 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 (XXXXI 1) |
The Quaker Parenting Project is a new working group functioning under the auspices of PYM's Care and Counsel for Meetings and Members working group and Friends Institute, the PYM Young Adult Friends working group. For over 20 years, the originator of this project, Harriet Heath of Radnor Meeting (PA), has been facilitating parent discussion groups throughout PYM as well as other Yearly Meetings and Friends General Conference.
The goal of this project is to support parents in their efforts to integrate their Quaker beliefs, values, and practices into their family life. Parents are questioning how to integrate Quaker life and values into their parenting efforts. They expect their religious life to provide a cornerstone to the tone and texture of their families. But they can find little within the life of the meeting or the literature that gives them guidance. The questions are becoming urgent as parents with young children, many of whom have been raised in other religious faiths, are coming to our meetings. These parents are uncomfortable with the way they were raised. Even parents raised within Quakerism realize the issues with which they are dealing are far different from those faced by their parents. All are asking, "What is the Quaker way of child rearing? What does Quakerism have to say about how to guide and nurture children?"
Participation in the Quaker Parenting Project is open to those who see Quaker beliefs, thoughts and practices as offering invaluable support and guidance to parents. The group seeks to support parents by:
- making more available to parents the strengths that Quakerism can offer them,
- creating a realistic vision of Quaker parenting that is supported by scientific developmental literature,
- developing leadership to support their search,
- writing materials to support the leadership and the parents.
The group was active last fall. They met regularly to identify what parents are looking for in the way of guides from Quaker thought and of support from their meetings. A representative of the group led a forum at Bucks Quarterly Meeting asking attendees the same questions. Members of the group have been searching the literature for what is written that would give insight into what Quakerism has offered parents historically. They are also noting written materials that would be meaningful to today's parents. The project continues to support discussion series for Quaker parents that Harriet Heath has been facilitating. Such a group met at Lehigh Valley Meeting (PA) last fall.
One of the outcomes of the Quaker Parenting Project is to have a parenting program in place within the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Hopefully, the benefits will extend beyond PYM. Friends Institute sponsored this project by providing $16,000 of initial funding.
For more information, or to schedule a discussion series or a forum about the project, contact Harriet Heath at Harriet_Heath@hotmail.com.
Myriam Siftar
Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia (Arch Street)
Harriet Heath
Radnor Meeting (PA)
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM