Quaker Life
September/October 2006

Stories from Young Friends

Valiant for Truth Contents

By Patricia Edwards-Konic

“During the brightest periods of Quaker history,” Jack Kirk writes in Salt & Light, “we have been a youth movement.” The Valiant Sixty. The Second Quaker Awakening. Rebuilding in Europe after two world wars. Today.

Examples of Young Friends (30 and under) are all around. For the second summer, Anna Crumley-Effinger (Richmond, Indiana) is in Rwanda with Friends Peace Team Africa Great Lakes Initiative building classrooms and helping with Alternative to Violence projects.

Eric Benner (Syracuse, New York) just returned from a Witness for Peace delegation to Columbia.

Young Friends are attending yearly meetings and voicing their concerns. Others are gathering in emerging church groups like the one Wess Daniels wrote about in the last issue of Quaker Life.

The blogosphere is loaded with insights of faith and daily life written by Young Friends living into their faith questions. A great place to start is http://underthegreenhill.blogspot.com/2005/09/page-of-quaker-blogs.html which lists many current blogs. I have been learning much about Young Friends worldwide.

The Quaker Life cover states:
Young Friends
Faith
Inspired
Growing
Energetic

This issue highlights our summer publication intern, Erini Shields (Muncie, Indiana) and her trips last year to China and South Africa with Goshen College as well as an article on online networking. Paul Makhino (Nzonia, Kenya) writes about the importance of seeking and obeying God. Santosh Chandy (Chicago, Illinois) questions his lack of training in Christian faith and whether the traditional form of Quakerism meets his spiritual needs as a Christian.

As we look around in many Friends meetings, we see many grey heads and few younger people. Yet, the youth movement is strong and is leading our Young Friends into exciting and challenging areas of ministry throughout the world.

For them, connections at a local meeting may or may not happen. But connections are made through blogs and the internet, through small group meetings, through international ministry. Like the Valiant Sixty, the world is the place where they live out their faith and walk cheerfully over the earth.

8 Experiencing Life and the World…
By Erini Shields
Goshen College trips to China and South Africa changed the life of Young Friend Erini Shields from Indiana Yearly Meeting.

11 Seeking and Obeying God, Necessary Beyond Salvation
By Paul Makhino
East African Young Friend Paul Makhino shares the importance of seeking and obeying God in one’s daily walk.

13 Quakerism: Does it Work Now?
By Santosh J. Chandy
A Young Friend asks the question, “Does Quakerism work for his generation?” and wonders why Friends don’t have growth strategies for his age demographic.

15 Is Christian Online Networking Safer? A Look at Networking Platforms
By Erini Shields
Youth are interested in online chat rooms and social networking with their friends. New is Christian based Xianz.com and the author compares it for safety issues with other sites.

_______________________________
Features

4 News from Friends United Meeting

7 FUM Staff/Contact Information

12 Salt and Light
The Youth Factor of Vital Quakerism
Jack Kirk

14 A Peace Poem from War-Stricken Congo

16 Soul Food
An Equality of Willingness
Jan Hoffman

18 News

21 Peace Notes

22 Reviews

24 Passages

28 Classifieds

30 Meeting Directory

33 Friends United Meeting
Member Yearly Meetings

34 Viewpoints

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