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Friends United Meeting |
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September/October 2006
Salt and
Light:
The Youth Factor of Vital Quakerism
By Jack Kirk
During the brightest periods of Quaker history, we have been a youth movement. A high percentage of the Valiant Sixty, who took the Quaker message throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and then anywhere in the world that a British sailing ship would carry them, were under 30. The youngest, James Parnell, was only 17 and he became the first Quaker martyr. His last words were, “It is better that self should suffer for Truth than that Truth should suffer for self.” Elizabeth Fletcher, gentlewoman from Kendal, and Mary Fisher, serving maid from Yorkshire, took the Quaker message to the students at Oxford when they were teenagers.
When the Valiant Sixty began to fade from the scene—their health broken from the rigors of prison and burned-out from their intense missionary labors—two other young leaders stepped to the forefront. They were William Penn, the admiral’s son, and Robert Barclay, brilliant Scotsman related to the royal Stuarts. Barclay completed the Apology, the best intellectual defense of the Quaker position ever written, while still in his twenties.
When the Second Quaker Awakening swept across North America from 1865 to the early 1900s and thousands of newly convinced Friends packed into our meetinghouses from the Pacific to the Atlantic, the leaders were dynamic young women and men like Esther Frame, Rhoda Coffin, John Henry Douglas and Allen Jay.
When hundreds of North American Quakers crossed the Atlantic to rebuild Europe following the devastation of two world wars, again the emphasis was on youth. The American Friends Service Committee and its counterpart, the British Friends Service Council, received The Nobel Peace Prize for their work in 1948.
If Quakers are going to impact the world in a significant way in the twenty-first century, we must do all that we can to nurture our youth. This has been a major Quaker emphasis since we first appeared on the scene of history in the mid-1600s. Prominent historian, David Hackett Fischer observes in Albion’s Seed that Quakers have always placed concern for their children and youth first and foremost. He says: “This concern was shared not merely by the parents but by the entire community. One…concludes from long acquaintance with meeting records that the Quaker yearly meetings for nearly three centuries have drawn attention to the welfare of young people more frequently than any other topic.”
Across the centuries we have founded schools and colleges and operated camps for the purpose of raising up fresh capable and spiritually motivated Quaker leadership for future generations. If we are convinced Quakers still have something essential to give to the world, we must focus on our children and young people now more than ever.
Our yearly meeting in North Carolina is quite intentional about challenging young people to seriously consider a calling to Quaker leadership. We get their attention through an exceptional camping program at Quaker Lake Conference Center, directed by Heather Varner. Our Christian Education Director, Darlene Pittman, keeps the vision before them through a multi-dimensional program of spiritual growth and service activities. Our Intern Program directed by Darrin Allen gives Young Friends opportunities to test gifts for ministry and leadership in the setting of local meetings. The Friends Center at Guilford College, with staff of Max Carter, Deborah Shaw, Scott Pierce Coleman and Betsy Blake, runs a great undergraduate Quaker leadership development endeavor. Students in the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program go through four years of learning, community building, service and spiritual formation experiences.
We need to develop a spirit of openness and affirmation in our local meetings that encourages our young people to step forward and take the risks of leadership. Our local meetings need to be laboratories where young people can test leadership gifts. They should be given opportunities to serve on committees and to help in leading worship (more than once a year on Youth Sunday.) They should be given a significant role in carrying out meeting projects.
Quakers have always had a bias toward the future. They know that the God who spoke to George Fox and Margaret Fell still speaks and raises up witnesses. The work of the Kingdom is ongoing and extends from a generation to generation. The best days for the people called Quakers are still ahead of us if our local meetings become centers of nurture for young, fresh, spirit-empowered leadership
Jack Kirk has retired following nine years as pastor of Greensboro First Friends Meeting. He and his wife, Janet, continue to make their home in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina.