Brighton Meeting House. Photo: Dauvit Alexander / flickr CC.
Young Friends in Brighton
Amanda Veale writes about the recent Young Friends gathering
Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) happens three times a year, where Young Friends (aged eighteen to thirty-ish) gather together for the weekend. Sixty-nine young adults from across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and descended upon Brighton to experience Young Friends General Meeting, which was held in the beautiful, Grade II listed, Brighton Meeting House on 23-25 February. This was my second time at YFGM and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sleeping on the floor of the Meeting house, as some of us did, and participating actively with a packed agenda makes for a tiring weekend, but I came away feeling spiritually energised and positive about our Society of Friends.
This time I most enjoyed the worship opportunities and spirituality sessions. We had early worship and epilogue at the end of each day in a dimly lit room with fairy lights. Many of us lie down or sit on the floor during our Meetings for Worship, relaxed in our spiritual home. One spirituality session involved a trip to the beach to make pebble towers, representing how each unique individual fits with others to make something greater, just as each of us come together to create YFGM. Brighton also provided the perfect place for some of us to go for seaside walks in small groups or just sit and appreciate the enormity of the sea.
As always, there were some fascinating ‘Special Interest Groups’. I attended a moving session where one attendee, who was a refugee and had come to the United Kingdom from Iran, shared his story. I had never heard a refugee’s story in person and it was a powerful experience. It is not easy to re-live an incredibly harrowing time of your life, let alone speak so openly to a group about it, so I am so thankful to Hirad for talking to us. There were also groups that gave Young Friends present an opportunity to learn more about prison chaplaincy, Sanctuary Meetings, the Engaging Young Adult Quakers project and to experiment with dancing for your mental health.
I attended all the business meetings and continue to be proud of the way business method is carried out by Young Friends. One of the outcomes is that Young Friends have extended our internship from ten months to twelve, so there is always a Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) staff member working to support YFGM. I am hopeful this will help YFGM be even more successful. We get a grant from BYM, but YFGM is encouraged to be financially independent, so we will be looking to do extra fundraising this year.
The attenders of YFGM, as always, were extremely varied. Some of us are lifelong Friends, while others are just starting to find out about the Society. Some have been to countless YFGMs, whereas for others this was their first experience. There were also many different personality types and professions represented – but we lived together as one, united community.
We slept on the floor of the Meeting house, swapped tips on how to use chairs and cushions as makeshift beds. We worshipped together morning and night. We puzzled over how to open cupboards and helped each other to work out how to cook lunch. It is so refreshing to spend so much time living as a collective. To me, YFGM gets close to the ‘Kingdom of Heaven on Earth’ that early Friends hoped to achieve.
Further information: http://yfgm.quaker.org.uk
