Young Adult Leadership Development Program
Posted March 16th, 2011 by davidkInterested in a summer of service, community, and spiritual growth-with room, board, and a small stipend provided? Apply for Pendle Hill's Young Adult Leadership Development program (YALD) for those age 18-24.
YALD offers you the opportunity to discover leadership in yourself, to volunteer in the community and at Pendle Hill, to study Quakerism and social justice, to name your gifts and find your prophetic voice, and to learn and receive support in community.
"I cannot convery how impactful, how transformative this program has been-not even to myself. I will remember and celebrate this experience for life." -YALD participant
Contact Pendle Hill YALD staff at yald@pendlehill.org or 610-566-4507 or 800-742-3150 ext. 131, or visit www.pendlehill.org/yald.
News from the Consultation on Cross-branch Inter-visitation
Posted November 29th, 2010 by chrisp
Twenty-five young adult Friends from across the country and spectrum of Quakers gathered for a consultation on cross-branch inter-visitation among Friends.
While there was not a formal epistle from this consultation, one member of the planning committee, Emily Stewart has written a brief report on the events.
Quoting from that report...
Consultation for YAFs on Cross-branch Inter-visitation
Posted May 20th, 2010 by EmilyStewartAre you interested in deepening relationships with Friends in other yearly meetings?
Spirit is moving among Friends across the branches of Quakerism! Since the World Gathering in 2005, young adult Friends (YAFs) in the U.S. and Canada have gathered for conferences to answer the call of Spirit. There is a momentum to come together to connect with that of God and the Light of Christ in our Quaker brothers and sisters, to explore how to live faithful lives, and to revitalize the Religious Society of Friends.
We gathered away from our home meetings and churches for these conferences, and now we want to integrate these experiences into our own faith communities. One way to do this is by welcoming Friends into our home communities and visiting them in theirs.
Our hope is that this consultation will be a place for Friends to explore what a YAF cross-branch inter-visitation program might look like.
What is radical hospitality?
What does it mean to welcome a visiting Friend into our own faith communities?
What does it mean to be a visiting Friend in a new Quaker community?
How can we open our hearts in the spirit of love and hospitality?
Quaker Bridge-Building
Posted May 4th, 2010 by EmilyStewartIn the first years of the Quaker movement, pairs of minister-evangelists set out from England to places around the world, crossing oceans and continents on trips that lasted months or years, to deliver the Quaker message as widely as they could. They crossed cultural and linguistic barriers apparently without hesitation, speaking the Truth that God gave them.... Read More
Sarah Katreen Hoggatt and John Epur Lomuria
Last December, the manuscript of Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices, an international anthology of writing and art by young adult Friends from across the Quaker theological spectrum, was being typeset and readied for publication. However, at that time we, two of the editorial board members for the project, John and Sarah, were in the middle of a desert swimming in Lake Turkana, and the book was one of the last things on both of our minds. We had already read the manuscript and given feedback before meeting up with each other in Bungoma, Kenya to attend the Young Quakers Christian Association of Africa Triennial. After having helped create the book, our main focus was now on living out the kind of relationships we want this book to bring about.
Throughout both the times we've met with the rest of the editorial board, we have learned what it means to have relationships across a wide spectrum of cultural and spiritual beliefs. We've learned how to discuss the hard issues while holding others in love and acceptance. It is hard work but for both of us, it has always been worth it. Such discussions have changed us, changed our viewpoints about each other and
Quaker Bridge-Building
Posted March 30th, 2010 by EmilyStewart
In the first years of the Quaker movement, pairs of minister-evangelists set out from England to places around the world, crossing oceans and continents on trips that lasted months or years, to deliver the Quaker message as widely as they could. They crossed cultural and linguistic barriers apparently without hesitation, speaking the Truth that God gave them.... Read More
Faith Kelley
About a year after I started working among liberal unprogrammed Friends I went home to my Evangelical yearly meeting (Evangelical Friends Church- Eastern Region). A lot of people there wanted to know what I was up to since graduating college and I would tell them about the inter-branch Quaker organizing I was doing in helping plan the 2008 Young Adult Friends' conference. In one of these conversations, a pastor told me about how a friend of his had gone to an unprogrammed meeting and during worship a woman had lifted her shirt up and flashed the entire group, claiming that the Spirit had told her to.
All that week, everyone seemed to have a story of a friend, or a friend of a friend, who had had some horrific experience with another branch of Quakerism that they felt compelled to share with me in response to my work. In the same way, as I continue to work with liberal Friends and I tell them I am an Evangelical Friend often their first response is to tell me some story of when they’ve attended a programmed Quaker meeting and someone has told them they are going to hell or some related condemnation.
These stories are troubling in and of themselves, but the more disturbing thing is they point to a real barrier as Friends attempt to reach across the seemingly wide theological and cultural chasms between us. Stories of wild behavior and harm inflicted seem to be the only things we know about each other, the only narrative we tell ourselves about those “other” Friends. We don’t interact with each other often enough to have any other tales to tell. We have nothing to balance the horror stories we all love to repeat. And telling only these stories does preemptive damage when we try to have relationships across the branches. We carry them inside us and they color our expectations before we even meet someone from a different branch of Quakerism.
