I've just been looking at the photos from WGYF Africa on the FWCC Africa site ( http://www.fwccafrica.org/Young%20Friends/WGYF%20Africa/WGYF%20Africa.html ) which somehow had far more impact on me than reading the blog entries did ( http://wgyfafrica.blogspot.com ). Maybe it was because now I could see John, Rachel, Grace, Raul et al there and finally knowing what Bainito looks like after all the email correspondence we had and hearing his voice during phone conferences etc.
I've been thinking about WGYF a lot recently. Fran, Jonathan and I are doing three feedback sessions in the next few weeks for Friends here in Wellington (a matiné and evening performance on the 13th!) and up the coast after Kapiti Meeting (27th). Plus of course we said a bit about it already at Wanganui. I've been reading a lot of what other people have written lately and have started to realise just how 'sheltered' my own experience of it was - due to having admin team meetings every morning I was spared deep and meaningful discussions over breakfast (phew, me soooo not a mornings person...), most lunchtimes I managed to meet up with at least some of my mini support group whose main task was to distract me from WGYF for at least half an hour a day and in the evenings I usually ended up with interesting but not challenging conversation as we ate.
Not having got to any workshops where the major issues that 'divided' us were discussed (such as those around homosexuality and in particular FUM's discriminatory employment policy on this) and having a basegroup that whilst diverse was made up of such gentle and open people - with no sense of judgement being present - I found that the only challenges were internal, not within face to face discussion. Many of these challenges were brought about from ministry in worship, content from the main speaker sessions and the occassional seemingly by the by comment made by individuals around me. But I dealt with them in the silence of worship, lying in bed at night and sometimes sharing in the safety of my basegroup or with someone from my 'own' tradition, and in some cases they are still there fighting for headspace and time for reflection.
But I suspect that to an extent I sheltered myself. I wasn't really feeling up to anything controversial and half the time I felt as though I was hardly there but as if I were watching the event from some disembodied plane. My role had always been to ensure that it happened, to enable other people to have these challenging experiences and discussions. I look back and often I can't quite remember how my days were filled, but they were - to the brim!
For the feedback sessions I've to think what were the highlights for me of the event. Each and every 'moment' that comes to mind seems to be accompanied by floods of tears (and usually Louisa magically appearing with tissues!) - not tears of sadness but of joy, of just too much emotion; such as when Benny spoke of the Bridges of Love in worship one morning, as I reached the crest of Pendle Hill and saw the flag on top and people streaming up towards the gathered crowd, and holding hands between Thomas and Eleni as we sang 'Shout to the Lord' on the last morning when the lines below hit me hard as being not about 'the Lord' as in the image I had discarded at school as being, well just plain silly (old man with a beard sitting on a cloud some place) but being about those who surrounded me in the hall
'I sing for joy at the work of your hands,
Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand.
Nothing compares to the promise I have in you.'
Just thinking about it all now is enough to know that sharing these moments is probably going to need hand holders and tissue providers again and is where I'd just love to have my mini support group back!
Monday, November 07, 2005
Saturday, November 05, 2005
QYP 1987-2004
I wanted to included this in the previous post but it seemed to lose me half the text if I did, oh well this gives me room for names =)
So, QYP'ers from 1987 - 2004 who were at WGYF...
1987 - Rosie, Ute & Anna
1989 - Mike & Ana Gabriella
1997 - Anke & Barbara
1996 - Karen
1998 - Emilano, Anneke, Christina & Aidan
2000 - Louisa, Hanna, Johanna, Anna
2002 - Ruadhan
2004 - Amy-Jean, Jane, Tamara, Geoffrey & David
looking back
I guess I really ought to work out how to link in files so things like this don't become such long posts... anyway, I was asked to write something by the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage committee about how the pilgrimage I went on affected my life for them to use as part of the fundraising and preparation for QYP 2006. (Sometimes knowing so many Quakers internationally comes back to haunt you!) I had a go at writing something, no idea if this is what they were looking for but it's what they got =)
Quaker Youth Pilgrimage 1987 to WGYF 2005
Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears.... so started one of the journal entries written by by three of us in the bathroom at Quaker International Centre in August 1987 as we dyed the hair of two of my fellow pilgrims – if I remember rightly we managed to adapt a pretty hefty chunk of the speech, whilst not exactly spiritual development it certainly improved my knowledge of Shakespeare – probably the first time in my life I'd looked at any outwith a classroom situation! As we'd been to see Midsummers Nights Dream that week in Regents Park it had a certain continuity of theme – my English teacher would have been proud of me if I'd told her (and it might have made up some for the Monday afternoon lessons I'd fallen asleep in after various Quaker weekends away!)
