Leaders' Handbook
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1 Leaders' Handbook Peace Month 2011: Our Stories of Peace 2 Table of Contents Introduction to Peace Month.......................................................................3 Sermon Suggestions....................................................................................4 Activities with Children & Youth..............................................................10 A note to children's workers.............................................................10 A note to youth workers...................................................................12 Friendly Seed Packets......................................................................15 George Fox & Margaret Fell...................................................15 John Woolman & William Penn..............................................16 Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Fry................................................17 Matthew 5 & Quaker Definition.............................................18 Matthew 11 & John 14............................................................19 Matthew 25 & John 15............................................................20 The Valiant Sixty & John 14...................................................21 Word Searches..................................................................................22 Elementary Word Search.........................................................22 Elementary Word Search Answers..........................................23 Word Search............................................................................24 Word Search Answers.............................................................25 Peace Word Search..................................................................26 Peace Word Search Answers...................................................27 Quaker Word Search...............................................................28 Quaker Word Search Answers................................................29 “Friendly Fencing” skit....................................................................30 “Walk in the Light” song lyrics & explanation................................35 Biographical Sketches...............................................................................45 17 th Century: George Fox, Margaret Fell & the Valiant Sixty..........45 18 th Century: John Woolman............................................................51 19 th Century: Lucretia Mott..............................................................53 20 th Century: Elise Boulding............................................................55 Available Speakers, Trainers & Discussion Leaders.................................58 Peace Education Curricula: a few recommendations................................60 Film Suggestions.......................................................................................63 Internet Resources on Famous Friends, by Century..................................66 3 Annual NWYM Peace Month January 2011 “Our Stories of Peace” Welcome to the Peace Month Handbook! Here you will find detailed information about the purpose, goals and theme of Peace Month, as well resources you might find helpful as you plan. (All these resources are also available online at www.nwfriends.org/peacemonth ) If it’s helpful, use these weekly themes to form sermons, discussions, guest lectures, Sunday school classes and events. • January 2 – Friends in the 17th Century: How Friends came to be a “peace church” • January 9 – Friends in the 18th Century: John Woolman • January 16 – Friends in the 19th Century: Lucretia Mott • January 23 – Friends in the 20th Century: Elise Boulding • January 30 – Friends Today: How are we called? Purpose: We recognize that the communities in NWYM represent a variety of beliefs, practices and education levels regarding the Friends peace testimony. We hope Peace Month will provide each congregation space to begin or continue discussions regarding peace and social justice issues in ways that are helpful to you. Our main goal is to create a safe setting where people in your meeting can openly discuss this issue, no matter where their opinions fall along the belief spectrum. Each meeting is encouraged to host at least one event each week during January related to the peace testimony. This can be in the form of an emphasis on peace in a regularly scheduled gathering (e.g., Sunday morning worship), or a special event such as showing and discussing a movie or inviting a guest speaker. Your whole congregation could be involved in these, or you could do something for each age level on different weeks. By the end of Peace Month, it is our hope that individuals: • will be better educated about Friends history and the peace testimony, • will sense deeper bonds with others in their meeting through opportunities to discuss peace and justice issues more openly, • and feel challenged and equipped to follow Christ’s call to peacemaking more faithfully. When we practiced Peace Month together as a Yearly Meeting last year, Friends expressed a feeling of encouragement in knowing that others across the Yearly Meeting were also discussing and wrestling with these issues at the same time. We hope this will continue to be the case for you and your congregation. We don’t want to simply create extra work for those in leadership at your meeting, so we hope the resources provided will give you a variety of options that will fit your congregation’s needs while helping you incorporate education about the peace testimony into your annual curriculum. 4 Sermon Suggestions The goal for Peace Month this year is to familiarize people with some of our Friends history regarding the peace testimony through the stories of remarkable Friends. We have chosen one or a few people from each century of Quaker history, and you are welcome to utilize the resources we have given here in order to teach about those people. If you have other individuals from Quaker history in mind that you want to preach about, please do so! You are also welcome to create your own sermons on topics related to peace and social justice that have nothing to do with our suggestions. Historical and contextual information on each person and era are available in the “Biographical Sketches” later in this handbook. You can refer to these essays for your own sermon preparation, and/or make them available to those in your congregation to read prior to the worship service (these are available as separate PDF documents on the NWYM website). If you would like, you can even use the Biographical Sketches in an adult Sunday school class in order to have time for more in-depth discussion about the lives and choices of these historical Friends. If it is helpful, see the “Discussion Questions” available in the the section, “A Note to Youth Workers.” The last two Sundays lend themselves well to having individuals in your congregation share their stories. If possible, please find someone in your congregation who participated in peace and social justice action in the 20 th and 21 st centuries, and either have them share for five minutes or, if they are able, to preach the whole sermon. In this way, this sermon series truly becomes about “OUR Stories of Peace,” not just our history. Every sermon goes better when connected with our own journey or with a situation faced by our congregation today, so feel free to get creative in the ways you present the stories of these individuals. If your congregation would enjoy learning about these historical Friends in order to gain more information about our heritage, feel free to set up your sermon as an historical lesson that can inspire and challenge us, much like you would a story about a biblical figure. Otherwise, you are welcome to utilize the information about these individuals only tangentially as you prepare a sermon that will get at the heart of what your congregation needs to learn about the peace testimony. If you were unable to use our sermon suggestions for last year you are welcome to use those this year. They are still available on the NWYM website. They focus on the biblical call to peacemaking at all levels, beginning with peace between ourselves and God and extending out to our interactions at a national and international level. January 2: George Fox, Margaret Fell & the Valiant Sixty (17 th century) Scripture: Acts 2:1-18 • Connect the experience at Pentecost with that of early Friends: an amazing outpouring of the Spirit on an unlikely and not-very-educated group of people • Many were both impressed and repulsed. Large numbers of people were drawn to these new groups, but there was also a great deal of persecution. Lives of Fox, Fell and the Valiant Sixty • Tell as much or as little of each of their stories as you want. Connect to the peace testimony • None of these people intentionally started out with a focus on peace and justice. • As they read the Bible and listened to God speaking to them, they came to realize that God calls us to actions of love toward all people. Present-day connections • Connect this to an issue your congregation is currently working on regarding peace, social 5 justice, or an area of discernment that is difficult. (This could be at a personal, familial, community, national or international level, or even connected to care for the Earth.) Conclusion • Throughout this month we'll be focusing on ordinary people from our Quaker heritage who lived out this call to love others in amazing and inspiring ways. • Refer back to Acts 2:17-18. Early Christians and early Friends both believed themselves