The older elementary kids at the March Sessions of the Yearly Meeting designed the layout, title and description of this blog so that their peacework can be shared. Monthly Meetings, First Day Schools and Peace & Social Concerns Committees are invited to join in the work of the children and post their activities here! Friends can download the booklet of the children's ideas from the PYM education website (click on the link to the handbook under "Special Events"). To post your activities, complete the Committee REport Form (see the website or the post labeled "report form") and email to pymkids@gmail.com.

Learning about Discernment

The kids attending Children's Sessions of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting learned about the process Quakers use to make decisions, called discernment. The discernment process uses these steps:
  1. Center into worship
  2. Ask the big question
  3. Listen with your heart
  4. Share what you heard
  5. Listen to what others heard
  6. Find God's Big Idea
  7. Plan action steps

This is how they learned the process: We all heard stories from four different storytellers. Each story was about discernment and included most of the Quaker discernment steps. We heard stories about George Fox, Moses, a Quaker who shared how discernment was part of her life and animals who were generous (this one was a fairytale). Each of the steps of the discernment process were highlighted in each of the stories. Our Storytellers were Gretchen Castle (recent past clerk of Philly Yearly Meeting), Lucy Duncan (professional storyteller and Associate General Secretary of FGC), Eileen Flanagan (see her book: Listen with your Heart: Seeking the Sacred in Romantic Love) and Christie Duncan-Tessmer (Children's Religious Education Coordinator for Philly Yearly Meeting).

posted by Christie Duncan-Tessmer
March 25, 2007

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