Exploration and reflection: Epistle from Junior Gathering 2024

‘People make friends of all ages.’

‘Forty young people and fifteen staff gathered at Leighton Park School [August 20–26] for a week of exploration and reflection on “Gender Equality”.

External speakers helped us through interactive sessions, workshops, and talks. In Joe Holtaway’s session we spoke about gender stereotypes and inequality in the workplace. We also had Sarah Cosgriff who talked about identity and intersectionality – the crossroads of how we identify ourselves and how this impacts our experiences. Thomas Penny spoke about having difficult conversations, being empathetic, and remembering that we might be wrong. Cassie Gates and James Brydon-Dickenson shed light on being a trans person.

Each day we started and ended worship, and we held a moment of silence during meals. We enjoyed having engaging items to interact with in the morning, such as playdough and leaves. In the evening, it was nice to wind down after a long day, often with some music and candles.

To have an opportunity to get to know each other more, we were able to choose from some activities led by staff each morning, for example: various sports, crafts, Chillin’ ‘n’ Spillin’, meditation, board games and creating a Junior Gathering Newspaper. In the afternoon and evening we did group activities such as an ‘escape room’, the disco and ents – short for entertainments. Along with this, we had a construction activity, which was a great opportunity to work as a team and listen to each other’s ideas. There was also Lifelines, where two staff told us about their life experiences and their highs and lows. It helped us to get to know them and see different perspectives on growing up.

For the first time in many years our sister event, Senior Conference (for 15- to 18-year-olds), was held on the same campus as us. This was appreciated by everyone because people who had siblings or friends who had moved on to Senior Conference could talk to them. On Friday, we had a day out in Oxford which began with a Meeting for Worship with them at Oxford Meeting House. 

One of the unique things about Junior Gathering is that people make friends of all ages, which young people don’t usually do in school. It is also nice to connect with other young Quakers as many of us come from areas where there aren’t many of them. Something that again helps us to develop our connections and meet old and new friends is our Base Groups, which are small ‘homegroups’. Here we played games, spoke about how we were feeling, and discussed the speaker sessions in more detail.

What the week has highlighted to us is the need to accept others and allow them to be the people they are.

[We] discerned that the theme for 2025 would be global problems, particularly conflict and climate change. We also hope that Meetings for Worship and Epilogues in 2025 can explore different ways Quakers worship around the world. The 2025 JG disco theme is Sports.

Overall, Junior Gathering is a really positive and accepting event where everyone feels welcome.’

Signed by Laurie W & Harriet CS (clerks), and Nell C & Maddie M (elders). Edited for length.

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