An Introduction by Kody Hersh

In the first years of the Quaker movement, pairs of minister-evangelists set out from England to places around the world, crossing oceans and continents on trips that lasted months or years, to deliver the Quaker message as widely as they could. They crossed cultural and linguistic barriers apparently without hesitation, speaking the Truth that God gave them.... Read More

Faith Kelley

About a year after I started working among liberal unprogrammed Friends I went home to my Evangelical yearly meeting (Evangelical Friends Church- Eastern Region).  A lot of people there wanted to know what I was up to since graduating college and I would tell them about the inter-branch Quaker organizing I was doing in helping plan the 2008 Young Adult Friends' conference.  In one of these conversations, a pastor told me about how a friend of his had gone to an unprogrammed meeting and during worship a woman had lifted her shirt up and flashed the entire group, claiming that the Spirit had told her to. 

All that week, everyone seemed to have a story of a friend, or a friend of a friend, who had had some horrific experience with another branch of Quakerism that they felt compelled to share with me in response to my work.  In the same way, as I continue to work with liberal Friends and I tell them I am an Evangelical Friend often their first response is to tell me some story of when they’ve attended a programmed Quaker meeting and someone has told them they are going to hell or some related condemnation.
   
These stories are troubling in and of themselves, but the more disturbing thing is they point to a real barrier as Friends attempt to reach across the seemingly wide theological and cultural chasms between us.  Stories of wild behavior and harm inflicted seem to be the only things we know about each other, the only narrative we tell ourselves about those “other” Friends.  We don’t interact with each other often enough to have any other tales to tell.  We have nothing to balance the horror stories we all love to repeat.  And telling only these stories does preemptive damage when we try to have relationships across the branches.  We carry them inside us and they color our expectations before we even meet someone from a different branch of Quakerism.
   
This May 28-31 in Wichita, Kansas there will be an opportunity to create new stories together, to tell a different tale.  The 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering will be an opportunity to come together with people 18-35 years-old from other places on the Quaker spectrum and get to know each other not by some rumor we’ve heard but as individuals who are also seeking to live a life led by the Spirit.  We will challenge the impressions we have of the other branches and see a more complete vision of the truth. 

This gathering will be a time to worship together, hear each other’s stories and learn about our faith together.  My hope for the conference is that we can each go home and add another piece to the narrative- a piece that makes the picture we have of the other branches of Friends more complete.  And even more than that, I hope we’ll be gathered together in God to know each other as brothers and sisters.

Registration for the 2010 YAF gathering is now open.  If you register before April 15, you save $30 off the registration fees.  You can find more information and register at: www.yaf2010.wordpress.com

Faith Kelley grew up in Marysville, Ohio at Shiloh Chapel Evangelical Friends Church, a part of Evangelical Friends Church- Eastern Region.  She helped plan the 2008 YAF Gathering in Richmond, Indiana and is currently helping plan the 2010 YAF Gathering in Wichita, Kansas.  She lives and works as the hospitality coordinator at the William Penn House in Washington, DC with her husband, Micah Bales.