Resources
Build It! A Toolkit for Nurturing Intergenerational Spiritual Community
By the FGC Youth Ministries Program, Quaker Bridge Media of FGC, 2011
From QuakerBooks:
"Working over the past five years on a concern about a separation of youth and young adults from our meetings and the Religious Society of Friends, the Youth Ministries Program of the Committee for Nurturing Ministries has collected best practices for nurturing intergenerational spiritual community. The Build It! Toolkit presents: six narrative chapters; lists of resources; templates; and 38 activities and games. It also includes 12 "How-Tos" with helpful tips and the skit, A Short History of Quakerism in 10 Easy Points. The book is practical and accessible, fun and useful for nurturing spiritual community."
The "Build It! Toolkit" also has an extensive website, complete with excerpts from the book, videos of the activities, and templates for workshops.
Read Sadie Forsythe's review!
From the Book Jacket:
Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices celebrates, critiques, questions, and reflects on the Quaker faith experience. Writing and visual art by teenage and young adult Quakers from around the world and across the theological and cultural spectrum of the Religious Society of Friends give readers a window on the spiritual riches and witness these Friends offer. The contributors in this volume challenge and inspire, as they witness to and celebrate Quakerism as it has been, as it is, and as it could yet be. The voices here come together in a symphony, cacophonous but also deeply resonant. Listen and you will hear that their Spirit - here called by many names - is undeniably rising.
This new book is available through QuakerBooks of Friends General Conference, as well as an interview with the Angelina Conti, a young adult Friend from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting who served as the Project Coordinator for Spirit Rising.
A History Of Canadian Young Friends 1875-1996
By Kyle Joliffe
The strange thing about young friends is that there are always young friends growing up and becoming "old friends". Their ideas connections and practice are oftentimes more vibrant than the existing tradition, and contribute greatly to the spiritual life of the society. Here is a good long look at the history of young friends from 1875 in Canada.
http://www.quakerbooks.org/seeking_the_blessed_community.php
Beacon Hill Friends House, New Voices Series
By Kody Hersh
One of the New Voices series of talks by Young Adult Friends (18-35): A member of FGC's Youth Ministries Committee, Kody gives an intense, personal, joyous report on being called into a life lived authentically in response to The Call to Ministry. In this pamphlet, Kody challenges us to explore what living into authenticity means for a member of the Society of Friends.
The Journey Of A Young Adult Friend
By Christina Van Regenmorter
By naming the gifts she has received from her meetings, Christina Van Regenmorter offers a resource both for young adult Friends and for meetings striving to welcome, support and nurture the young people in their midst. Includes queries and a resource list. "If Friends desire their meeting to be a spiritual community where love is the first motion and a place where young Friends feel welcomed, nurtured and supported, prayerful engagement with this text would be a fruitful place to begin." - Deborah Shaw, Assistant Director of Friends Center and Campus Ministry, Guilford College
http://www.quakerbooks.org/coming_into_friendship_as_a_gift.php
A paper by Ashley Wilcox about the experience of Young Adult Friends traveling in the ministry.
By Stoph & Maia Hallward
IN THIS LECTURE, Stoph and Maia Carter Hallward draw on their individual and shared experiences with Quakerism as Adult Young Friends. They reflect on why they have remained connected to Friends at various forks in the road (i.e. graduating, starting their first jobs, having a child) when their friends and peers have often parted company. Maia and Stoph explore ways that Friends can build new and strengthen existing relationships across life stages and ages. They challenge assumptions regarding Ministry and remind us of the reasons why an intergenerationally vibrant Religious Society of Friends is in our collective best interest.
Our Truth, Community, And Journey As Australian Young Friends
By Australian Young Friends
The 2010 James Backhouse Lecture is a collective presentation by a group of Australian Young Friends. They say in their introduction, "One theme that has emerged strongly is: 'Whose Friends are we?' What role does the Religious Society of Friends play in our lives? Do we feel we are friends with older Quakers? Or are we, like the early Quakers, simply young 'Friends of the Truth,' striving to live our lives with integrity? We invite you to share with us an attempt to answer some of these questions through an exploration of what it means to call oneself a Young Friend. Within this framework we explore the expectations placed on us as young people within a spiritual community."