Intro to Quakerism at the SF Friends School

Today Amy Baker & I, representing SF Friends Meeting, and Chad, Caren, and Lisa from the faculty of SF Friends School, reprised Amy's and my "introduction to Quakerism" workshop for parents that we first did a year ago in this format. Amy & I tag-teamed a thumbnail sketch of Quaker theology and history. Chad, Caren, and Lisa talked about how Quakerism and Quaker values are applied in the classroom and in P.E., most notably through weekly meeting for worship, regular applications of silent reflection while doing art or writing, peaceful problem-solving, and so on.

We had one of our biggest turnouts for a Quaker-related parent education event! There were at least 30 people there, probably more. They included parents of new kindergarteners, parents of older children who had transferred to the school in the last year or two, and a few who have been with the school for a few years now. It was a nice mix. We didn't have enough time for Q&A both because we had four presenters and because we ended half an hour before I thought we would. Still, it was a good discussion, and clearly people were engaged.

Here's the outline of the talk.

Introduction to Quakerism
10/6/09

1. Opening silent worship
2. Introductions; name, connection to school, what faith community if any have you been or are you part of
3. Quaker theology: Fox’s revelation about “Christ has come to teach his people himself” and there is “that of God in every one”
4. Quaker values grow out of that theology: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, stewardship (SPICES)
5. Some history about how that has played out: truthtelling, equality for women, abolitionism, peace and war relief work, prison reform, etc.
6. How Friends schools evolved out of this faith tradition and what role do they play today: the search for truth; time for silent reflection; core values of Quakerism; cultivating outer achievement and inner goodness/morality
7. Q&A leading to sharing
8. Closing silent worship
   

The icebreaker (2) is usually one of my favorite parts. We had a large enough group that we had to go fairly briskly through this, but we still gained an appreciation for the variety of experience & identity people brought with them.