Written by Melinda Wenner Bradley, this reflection was part of the Vitality newsletter sent on August 28, 2026. To sign up for Vitality, click here.

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Melinda Wenner Bradley is co-founder of Faith & Play Stories and the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative. Melinda travels in the ministry, encouraging and equipping Friends to nurture life-long spiritual formation and intergenerational community. You can find her at the 2026 Outreach Conference, where she will present a workshop “Welcoming Families with Children: Belonging is the Beginning.” Learn more about Melinda’s work at alltogethernowfriends.com.

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Throughout August, Peace Month, FGC has shared the voices of peacemakers here in Vitality. Among Friends, conversations about peace sometimes look to Friends’ historic peace testimony, or lift up current witness like the National Peace Walk. I’m always wondering how the youngest people in our communities are included in our faith and its practice. How are Friends actively engaging with children and youth about peace? How can a person of any age practice being a peacemaker in their everyday life? 

In various translations of Isaiah 2:4, there is the promise of not training for war, learning war, or playing war any more. We sing that we won’t “study” war any more. These words – train, learn, play, study – are active choices. How do we then train for, play, study, and learn peace as Friends, throughout our lives? 

Quaker sociologist Elise Boulding (1920-2010) wrote that just as people learn war, they can also learn peace. She was a peace studies scholar, activist, and mother of five children. Boulding also asserted that children are vital and under-appreciated players in the peace process. She used the term “peaceableness” to recognize that peace begins in what we do everyday: in the family, in community, in our work and play. This is a vision of peace that thrives when we also work for justice and equity in our daily lives. 

Back in May, the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative hosted conversation circles on Practicing Peaceableness and Hope with Children and Youth. This month, several generations of Friends gathered to consider peace together during a workshop on conscientious objection. More than 200 people registered for the three online sessions. There were both individuals and parents with their children sitting beside them who joined from their homes. Meetinghouses across the US hosted gatherings to Zoom in for the workshop with a group. Some Friends were older and seeking ways to support the younger people in their lives. Other participants were under 25 and joined to explore what a claim to conscientious objection would require of them. 

During this workshop, an important part of the conversation was on writing a letter to become a conscientious objector. Facilitators encouraged participants to listen inwardly so they could describe a witness for peace as an integral part of their lives — both in belief and action. They were articulating Boulding’s peaceableness, and they were learning how to state: “we will not study war.” The event was a wonderful collaboration between Quaker House, the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative, and Durham Meeting (NC). The organizers look forward to offering a workshop next for Friends interested in learning how to lead these conversations in their communities. 

Elise Boulding also spoke to the intersection of listening and peacemaking: “Any group of people that is really listening with their hearts to each other is practicing peace culture.”

Melinda Wenner Bradley

Co-Founder, Faith & Play Stories
Co-Founder, Quaker Religious Education Collaborative