To all Friends everywhere,
From Russia with Love, 2 007
We send our warmest greetings from the Motherland Russia where the Spring Gathering of Europe and Middle East Young Friends (EMEYF) took place this April.
Our group was fluid in numbers throughout the week. There was a freestyle merge between participants and speakers with everyone feeling very much at home.
We arrived to the rustic charm of missing floorboards request for documents and cold weather. Our group of 18 gathered together expanding our horizons to include the experiences of people from 13 different countries, 4 continents and 8 languages.
We soon discovered that the Russian soul and style was unique and we began to adapt to it as the gathering progressed, developing a flexible and versatile approach. Our community settled despite initial feelings of restlessness.
Through different sessions and shared experiences we further broadened our horizons in part through exploring ministry in life's work. We were enlightened by an American Quaker Missionary, who revealed how she was led to let her life speak in Russia, giving us an insight into different aspect of Quakerism.
In a later session we discussed the concept of Sacrifice within Quakerism deeply and at length. The way in which being a Friend has led and can lead individuals to God through sacrifice (like in the cases of John Woolman and Tom Fox) was examined over the course of Quaker History and aroused many strong feelings and different perspectives amongst us.
Emotions were also aroused through experiencing an Alternative to Violence Project (AVP) Session. We came to this session with varying expectations. We experienced some of the AVP uses in building relationships. Time constraints was in part responsible for some of us coming away with a feeling of frustration and a thirst to know more.
We discovered and have been enriched by the stories of Quakers in Russia since the early stages of the Quaker movement. We were excited to hear of the Young Friends activities in Russia in the 1990s and were disappointed that in the recent past involvement has declined. We were left feeling eager to support Young Friends in Russia.
There was an overall interest in what it is to live fully as a Quaker responding to the inner light. It was a joy sharing our spiritual journey and approached to Quaker Theologies. There was some feeling of spiritual centredness arising from a shared network of spiritual connection between participants.
Then we had fun :
By the way how many languages can you fit into 1 game of wink for Ministry?
The diversity of Quaker backgrounds in our gathering was impressive: unprogrammed Christocentric, universalist, programmed evangelical, agnostic, Islamic... and those coming from the Russian orthodox tradition, of course. We found these different Quakers identities to be enriching and easily recognised a common Quakerism between us.