Faith & Practice, Northern Yearly Meeting, approved 11-4-2011
“Let the little children come to me!…For the Kingdom of God belongs to [all] who have hearts as trusting as these little children’s.”
- Luke 18:17“[My son Lowell] has forever convinced me that God is as real to the child as visible objects are….I am convinced that children have a sense of Presence in these times of intense community hush.”
- Rufus Jones, 1947 (1)
We know that children often have experiences which an adult might define as worship or prayer, before the child can say in words that that was the experience. Watch a child pause and just look and maybe wonder. Watch the child’s eyes express this connecting to something beyond physical feelings. Allow each child the time and space to just be. Our children can invite and welcome us into their world of wonder, a world which our adult, possibly more rational, minds often skip over. Our children minister to us as they make discoveries.
Our teens inform us that gathering for meeting for worship feels much more possible when we know and trust everyone who joins us in the worshiping community. They also remind us that active preparation and clear intentions help us participate in worship. This is something that we demonstrate almost unconsciously, by where we seat ourselves and how carefully we arrange our arrival time. It is very helpful to state this clear intention to our younger participants. (2)
Meetings carry much responsibility to be attentive to creating a sheltering environment and presence which will offer welcome and build community for all. This may include some times of intergenerational programming to help draw the community into worship. Individuals and families bring the responsibility of their own discipline of preparation, anticipation and participation.
A strong attribute of Quakerism is that our children are engaged and valued in the community work of the Spirit from birth onward. Children once learned what it meant to be Quaker simply by daily experiencing their own families, neighbors and friends living their testimonies of simplicity, integrity, peace and equality. Today, our children do not often observe us during our work or our community activities. Nevertheless, we understand that we transmit our faith, our values and our testimonies most completely through sharing real experiences with each other. Every meeting, at every stage of its experience, finds its own ways of connecting in loving community, beyond carefully nurturing the times set aside for worship. The Meeting becomes a source of grounding for all.
Northern Yearly Meeting annual session is the time where we come together for consultation, for nurture, and for immersion in the wider community of Quakers. Once here, we all are engaged in whatever work, play, business, sorrow, joy, sunshine or stormy weather we encounter. Together we practice listening to each other; we demonstrate spiritual discipline; we worship; we shout and romp and rejoice in the life of our community. We discover that this is a safe place to practice all of our Quakerly quirks. We have learned that deliberately setting aside time and place to come together enables us to live our testimonies more wholely when we are apart. We discover anew each year the creative tension between freedom for each child (and the child in each person) to explore their own spirituality and the desire to pass on the gifts we find in our Quaker culture. Whether we come from large urban meeting communities or small isolated worship groups, we need the sharing of ideas, the model of positive parenting, and the shelter of this community where the whole person and the whole family are included. We know it is sustaining for all ages to encounter both struggles and successes within this caring community.
“Young people raised among Quakers become Quakers….[if] they get hooked on the experience of a spiritual community; they become passionate about the truths learned by plunging into the living water together.” – Gail Eastwood, 2007. (3)
Queries
For the Meeting:
- How do we open connection to beauty, mystery and the Divine with our children?
- How do we provide welcome during our meeting for worship for our infants and children?
- How do we nurture and support faith -based actions of our youth and families outside the walls of the meetinghouse?
- How do we work and play with young and older together within our meetings?
- How do we support what families are doing to nurture the spiritual growth of children?
- How do we nurture in our children an understanding of the Divine and an understanding of the process of listening to the Spirit as they grow?
- How do our children know who we are and what we stand for?
- How do we create trusting, intentional welcoming environments to draw our youth into worship with us?
- How does the meeting support young people as they move toward adulthood?
- How does the meeting involve young people in committees and other service experiences?
- How can our meeting actively name and nurture the spiritual gifts of each and every child that comes among us?
For the Individual and the Family:
- How do you get to know those of all ages within your meeting?
- How do you receive spiritual nurture from younger meeting members?
- How are regular worship times offered within your home, other than the weekly worship with your meeting?
- How will your children learn about Spirit guiding actions within their home?
- How does your family support others who have leadings?
- How does your family share celebration of new life? Loss of a loved one? Face hard decisions such as a move?
- How do we clearly express our beliefs and values to one another and to our children?
- How do we include our children in our times of doubt, division, vulnerability and struggle?
References to Quotations:
- Rufus Jones, The Luminous Trail, 1947, pp 153-165, as quoted in Rufus Jones Speaks to Our Time, edited by Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1961, p. 240-241.
- Based on comments from Northern Yearly Meeting teens during conversations at Madison Monthly Meeting, 2009.
- Gail Eastwood, “It Takes a Meeting to Raise a Quaker, “ Friends Journal, July 2007.