In August 2005 two of us who wrote that journal entry were again together for a major international Quaker event along with Ute Caspers who had been one of our leaders that year. Rosie and I had worked alongside each other for years within (the British) Young Friends Central Committee (as it was then called, now YFGM) but this was the first time we'd been together again in an international context, and in the last year of us both being 'officially' Young Friends.
The World Gathering of Young Friends brought together 32 pilgrims spanning 17 years of pilgrimages. There having been 32 pilgrims in '87 (including leaders) there seemed a symmetry to the number. I'm not entirely sure though that Rosie, Ute and I really wanted to know that the youngest participant of QYP 2004 at WGYF had been born the year we'd gone on ours, but again a certain symmetry. Throughout WGYF I was reminded time and again of our pilgrimage as we revisited the 1652 Country sites, took replica photographs and had the same British English/American English 'you call it a what?!' conversations all over again with the added twist of Australian/New Zealand/Canadian versions thrown in for good measure.
There was a sense for me of having come full circle being back in the 1652 Country for WGYF, whilst not quite where my active involvement with Young Friends started it was still very early on for me and certainly my first experience of the differing branches of Quaker theology and practice.
Did QYP '87 change my life? Did it affect my spiritual journey? It was hard to answer that aged 17 when I got home and had to report back to Monthly Meeting and the trusts who funded me – just how do you process such an intense 4 week experience and put it into words? Once again I'm finding the same problem post WGYF – 'here I am but where are my words?' - ministry from an impromptu Meeting for Worship of younger Friends at the FWCC Triennial 2004 comes back to me time and again. But maybe those first three words are the crux of it 'here I am' – I'm still with Friends, I spent 5 years attending YFCC serving as an overseer and on outreach committee, I've been doing Quaker youthwork since I got too old to attend as a young person, I've served on numerous committees within the Monthly Meetings I've lived in, and served as an overseer again. I've worked for FWCC Europe & Middle East Section and was the administrator for WGYF, I've been on the wardening team at Edinburgh QMH and am now Resident Friend in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. So often I've heard people despair about the lack of young people in our Meetings and how many drift off in their teens or after YFCC/YFGM, but I am still here, and putting my faith into action, letting my life speak and living adventurously!
The pilgrimage helped instill into me a sense of belonging, not only to British Quakers (I became a member within a year of the pilgrimage) but to the worldwide family of Friends, and that has always been important to me. I'm not entirely sure that I really grasped the extent of our theological differences on the pilgrimage having been far more aware of the more personal level of our diversity but the fact that I can't really remember now who was from what tradition (with a couple of exceptions) probably says more about the way we accepted each other as individuals rather than seeing each other as 'programmed' or 'unprogrammed' Friends.
This openness and acceptance was even more apparent at WGYF and was coupled with an intense desire to learn from each other about our different traditions and share our beliefs and experiences. I'm not entirely sure that I would have been ready for WGYF at 17 or 18, mainly because it was far too early on in my Quaker experience to have gained enough confidence in what I did believe, nor had I learned how to sufficiently put it into words, that was to take another 15 years or more. However the pilgrimage helped me understand what the peace testimony meant to me (we visited Germany pre reunification and went to Bergen Belsen, an experience that will never leave me) and it gave me a good grounding in Quaker history. Some of the poems and quotations we shared in our nightly epilogues are still dear to me and have profoundly shaped my thinking. But maybe what was most important was that it fueled the 'fire in my belly', the strength of my commitment to Friends, and the desire to share that and help others gain it experientially for themselves. I knew I had been extremely privileged to attend the pilgrimage and felt what I can now call a leading to become an active part of our Society, giving not just receiving.
There is a quote that I will always associate with the pilgrimage and that became fundamentally important to me then. It has constantly remained something to aspire to, and I suppose as such has shaped both my spiritual and temporal journey through life as I have gradually built up to being able to live up to it. I feel incredibly blessed by the opportunities I have had in recent years that have given me a sense of having finally got somewhere towards fulfilling it.
Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one. (George Fox, 1656)
Quaker Youth Pilgrimage 1987 to WGYF 2005
Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears.... so started one of the journal entries written by by three of us in the bathroom at Quaker International Centre in August 1987 as we dyed the hair of two of my fellow pilgrims – if I remember rightly we managed to adapt a pretty hefty chunk of the speech, whilst not exactly spiritual development it certainly improved my knowledge of Shakespeare – probably the first time in my life I'd looked at any outwith a classroom situation! As we'd been to see Midsummers Nights Dream that week in Regents Park it had a certain continuity of theme – my English teacher would have been proud of me if I'd told her (and it might have made up some for the Monday afternoon lessons I'd fallen asleep in after various Quaker weekends away!)
