Becoming Friends: a guide on your Quaker journey
New course proves popular
A course promoting new and flexible approaches to exploring Quakerism has attracted a high take-up rate within days of becoming available. ‘Becoming Friends: Living and learning with Quakers’ allows newcomers to choose different issues and styles of learning, engaging with the material either alone or in groups. Within three days of the launch on 15 January, around forty people had either registered for the online version or had requested to do so.
Project developer Ginny Wall said that she was delighted with the response. The course, which costs £10 for the paper version or £5 online, is produced jointly by the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre and Quaker Life.
Among those targeted by the course will be enquirers who have completed Quaker Quest but wish to engage with the issues in more depth. Some suggest that while Local Meetings can be very welcoming to newcomers, they do not always allow them to explore Quakerism in a way that they would find helpful. ‘Becoming Friends’ aims to assist Meetings in supporting people new to the Society, whether or not they are considering formal membership.
Learners can be guided by a ‘companion’, provided by the Local Meeting, who can help the newcomer ‘through sharing their own knowledge and experience, and helping to arrange conversations and interactions with other Friends’. Training will be provided for those interested in serving as companions.
Reaction to the pack has been positive. Jamie Campbell said: ‘I just have to say I’m deeply grateful for this course. How wonderful to have such rich material to draw on. We hope to have a few of us going locally with the printed course and this, so who knows what benefits our meetings will reap from it as we go along. I can only see it enriching our lives together.’
A free demonstration of the online course is available at moodle.woodbrooke.org.uk.
