Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Quakers Unite!
This past weekend I was at a Quaker gathering for Young Adult Friends (ages 18-35) in Burlington, NJ. There were about 100 Friends there and we spend the weekend building community, getting to know each other, and exploring the issues facing our particular age group of Friends, as well as the issues that are facing Friends as a whole. Our age group is one that is often absent in multi-generational gatherings of friends. This happens for a number of reasons, as we go off to college, as we turn to more secular forms community, and as we feel seperate from both the older and younger Friends in our respective meetings. Two of the biggest problems facing Quakers as a whole is animosity between the different branches of Quakerism (I bet you didn't know there are multiple ones!) and our loss of ability to make the change that we want to see in the world. Obviously these are huge issues and they cannot be solved by one weekend conference of YAFs, but we started the process and now it is up to each of us to let the Spirit speak in our lives and guide us collectively to some kind of action.
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3 comments:
The transformation of the Society of Friends is underway in our generation, Friend! I'm so glad that we're able to be a part of it.
Tara, thanks for posting some thoughts on the gathering last weekend. I'm curious as to the ways you see the animosity between the our branches as a problem (why is it a problem), and to hear more about our loss of ability to make change. I wholeheartedly agree with the latter and am curious what sort of movement came out of NJ to heal this. Is the issue with both of those things one of unity?
In Peace,
Jay
Yes, Jay, I do think the problem is one of unity. To answer your question, I feel that animosity between different branches of Quakerism is a problem when we focus too much on our differences and forget what we have in common, i.e. the basic tenents of our faith. I know I have felt the sting of animosity in my life, since I was brought up to believe that evangelizing is "bad" and that the right way to run meeting for worship is unprogrammed. At times in my life, however, particularly recently, I have felt called to share my faith with others. Isn't this a form of evangelizing? I am honestly struggling with trying to determine whether I should suppress these feelings, since I am an unprogrammed friend, or whether I should follow what I believe is a calling from God.
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