the friend online
03 October 2008

Recharging our Quaker batteries

Harriet Hart shares some of the support that young people get from working together

At the age of seven I was packed off on my first residential Quaker youth event. The memory is hazy now – all I really remember is how good the coleslaw was. However, looking back I realise that this marked a beginning. It was the laying of the foundations and the sowing of the seeds of expectation that are continually watered at every event I attend.

The actual creation of these communities is difficult to pin down – there seems to be no measured recipe for success. It is even true to say that every individual draws a different enjoyment from the event and sometimes (though rarely) no enjoyment at all. So what contributes? Which factors help to create a strong community?

On arrival at an event there is the instant common ground that all may relate to – Quakerism itself. The young people will all have had some contact with Friends; it is a value that may be used as a stepping stone to deeper relationships. Then there is the expectation. The accumulation of positive experience at youth events such as summer schools and link weekends encourages expectation within the individual which leads to certain modes of behaviour. There may also be guidelines produced by the organisers or a working agreement settled on by participants that aims to steer the community in a positive, creative direction. Beyond this it is hard to pinpoint things that contribute; indeed, it is far easier to describe the sense of community – what does it feel like?

A young Friend I spoke to recently described a strong Quaker community as a situation in which there is no ‘tension between the individual and the group objectives, nor need or place for authority’. She said: ‘The circle is dissolved and I genuinely feel one with the group’. In my experience this is true. Quaker communities throughout my life have differed immensely in construction, in those attending, in the times and the places, and yet the strongest and deepest are all the same in essence. They have been places to be oneself completely. They have provided spaces to listen and be listened to, to accept and be accepted and to explore diversity and spirituality whilst being gently challenged. They included laughter and silence, silly games, gathered worship and much more. They were so fulfilling and so fun that I returned again and again and again…

The same young Friend admitted to me that without the support and encouragement she finds in these communities she would ‘lack the motivation to worship alone’. This shows clearly the way youth events provide a support for those engaging with spiritual journeys. They give young Friends a safe space in which these thoughts and possible concerns can be discussed, shared, enlightened, tested and changed. These are opportunities for young people to open themselves to each other and to the energy of the Spirit which they may find difficult to do otherwise.

At the age of sixteen my brother came back from his first Summer Gathering saying that he had ‘recharged his Quaker batteries’. This phrase has stuck with me. Now I find going to Meeting for Worship replenishes my energy and keeps me on track. But as I was growing up I needed something ‘stronger’, something a little more vibrant and active. Youth events were that something. They gave me a chance to connect with Truth and recharge my batteries so that I had the courage to be myself every day.

Harriet is a member of Craven & Keighley Area Quaker Meeting and Young Friends General Meeting (the group for young people aged eighteen to about thirty).

Young Quakers website

Young Friends General Meeting

Quaker Summer Gathering

Harriet Hart


 


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Dear visitor
Judy Kirby, editor, the Friend
The poetry of silence and the prose of action
Kevin Franz
The spiritual path for me?
Ron Kentish
What about Hitler?
Geoffrey Carnall
Why I came to the Meeting house
Sibyl Ruth
Why I love Meeting for Worship
Bob Johnson
Recharging our Quaker batteries
Harriet Hart
Loving the Spirit of the Age
Laurie Michaelis
Give Jesus a promotion!
David Boulton
Jesus and me
Paul Oestreicher
Restorative justice
Marian Liebmann
‘Our Lives’: working in disadvantaged communities
Rowena Loverance
Conciliation behind the scenes
Oliver Robertson
Far more than pacifism
Rosemary Hartill
On being a Quaker artist
Rowena Loverance
q-eye
eye@thefriend.org

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