Two Young Adult Friends from the Americas to visit Europe in April-May 2019
Two Young Adult Friends, from Mexico and the USA, will visit Europe in April and May 2019. They will attend Ireland Yearly Meeting, the EMES Annual Meeting in Budapest and Young Friends General Meeting in Liverpool. They will also visit Woodbrooke in Birmingham and Friends House in London.
This exciting intervisitiation project is a new initiative and is partly funded by the FWCC World Office Young Adult Friends Development Fund. The fund was created from Quaker Youth Pilgrimage money and it is hoped that it will generate similarly powerful experiences of deep spiritual connection and encouragement for Young Adult Friends around the world.
The Young Adult Friends are Yulieed Avila, a member of the General Meeting of Friends from Mexico and Ashley Weinacht from Northwest Yearly Meeting.
Ashley is a 23 year old third generation Quaker on her father’s side. Her father is a Quaker minister in Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends at Greenleaf Friends Church. She grew up involved in her home church with youth activities, building relationships within the congregation, and ministering through music. She is currently a senior at Barclay College in Kansas getting her degree in Bible/Theology and Worship Arts (which focuses on the theology of worship). She says she loves the Friends’ movement, especially its commitment to simplicity and silence, and she believes that these core beliefs have much to say to our world today.
Yulieed is 21 and belongs to the General Reunion of Friends from Mexico but is currently studying Civil Engineering in Colombia. She attends the Evangelical Friends Church, Cd. Victoria in Mexico with her siblings, parents and grandparents. This church was the very first one to be non catholic in the city and is it around 145 years old. She is a fourth generation Quaker. The church currently has around 40 members, mainly elderly married couples and women. Yulieed says she really enjoys that everyone in the church has a voice, from the children to the youth and the adults. All her life she has participated in the church´s activities. It has not been easy but she has found a lot of inspiration from the young Friends that she has met from Bolivia, Cuba, Peru and the US. Having the opportunity to connect with other Friends and their different branches has given her another perspective about the richness of the Quakerism and the reach that we have.
We would like to thank everyone who is helping with the preparations for this visit!
If you want to know more about this visit please contact Michael Eccles below.