In August 2005 two of us who wrote that journal entry were again together for a major international Quaker event along with Ute Caspers who had been one of our leaders that year. Rosie and I had worked alongside each other for years within (the British) Young Friends Central Committee (as it was then called, now YFGM) but this was the first time we'd been together again in an international context, and in the last year of us both being 'officially' Young Friends.
The World Gathering of Young Friends brought together 32 pilgrims spanning 17 years of pilgrimages. There having been 32 pilgrims in '87 (including leaders) there seemed a symmetry to the number. I'm not entirely sure though that Rosie, Ute and I really wanted to know that the youngest participant of QYP 2004 at WGYF had been born the year we'd gone on ours, but again a certain symmetry. Throughout WGYF I was reminded time and again of our pilgrimage as we revisited the 1652 Country sites, took replica photographs and had the same British English/American English 'you call it a what?!' conversations all over again with the added twist of Australian/New Zealand/Canadian versions thrown in for good measure.
There was a sense for me of having come full circle being back in the 1652 Country for WGYF, whilst not quite where my active involvement with Young Friends started it was still very early on for me and certainly my first experience of the differing branches of Quaker theology and practice.
Did QYP '87 change my life? Did it affect my spiritual journey? It was hard to answer that aged 17 when I got home and had to report back to Monthly Meeting and the trusts who funded me – just how do you process such an intense 4 week experience and put it into words? Once again I'm finding the same problem post WGYF – 'here I am but where are my words?' - ministry from an impromptu Meeting for Worship of younger Friends at the FWCC Triennial 2004 comes back to me time and again. But maybe those first three words are the crux of it 'here I am' – I'm still with Friends, I spent 5 years attending YFCC serving as an overseer and on outreach committee, I've been doing Quaker youthwork since I got too old to attend as a young person, I've served on numerous committees within the Monthly Meetings I've lived in, and served as an overseer again. I've worked for FWCC Europe & Middle East Section and was the administrator for WGYF, I've been on the wardening team at Edinburgh QMH and am now Resident Friend in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. So often I've heard people despair about the lack of young people in our Meetings and how many drift off in their teens or after YFCC/YFGM, but I am still here, and putting my faith into action, letting my life speak and living adventurously!
The pilgrimage helped instill into me a sense of belonging, not only to British Quakers (I became a member within a year of the pilgrimage) but to the worldwide family of Friends, and that has always been important to me. I'm not entirely sure that I really grasped the extent of our theological differences on the pilgrimage having been far more aware of the more personal level of our diversity but the fact that I can't really remember now who was from what tradition (with a couple of exceptions) probably says more about the way we accepted each other as individuals rather than seeing each other as 'programmed' or 'unprogrammed' Friends.
This openness and acceptance was even more apparent at WGYF and was coupled with an intense desire to learn from each other about our different traditions and share our beliefs and experiences. I'm not entirely sure that I would have been ready for WGYF at 17 or 18, mainly because it was far too early on in my Quaker experience to have gained enough confidence in what I did believe, nor had I learned how to sufficiently put it into words, that was to take another 15 years or more. However the pilgrimage helped me understand what the peace testimony meant to me (we visited Germany pre reunification and went to Bergen Belsen, an experience that will never leave me) and it gave me a good grounding in Quaker history. Some of the poems and quotations we shared in our nightly epilogues are still dear to me and have profoundly shaped my thinking. But maybe what was most important was that it fueled the 'fire in my belly', the strength of my commitment to Friends, and the desire to share that and help others gain it experientially for themselves. I knew I had been extremely privileged to attend the pilgrimage and felt what I can now call a leading to become an active part of our Society, giving not just receiving.
There is a quote that I will always associate with the pilgrimage and that became fundamentally important to me then. It has constantly remained something to aspire to, and I suppose as such has shaped both my spiritual and temporal journey through life as I have gradually built up to being able to live up to it. I feel incredibly blessed by the opportunities I have had in recent years that have given me a sense of having finally got somewhere towards fulfilling it.
Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one. (George Fox, 1656)
Thursday, November 03, 2005
bible bashing
Ok, I need to find a new bible... I've been trying really hard to get into the habit of reading it to get a better understanding of where so many of those at WGYF were coming from and after having had various 'good starting points' recommended to me.
However there are only so many doths, untos, wherefores and verilys I can read without expecting the Patrician or the City Watch to make an appearance along with the Temple of Offler and various Small Gods - Terry Pratchett has a lot to answer for.
I know I found the Message Bible almost cringeworthily American at first but I'm rapidly warming to the concept, altho' I still find it hard to get my head around the bible including words like 'cute'.
Hmmm, wonder what I can find in the Meeting House, the one in the house is no better than my own. I'm remembering fast why I found it all such hard going at school....
