Little Meeting

A Stepping Stone to Meeting for Worship

The process of ushering our children into Meeting for Worship once they have graduated from the nursery is a wonderful rite of passage. However, this important juncture in spiritual development is frequently both sweet and sour for parent and child. Parents of a young child new to meeting often feel that their child is the noisiest, squirmiest, most meddlesome creature to ever enter the Meeting room. This often-embarrassing period is common to all and the Meeting community always tolerates and lovingly guides parents through it. This is a time when communal warmth means so much.

Little Meeting hopes to be an additional hand extended to support parents and children over the bridge to Meeting for Worship. This optional class is designed to ease the process of children's acclimation to Meeting for Worship. Through practice in settling activities, guidance in inner exploration and the warmth of a child-oriented group environment, children are introduced to silent, corporate worship. We wish to engage children in the magic and peace silence provides rather than the restrictive boredom they often anticipate. We offer a means of seeking the Inner Spirit without defining or limiting what that experience or entity may be for that child.

In order to remain flexible to each child's needs, the number of classes a child attends will vary according to the parents' wishes and the learning style of each child. Of course children may always return to Little Meeting for a booster!

The class is a stepping stone toward, not away from, Meeting for Worship. We believe that the true and ultimate conveyer of Quaker values and practices is the parent. Little Meeting aims to reinforce the efforts of parents in the spiritual nurturing of their children. The class will gather only twice a month so that every other week children may worship in 'Big Meeting' with their parents (and put to practice all their Little Meeting discoveries.) After children become familiar with their own abilities to center and worship silently, they are encouraged to join their family regularly in Meeting for Worship.

Parents are always welcome to join their little ones in Little Meeting - we love company! We hope to have ongoing discussions with each parent regarding the goals for and progress of their children in the class.

Little Meeting takes place from 11:00 - 11:20 in room 214. At 11:20 the students attend their First Day School classes.

Please contact the Religious Education Committee with any questions, worries, suggestions and/or ideas. We look forward to hearing from you.