AngelinaI feel really lucky to be alive and in community with Quakers right now, because I can see the glimmers of a resurgence and growing vitality, particularly among young adult Friends. This is true of FGC — with the Youth Ministries Committee and flourishing AYF programs at Gathering — but also individual yearly meetings. My own yearly meeting, Philadelphia, has had a fairly active young adult Friend group for more than two years (admittedly reincarnated from a much longer history). The February conference at Burlington brought together a lot of young adult Friends who are doing similar work all over the country.

All of this growth and good work in mind, I want to put forward yet another way that I think young adult Friends can be (and in many cases already are) working to build sustainable community among ourselves and the greater community of Friends: by being involved, as young adult Friends, in high school Quaker communities as Friendly Presences (chaperones) and workshop leaders.

Young adult Friends are needed role models, friends, and allies for teenagers and represent yet another model of adulthood that is different from parent, teacher, coach, etc. Having more recently been teenagers, YAF/AYFs bring a different perspective and skill set to the pool of Friendly adults committed to high school programs. Active and present young adults can demonstrate that there’s somewhere to go after high school and adolescence, that not only is it possible to continue being a Quaker once you graduate and move on to new adventures, but there are other young adult Quakers discerning that process too.  And when former high schoolers want to check out a young adult Friends community, it helps if they already know someone. If nothing else, young adults chaperoning Young Friends gatherings can be a great recruiting tool.

Of course the often transient lifestyles of young adult Friends is a big issue here — people going off to college or out into the world, or being generally unsettled. Thankfully, most high school Friends programs don’t require you to come to every single event, and are generally happy to have you whenever you are available, though continuity is certainly welcomed.  For young adult Friends communities, too, continuity is a big issue. Lately in Philadelphia people keep going off to grad school. That kind of turnover hits home the need to really be a community of equals, to take turns stepping into positions of responsibility and leadership and to be intentional about sharing knowledge and ideas so people can carry on after a particularly gifted leader has moved on to new adventures. In turn, Young Friends communities can often be models for this kind of continuity and organization — sustaining community and leadership, sometimes across hundreds of miles.

One of the best Young Friends events I ever helped with had chaperones that ranged in age from early twenties to early seventies. I believe that that diversity of ages, and the forming of Friendships and support beyond the limitations of generations, were why the event went so well. We all played, worshiped and searched together. If the Religious Society of Friends is going to be vital into the 21st Century we must be actively and joyfully multigenerational, and young adult Friends are an important piece of that. Not only is it important for us to have fellowship both amongst ourselves and in community with older adult Friends, but with teenagers too. We have a lot to offer, teach and give each other.