Teen Religious Education, July 11, 2010, by Patricia McMillen
As teen activities coordinator, I invited all Meeting teens to my house for a barbecue over the Fourth of July weekend. (This included teen daughters of Chris Goode and Kevin Brubaker as well as Neal Joseph; Pablo Toubes-Rieger; Leann Beckman; Christina Timme; and Katie Southworth.) Most had other activities planned, but Leann and I made delicious "shishkebab" for ourselves and Sam, and then had an hour long discussion of the roots of the Quaker Peace Testimony. I will eventually be making my notes available to parents of all Meeting teens for use in the event they want to do some "home-schooling" on this important topic.
My other responsibility to the teens has been to lead "break-out" sessions during Meeting for Worship when I'm available (and when teens show up but do not want to sit in worship for the full hour). I try to organize these before worship begins, so that the teens and I can spend 10-15 minutes in worship with the larger Meeting, and then excuse ourselves silently to spend time together. Again, during this calendar year, only Leann has been interested in this activity, but it's been a joy to spend time with her in this way; generally we go for a long walk and catch up on activities and issues important to her, followed by 5-10 minutes of sitting meditation in the OPAL garden before rejoining the larger Meeting at 11 AM.
Finally, with the encouragement of the Children's Religious Education committee, I recently opened a discussion with Amanda Sneed concerning the possible needs of Meeting teens once Amanda is "operational." (As all probably realize, Amanda's charge is to conduct religious education for pre-K through 12th grade, thus including all Meeting teens except Christina.) I explained to her the issues I've had in trying to get teens together, both due to my schedule and, probably more importantly, due to the teens' schedules, which often include sports practice on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I believe Amanda realizes that her impact on teens may therefore be limited; however, she has no shortage of enthusiasm, and has expressed definite interest, for starters, in working up a one-Sunday-per-month activity which would complement whatever the rest of Meeting can do with teens at other times. (Again, I'll provide Amanda with whatever teen-friendly curriculum i've worked up over the years, including my Peace Testimony "mini-workshop.")
As teen activities coordinator, I invited all Meeting teens to my house for a barbecue over the Fourth of July weekend. (This included teen daughters of Chris Goode and Kevin Brubaker as well as Neal Joseph; Pablo Toubes-Rieger; Leann Beckman; Christina Timme; and Katie Southworth.) Most had other activities planned, but Leann and I made delicious "shishkebab" for ourselves and Sam, and then had an hour long discussion of the roots of the Quaker Peace Testimony. I will eventually be making my notes available to parents of all Meeting teens for use in the event they want to do some "home-schooling" on this important topic.
My other responsibility to the teens has been to lead "break-out" sessions during Meeting for Worship when I'm available (and when teens show up but do not want to sit in worship for the full hour). I try to organize these before worship begins, so that the teens and I can spend 10-15 minutes in worship with the larger Meeting, and then excuse ourselves silently to spend time together. Again, during this calendar year, only Leann has been interested in this activity, but it's been a joy to spend time with her in this way; generally we go for a long walk and catch up on activities and issues important to her, followed by 5-10 minutes of sitting meditation in the OPAL garden before rejoining the larger Meeting at 11 AM.
Finally, with the encouragement of the Children's Religious Education committee, I recently opened a discussion with Amanda Sneed concerning the possible needs of Meeting teens once Amanda is "operational." (As all probably realize, Amanda's charge is to conduct religious education for pre-K through 12th grade, thus including all Meeting teens except Christina.) I explained to her the issues I've had in trying to get teens together, both due to my schedule and, probably more importantly, due to the teens' schedules, which often include sports practice on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I believe Amanda realizes that her impact on teens may therefore be limited; however, she has no shortage of enthusiasm, and has expressed definite interest, for starters, in working up a one-Sunday-per-month activity which would complement whatever the rest of Meeting can do with teens at other times. (Again, I'll provide Amanda with whatever teen-friendly curriculum i've worked up over the years, including my Peace Testimony "mini-workshop.")