Becoming Blended Worshiping Communities: Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quaker meetings around the world have transitioned to online meeting for worship. Pendle Hill and Woodbrooke have also had to move to a world of online worship and online programming.

Online worship has proven a dynamic place for people to connect with Spirit, an accessible place for Friends to overcome barriers and be together, and a welcoming place for those connecting with Quakers for the first time. It has also presented challenges.

As some meetings prepare to return to some worship in person, questions blaze about how to tend to worship and the life of our meetings as we continue forward in a blended manner.

• How can we maintain an inclusive, safe, and gathered worshiping environment?
• How can we gather safely in person; where might we worship?
• How do we include those who wish to continue to worship online, of those who can only join our meetings this way?
• How do we welcome those who might have never joined worship in person?
• What does it mean to be in community in Spirit when some worship in person and some worship online?
• What opportunities for spiritual nurture are we able to offer in support of the worship experience?

Explore these questions and others together in faithful community with staff members from Pendle Hill and Woodbrooke and leave more confident to support your meeting moving forward.

Format:
This course takes place over three days, with a total of six live sessions each lasting 90 minutes. There will be a mixture of input, individual reflection, small group discussion, and plenaries.

Session Times:

Leader(s)

Simon Best is Woodbrooke’s Head of Learning and Research, with overall responsibility for their learning programs. He is passionate about creating opportunities for Quakers to learn and grow individually, together, and as inclusive communities. Simon has worked for Quaker organizations for twenty years, with over half that time involved in supporting work with children, young people, and young adult Friends. Simon is also responsible for supporting the Swarthmore Lecture program.

Francisco Burgos is Pendle Hill’s executive director and has facilitated spiritual retreats and lectio divina sessions for different audiences. He was a De La Salle Christian Brother for almost ten years, serving in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, and has been a Friend since 2004. Francisco is a member of Harrisburg Friends Meeting and currently attends Providence Friends Meeting in Media, Pennsylvania. He has attended several monthly meetings, including Monteverde Friends Meeting in Costa Rica and Adelphi Friends Meeting in Maryland.

Lina Blount is an organizer, trainer, and nonviolent action strategist who has been working on environmental justice campaigns in the Philadelphia area for over ten years. Lina currently works as the Education Coordinator for Pendle Hill and just rotated off as co-clerk of the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) board, which she has served since 2013. Lina has also worked with the Divestment Student Network and spent two years as a canvass director and anti-fracking organizer in Pennsylvania.

Francisco, Lina, and Simon will also be joined by guest speakers for some sessions.

Financial aid may be available. If you are seeking funds to participate in this program, click to review and complete our Financial Assistance Application and a Pendle Hill staff member will follow-up with you shortly (please do NOT register online). Thank you for your interest.

Travel directions to Pendle Hill.