This is for anyone who has been involved in community building with a religious/spiritual focus, so if you have experience, do write about it.
In particular, I would love to hear from buddhist families as well--if any of you have that experience.
My experience of most buddhist communities is that very few children have a method of participating in religious life. In my christian upbringing, we had sunday school, could attend services, and had certain initiation rites throughout childhood. I have not seen this in my buddhist experience, though I know that in buddhist communities (such as thailand, which is 95% theravaden buddhist) children are, of course, raised buddhist and the various structures for including children already exist.
Having just moved to NZ, there are a fair few communities available to us: a theravaden tradition, and two different zen communities, plus kadampa and perhaps a few others that i haven't found yet. all of these communities appear to be just adults (by the photographs), though some of these adults (incuding one of the zen teachers) has children.
also, i suspect there isn't a lot of room for children based on when the sessins exist-- 7 or 8 at night twice a week, or dawn twice a week, and every other sunday for the whole day (or the better part of a day).
so, i wrote to a couple of the zen communities, because i've decided i would like to explore raising DS in a religious tradition that resonates with me. since i enjoy buddhism a great deal, and practice zen meditation techniques, i figure zen would be a good fit.
when i wrote, i asked about what family oriented/child oriented programming might exist, and if or whether they would be willing to work with us (over time) to create something for children to participate.
i do have some small background in this--the small quaker meeting where we practiced in PA had a first day school, shared by multiple adults of the community. so i could use that as a framework, but am curious about what others might do or may have done.
thanks!
In particular, I would love to hear from buddhist families as well--if any of you have that experience.
My experience of most buddhist communities is that very few children have a method of participating in religious life. In my christian upbringing, we had sunday school, could attend services, and had certain initiation rites throughout childhood. I have not seen this in my buddhist experience, though I know that in buddhist communities (such as thailand, which is 95% theravaden buddhist) children are, of course, raised buddhist and the various structures for including children already exist.
Having just moved to NZ, there are a fair few communities available to us: a theravaden tradition, and two different zen communities, plus kadampa and perhaps a few others that i haven't found yet. all of these communities appear to be just adults (by the photographs), though some of these adults (incuding one of the zen teachers) has children.
also, i suspect there isn't a lot of room for children based on when the sessins exist-- 7 or 8 at night twice a week, or dawn twice a week, and every other sunday for the whole day (or the better part of a day).
so, i wrote to a couple of the zen communities, because i've decided i would like to explore raising DS in a religious tradition that resonates with me. since i enjoy buddhism a great deal, and practice zen meditation techniques, i figure zen would be a good fit.
when i wrote, i asked about what family oriented/child oriented programming might exist, and if or whether they would be willing to work with us (over time) to create something for children to participate.
i do have some small background in this--the small quaker meeting where we practiced in PA had a first day school, shared by multiple adults of the community. so i could use that as a framework, but am curious about what others might do or may have done.
thanks!
