults and thirty children gathered in western Pennsylvania for FGC’s first focused small conference, “Teaching as a Religious Experience.” We attended workshops, heard two fine speakers, worshipped in family cluster groups, and played together in a rustic camp environment. Luckily, the weather improved. By the time we parted from a sunny, outdoor, intergenerational meeting for worship on Sunday, all agreed they had shared and gained many new skills and ideas to take back to the monthly meetings which had sent them. Thanks goes to the many committee members from the FGC Religious Education Committee and the Long Range Conference Planning Committee whose efforts made this Institute possible.

A similar but smaller institute is being planned by Friends General Conference and Pendle Hill, April 4-6, 1997 at Pendle Hill Quaker Study Center. Workshops will focus on Making Meeting for Worship Meaningful to Children and Youth, Matching Your First Day School to the Needs of Your Meeting, and Reaching Teens Through First Day School.

Contact the FGC office soon for more information about this opportunity to gain new skills in religious education.