Being Friends Together

This Topical Activity looks at slowing down and finding time to just be.

With social media and 24 hour news children can get overloaded with information about world events and much of it isn’t good news. Rather than feeling helpless to change things, doing something positive can help children feel like they can make a difference — that they have the ability to make a positive impact, at any age. This issue looks at some children who saw a need and decided to work towards changing those situations. 

Thistopical activity looks at what we understand by hope. What is hope? Is it about our dreams? Our wishes? Is it what we hang on to when life is difficult, sad or when everything seems dark?

ThisTopical Activity looks at Earth Day and its impact on our world and how our faith can inspire and equip us to care for the earth.

This Topical Activity focuses on Refugee week. The current situation for forced migrants is the result of war, exploitation, and racism. As Quakers, we seek solutions that are rooted in care for human lives. This activity could be used as a semi programmed All Age Worship plan or in children’s meeting.

This Topical Activity uses the story of ‘A Christmas Carol’ to focus on Christmas, and offers meetings some ways to help children wonder, learn and share in the transforming power of love and use the gifts they have to help others.

February is the month when we celebrate Valentine’s Day - a time whenpeople send cards, gifts, chocolates and flowers to those they love.

This Topical activity reflected the theme of the posters produced for Quaker week October 2016 – Inspired by Faith.

This Topical Activity encourages us to recharge our batteries and find God in the small things.

This Topical Activity aims to engage children inthe process of thinking about ‘Quaker faith & practice’, what it contains, and how it is periodically revised. This is in conjunction with the work of The Book of Discipline Revision Preparation Group, encouraging Quakers across the country in reading and getting to know our current Book of Discipline. To this end, a reading calendar has been devised, running from October 2015 to April 2017.

This Topical Activity has been put together in an attempt togain contributions from children for a leaflet that Quaker children can share with their friends, to explain more about what being a Quaker means to them. We hope it also offers some ways to help children learn and wonder what it means for them to be a Quaker. 

This Topical Activity aims to encourage discussion aboutpeace and what we can do to create peace in personal situations, communities, and the wider world. It will try and help us understand why people have un-peaceful feelings. It also encourages us to wonder about ‘the light thatpushes us’ and how the need to be a peacemaker comes from deep within.

This Topical Activity focuses on Christmas and uses the story Papa Panov, originally written in French by Ruben Saillens, then translated into English by Leo Tolstoy, to help children think about how they might help others. It is a thoughtful story, based on the Bible text 'I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me water' which Jesus used to illustrate how we should live out our faith by helping each other. The story of Papa Panov is an excellent way to introduce young children to the principles of kindness.

The Book of Discipline Preparation Group have invited all Friends to read and reflect on the current Quaker Faith & Practice, so that together we are more prepared to consider whether it is time to undertake a full revision. This topical activity invites children to join with this undertaking and reflect on Chapter 21 of Quaker Faith and Practice headed ‘Personal Journey’, which is the first chapter in the suggested schedule of reading.

This Topical Activity offers some ways to help children learn about the Magna Carta. It has three elements: the story of the Magna Carta; how Quaker William Penn used it to defend himself in Court and in setting up a new country; and how it sets the scene today for thinking about the United Nations Charter for the Rights of the Child. There are activities here to be done over two or three sessions of children’s meeting.

The ‘Fly Kites Not Drones’ campaign challenges the idea of using remote weapons and offers simple ways to get people together to challenge their use. The campaign is a group of organisations inspired by the successful international initiative run by Afghan Peace Volunteers. This Topical Activity includes a way to talk with children about drones, a role play game, a kite making activity, and links to an online resource with a range of other ideas and activities to use.

This Topical Activity offers ways to explore and think aboutwhat Quakers mean by equality and how children might respond. 

This looks at the work of Avaaz, who are an internet petition and campaigning organisation. It was set up in 2007 with a simple mission: to organise citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want. Avaaz means ‘voice’ in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages  Children are encouraged to think about and use these ideas.

This edition is part of the series on ‘Hope in turbulent times’. In this issue we will be looking at stories.

This issue is the fifth in a series of issues which focus on Quaker faith & practice, the book of discipline of the Religious Society of Friends and looks at chapter 25  which considers the Unity of Creation.

