Young Adult Friends Gathering 2010 Video Series

By Micah Bales

This is the first in a series of videos put together from footage and interviews taken during the 2010 Young Adult Friends Gathering in Wichita, Kansas. This gathering took place over the 2010 Memorial Day Weekend and was perhaps the most diverse and balanced YAF gathering in generations. Roughly equal numbers of Liberal-Unprogrammed, Pastoral and Evangelical Friends were in attendance, along with a small number of Conservative Friends.

I hope that these videos will provide you with a sense of the importance – and complexity - what took place in Wichita last May. Coming together from across the United States and Canada, we sought to draw together in the Holy Spirit. Through our joys and our struggles, we came to know each other better and to understand more deeply our shared heritage as Friends.

For more information about the 2010 YAF Gathering, please check out the official website, which features the advance materials that Friends were asked to use in their preparation for the conference, as well as the epistle that those gathered issued at the end of the weekend.

Micah Bales serves as Coordinator of Young Adult Engagement at ESR. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Faith Kelley. He is active with Capitol Hill Friends and is a member of Rockingham Friends Meeting, Ohio Yearly Meeting.