Journeying in the Light: August 28-30, 2026 | Hybrid: online and onsite at Pendle Hill Conference Center (Firbank Library)
Read the Epistle from the weekend gathering: linked here and shown below.
The cost of Journeying in the Light was supported by the “Finding Ourselves in the Story” project and the Thomas H. & Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund. We are deeply thankful.
August 30, 2026
Dear Friends Everywhere,
Godly Play/ Faith & Play storytellers from 16 states coast-to-coast gathered onsite and online at Pendle Hill to share community and to collaborate over three days in August 2026 for Journeying in the Light.
Seeds were sown on Friday as we opened with stories told side by side – the Parable of the Mustard Seed and George Fox’s Big Discovery. Grounded in faithfulness, we were reminded that something that is like the kingdom of God can grow out of the smallest of seeds, and that like George Fox, we all have the potential to plant radically loving ministry. While we each toil as seekers and storytellers in our home meetings, Spirit accompanies us in the work that we do.
We plowed the soil through discussion of how to nurture children’s spirituality, how to include neurodiverse Friends, how to reach and support adults through story, and how to reach beyond our community into the wider world. We shared ways in which Faith & Play stories are a tool for each of us to connect and inspire others, and to infuse creativity and imagination into our everyday lives.
We brought care for children’s ministry, sensing the anxiety children are facing in their lives. We too often find ourselves burdened with the job that we take so seriously and hold tenderly – nurturing the spirituality of our communities. Like our children, we hunger for connection: with each other, with our spiritual lives, connection with that spirit of love and mystery we sometimes call God. We affirm that story is a tool to attend to this hunger.
For us, this gathering has been a healing salve, enabling us to take a deep, worshipful breath together. We laughed in the sunshine; we wondered and walked together. It has been a space for us to trust that we can relax our grip and be accompanied by Spirit, by our Quaker faith, and by the children themselves, knowing that tools and scripts are secondary to the authenticity embodied in the Faith & Play and Godly Play way of being.
The fruit we will take home is belief in ourselves that we have what we need: belief in our hearts, intention to enrich the lives of children (and our own) while holding them safely. We boldly proclaim that stories support individuality and affirm children by hearing and seeing them, allowing them, like George Fox, to listen to the still, small voice within for what is true and just and right, and to have the courage to embrace their whole selves. These stories are needed and necessary for our children, for ourselves, and for our communities now more than ever.