Over thirty Young Friends came together at Harlow Meeting Photo: Photo: Shanthini Cawson
Eye - 09 March 2012
Making connections
Others who attended a recent Young Friends residential weekend echoed these sentiments from Beth Furini, 17, of Brighton Meeting:
Harlow Meeting House became a hive of activity on 3-5 February as over thirty Young Friends came together.
They spoke of how these events are a chance to meet new people and connect with others, particularly for those who don’t have Friends of their own age in their Local Meetings. Douglas Mattingly, 18, of Leicester Area Meeting, said that without these events he ‘probably would have left Quakers a long time ago’.
The connections made at Young Friends events can be a source of spiritual inspiration and support. Amy Carmichael, 17, of Watford Meeting, said: ‘It wasn’t until my grandparents brought me to Stirling Summer Gathering that I really got involved and passionate about Quakerism and dragged my parents back to Meeting. Young Quaker events, and Young Quakers themselves, have really helped inspire enthusiasm in Quakerism.’
Douglas reflected that being part of the wider community of Young Friends ‘is the heart of my Quaker experience, the place where I feel closest to Quakerism is with them’.
When asked about the importance of her Quaker faith, Beth said, ‘I agree with the morals of Quakerism and attending Meeting gives me time to reflect on my life as a whole.’
Amy spoke of how unique the conversations between Young Friends can be: ‘At Harlow, I woke up on Saturday morning and, still in our pyjamas, we had a really great discussion about how best to control and cope with our growing population, which moved on to talking about old kids’ TV programmes, and then onto what the optimum term of office for political parties is. I just don’t have those kinds of conversations with my friends at home.’
Older Friends in Harlow found the experience enormously enriching. Shanthini Cawson said, ‘to have so many young people in our otherwise “older” Meeting was wonderfully energising.’
An unexpected but welcome highlight was the blanket of snow that greeted them – snowmen and snowball fights soon took centre stage. One Young Friend used the wintery scenes as inspiration for a YouTube video: http://bit.ly/HarlowYouTubeVideo