This issue of Journeys in the Spirit is looking at Quaker faith & practice 21.36 and asks children to consider what they think of as ‘superpowers’ and how they can use their own unique qualities to be heroes in their everyday lives.

This issue is looking at chapter 23 of Quaker faith & practice – Social Responsibility. Much of the chapter is about engaging with the politics of the day, raising awareness of important issues, getting involved in helping others.

In this issue we look at chapter 18 of ‘Quaker faith & practice’ at a selection of the testimonies to the grace of God in the lives of the ordinary Friends who have made up the previous generations of our Society.

This issue looks at the link between how we live out our faith in the world – the fruit of our Quakerism – and what nourishes and inspires it – the root of our Quakerism.

This issue is about how we help our children consider what leads us to take action and looks at Quakers who have actioned their conscience and also looks at how children can do the same.

This issue looks at the role of ecumenical accompaniers and at the lives of Palestinian and Israeli children and how this programme is making a difference in their lives. 

This issue invites you to listen and respond to the story of the life cycle of a dandelion using all senses. The story is inclusive, and is particularly effective for people with disabilities that prevent them from communicating with spoken or written words.

This issue aims to introduce issues around diversity, discrimination and unity within our local community and the wider world. 

This issue aims to help children see how being a Quaker can be adventurous, challenging and exciting. What does it mean to Live Adventurously?

This issue answers questions about what Quakers did when force and violence was required by society and how they coped with the wars of the twentieth century and explain show Quakers came to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1947.

This issue, linked to issue 59, offers ways to consider the Quaker approaches to the Bible with children.

This issue offers ways to use elements of Advice 1:19, about children and young people in meeting, as ways of encouraging what the Advice urges us to do. 

This issue offers ways to help children explore and use the Quaker business method as a way of working together and making decisions. 

At Woodbrooke Quaker Study centre there is a course for adult Friends called ‘Equipping for Ministry’. This enables Friends to explore and develop what ministry is for them. This issue offers ways to explore a similar approach with children. Much of this issue is about ways into worship and then going beyond that into exploring what meeting for worship is and the affect it can have.

This issue looks at the story of Margaret Fell, one of the founders of Quakerism, and how she helped shape the way Quakers look after each other today. She has been called ‘the Mother of Quakerism’ but as well as her direct work for Friends she was a prolific writer,  witness for women in the emerging Quaker movement drawing, for both these strands, on a deep Biblical knowledge and vision.

This issue aims to introduce to children the matter of difference in lifestyle and values, and explore how children may recognise, understand and stay true to their values while at the same time respecting and interacting with others who may not share these, and may challenge their choice to stick by them. 

In this issue there are ways to work with children to look at what it means to live a transformed and transforming life, thinking about how the Light within can change us and at how carrying the Light with us can also change the world. There are ways to help children think about how being a Quaker can bring light into their lives through worship and through relationships with others in meeting and the wider Quaker community. 

This issue suggests ways to engage with children’s deep concerns and their wish to actually do something and to be supported in an age appropriate way to bring about change.

This issue explores how we are all part of the world family of Friends – especially when we have an opportunity of meeting or gathering together and growing in the spirit. One way that this happens is at a residential Yearly Meeting Gathering but it might equally be Meeting for Worship on a Sunday, a different residential event, or even area meeting. 

This issue offers some suggestions to help children explore what it means to themto be a Quaker. Children will have diverse experiences of being a Quaker and coming to Quaker meeting. This offers ways to help children reflect on their experiences. 

This issue is about Mary Phillips, a Quaker shopkeeper with strong social concerns who grew up on a farm in Tottenham. Many early Quakers were small-scale farmers owning the land they worked or renting small farms. Tithes, confiscation of animals and goods, and imprisonment for non-payment made it more difficult to continue with farming. Many early Quakers moved off the farms to develop their businesses and then flourished; Mary was one of them. 

This issue looks at one particular business, how it started, and what Friends did to make it succeed. This includes looking at some details of the life of George Cadbury and members of his family. In common with lots of people who are held up as ‘Quaker heroes’, the story of Cadbury’s is not simple or without difficulties or struggle.