This May 28-31 in Wichita, Kansas there will be an opportunity to create new stories together, to tell a different tale. The 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering will be an opportunity to come together with people 18-35 years-old from other places on the Quaker spectrum and get to know each other not by some rumor we’ve heard but as individuals who are also seeking to live a life led by the Spirit. We will challenge the impressions we have of the other branches and see a more complete vision of the truth.
This gathering will be a time to worship together, hear each other’s stories and learn about our faith together. My hope for the conference is that we can each go home and add another piece to the narrative- a piece that makes the picture we have of the other branches of Friends more complete. And even more than that, I hope we’ll be gathered together in God to know each other as brothers and sisters.
Registration for the 2010 YAF gathering is now open. If you register before April 15, you save $30 off the registration fees. You can find more information and register at: www.yaf2010.wordpress.com
Faith Kelley grew up in Marysville, Ohio at Shiloh Chapel Evangelical Friends Church, a part of Evangelical Friends Church- Eastern Region. She helped plan the 2008 YAF Gathering in Richmond, Indiana and is currently helping plan the 2010 YAF Gathering in Wichita, Kansas. She lives and works as the hospitality coordinator at the William Penn House in Washington, DC with her husband, Micah Bales.
Quaker Bridge-Building
Posted March 1st, 2010 by EmilyStewart
In the first years of the Quaker movement, pairs of minister-evangelists set out from England to places around the world, crossing oceans and continents on trips that lasted months or years, to deliver the Quaker message as widely as they could. They crossed cultural and linguistic barriers apparently without hesitation, speaking the Truth that God gave them.... Read More
I wasn’t always a Quaker who paid attention to Quaker diversity. But after a few years of seeking deeper connections among Friends in my meeting and yearly meeting, I found myself at the World Gathering of Young Friends in George Fox country in 2005, surrounded by other young adults who were seeking hard for connections with God and one another, and who envisioned an enlivened Society of Friends that has spiritual vitality and authenticity. And we were finding what we were seeking in worship and fellowship with one another—young Friends from across the spectrum of Quakers.
My f/Friend Raul spoke in worship one day (I paraphrase): “At home, I knew that God was powerful beyond my imagination. And yet, I thought I knew how he worked. I put God in a box. And now I can see that God has many ways that he works in the world. How foolish of me—I knew better.”
To me, the beauty of inter-visitation among the diversity of Friends is the opportunity to stretch our understanding of God, to question each other’s (and our own) traditions to find the vitality, and find the weak spots, and
The Young Quaker Christians Association (Africa) Triennial
Posted February 19th, 2010 by EmilyStewart
Emily Stewart
Last year representatives from Friends General Conference, Friends United Meeting and Evangelical Friends Church International were invited by the Young Quaker Christians Association (Africa) to attend the YQCA Triennial in Kenya. Holly Baldwin (from New England Yearly Meeting) and I were the representatives for Friends General Conference. There were over 75 young adult Friends at the conference from Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa, England, the U.S. and the Netherlands.
While attending the Triennial, I participated in an interest group session focused on our future as young Quakers, where we discussed the struggles we all face in the Quaker church and how we can work together to address them. I was shocked that almost every issue raised by young adult Friends in Africa was true for young adult Friends in the US and Canada. We talked about how to help churches support Quaker leaders, how to exchange information with other monthly and yearly meetings, how to work with older Friends, how to address the issues that are arising in our own meetings, how to nominate Friends based on spiritual gifts, and ways of reaching out to the global community of young Friends. We are doing such similar work, and though we may have different worship styles or theology, we each have a piece of the truth to bring to the table.
Singing at the YQCA Triennial
It reminded me of what a lot of young Quakers in the U.S. are asking for: opportunities to have visceral experiences of God. Though many early Friends experienced this in meeting for worship, that depth of worship-where everyone is opening themselves to be a vessel for God to enter- is less common today. I think this yearning for visceral experiences of God are why so many young people attend the conferences for young adult Friends in the U.S. The worship at the YAF conferences in 2007 and 2008 went deeper than any of my other experiences in meeting for worship. Friends were transformed by the united feeling of God’s presence and love in the room. We experienced God’s love by loving one another.
Emily Stewart lives in Philadelphia and attends Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. She serves as the Youth Ministries Coordinator for Friends General Conference.To see more photos from her trip you can check out Emily’s Kenya photos.
Read the epistle from the YQCA-A Triennial.
If you are interested in hearing more about Friends’ experiences at the YQCA Triennial, Jez Smith, one of the international visitors to the conference, has published articles in The Friend on “We are family”, “Giving thanks to God on life’s highway”, and “Young Friends prepare for leadership”.
Spirituality and Sexuality
Posted November 20th, 2009 by emilysHow have you experienced an intersection between spirituality and sexuality in your life? What is your understanding of what faithful sexuality looks like? How do Quaker beliefs apply to our sexual identities and practices?
