Resources

If you have resources that you think would be useful to others, please send them to us.

Video resources

How many Quakers are There in the World?

A video resource provided by the FWCC Section of the Americas.

Resources for using the How many Quakers are There in the World? video

A Video Series on the Various Quaker Worhip Styles 

In the short video series below, Gretchen Castle, General Secretary of FWCC, was joined by Friends from the four FWCC sections (Europe and Middle East Section, Section of the Americas, Asia West Pacific Section, and the Africa Section) to talk about our different ways of worship within and across the four sections.

Friends responded to the following questions in order to explore the varying worship styles across the branches:

  • Video 1: What kinds of worship might we expect from Friends within your FWCC section? And is there a predominant form of worship?
  • Video 2: How has the cultural context of Friends influenced Quaker worship in your FWCC section?
  • Video 3: What do you appreciate about our different ways of worship? And how has your experience expanded your sense of there being many ways to God among Quakers?

What the video series here.

A Video Series on with the FWCC Section Secetaries reflecting on how COVID-19 has effected Friends.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have all been affected in a variety of ways. Part of the role of FWCC is to share stories from Friends across the branches and around the world to cross our cultures and connect our lives, through our shared Quaker faith.

We spoke to the four FWCC Section Secretaries (and one clerk who stood in for the section secretary) to ask them to reflect on how COVID-19 has affecting and will affect their Quaker communities around the word. We asked them three questions:

  1. What change have you noticed among your section during COVID?
  2. What has moved you during this time?
  3. What are you hoping the section will take forward?

What the video series.

Other films and online resources

A Variety of Quaker Experiences from Around the World

FWCC map “Finding Quakers Around the World

Ideas for activities (for WQD 2020)

  • Organise an event in your meeting or church that shows how you connect with Friends in another part of the world, such as visits that have taken place, or consider developing a sister meeting relationship.
  • Find a new online worship for you to attend on Ocober 4th on the FWCC website.
  • Consider how to expand your meeting or church’s connections to the wider world family of Friends.
  • Ask Friends to share how their faith has inspired them to witness in the world.
  • Invite a meeting member who has worshiped with Friends in different parts of the world to share his or her experiences.
  • Invite a yearly meeting representative of FWCC to come and talk about the work of FWCC and the diverse family of Friends.
  • Make a video and send it to the FWCC World Office to be uploaded to the WORLD QUAKER DAY website.
  • If it is safe to do so, share a simple meal and contribute the savings to a local or national peace and justice cause.
  • Invite a yearly meeting representative of FWCC to come and talk about the work of FWCC and the diverse family of Friends.
  • Tell the WQD story to the local media. Issue a press release, offer to give interviews and invite some journalists along on the day.
  • Watch the video series of the various Quaker worship styles around the world on the FWCC website.
  • Invite Friends from a meeting that practices a different form of worship and hold a discussion about what you have in common.
  • If it is safe to do so, hold a sing-along with hymns relating to the theme.
  • Bond over some gardening, either at the church or meeting house or to help an elderly or disabled person.
  • Tell the WQD story to the local media. Issue a press release, offer to give interviews and invite some journalists along on the day.
  • Promote what you are doing on social media. Don’t forget to post on the WQD Facebook page as well.
  • Talk to someone about Quakerism who might not know much about the Religious Society of Friends.
  • Don’t forget to include children in your preparations for WQD. Think about how to engage them with the theme.

FWCC Offering or Collection

Have a meal or other event to raise funds for FWCC. Have discussion queries on the tables with resources such as the FWCC map “Finding Quakers Around the World”: Point out where Friends are located and find some answers to questions like these:

  • Which country has the most Quakers? Which country has the fewest Quakers?
  • Which are the largest and smallest yearly meetings?
  • What kinds of worship do Friends have around the world?
  • Do you know what an Evangelical Friend believes? A Conservative Friend? A Convergent Friend? A Liberal Friend?
  • How are programmed and unprogrammed Friends alike and different?
  • Which form of worship worldwide has more members and attenders — programmed or unprogrammed?
  • What do Friends around the world have in common?

Send a contribution to the Section office marked WQD, and it will be shared between the Section and the World Office. Thank you!

Here is a description of the work of FWCC to be shared with your meeting or church:

Answering God’s call to universal love, Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) brings Friends of varying traditions and cultural experiences together in worship, communications, and consultation, to express our common heritage and our Quaker message to the world (mission statement). Through various means, FWCC is connecting Friends, crossing cultures, and changing lives across our many differences and within our spiritual unity. FWCC provides a Quaker voice at the world level through its global ecumenical participation and its worldwide representation on the Quaker United Nations Committees in New York and Geneva. FWCC works both vertically serving Friends at the world level and horizontally, supporting Friends through the four Section offices. FWCC connects us as Friends in our work, in our worship, and in our lives.

Please give generously to support this important Quaker work. Many thanks!

Thank you for participating in World Quaker Day!