Friends Testimonies in Everyday Life

Workshop Number

Leader(s)

Rosemary

Coffey

Audience

Who may register:

Open to All (adult & high school)

Time breakdown

Experiential Activities:

40%

Lecture:

Discussion:

40%

Description

Short Description:

If you were accused of being a Quaker, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Using queries and real-life scenarios, we will examine how our lives “speak” today and how Friends' testimonies may define what we do and who we are.

Long Description:

My objective for the week is for the workshop participants to reflect together on traditional Quaker testimonies and how they resonate in their own lives in 21st-century America. We will consider a different testimony each day, based on a set of queries that will be handed out at the end of the previous session (except for the first one): Honesty and Integrity, Peace and Nonviolence, Simplicity and Moderation, Equality and Justice, Love and Community (not necessarily in that order).
We will open with worship and then share our responses to the queries of the day. Following a mid-morning break, we will move into small groups and react to a real-life scenario whose resolution is connected to the testimony under consideration. Once we are together again, we will discuss each group's recommendations and then learn "what really happened." We will close with worship-sharing based on the day's reflections.

Leader Discernment Process:

This workshop may be especially valuable for relative newcomers who are interested in exploring how Friends' testimonies may be incorporated into their lives, but seasoned Friends have also found it useful in the past.

Leader Experience:

In addition to the workshop on Friends testimonies in general, I have facilitated, more than once, a workshop on the peace testimony alone, focusing on how that testimony plays out in the world, in the nation, in the community, in the family, and in ourselves. I have also co-facilitated a workshop on non-theism and led sessions on writing about one's faith at a Pittsburgh Friends Meeting retreat weekend.