Becoming Friends: Living & Learning with Quakers
A new learning project from Woodbrooke and Quaker Life is going live in January 2010. ‘Becoming Friends: Living & Learning with Quakers’ aims to nurture and support those who are new to Friends. Ginny Wall, who is co-ordinating the project, explains.
The Becoming Friends course will be launched online and in paper format, providing Quaker meetings with an innovative new way to help introduce newcomers to Quakerism and Quakers.
Friends around Britain Yearly Meeting asked for help providing the next stage of learning and support for newcomers to Friends after outreach programmes like Quaker Quest and Quaker Week have finished. Friends also expressed a hope for new ways to help newcomers deepen their understanding of Quakerism and their feeling of belonging in their meetings, whether or not they are currently considering applying for membership.
We have worked closely with individuals and groups of Friends to develop and trial a course that meets both these objectives. The result is an exciting, interactive learning experience that offers newcomers flexible course materials, accessible in an online or paper format, combined with options for support from meetings, in particular from a Becoming Friends ‘companion’.
The Becoming Friends course has been designed to be as flexible as possible, with participants working at their own pace and for as long as they wish. Throughout the course there are options for working alone and with others, using a variety of approaches, including online discussion groups, resources and links. There is a choice of learning units and activities to suit a wide range of interests and learning styles.
We hope that meetings will want to provide a Becoming Friends ‘companion’ to support newcomers working with the learning materials. The companion can help newcomers find out more about Quakerism through sharing their own knowledge and experience, and helping to arrange conversations and interactions with other Friends.
Becoming Friends will offer meetings guidance about working with the course and there will be regular courses at Woodbrooke and Swarthmoor Hall to prepare Friends for service as Becoming Friends companions. Companion courses confirmed at present are at Woodbrooke from 8–10 February and 14–16 May 2010.
Book with Woodbrooke in the normal way or see www.woodbrooke.org.uk/becomingfriends for more information.
Experienced Friends and newcomers who took part in trials of Becoming Friends earlier this year reported that the regular conversations between newcomers, companions and other Friends were a highlight of the learning experience for all concerned.
One newcomer said of the course, “It made me talk to loads of other Friends... it gave me a good excuse to do what I wanted to do anyway.” Another trials participant said “both of us... learned so much through the Becoming Friends project and felt the whole experience had been a blessing.”
The Becoming Friends online course will cost £5 and the paper pack will cost £10. To sign up for the online course email becoming.friends@woodbrooke.org.uk.
A free demonstration of the online Becoming Friends course will also be available at http://moodle.woodbrooke.org.uk from January.
To order the paper pack, contact the Quaker Centre Bookshop at: www.quaker.org.uk/bookshop: tel: 020 7663 1030; email: quakercentre@quaker.org.uk
Contact:
Ginny Wall
ginny.wall@woodbrooke.org.uk
016977 41686
(Mon–Weds, 9am–5pm)
www.woodbrooke.org.uk/becomingfriends
