“Founded in 2005, the mission of Faith & Play Stories, Inc. is to nurture the spiritual vitality of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) through a storytelling program which enables people of all ages to explore and experience the power of the Divine in their lives. Our work includes creating, testing, and publishing stories; designing storytelling materials; and training that supports the nurture of children’s spirituality in Quaker faith communities. We seek a world in which the spiritual life of children is recognized and respected, and where Quakers of all ages, traditions and cultures deepen their faith through shared stories by listening and wondering together.”
Faith & Play Stories Mission Statement
Stories told in community nurture belonging. Twenty years ago, in May 2005, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting organized a Godly Play training hosted at Burlington Meeting House. Helen Fields, PYM staff, had learned about Godly Play from Michael Gibson, her Friends General Conference (FGC) counterpart supporting Quaker Religious Education ministry.
Helen brought together 12 Quakers from across PYM and Baltimore YM, and 12 participants from other denominations. Philadelphia-area Godly Play trainer Dawn Stewart, a Presbyterian, was joined by Caryl Menkhus Creswell, from Camas Friends Church in Washington state. At lunch on Saturday, the idea for what became Faith & Play Stories began to take shape. Caryl Menkhus Creswell remembers:
“It was a group of people that were so ready to hear and engage deeply with Godly Play. They loved the sacred stories and the parables and the silence. But when it came to the liturgical lessons the hair started standing up on the back of their necks! They said we don’t do liturgy. We don’t baptize, we don’t have communion, we don’t follow the calendar of the church year. I said, ‘Liturgy literally means the work of the people.’ And I proposed that every faith community works to figure out what ways they can experience God. I suggested that they needed to write their own stories of how Quakers work to come close to God. They took me seriously and that was the beginning of Faith & Play.”
For the last 20 years, Faith & Play Stories has developed Quaker stories for Friends trained to use the Godly Play method. What began as a working group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, in partnership with FGC’s religious education staff, became an independent non-profit organization in 2018. The first publication of stories was in 2008 and the revised, second edition was published in 2017 with four added stories; additional stories will be released in 2025, and the collective energy for this work continues to feel Spirit-led. Faith & Play stories create experiential opportunities to explore Quaker faith, practice, and witness, and for those growing in the Quaker way (children and adult newcomers) to find a place in it by seeing themselves in the stories.
Beginning here in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, PA, hundreds of Friends have been trained to use Faith & Play. Friends are using the stories across the US in 29 states by last count, and stories are also being shared around the world! Melinda Wenner Bradley, Director of Communications and Training, has shared Faith & Play at more than 60 trainings through the Playing in the Light workshop for religious educators and its companion workshop for Friends school educators, Learning in the Light.
In 2013, New England Yearly Meeting worked with the PYM Faith & Play working group and two Quaker translators to publish the Faith & Play stories in Spanish. Jugar llenos de fe is a free download on the Faith & Play website, and trainings in Spanish have been led by Caryl Menkhus Creswell in Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia. In 2023, Melinda was invited by the Yearly Meeting of New Zealand/Aotearoa to lead a training for Friends there, and in October of 2025 she will facilitate a training at Friends Theological College in Kaimosi, Kenya.
Today, Faith & Play Stories holds an urgent concern for Friends to strengthen ministry to children and families as a key path to revitalization and growth of the Religious Society of Friends. The loss of momentum in children’s ministry during the pandemic only uncovered the pre-existing need to reevaluate how we minister to families and children and approach religious formation. We seek to address the need for rebuilding intergenerational faith communities through relationships, accompaniment, nurturing inclusion, and networks of community and resource sharing.
In 2024, Faith & Play Stories received a generous grant from the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund for a two-year project. “Finding Ourselves in the Story: Growing Faith & Play for Friends” is expanding both work with stories and training in communities, while supporting the hope to nurture families in meetings and grow intergenerational spiritual community. Our collaborations with Meetings, Yearly Meetings, and other Quaker organizations are growing.
As we celebrate the milestone 20th Anniversary, Faith & Play Stories looks to the future with joy and purpose! In September, a Playing in the Light training is being held at West Chester Meeting (registration is open) and later in the month the Meeting will also be a “celebration hub” on Sunday, September 21, when Friends will gather online from across the US and other parts of the world for a 20th Anniversary Celebration that will including honoring mentor Caryl Menkhus Creswell, hearing new stories soon to be released, meeting around topics of interest, and a party together. (BYO cupcakes!) All are welcome to join the in-person “hub” at West Chester Meeting, or register for the Zoom link to join from home.
“We are wired for stories. They are how we make meaning. We find OUR story within THE story. Stories are the way that we learn about our world.” – Caryl Menkhus Creswell
“To share stories together and to respond to stories together is the best way to know that of God in each other.” – Storyteller
“The stories have been a remarkable way to open and continue conversations within the family and with friends.”– Parent
“My favorite was the inner light story. It was emotional to recognize that I’m part of a Quaker community that values me. I also loved the candles.” – Friends school student
