Standing
Committee on Education Children's
Religious Education Programs
Dear Expediters,
Religious Education, for every age, is alive and well in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting! We appreciate the attentive energy Marty Smith gave to the RE Program over many years, and we will all miss her. She is fully engaged in her new teaching position at St. Joseph's University. As I begin work as Interim Director for the next few months, I can attest to the continuing planning and care given on the part of our devoted staff. What a remarkable group, full of energy and ideas, ready to assist you and your meeting in strengthening your religious education. So call us. Use us. We want to help.
Gretchen Castle
Interim Director of Religious Education
Call or email the Religious Education staff if you want to:
develop a long range plan for religious education program.
Energize Your Meeting Volunteers!
1. Volunteer time is valuable. Use their time well. Be clear about what you are asking them to do, complete with resources, support, and a clear time frame.
2. What motivates people? People like to be of service to others and to the meeting. People may enjoy being with a new age group. People may respond to the chance to learn from an experience. Recruitment is important in finding the right volunteers for the job. It should excite your volunteers, not leave them feeling like they are the last possible "warm body" to do a particular job! Volunteering can lead to opportunities for seeing God through children’s eyes, or to learn what is really on the minds of this special group of young people. When recruiting and supporting volunteers, speak to what is motivating to them.
3. Offer assistance in the form of organization, seeking out resources, both material and human (including PYM staff), sharing ideas, and providing a clear, clean space. Check in to see that your volunteers have what they need.
4. Support your volunteers, through prayer, feedback, and celebration. Hold your volunteers in your thoughts, and tell them you are doing so. Appreciate them verbally and in writing, and do it often. The more specific your appreciation, the more impact it has. The same is helpful when offering suggestions and feedback. Given in a helpful spirit, feedback can be a welcome relief to someone who is having a problem. Celebrate your accomplishments!
5. Acknowledge your own contribution in helping to shape a First-day school in which children and adults come to learn and grow and enjoy the fruits of a precious spiritual community. Given that there is always more you could do, feel good about what you ARE able to accomplish with the time and energy you have to offer! Allow your experience to nurture you, the welcoming of God’s grace.
Children's Program and Residential Yearly MeetingThe Children's Program at Annual Sessions will focus on "sharing our gifts with one another". Children and Young People at Yearly Meeting (CYPYM) is working on a packet to help introduce the theme to Monthly Meetings. The plan this year is to offer meetings an intergenerational activity which will help parents as well as the children and First-day school teachers get a glimpse of what is being planned for sessions at Wilson College, July 29-Aug. 3, 2003.
The packet will be sent to Religious Education Expediters in January, to give ample time for First-day school planning. You can plan an intergenerational evening, afternoon, or hold this during your normal First-day School time. In addition to the intergenerational activity packet, the CYPYM group is currently working on the Curriculum for Residential Yearly Meeting, for those of you who have set aside a block of time for this activity. As usual we will ask Friends to bring banners for display at Residential Yearly Meeting at Wilson College.
Check it out! Middle School Friends and Young Friends events are now on the PYM web site (www.pym.org). Go the web site for information and registration forms. The Religious Education Newsletter is also on the web site!
For Middle School Friends: 6th-8th gr. (or ages 12-14)
October 18-20, 2002, Halloween Gathering at Burlington Conference Center. This year's extravaganza will include fun with costumes, mask making, decorating, a clowning workshop, and learning about the Halloween tradition and its celebrations. Also, we will take part in the Philly AIDS Walk on Sunday. Contact Melanie at: 215-241-7171 or e-mail her at: melanied@pym.org. For more information, go the PYM Web site at: www.pym.org and click on the Middle School Friends link.
November 8-9, 2002, Circle of Girls "Healing Hands, Healing Hearts" at Green St. MM, Philadelphia. An event for Middle School & High School Age Girls and a program for parents as well. We will learn about the healing power in our hand and hearts and how to stay balanced in our busy, hectic lives. Contact Melanie at: 215-241-7171 or e-mail her at: melanied@pym.org. For more information, go the PYM web site at: www.pym.org and click on the Middle School Friends link.
Nov. 22-24, 2002, Simplicity Gathering. Glensiddich Farm, Millerton, PA and Wellsboro MM. This annual
gathering on the theme of "simplicity" takes us to the Upper Susquehanna part of PYM on a farm near Wellsboro Meeting. We will learn about sustainable agriculture, meet the farm animals (sheep, chicken, pigs), learn about basket weaving, spinning wool and gardening. On Saturday night, members of Wellsboro MM will join us for an evening of homemade fun! Contact Melanie at: 215-241-7171 or e-mail her at: melanied@pym.org. For more information, go the PYM web site at: www.pym.org and click on the Middle School Friends link.
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For Young Friends: 9th-12th grade (or age 14 by Sept 1).
Oct. 20, 2002, Philly AIDS Walk, Philadelphia. Begins at Eakins Oval
in front of the Art Museum. For information, contact Cliff Smoot at: theamazingcliff@hotmail.com.
Check the PYM web site (www.pym.org) and click on the Young Friends link.Oct. 25-27, 2002, Halloween Gathering, at Burlington Conference Center. Limited to 80. Watch for flyer; call Cookie Caldwell at 215-241-7221 or e mail him cookiec@pym.org for details.
October 2002
This Nifty Idea comes to us from a member of Doylestown Monthly Meeting.
"Here’s a game that can be used with all ages, preferably with a group of 10 or more. I first played it at a retreat at the Woolman Hill Conference Center in Springfield, Massachusetts and have used it many times since. It can be used as a "get-to-know-you" activity or with people who know each other well and have yet to discover those hidden talents and interests!"
Connections
People sit in a circle. The leader asks people to think about some things about themselves that might be unusual or characteristic of them, such as: I have 10 siblings, or my family read the Bible every day as a child, or I have a rescued greyhound dog, or I meditate nearly every day. It could be as simple as “My favorite color is turquoise.” One volunteer begins by standing in the center and saying one thing about him/herself. Anyone who shares that experience or characteristic runs up and links arms with the person in the center. If more than one person runs up, whoever gets there first stays with the first person, arms linked in the center of the circle, thus creating a chain. If no one gets up, the person says something else in hopes another person will have the same connection and join him/her in the center. This continues until a person comes to the center and links arms. Then that person calls out a personal characteristic until someone else comes up, and so on, until everyone sitting in the original circle is part of the chain. Then the last person keeps offering characteristics until he/she can link up to the first person, thus creating a closed circle. Then, take a moment to look at all the connections you have made!
Nifty Ideas
Please send us your Nifty Ideas to share with other Meetings. Teachers look forward to new ideas for First-day School, which you have tried and which have worked. Send your ideas to Mary Anne Crowley by e-mail at maryc@pym.org, or you can mail them to: 1515 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102. Thank you!
Published by Religious Education Concerns Group, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Office: 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Gretchen Castle : (215) 241-7008 (E-mail:gretchenc@pym.org );
Cookie Caldwell: (215) 241-7222 (e-mail: cookiec@pym.org);
Melanie Douty: (215) 241-7171 (e-mail: melanied@pym.org);
Mary Anne Crowley: (215) 241-7221 (e-mail: maryc@pym.org);
Gene Hillman: (215) 241-7182 (e-mail: geneh@pym.org)
or: 1-800-220-0796, with the appropriate extension number.
Last modified: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 at 04:23 PM
