Category Archives: Events

Events

World Gathering of Young Friends – Epistle

To all Friends everywhere,

Greetings from the World Gathering of Young Friends 2005. 226 Friends gathered together in Lancaster University, United Kingdom, from 16th – 24th August 2005. Our theme was ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Now, what fruit shall we bear?’ taken from John 15; and William Penn’s challenge ‘Let us then try what love will do’. Among us, 58 Yearly Meetings and 9 monthly meetings and regional groups were represented, with speakers of more than twenty different languages. We were called to be gathered together at the place where our Quaker movement first bore fruit, the heart of 1652 country. We returned to our shared roots, to the birthplace of our collective spiritual identities. Through climbing Pendle Hill as a community, to live out George Fox’s vision of a great people gathered together, we found a unity with the place and one another, among the bright green hills, surrounded by grazing sheep.

We felt great joy in being together and many Friends gave thanks for being here. However, our hearts were filled with sadness too. In the hall where we met there were many empty chairs, and we were always aware of those Friends who could not join us here in Lancaster. Many were absent because they were denied visas, others because they found when the time came that they could not join us after all. Their loss is our loss as well, for without their presence we could not feel their truth reflected in their words, their experiences, their faces and their smiles. However we could feel their presence in our hearts. We have selected 2 representatives from each region to go to a post-WGYF gathering in Kenya to share with these brothers and sisters the Love and Spirit that we felt in this gathering.

Twenty years have passed since the last World Gathering of Young Friends, held in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. To what purpose were we summoned once more?

Here we tried each other’s forms of worship, silent and programmed, songs in many different languages, scriptural readings, hand holding. We were open, amazed, stretched and blessed. We learned that the great presence in our lives can be called by many names, Jesus, Christ, God, Inner light, Spirit, Love or many others. Ultimately, through listening to the Spirit that moved us, not the words in which we expressed our movement, we strived to become one organism, one body made up of many different parts (1 Corinthians 12:13).

We were united not so much in the expression of our faith as in our common desire to be unified and by the power of the Spirit amongst us during these 9 days. We were challenged to put aside the labels we hide behind, programmed, unprogrammed, liberal, evangelical, and come together as Friends of the Truth, seeking together for the common truth behind our language. We have not finished this process. We are only at the beginning of a long path, but the love and joy we have felt in being in this place together have allowed us to come this far, and we pray that they will lead us further yet.

The time here has been a chance to reflect on our lives. We have been challenged to recognize ourselves as God’s children, and respond in willing devotion. The love we have found here is not for us to own but to share. We desire to show our love by doing good and avoiding harm to all people and to all the Earth. We must let others see this love and know its source so that they may come to share it.

The Spirit present in our gathering summoned us to be a gathered people, and spoke through the many different people and cultures here to remind us of its glory, power and purpose. The Spirit is at work in all of us, and it is calling us not to judge one another’s forms of worship but to examine our own hearts, find our own calling. We are called to take what we have experienced here and give it back to our communities.

Far away meetings now have faces, stories and friendships that make them real to us. Bridges have been built at our Gathering which we call on Friends everywhere to nurture and support. We will keep this contact alive through exchanges, more frequent gatherings and opportunities to work together. Through this contact we will give strength to each other and share our gifts. We must face the future challenges of the Religious Society of Friends together.

Where we explored the theme of the vine and the branches we found that its fruits are born from love. We have experienced what Love can do in this Gathering, now let us try what it can do in the world.

Events

World Gathering of Young Friends – reflections

Aidan McCartney, Coleraine PM

For me the first day of the World Gathering of Young Friends on 16th August 2005 was the end of a vision that I and some other Young Friends had worked towards for over 4 years. However, it was thrilling to see that, the last day of the World Gathering on 24th August was the start of a vision for many more Young Friends who attended. During the gathering lives were changed, Friends beliefs and practice were challenged, but throughout it all was a genuine commitment to learn from one another and to develop relationships. It was the relationships fostered between people who seemed to hold very different values that I believe were and are the key to understanding between Friends worldwide.

In a way I was surprised by the willingness of all those who attended the World Gathering to try to understand each others faith. I had expected more arguments and less desire to trust each other and to love one another. Knowing some of the diversity of belief present at the gathering I believe that this could only have been brought about by the power of God in our midst. I don’t mean to suggest that there wasn’t heated debate and awkward questions being asked, but perhaps there was more willingness to try to answer the awkward questions and not just hide behind what you have always believed.

There were representatives from 58 Yearly Meetings and 9 other Friends groups at the conference. We had Friends who practiced bread and wine communion in their churches, Friends who felt more comfortable with Buddhism or Islam than Christianity, Friends who vehemently defended the “right way” to practice silent worship to Friends who spent most of their worship services dancing in the aisles! It was a great crucible of ideas of how to live as a Quaker and for me was so fascinating. I was disappointed in a way that I was so involved in the organisation, because I would have loved to have talked to more people and learned from them. It was satisfying to know that others were having these conversations because of the work I was putting in to the organisation.

Two of my favourite days during the gathering were the trip days. This was possibly because of my role in organising sessions so I could relax on those days with less to do. One day we split into 4 groups and visited 1652 country sites at Swarthmoor Hall, Lancaster Castle, the Quaker Tapestry and Firbank Fell. I travelled to Firbank Fell via Brigflatts Meeting House built in 1675. We held a Meeting for Worship there which was a powerful experience. On another day all 226 of us climbed Pendle Hill as George Fox had done. This was a personal vision I had had of the gathering a couple of years ago, so to see everyone on top of the hill eating lunch with the sun blazing down on us was an emotional feeling and a real highlight.

My main responsibilities at the gathering were with the Programme Committee, we had planned the schedule and the events that would take place during the day. Here is a typical day at the gathering. We started each day with a worship session which was lead by a different regional group each day so some days it was programmed and some days unprogrammed. Then we met in base groups, these were groups of about 10 people representing the diversity at the gathering. There was a curriculum for this time to ensure we covered similar issues, we shared about our experiences of being a Quaker, what our meetings were like, our views on Jesus Christ and our vision for the future of Friends among other things. After lunch there were workshops or interest group sessions. This gave Friends a choice of activity and were in slightly smaller groups of around 50 people. Workshops were held on anything you can imagine from trampolining to American Friends Service Committee, from Plain Dress to Learning Nepali! After workshops, there was a period of free time around dinner time which was a great time to talk to people, throw a Frisbee around or check your email.

In the evening we had a second plenary session of the day. We began with some worship and then it was over to our plenary speakers. We had 4 speakers who stayed with us for the whole gathering and spoke on three occasions each. They were Colin Saxton, Northwest YM, USA, Deborah Saunders, Philadelphia YM, USA, Oliver Kisaka from Kenya and Ute Caspers from Germany. These 4 speakers spoke in very different ways and about different things at times but were all challenging. We were challenged to forget our own human desires let God work through us. Also to give God the glory for what He can achieve through us. All of our speakers approached their task with great sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and also with good humour and I appreciated their words so much.

Some evenings we had further activities, including a Bible Quiz, singing, dancing and the compulsory cabaret session! There was also plenty of time to get to know each other, the weather was kind to us and many Friends stayed up long into the night talking on the lawn or in the square beside our accommodation block.

In conclusion, I can only say that the World Gathering of Young Friends was a great success through the friendships made and understanding built across cultures, languages and ways of worship. My thanks to you all for the financial and prayerful support for me personally and for the gathering.