Spirituality and Sexuality is the theme for our blog series this fall on Quakeryouth.org. We hope that many of you will blog or post your comments. This is also an opportunity to talk about your meeting/church/spiritual community's understanding of what faithful sexuality looks like. Do you talk about it? Is it a source of conflict? If you are interested in contributing to the series, please email Emily at emilys@fgcquaker.org
An Introduction For its first three centuries, the Religious Society of Friends was straightforwardly aligned with broader Christian orthodoxy on sexual ethics questions. There were clear collective standards, and Friends could be (and were, in large numbers) disciplined for sexual offences like adultery and fornication...Read More
Becka Haines Rosenberg
Sexuality is a journey, just like spirituality is. We grow into it, the way we grow into the experience of waiting worship. It can be uncomfortable, even painful, but it can also be transformative. I’ve been told that we should expect to be transformed every time we walk into meeting for worship, even though there are some days when it feels like no one’s talking to us at all, let alone God. I think we have to approach our sexual experiences the same way. Because sex is never simply biological. We learn things through sex: sex by ourselves, sex with other people, sex we only have in our heads. All of that is opportunity for transformation and growth, for insight into what makes us tick as human beings. It’s when we shut ourselves off to that opportunity, when we minimize it and say, “It’s just sex,” that we get into trouble. We’ve been given bodies and minds to learn in, and discounting any part of that makes us less able to do the work God calls us to.
I can’t make choices about anyone else’s sexual expression for them, and no one else can make those choices for me. But part of what living in spiritual community means is that I am surrounded by people who help me find my path. When we speak with integrity about our own sexuality, we can’t even know who we’re reaching with our words. I remember things people said at FGC Gathering ten years ago that helped me get where I needed to be then; I don’t remember their names, but I feel the influence they’ve had on how I live my life.
I’m so grateful for the breadth of experience among Friends, for the wealth of perspectives on sexuality and spirituality I heard growing up. I’m glad that there were Friends in my life called to a path of celibacy when I started to wonder what I was waiting for; that there were Friends in my life modeling Quaker marriage when I was overwhelmed by the idea of a lifelong partnership; and that there were Friends in my life sharing about other romantic and sexual relationships, long- and short-term, when I was trying to find how I fit in. I still have plenty to learn. Luckily, I still have plenty of people to learn from. And maybe my own sharing will be what somebody else needs to hear one day.
Becka Haines Rosenberg is a member of Alexandria Monthly Meeting (Baltimore Yearly Meeting). She serves on the BYM's Youth Programs Committee and FGC's Advancement and Outreach Committee. She is happily unmarried and happily dating a wonderful woman named Lucy.
Spirituality and Sexuality
Posted September 30th, 2009 by EmilyStewart
Kathleen Karhnak 
When I learned about sexuality in religious ed during my teenage years, my teacher said, “Sexuality is a gift from God.” As a teenager, that concept was way too abstract for me. I just didn’t get it. In the ensuing years, I have come to a much richer, and still maturing, understanding of that phrase. As I consider the intersection of spirituality and sexuality – and as I consider the conspicuous absence of sexuality education from most Quaker First Day School programs – I find myself drawn back to that same message: Sexuality is a gift from God. What can we learn from that message and how can we share it among Quakers?
In what ways is sexuality a gift? For one, it’s fun! God could have given us any of a number of ways to procreate. There are animals for which sexual activity is perfunctory, or for which sexual activity is painful for at least one of the participants, usually the female. God didn't give us either of those options. Instead, God gave us sexuality that we can enjoy, and all of us have the capacity to enjoy it if we define sexuality broadly enough, and are kind and patient enough with ourselves and others. We can recall that joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and when the fruits of the Holy Spirit are present, that usually indicates we have been faithful in using our gifts. In other words, to misquote a saying which is often attributed to Ben Franklin (probably inaccurately), “Human sexuality is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
I seek to remain teachable. My ideas about sexuality have expanded as I have grown older and more secure in myself and my relationship with my wife, Carrie, and perhaps most significantly, as I’ve learned to take myself less seriously...
Spirituality and Sexuality
Posted September 14th, 2009 by EmilyStewart
Micah Bales
"Sexuality" is a complicated word. For some, it might primarily be related to sexual acts. For others, it might refer to understandings of heterosexuality and homosexuality. Many understand sexuality as being linked with gender identity. Sexuality is such a complicated word because it is all of these things, and more. Sexuality, as I understand it, is shorthand for the way in which God created us to relate to other human beings on an intimate level. Sexuality does not necessarily involve having sex, but it always involves intimacy and vulnerability to another.
Sexuality is one of the most powerful forces in human existence, for good and for ill. People frequently have their lives made miserable by abuse of their sexuality - through jealousy and betrayal, exploitation and callousness. But our sexuality, when treated as a holy and precious part of our lives, is also one of the most important ways that humanity relates to God. Our nature as sexual beings has the potential to disrupt our relationship with God, or to bring us more completely into Communion...