This issue is about the botanist illustrator Sydney Parkinson born in Scotland in 1745- one of many Quaker botanists and gardeners.  This type of work suited their concern for the natural world and the environment, and their desire for work that was useful and had social value (this has been called ‘innocent trades’ as opposed to heavy industry such as at Coalbrookdale). Quakers had a belief that finding out about, looking at creation brought them closer to the God.

This issue is the first in a short series about how Quakers think about the work and business they might be involved in. The series has three issues about some historic Quaker businesses and reflections on what children think about work. When these issues refer to work it isn’t just about employment – it is about what people are doing in the world to live, to help, to create, and to transform.

Grief can be felt about a person, an animal, an object, or a place. It is a big mixed up feeling. This issue aims to open up conversations and play to help children know more about grief. 

Jealousy is an emotion that most children are familiar with, either one that they feel themselves or that they are aware others feel about them. In younger children feelings of jealousy can spring from their belief that they have been treated unjustly, older children may struggle with a sense that their self-worth is being threatened. This issue uses Bible stories and offers activities, to help think about this feeling. 

Happiness is one of those words that means different things to different people. This issue looks at alternative views to the idea that life is just about happiness and also looks at what makes people happy.

This issue looks at the difficult, and sometimes complex, issue of fear. This issue can help children explore fear and perhaps understand and accept it a little better.

Love is more than personal and yet it is what, in a way, wraps around everything that is personal. Love is also what is at the heart of the Quaker way in the world – not sentimental love, but a deep caring for that of God, of the possibility of love in each person. This issue offers a variety of ways to explore what love means with children.

Anger is an emotion most of us will experience regularly in our lives. It can be a taboo in families, schools, and Quaker meetings. This issue gives ways to talk,and sing, about anger and how it is a very important feeling to help us change the world. 

There is something very natural about the desire to protect children from sadness, but what we rarely do is just to sit with a child, acknowledge the seriousness of their sadness, and simply talk about the feeling with them. This offers ways to do this and ways feel more comfortable with sadness. 

This issue is about how we react to the use of animals for scientific research aimed at improving the lives of humans and other animals. It asks us to reflect upon how we see the position of animals in relation to us, particularly, where we stand on the question of the rights of animals when they come into contact with humankind and our needs. It does contain a story that might be difficult for some to hear but this is a powerful and interesting issue. 

How can we help children to talk about what it means to be a Quaker? How can we help them find simple, clear language? How can we encourage them (and each other) to be confident about being different? This issue gives ways to help children explore, develop, and critique their Quaker identity

This topic offers children an opportunity to discuss in a safe place whether rules are always good, what to do when they, or someone else, breaks the rule, and when it is right to break a rule.

This issue looks at other religions and asks questions about what is similar or different. This may also lead us to other questions like - who are we? This issue offers intriguing and different ways to explore this with children.

This issue looks at violence. We talk and think about peace, pacifism, and the gentle side of our nature but looking at violence is more problematic, yet we live in a violent world. This issue helps explore with children questions about violence. 

We use our eyes in almost every activity we perform, whether reading, playing, watching television, writing a letter, or in lots of other ways. We use our eyes to give us information about our environment from the moment that we wake up. This issue has stories and fun activities as ways to think and find out about the sense of sight.

The sense of taste is linked with that of smell and sight, especially colour. Taste is essential to pleasure, safety, and memory. This issue offers stories and activities for children to explore their sense of taste. 

We are surrounded by sounds, some are just there and some we listen to deliberately; what about silence and quiet? There are lots of ways in this issue to enjoy and wonder at our hearing. 

Our sense of smell is 20,000 times stronger than our sense of taste. This issue looks at smell and danger, smell and pleasure, as well as smell and memory in ways that are fun, interesting and also personal. 

There is a whole world of discovery available through touch: feeling different textures, feeling warm sand between the toes, the soothing feel of a warm bath, the rough bark of a tree, or the softness of velvet. This issue gives all sorts of ways to play with and think about touch. 

The story in this issue provides opportunities for children to develop their own views, feelings, and thoughts about Jesus and what he thought about children. 

This issue gives ways to help children explore a story that has become simplified and sanitised. It is about love, kindness, and taking risks in several ways. For example, his sister was a slave and in real danger when she saved him, but she loved him so much she couldn’t do anything else; Moses really didn’t want to do what he felt God was asking him. 

