Spiritual Friendship Groups: A Practical Introduction

Spiritual friendship is an opportunity for a small group of people to engage together in explorations of spirituality and spiritual practice, as trusted companions on each other’s spiritual journeys.

This course will support elders and others within a Quaker meeting who are planning or exploring the possibility of setting up spiritual friendship groups to help Friends ‘know each other in that which is eternal’. It is also suitable for anyone interested in setting up a spiritual friendship group outside the structures of a Meeting – perhaps for a geographically dispersed group who will meet online, or for a group of Friends (or others) who have some similarities in their life experiences or interests and would like to reflect on them spiritually together.

We will identify the basic features of spiritual friendship groups and will examine in more depth the model of ‘peer circles’, in which participation and leadership/facilitation is shared amongst the group at different times.

Session 1: Why have a spiritual friendship group? What might it look like?

Session 2: How do we start forming a spiritual friendship group(s)?

Session 3: How do we run a session/series of sessions for a spiritual friendship group?

Session 4: How do we deal with difficulties? How do we evolve, end or leave a spiritual friendship group?

We will also create some ‘mini’ spiritual friendship groups among participants during the first session, which will stay together throughout the course (unless there is a specific request to move). In each session, these groups will have an opportunity to try out a short activity which could be used in spiritual friendship groups.