Melinda Wenner Bradley

Melinda Wenner Bradley has been part of QPI since 2011. She believes that parents are their children’s first and most influential teachers, and the first step in pastoral care for children is support and nurture of parents and their spiritual lives.

Melinda lives with her husband Matthew and their three children (ages 16, 14, and 10) live in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.

Following 20 years teaching history and religion in Friends schools, since 2013 Melinda has focused on support for Quaker meetings and religious education programs. She currently serves Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as the Youth Engagement Coordinator, and previously served as the Children and Youth Field Secretary in New York Yearly Meeting. The journey of her work has woven together interests in children’s spiritual lives, program development, and how to support families in meeting communities.

Melinda’s ministry has included several other branches related to education and resources for spiritual nurture: After attending a Godly Play® training in 2005, she became a Godly Play® trainer 2010. Her work focuses on trainings for Quaker meetings and Friends schools, and she is a co-author of Faith & Play™: Quaker Stories for Friends Trained in the Godly Play® Method. She served from 2007-2013 as the clerk of the Children’s Spiritual Life Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and in 2011 was named by PYM to the National Council of Churches “Circle of Names” campaign in support of women’s ministries. She currently serves on the board of  Pendle Hill Conference Center, and is the clerk of the Education Committee.

In 2014, Melinda and three other Friends founded the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative (QREC), a grassroots network of  Friends holding a sense of stewardship for life-long Quaker faith formation through religious education. QREC is committed to supporting the work of QPI, understanding the strong connection between religious education programs for children, nurture for parents as adult seekers, and support for the family unit in Quaker communities.