A different version of the ‘feeding of the 5000’ and the role of a small child in changing how lots of people believed. 

The story of David and Goliath is written in the Bible in the Old Testament, 1 Samuel 17. The stories in the Old Testament are part of a violent history of the land that stretched from Egypt, through Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia. This is a tough story that invites thinking about how people,of any age, can challenge power. 

There are two bible stories which have similar themes: The Lost Sheep and the Lost (Prodigal) Son. The Lost Sheep is a simpler story and may be more suitable for using with a younger age group. The Lost Son is a longer and more complex story which may be more suited for using with an older age group (8 - 12-year-olds).

The creation story can be difficult and controversial for adults as well as children. Few believe in the literal seven seven-day creation, but it can be a good basis for starting to look at where we all come from. This issue offers a very open approach to the story.

The Bible is a big book. It’s full of stories, poetry, parables, and song. Good, sometimes astonishing, things happen in the Bible. Bad, sometimes terrible, things also happen in the Bible - just like in ordinary life. It is full of people’s struggles and difficulties, joys and sadness. 

This issue looks at the work of three Quaker scientists: Priscilla Wakefield, Kathleen Lonsdale, and Jocelyn Burnell. Priscilla was a botanist, who wrote books for children and young people. Kathleen was an expert in crystallography (the science of examining crystals). Jocelyn is an astronomer, renowned for her part in the discovery of pulsars.

This issue tells the story of one Quaker woman who helped with the Kindertransport, Bertha Bracey. This issue shares the story of what happened to some of those children, 70 years ago. Many people alive today owe their lives to Bertha Bracey.

Lucretia Mott was an American Quaker (1793 -1880) who was committed to living her faith in action and was very important in campaigns about the slave trade, the rights of Native Americans, education, and women’s rights.

Although Waldo is little-known outside Wales, both his life and his poetry are truly inspirational, with messages which are particularly poignant for Quakersof all ages. 

In Burlington Meeting in 1738, Benjamin Lay came in clothed as a soldier with a sword. He detailed the evils of slavery and then pierced a bible with the sword. Concealed in it was a bladder filled with red juice that splattered onto Friends sitting near him, symbolising the blood on Quakers' hands for not standing firm against slavery. This issue includes this story, and another challenging story about Ben’s anti-slavery advocacy. 

This issue looks at the life and teachings of George Fox. This issue tries to encapsulate the story of George's life, the essence of what he believed, and how his beliefs became the foundation of Quakerism. 

This issue tells the story of a remarkable Quaker called John Hoyland, Jack to his friends, whose whole life was spent helping people. He was a parent, teacher, sportsman, poet, author of sixty books, and he made bears! The bear making came much later in his life. The story of the bears is used as a way to hear about Jack’s life and his work in India and Birmingham. 

Advices and queries 33 is extremely wide-ranging. It is about discrimination, social responsibility, tolerance, compassion, taking stands, being an active Quaker, and much more. This issue helps children explore what is most relevant or important to them. 

These are challenging advices, dealing with concepts such as prejudice, forgiveness, reconciliation, and empathy. They look at our approach to conflict, both as individuals and as Quakers. Working with conflict is both reflective and active. It takes us deeply inside ourselves in the silence, recognising that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars, but also the seeds of destructive conflict in ourselves. This issue offers ways to assist children with thinking about these advices, based on children's own experience. 

This issue reflects on Advices and Queries 30, the only one that mentions death. While the idea of contemplating death may seem unrealistic for children, unless they are ill, all children need to know that it is acceptable to speak openly about death. 

In a culture that values having 'things' almost more than anything, this issue offers ways to help children think about their views, behaviour, and what Quakers say. 

A wedding is a joyous occasion held in the presence of family and friends who witness the couples’ intention to cherish each other for life. This issue gives ways to talk to about marriage, and partnership, and how Quakers celebrate both. 

These are tough issues to raise with children because, as adults, we have to be careful not to moralise and create guilt. This advice fits very nicely with the Testimony to Simplicity. 

