A Community of Practice is a group of Friends who focus on the same part of meeting life and are seeking to learn through shared experience. This may include care for worship, peace work, religious education, outreach, or the responsibilities that steward the life of the meeting. Each of these is its own practice. Many Friends are already engaged in this work, whether they have been doing it for years or are just beginning. Naming it as a Community of Practice helps our community recognize the learning, the questions, and the care that move through it.
Within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, we also use the word Thread. It reminds us that this kind of work runs through all our meetings and ties us together. Whether someone says Thread or Community of Practice, they may be naming the same thing. It is a way to describe how Friends connect through shared attention and shared responsibility. [Read more…] about Communities of Practice and Threads | Connecting Through the Work We Share
