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of the Religious Society of Friends PYM Religious Ed Notes #1, April 2006: On Sharing Our Questions An Electronic
Publication of the PYM Religious Education for Children Committee Write to the Committee:
This is the first edition of our newsletter; help us to make it serve
your needs! What do you want to read about in this newsletter? Share
with us what you are doing, what you are thinking, what you are asking.
You can reach the committee members by sending email to quaker-re@yahoogroups.com. Listening to the Questions; Wondering Together By Gail Eastwood One day, I was driving home
in a mental fog after a wearying all-day trip doing errands in town.
Suddenly a very alert and relaxed voice pipes up from toddler Michael
in the carseat behind me, "What are people for?" I can't
quite wrap my mind around this question. So I hedge and ask, what does
he mean? "Well, telephone poles are for telephones, right?" "Right..."
"So what are people for?" A few years later, his sister
at a similar age asked me, "Where do people come from?" She understood
that babies come out of their mother's tummy, "but where did the
first people come from?". Her four-year old mind digested my dry
story of evolution. "You mean Berna"--her close friend--"and
I are related, because if you go back far enough we have the same great-grandmothers?"
Later: "I'm related to everybody, because if you go back far enough,
we have the same great-grandmothers!" Maybe a year later, the picture
expanded: "I'm related to every living thing on earth, because if
you go back far enough, we have the same great-grandmothers!" Faith's wonderings and her
illumination of the evolution story brought me to a feeling of awe about
the way in which every cell in my body has been alive since the beginning
of life on earth, and is kin to every other living cell of every living
being on earth. People complain, "We have
so few children in our meeting, such a stretch of age and character
and interests. The curriculum is haphazard, with not enough volunteers
to teach the lessons." But if we look at the condition of the small
meeting from another angle, we can see the precious chance for the meeting
to hear the particular wonderings of each child in the meeting, to notice
each child's gifts and struggles. We Quakers do not have a neat
catechism to teach. We have profound questions and living truths--truths
that must be brought to life anew in the experiences of each generation.
Our children's questions and their attempts to answer them connect
them to the living waters of our faith. They press us to go deeper.
They make us explore our own frontiers. When my children first started
challenging me with their seekings I felt inadequate; my responses weren't
"good enough". But do we need to have the answers? Surely, when
children ask us questions we need to share our honest responses, and
share the wisdom of our culture and our faith. But it's just as important
to witness and to hold in our hearts their questing and finding, the
wisdom they own because it grows from the seed within. "What are people for?"
It's a good question, deep enough to grow and blossom and fruit over
the course of a lifetime. Queries for Reflection or
Worship Sharing What spiritual questions and insights do/did children share with me? What did I wonder about as a child? What did I hear about God as
a child? Who from? Did what I heard make sense to me? Tell the committee about
your children's spiritual questions and insights, or
about your childhood memories. Send email
to quaker-re@yahoogroups.com. Resource
Corner FGC Bookstore To refresh your understanding
of the joy of queries, pick up a copy of Benjamin, the Meetinghouse
Mouse by Clifford Pfiel, available from the FGC Bookstore at www.quakerbooks.org. Then share it with the children.
They may become fond of this little mouse, who learns about the need
for deep questions, and grows into vocal ministry to the meeting--with
a query. Queries for Children When the appointed person rises
in Orange Grove Meeting to read the monthly queries from Faith and
Practice, a child also rises to read the parallel children's queries,
developed by the M&O and children's committees of the meeting.
Robin Durant comments that people often respond during worship to the
children's queries, which are written in simple language and may have
a sharp cutting edge. One of the queries on simplicity, for example,
reads, "Do I want all the toys I see on television, even though my
room is full?" On integrity: "If my heart tells me something is
wrong, do I speak up?" The Orange Grove Queries for
Children are available on the Pacific Yearly Meeting website at: http://quaker.org/pacific-ym Pass this newsletter on: The committee is still building its distribution list. If you know someone who would enjoy this issue, please forward it to them. Or, print it and hand it out at meeting. The newsletter is also posted at the PYM website, www.quaker.org/pacific-ym. Sign onto our email list: If you would like to be on our distribution list, please send us email at quaker-re@yahoogroups.com.
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