These principles relate to deep-seated Quaker beliefs. If we believe there is that of God in every person then we cannot take advantage of others by acting dishonestly. As Quakers, we see ourselves as stewards of our possessions, so that we have to act responsibly in our use of them. These are big questions for everybody; this offers ways to help children explore them. 

This issue of Journeys in the Spirit looks at Advices and Queries 3, which is about silence, stillness, and listening inwardly. It also introduces this series.

This is the last issue in this series on 'Our Quaker Stories'. Here we look back over the sixteen issues and also offer some simple ways for children to think about, and record, their personal stories.

This issue is about Bayard Rustin, an African-American Quaker, who expressed his faith in action, challenging inequalities, and responding to racism and prejudice non-violently. He worked closely with Martin Luther King in the organisation of the huge rally where King gave his 'I have a dream' speech. This story is not often told. 

Pilgrimages are journeys: they are special journeys, to special places. Where you are going and often how your travel is important. This issue focuses on pilgrimage, both for Quakers and for other faiths. 

Imagine a time when you laid on some soft grass, looking up at the clouds, and watched the white wisps drift into identifiable shapes which then disintegrated to reform or scatter. 

The Quaker Tapestry is a visual chronicle of Quaker life through the centuries, contained within 77 large embroidered panels. Illustrated by 4000 children, women, and men, from fifteen countries between 1981 and 1996, it is now housed at the Friends Meeting House in Kendal. But how did it begin? 

Luke was a butcher. He was born in 1657. He was not from a Quaker family; he wasn’t a merchant, a landowner, or middle class. He was a noted singer of irreverent songs. He was a Quaker by convincement – not an easy thing in the late 1600s. 

John Woolman is often talked about as a Quaker "hero". If we label people as heroic it reduces what they have done, or been, to some kind of personal magic or power that the rest of us don’t have or can’t get. It can deny the struggle and suffering they have gone through to arrive at doing the thing. 

John Woolman was a Quaker born in America in 1720. Woolman has had a great influence on Quakers and American society. His Journal is a classic in American literature and documents many of his adventures.

In stories about Quakers, we can often become lost in their accomplishments and no longer see the individual with personal strengths and weaknesses, joys, and sorrows, doing their best to live their faith in action. 

This issue looks at the work of one small, Quaker-led, international non-governmental organisation (referred to as an INGO) and its work in the remote Aymara communities of North West Bolivia.

How do we explore the Quaker idea that there is “that of God within‟? That ofGod … inside me? ... inside you? ... inside them? Is it inside our own self, in our body? Can we live it physically, in reality, in our lives? What does “Inner light‟ really mean? Is it really that the answers can literally be found inside our own self? 

This issue focuses on one Quaker family's experience of missionary work. The Rodwell family went to China 100 years ago, with the Friends Foreign Mission in China. How Quakers organised things was very different then, although when you read some of the stories the heart of what they ended up doing was similar to what many Friends do today.

The theme in this issue grows out of Quaker work in Burundi – a country the size of Belgium in the middle of Africa. 

Quakers such as John Woolman showed respect for other beings, treating the animals he farmed with dignity and respect. Nowadays, a concern for our fellow sentient beings is expressed among Quakers. 

In this issue, we are going to take you on a journey that starts by introducing you to a girl in Moscow called Marfa. We then learn about the theatre project called Krug (‘Circle’) that has supported Marfa to live a fuller life.

This edition of Journeys seeks to mark the Quaker role in the Kindertransport, and to tell a largely untold story of courage, generosity, and a welcome to strangers in difficult times.

A single story can present many themes and have different meanings for each person. As you read the story, particular memories or challenges in your own life may surface in your thoughts. Children may identify with similar or different themes. 

This is the last of this series. Maybe our title should actually be joining and belonging – you come along, you are brought to Meeting, you join. You then become part of what is happening, and a sense of belonging, hopefully, can grow - depending on welcome, what is offered and then maybe, later (or sooner) you join again more formally... if asked or encouraged. Maybe there should be more freedom to talk with children about formal joining and membership. What could make it easier? This issue offers all sorts of ways into these questions and ideas. 

In this, and the next issue, we offer ways to enable children, and adults,to explore and express belonging and joining. How are we, of any age, part of a people of God? What does that mean for what we actually do? 

