Quaker Youth Pilgrimage
The 2012 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage starts
Twenty-five young Quakers from around the world have arrived in England to begin this year’s international Quaker Youth Pilgrimage. Friends aged 16-18 will spend a month exploring Quaker history and spirituality in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Participants have come from Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Honduras, Mexico, Palestine, the UK and the US.
After four days at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, they set off on Thursday to walk in ‘1652 country’ – the parts of north-west England where the Quaker movement began. They will climb Pendle Hill, where George Fox was given a vision of ‘a great people to be gathered’.
‘The pilgrimage aims to bring together young people from as many different Quaker traditions as possible,’ explained Siobhan Haire, one of four adult leaders. She told the Friend: ‘It will help them to explore the differences and similarities in their Quakerism, to learn about Quaker history and also to have a time of spiritual development.’
The Quaker Youth Pilgrimage takes place every two years, alternately in Europe and North America. This time the pilgrims will join a work project at Barmoor in North Yorkshire, worship at Amsterdam Friends Meeting and visit the Quaker Council for European Affairs in Brussels.
