Faith & Play Stories
Faith & Play Stories, Inc., created by Friends (Quakers), are a Montessori-inspired resource for religious education programs and Friends schools. Faith & Play stories are told using the Godly Play method of storytelling and building spiritual community with children. Website: faithandplay.org.
- Faith & Play Stories October 2024
Faith & Play Stories provides a unique resource for Friends meetings and Friends schools to help nurture the spiritual lives of all ages through stories of Quaker faith, practice, and witness.
In September, with the support of a grant from the Thomas H. and Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund, Faith & Play Stories launched a two-year project designed to grow the organization and its reach. The “Finding Ourselves in the Story” project expands the administrative, communications, and development capacity needed to train more storytellers in Quaker meetings and Friends schools, mentor new trainers of storytellers, and publish additional stories. It also supports direct consultation with local meetings to help them reach out to families and include children in multigenerational spiritual communities.
In May, Friends from multiple meetings in New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania attended a “Playing in the Light” training. A second Philadelphia-region training took place in September.
Over the summer Friends shared Faith & Play stories at yearly meeting gatherings as part of children’s and intergenerational programs, as well as at the Quaker Spring gathering at Woolman Hill Retreat Center in Deerfield, Mass. In July, Faith & Play stories were used in a workshop at the Friends General Conference Gathering in Haverford, Pa. In August, ahead of the fall season, a virtual refresher session was hosted for Friends using Faith & Play and Godly Play; the recording is available on YouTube.
Continue reading → - Faith & Play Stories April 2024
Faith & Play Stories provides a unique resource for Friends meetings and Friends schools to help nurture the spiritual lives of all ages through stories of Quaker faith, practice, and witness.
Last fall, Faith & Play offered three teacher training workshops in the United States. “Playing in the Light” training (Faith & Play and Godly Play for Friends) was hosted in September at West Hills Friends Church in Portland, Ore., bringing together Friends from Oregon, Washington, and California. In November, Albuquerque (N.M.) Meeting hosted this training for Friends in the West and Mennonite guests. Three Friends schools in the Philadelphia, Pa. region sent teachers to participate in “Learning in the Light,” the Faith & Play training created to support educators and Quaker life in schools.
Introductory programs for Friends meetings in both the United Kingdom and the United States were also hosted online.
In February, the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative invited Faith & Play’s director of communications and training to present at two online Conversation Circles exploring stories as a vehicle for learning about Quaker faith and practice and our identity as Friends.
Work continues on development of new stories and providing story kits for purchase at QuakerBooks of Friends General Conference.
Continue reading → - Faith & Play Stories April 2022
Faith & Play Stories offers a publication and materials for 16 stories which explore Quaker faith, practice, and witness using the Montessori-inspired Godly Play method. Training is available for Friends interested in spiritual formation through storytelling and joining a growing community of practice. Two hybrid training workshops were hosted in the fall of 2021 for Friends interested in using Godly Play and Faith & Play stories in their meeting religious education programs. Both training workshops used a combination of two or three Zoom sessions prior to an in-person weekend and an additional follow-up session online. Online sessions using Zoom and a synchronous reading before the training allowed the weekend workshop to be shorter and made training more accessible for many people. A training weekend hosted at Centre Meeting near Centreville, Del., welcomed participants from four U.S. states and Costa Rica. Richmond (Va.) Meeting hosted the second training for their meeting community. For both events, COVID safety guidelines for participants and the trainer and flexible scheduling made it possible to continue sharing this work using a hybrid format.
Learn more: Faith & Play Stories
Continue reading → - Faith & Play Stories October 2021
Faith & Play Stories offers a publication and materials for 16 stories that explore Quaker faith, practice, and witness using the Montessori-inspired Godly Play method. Training is available for Friends interested in spiritual formation through storytelling and being a part of a growing community of practice.
In June, a new website was launched. The new site offers an in-depth look at all aspects of Faith & Play Stories, including communities, resources, training opportunities, and story materials.
The leadership team met in July, and progress was made on both new stories in development and the published stories being reviewed with a concern for language and materials used to tell the stories. A reworking of “John Woolman Visits the Native People at Wyalusing” seeks to decenter Whiteness and bring forward the voice of the Lenape people.
Online introductory sessions continue and are scheduled for local and yearly meetings.
In August, an online event, “Starting Again: A Faith & Play Refresher for Fall 2021” was hosted for Friends already using Faith & Play and Godly Play stories. Training has resumed this fall for the core training, “Playing in the Light,” using a hybrid model that combines remote sessions and an in-person weekend gathering.
Learn more: Faith & Play Stories
Continue reading → - Faith & Play Stories April 2021
Faith & Play Stories is an experiential storytelling resource for Quaker religious education programs and Friends schools. Stories explore Quaker faith, practice, and witness using the Montessori-inspired Godly Play method to build spiritual community.
Since many activities have been affected by the restraints of the pandemic, Faith & Play Stories is seeking ways during this time to strengthen connections to a growing community of practice. While in-person trainings remain suspended, there are online opportunities to learn more, including introductions to Faith & Play and Godly Play, and workshops for Friends. The hope is to resume training workshops for Friends in the fall.
Several projects are underway to support Friends using these stories in their faith communities. A grant from Obadiah Brown’s Benevolent Fund is supporting the building of a new website that will launch in late spring. While the Faith & Play Group continues to develop new stories, published stories are also being reviewed with a racial justice lens, particularly with a concern for language and materials used to tell the stories. Feedback received from the experiences of teachers, storytellers, and participants in trainings is at the center of this work. Meeting and school communities are finding creative ways to continue sharing stories in online spaces. A growing collection of videos is available on the Faith & Play Stories YouTube channel.
Learn more: Faith & Play Stories
Continue reading → - Faith & Play Stories October 2020
Faith & Play Stories is an experiential storytelling resource for Quaker religious education programs and Friends schools. Faith & Play stories explore Quaker faith, practice, and witness using the Montessori-inspired Godly Play method of storytelling and building spiritual community. Faith & Play Stories Inc. develops stories for publication and offers training for Quaker meetings and churches and Friends schools interested in using Godly Play and Faith & Play.
As Quaker communities pivoted to online spaces in March, Faith & Play Stories shifted its work. While training workshops are not offered online, 90-minute introductions to Faith & Play and Godly Play are opportunities to learn more and experience stories in community. Interest groups and introductory workshops were organized for Friends in three yearly meetings, at the FGC Gathering, and for Friends school faculty. Online sessions for support and consultation were offered to participants in training workshops scheduled for the spring and summer.
Faith & Play stories are being shared where Friends gather online, both for worship and in programs for young people. Faith & Play and Godly Play stories were told at the FGC virtual Junior Gathering and during an all-ages worship session at Australia Yearly Meeting. In addition to sharing stories live using Zoom, the creation of the Faith & Play Stories YouTube channel has expanded the possibilities for sharing stories with families and children at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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