Friends and Clerking: FGConnections, Spring 2004
Experiences of the Light from All Different Spectrums
By Jerry Hrechka
After a very long flight from New York to Denver we arrived at what at first glance, seemed to be the Shawshank Redemption. Given a Bible and a name tag, we proceeded to lunch where we began meeting Quakers from all over the United States except California, for some reason. Later, we went into an integrated worship containing elements from both conservative and new age Quakerism. This ensured a new experience for all of us.
The next day, after another worship, we all went to selected workshops, where we explored finding God in numerous ways, such as where God was when we were in trouble and God in the New Testament, giving new revelations. After lunch, free time, dinner, we had another worship full of singing, sermon, and silence. Then we met with a family group, where we all talked about the ways we saw God and Jesus, and argued it. Fortunately, the debate was not separated into groups of screaming Rush Limbaughs and Micheal Moores. (I’ve had this experience all too often.) Afterwards, we met with people from our yearly meeting to discuss our experiences with the other Quakers, the good and the bad, hopefully having more understanding, we then went to the end of the day party before we went to bed. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
On Thursday, we all went on field trips we signed up for earlier. Options such as shopping, snowshoeing, and skiing were available, keeping the weekend from getting too stale too fast.
Ah, and of course, there is the last day of the year, that joyous occasion when we celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another year. We all went to the last day/night at Youth Quake seeing the new year pass, time zone by time zone, scream by scream, balloon pop by balloon pop. This was followed a big party with a karaoke and talent show.
We all left on the last day feeling we had learned quite a bit. Quakers from all walks of life as well as philosophy came, sharing their own beliefs and exchanging them with others. The diversity was a wonderful learning experience, though many times it was a wonder we shared the exact same religion. This unusual experience is advised to anyone who wishes to have a more worldly view of Quakers.
