Rejoice in the presence of children and young people in your meeting and recognise the gifts they bring. Remember that the meeting as a whole shares a responsibility for every child in its care. Seek for them as for yourself a full development of God’s gifts and the abundant life Jesus tells us can be ours. How do you share your deepest beliefs with them, while leaving them free to develop as the spirit of God may lead them? Do you invite them to share their insights with you? Are you ready both to learn from them and to accept your responsibilities towards them?
Quaker Faith and Practice, Advices and Queries number 19.
Children in Meeting for Worship
Children and young people are welcome to join us in Meeting for Worship.
We don’t expect children to be completely quiet in Meeting for Worship. Younger children may like to cuddle with their caregiver. Older children might like to sit on the floor and do some colouring or other quiet activity. You may choose to join the start of Meeting for Worship and then take your child into a side room to play or join the Meeting with your child near the end. Generally speaking, we like to keep the first 15 minutes and last 15 minutes of Meeting as quiet as possible but it’s acceptable to leave or join the Meeting between those times.
Children’s Meeting
Where children are attending regularly we will usually have a Children’s Meeting every Sunday or less frequently. If there is no existing Children’s Meeting we would seek to set one up if children started to attend. Due to safeguarding requirements this may take a little bit of time. It’s common for children to join their caregiver in the main Meeting for the last 15 minutes of Worship.
Children’s room at Stoke Meeting house.
All Age Worship
Our Worship is usually silent, what we call unprogrammed worship but we do hold programmed worship as well. This may include readings, hymns and other activities scheduled with periods of silence. One example of programmed worship is all age worship which includes a fun activity suitable for children and adults. Another example, is our Discovering Quakers events for people who are new to the Quaker way of Worship.
All age worship is an opportunity for all ages to worship together – a time when we can truly be a worshipping community. Children learn about worship through coming to all age worship. They can experience the benefits and power of silence; enjoy being with adults (and vice versa) while still having a focussed activity to guide them through the meeting for worship. Adults have the opportunity to worship in a different way, to minister through ways other than the spoken word e.g. through creative activities or singing.
An activity for International Women’s Day.
Getting involved
Most Meetings who have activities for Children will have a Children’s committee. Get in touch with your local Meeting to find out how you can get involved in your local Children’s Committee or set one up if there isn’t one already.
Staffordshire Quakers 