Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to let Friends know about an awesome new pamphlet that the Youth Ministries Committee was involved in publishing. It’s called Coming into Friendship as a Gift: the Journey of a Young Adult Friend, and it’s written by a YAF from Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association. It’s a beautiful account of her journey to Quakerism, and everyone who helped her along the way. She also acknowledges that many YAFs have not had experiences like her own, and that we need to work together as a religious society to create a truly intergenerational, whole spiritual community. At the end of the pamphlet, she gives a number of different examples and suggestions of how monthly meetings can support younger Friends, and how we can all engage with one another. It also includes queries and a resource list. I highly recommend it!

From the back cover, “By naming the gifts she has received from her meetings, Christina Van Regenmorter offers a resource both for younger Friends and for meetings striving to welcome, support and nurture the young people in their midst. Christina notes:

It can be tempting to look at the absence of young faces in our meeting houses and blame it on the ‘digital age’ or on young people needing ‘something more lively.’ However, I would like to hold up the possibility that people coming into Quaker meetings are not looking for a certain prevailing skin phenotype or age presence, but for the Spirit to be evident in the lives of the Friends who are there. I believe that they, like me, ache to have a spiritual community where they feel truly seen, truly held, and deeply challenged.”

Deborah Shaw, the Assistant Director of Friends Center and Campus Ministry at Guilford College writes “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.”

Angelina Conti, a Philadelphia YAF says of this book, "As a relatively active young adult Friend I am often asked where all the other young adult Friends are -- what meetings can do to be open, welcoming faith communities where teenagers and young adults feel seen, nurtured, and needed. I am so thankful for this book, its author, and the Youth Ministries Committee for making this story and its accompanying queries and suggestions available. Christina Van Regenmorter's experience is as teachable as it is inspiring, and provides a powerful model for meetings under the weight of youth concerns (while also offering several good tools for young adults themselves). Our meetings are not whole when they lack the presence and ministry of young people, and this pamphlet offers a powerful place to begin to work towards wholeness."

Check it out at http://www.quakerbooks.org/coming_into_friendship_as_a_gift.php

Happy reading! In peace, Emily