All Age Worship at Yearly Meeting 2022

All Age Worship based on a Faith and Play story was an exciting part of our online Yearly Meeting for 2022.  

Jos Rossell had the idea that as Yearly Meeting was to be online, we could involve families by having an ‘all age’ worship.  It was agreed to ask Melinda Wenner Bradley to tell us a Faith and Play story to involve everyone. (https://quakerfaithandplay.org).  Melinda has been involved with Faith and Play for many years and works for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as the Youth Religious Life Coordinator.  Some of us had met Melinda at the FWCC Plenary held in Peru in 2012 and have kept in touch since.  Mt Eden local meeting have used Faith and Play in their children’s meetings over a number of years. It is a set of stories for Quakers to use as a way of learning about our faith and practice.  The format is experiential and so the listeners can find meaning in the story by drawing on their own life experience. The stories provide opportunities to explore our Quakerism as an individual and as part of a spiritual community.

For Yearly Meeting we chose the story about Gifts as a way for us all to reflect on the fact that all of us – young and old have something unique to bring to our Quaker community.  All these gifts brought together create connection and community for everyone.

About 90 people came to All Age Worship on Sunday 1 May. There were people by themselves, in pairs at home, and groups of Friends from Whanganui, Tauranga, Wellington, and Christchurch sharing the worship time as a meeting.

Jos is hoping to find more ways to share the joy of these stories with Aotearoa Friends.

Contributed by Ronis Chapman.  Photo provided by Melinda Wenner Bradley of her view of the story after she had presented the story.

Mary Rose, Tauranga, shared these reflections:

At our Meeting yesterday morning, Friends spoke of our delight in taking part in the All Age Worship the previous Sunday. Because a Friend was able to lend us the use of her work-place with a big TV screen, we attended as a Meeting: all nine of us sat around a table watching with curiosity and glee as the story was told and Friends of all ages responded: especially the children. We loved being reminded in such a colourful way of gifts.

Wellington Monthly Meeting published this report:

It was very exciting to have our first All Age Worship Meeting as part of Yearly Meeting. It proved to be a wonderful opportunity for Quakers, young and old, around New Zealand to come together for this different experience.

We welcomed Melinda Wenner Bradley, to share a Faith and Play story called Gifts. Using simple props, Melinda shared the story of gifts, the ones we share with our Meeting community. As she brought the story to conclusion, she asked everyone ‘What gifts do you have to share with your family, your friends, your meeting community? The children responded vocally, and the adults shared their thoughts through the chat tool that Zoom provides. We then all went into silence for the reminder of the time. The feedback from attenders was positive and enthusiastic about doing an All-Age Meeting for Worship again.