Bringing God Home: Exploring Family Spirituality

by Mary Kay Rehard

Overview

Friends agree that children are important, and that God dwells in them. Children in Friends' meetings are generally treated with respect and interest. We have queries on how to create a meaningful family life. But in our diversity and rejection of outward ritual, in our ambivalence over our Christian heritage, Friends are reticent and lack clarity about the spiritual nurture of children. Fortunately experience is a ready teacher, so that without a handy guidebook, my husband and I improvised as our children grew. We quickly learned from our children that they imitate us and want to join in the fun of our interests and daily activities. They want to experiment, gain mastery and put their mark on the world. Why not in prayer as well?

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149975549
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	01/14/2015
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #362
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	83 KB

About the Author

Mary Kay Rehard is mother of two children, ages 10 and 7. She teaches them at home and teaches part-time at a community technical college. She is a member of West Richmond Friends Meeting (Richmond, Indiana-FUM), and serves on the advisory committee for Richmond Young Friends, a ministry shared by three local Friends meetings for youth grades 6-12. In addition, Mary Kay serves on a Children’s Worship team at West Richmond Friends, providing special worship, community-building, and intergenerational experiences for children in the meeting. She has enjoyed singing in the meeting’s choir and bringing the songs and prayers of Taizé to the Earlham College campus and local youth groups. The pamphlet began with her family’s visit to the Taizé community during Holy Week 2000, with the help of her home meeting and a grant administered by Friends World Committee for Consultation from the Elizabeth Boggert Fund (see “Drinking the Living Water: Pilgrimage to Taizé,” Friends Journal, October 2001). In January 2002, Mary Kay and her husband, Patrick, took a group of students and faculty to the annual mid-winter Pilgrimage of Trust meeting organized by the Taizé community. This year’s meeting was in Budapest, and they were 10 Americans among 70,000 young adults from Europe and other continents. Mary Kay’s family will move to Africa in 2002, and she and Patrick will share the work of principal at Friends Theological College in Kaimosi, situated in the western highlands of Kenya near Lake Victoria. The college, founded by Quakers in 1942, prepares East Africans for pastoral ministry and other leadership roles, and their appointment by Friends United Meeting is for three years.