Junior Young Friends (JYF) was a Quaker youth group within

Britain Yearly Meeting The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain, also known as the Britain Yearly Meeting (and, until 1995, the London Yearly Meeting), is a Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England, S ...

for 13- to 18-year-olds, which held weekend-long gatherings roughly 3 times a year. Events took place in a Quaker Meeting House, usually in the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

area. It was, strictly speaking, responsible to

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Monthly Meeting In the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), a monthly meeting or area meeting is the basic governing body, a congregation which holds regular meetings for business for Quakers in a given area. The monthly meeting is responsible for the administr ...

, although Central England Quakers eventually took over the role. However, it attracted participants from across the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, especially for the Bournville Christmas event. The appendage of the word 'Junior' to the name was in order to distinguish from Young Friends usually used to describe Quakers aged 18–30 (as in Young Friends General Meeting). The weekends sometimes had a theme, often related to Quaker ideals, which was contemplated through Base Group discussions, the Committee-run sessions and sometimes guest speakers. There was also a significant amount of free time allocated to allow participants to explore the city where the event was held. The tradition of staying up into the early hours of the morning, or not even sleeping at all, was embraced by the majority of the participants. JYF has evolved a number of

in-jokes An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke whose humour is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest. It i ...

and other traditions including the love of beans and the celebration of "Pi time," by eating a type of pie such as a

mince pie A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in the United States, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during ...

at 3:14am. These traditions often appear quite odd to those who have little experience of the young Quaker culture. There are also a number of JYF groups worldwide.

History

Historically, there were JYF groups throughout Britain, but a number of circumstances led to their closure, to the point that the

Junior Young Friends was the last surviving one. Many Quaker youth groups are now known as Link Groups, but differ from Junior Young Friends because they are organised partly or in whole by adults. JYF was solely organised by The Committee who were all 19 or under. To fulfil legal requirements, there were Responsible Adult supervisors (RA's) on site throughout the weekend.

Closure

After several years of dwindling numbers and COVID struggles, the event was reduced to merely the Bournville one at Christmas. Shortly after, Central England Quakers decided to cut off support for the event, citing increasing safeguarding regulations, lack of committee members within the age range and a general lack of interest in running the event. The final JYF was held at Bournville Meeting House from the 17–19 December 2021. It was run as a celebration of JYF's recent history, and unusually had a changed age range of 18-25 as there weren't enough adult volunteers to safeguard under 18s. JYFs closure marked the end of Junior Young Friends events in Britain. Rosie and Sammy Gilbert, the main organisers for the last few years, have expressed interest in restarting the event following the easing of lockdown rules. Along with a skeleton crew of former JYF committee members, they have set up a successor event called Fellowship of the Friends (pronounced F-OFF) targeting the 18-25 year-old age range.https://www.facebook.com/groups/1093565638030935/

Locations

In recent years, JYF's have been held at Friend's Meeting Houses in the following locations: * Bournville,

Cotteridge Cotteridge is an area of Birmingham, England and part of the Bournville ward. It is about miles south of Birmingham city centre. It has a shopping centre with a mixture of local shops, eateries and national brands. Church The Cotteridge Church i ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

* Leicester * Northfield,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

Selly Oak Selly Oak is an industrial and residential area in south-west Birmingham, England. The area gives its name to Selly Oak ward and includes the neighbourhoods of: Bournbrook, Selly Park, and Ten Acres. The adjoining wards of Edgbaston and Harborn ...

* Northampton

External links and references

Junior Young Friends website
Specific {{Reflist Quakerism in the United Kingdom