This issue contains further examples of Quaker work in South Asia to help children, and the adults working with them, hear about a world beyond their normal experience and give opportunities to empathise with the lives of others.

In our meetings for worship and private times with God, we receive an idea of how the world should be. We become clear that we should treat all things with care, respect, and fairness. We shouldn’t hurt or kill each other. This issue gives ways to learn about, practice, and wonder about being nonviolent and changing the world. 

This is part one of an inspiring and beautiful account of a huge programme of nonviolence supported by Quakers, other churches and faith traditions. 

What is Advices and Queries?
How can children find out about it and engage in it? 

This offers a variety of ways into Advices and Queries.

Many people have had the experience of dealing with the use and abuse of power. Children often have experience of being bullied or of being bullies. This is not a comfortable subject but this issue approaches it with sensitivity and practical ideas.

There was a country in South-East Europe called Yugoslavia. It was like a puzzle - lots of different peoples speaking different languages and going to different churches and mosques. It broke into 7 small countries including Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. There were lots of horrible wars. This tells some of the story of how Quakers helped with peace and friendship building after the war. 

This issue explores how Quakers make decisions. It is intended as an introduction to the Quaker Business Method, the practice of discernment, and Meetings for Clearness, as well as thinking about why Quakers make decisions in this way. It can help develop and encourage children’s participation. 

This issue is different. It offers children’s meeting, a whole meeting, or a group of meetings, ways to learn about, and explore, Israel /Palestine together. It is bold and reflects the intention of Journeys in the Spirit: to make difficult issues accessible to Friends of all ages. 

What do you understand prayer to be? How do you do it? Is it for the benefit of the Divine, other people, or ourselves? How can you enable children to gain an understanding of what prayer is?

This is about the work of Phaphama Initiatives. 'Phaphama' is a Zulu word meaning ‘wake up to the world around us’. The work is described by a young Quaker worker on placement with Phaphama Initiatives.
http://www.phaphama.org/

What happens in meeting for worship?
This gives ways to help talk with children about meeting for worship. It can help build understanding and participation.

This issue offers stories about young Quakers who work in peace and social justice organisations in the UK. This can be eye-opening and inspiring for children (and adults!). 

Our pattern of silent worship stems from  the belief that anyone can meet with God wherever there is stillness and an open heart. This offers lots of ways to aid and develop children’s practice of stilling, centring, and reflecting.

What does ‘QUNO’ do?
This issue helps children find out about some of the groundbreaking, and sometimes difficult or painful, work that QUNO does. It is one of the first issues of Journeys in the Spirit to present challenging information in ways accessible to children.

This issue is based on an exploration of an oft-quoted saying of George Fox: 

"Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone."

An introduction to this series that explores Quaker faith and religiouspractice in meeting for worship and out in the world. 

A commitment to peace is important to Quakers. It is felt to be the right, and only way, to affirm the humanity in every person, even people we don’t like, or who have committed cruel and violent acts. This can be hard to explore with children. This issue offers a variety of ways to dig into the testimony and explore personal and corporate Quaker witness. Suitable for different ages.

This issue uses a mixture of Bible, Quaker, and other stories to help children consider what this testimony means, both in general and personally. How do you listen for what is true?

EarlyQuakers had a strong sense of unity with nature, and modern Quakers have responded to the increasing threats to the natural world with a growing sense of love and care for the whole of the creation. This issue uses four different creatures to help explore this testimony without beingfrightening. 

The Quaker testimony to equality is grounded in our own experience of being loved and valued by God for who we are. This issue has all sorts of different ways to encourage children to think about equality, diversity, and its joys and difficulties. 

This offers ways to work with children on finding out howto think about simplicity, and how to make time and space in our lives for what is really important. 

Children often have a natural wonder and love for the world. This issue explores ways to express that and open it out: to value creation and the earth, to understand the way in which the environment is being hurt, and to consider how the earthcan be helped. 

This focuses on some of the biggest questions:
“What is the deeper mystery?”
“What do I mean by the word God?”
“What is life about?”
“What am I here for?”

This offers ways to work with children to think about their place in relationship to the people in their lives. What is important to them? To whom are they important?

This issue offers ways to explore and develop a language about self, feelings, and even soul, in a mixture of light-hearted and serious ways.