However there are only so many doths, untos, wherefores and verilys I can read without expecting the Patrician or the City Watch to make an appearance along with the Temple of Offler and various Small Gods - Terry Pratchett has a lot to answer for.
I know I found the Message Bible almost cringeworthily American at first but I'm rapidly warming to the concept, altho' I still find it hard to get my head around the bible including words like 'cute'.
Hmmm, wonder what I can find in the Meeting House, the one in the house is no better than my own. I'm remembering fast why I found it all such hard going at school....
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Earthquakes
Apparently there was an earthquake just off the north coast of South Island yesterday registering 4.8 on the Richter Scale which was felt in Wellington and in fact there have been about seven of them in the last 24 hours if you count the aftershocks. Can't say as I noticed but Fran did as the flowers on her coffee table went in for a burst of synchronised waving without any wind to assist. There's a website (isn't there always?) where you can look these things up - http://www.geonet.org.nz/recent_quakes.html
It was a rather salient reminder to get a bit more organised sooner rather than later. In fact Fran and I sat after tea and swapped emergency contact information, something we had realised we needed to do when at Wanganui and discussing funerals! Whilst I do have family over here none of my friends here know any of them yet and 'Emma in Taita' really isn't going to help anyone looking her up in the phone book (needless to say we've all got different surnames...) and Carole & Brian seem to keep moving every 6 months anyway. Various committees in the Meeting are going to be looking at this as many of us live thousands of miles from our next of kin and no-one locally would know where to start to find them.
Marion and I have been discussing earthquake provision etc over the last few days - basically we are supposed to be able to fend for ourselves for at least 3 days in terms of food and water, and possibly for up to 2 weeks. The earthquake kit in here has tins of spam, meatballs and macaroni cheese - I'm a dairy intollerant vegetarian! We're going shopping... meanwhile I've padded out my own kitchen cupboards with a few extras. It's all very strange trying to get my head around such things but it is important. After all, the damage in New Orleans was as bad as it was because maintenance had been slack on the levvies - as they hadn't burst in 300 years no-one thought they would and people weren't prepared. Apparently the local civic defence point is the school at the bottom of the road and a quick sprint (ahem, more like breathless scramble) up Elizabeth Street onto Mount Victoria would put me clear of the worst that can hit the city, so relatively speaking I'm 'safe' here.
Abi who was at both the Triennial and WGYF lives near(ish) Jakata and whilst he escaped the effects of the Tsunami his house was badly damaged by the earthquake at Easter. Fortunately he and his family were all ok. But it brings it home, these things don't just happen on the news, they are real people whose lives are affected and with the string of natural disasters we've witnessed over the last few months I'm not taking my chances. Wellington is due a big earthquake at any point in the next 50 years or so - I guess it's like taking your brolly with you so it doesn't rain!
It was a rather salient reminder to get a bit more organised sooner rather than later. In fact Fran and I sat after tea and swapped emergency contact information, something we had realised we needed to do when at Wanganui and discussing funerals! Whilst I do have family over here none of my friends here know any of them yet and 'Emma in Taita' really isn't going to help anyone looking her up in the phone book (needless to say we've all got different surnames...) and Carole & Brian seem to keep moving every 6 months anyway. Various committees in the Meeting are going to be looking at this as many of us live thousands of miles from our next of kin and no-one locally would know where to start to find them.
Marion and I have been discussing earthquake provision etc over the last few days - basically we are supposed to be able to fend for ourselves for at least 3 days in terms of food and water, and possibly for up to 2 weeks. The earthquake kit in here has tins of spam, meatballs and macaroni cheese - I'm a dairy intollerant vegetarian! We're going shopping... meanwhile I've padded out my own kitchen cupboards with a few extras. It's all very strange trying to get my head around such things but it is important. After all, the damage in New Orleans was as bad as it was because maintenance had been slack on the levvies - as they hadn't burst in 300 years no-one thought they would and people weren't prepared. Apparently the local civic defence point is the school at the bottom of the road and a quick sprint (ahem, more like breathless scramble) up Elizabeth Street onto Mount Victoria would put me clear of the worst that can hit the city, so relatively speaking I'm 'safe' here.
Abi who was at both the Triennial and WGYF lives near(ish) Jakata and whilst he escaped the effects of the Tsunami his house was badly damaged by the earthquake at Easter. Fortunately he and his family were all ok. But it brings it home, these things don't just happen on the news, they are real people whose lives are affected and with the string of natural disasters we've witnessed over the last few months I'm not taking my chances. Wellington is due a big earthquake at any point in the next 50 years or so - I guess it's like taking your brolly with you so it doesn't rain!
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