IYM RE Mission
The IYM Religious Education committee ...
From Philadelphia Yearly Meeting:
The Adult Religious Education Concerns Group is called to nurture and strengthen the corporate life of Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meeting communities and the growth of the spiritual experience and gifts of its individual adult members and attenders. This is done in the hope that each Friend will become better equipped to minister and that we can better understand who we are as a Religious Society of Friends.
Why Religious Education for Adults?
Why do we need religious education for adults? George Fox, pre-eminent among early Friends and founder of our Religious Society, proclaimed that "Christ has come to teach his people Himself." Many say that this inward teacher is all we need; the Light will show us the truth. The Light is sufficient, but the search for the Truth in the understanding of Friends is a corporate effort. Quakerism is not a do-it-yourself religion; it is a do it together religion, and the experience of other Friends, past and present, informs our search. We have the advantage of the experience of Quakers who, for 350 years, have learned to discern and follow God's will (the divine plan), and have developed corporate structures for this purpose.
If we are not to be forever reinventing the wheel we need to learn from our spiritual forebears. This is the purpose of Adult Religious Education, to give content to our experience of the Light, to help inquirers and new members to better understand who we are and to help more seasoned Friends deepen their understanding. We don't have a creed, but we do have a very rich tradition.
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