Young people planning their Yearly Meeting programme
There are 3 young people on the arrangements committee for the programme for 11-15s at Yearly Meeting this year. Since being nominated at last year's event they've been working behind the scenes with Quaker Life staff to plan this year's event.
The arrangements committee want to create YP@YM 2024 as a place where young people feel truly welcome, and so can treasure being part of a community where people are the most honest version of themselves. We want to create an inclusive Quaker space, so participants can have fun, enjoy meeting new people, being part of a community, worshipping together and expanding their thinking.
When thinking about the YP@YM programme in terms of animals the arrangements committee decided they wanted it to be part lioness (a place to understand what you believe in, and why – and to learn how to communicate this, even when people feel upset, angry or challenged), part warthog (a place to have fun and get ready to spring into action) and part owl (peaceful with immense power and strong wings flying towards the light; a place where being peaceful acknowledges the power humans have and how we can make choices to use power for good and not harm).
After hearing a Friend recount there are 'too many people shouting at the world to be better, and not enough people loving the world to be better', the arrangements committee agreed on the theme; 'The power of truth and love'. This links in with the wider yearly meeting theme, and we will explore it in a series of day events with some activities just for 11-15s and some activities with all ages, such as the intergenerational exploration afternoons. We're meeting again in April and May to put together the programme and build a team of volunteers to run this event.
All 11-15s welcome!