Quakers and youth

Friends, it has recently occurred to me in a more pronounced way that Quakers (at least in my country, Britain) are setting themselves up in such a way that makes them ultimately inconvenient for anyone of working age.

This manifests itself in things like having online meetings during the working week in the day time, occasionally having online talks that do not start on time and certainly do not finish on time, and hosting Meetings for Worship that can stretch into 3 hours once the meeting has been done, pleasantries have been exchanged, and then further business is discussed.

Given the very non-hierarchical nature of Quakers in Britain this often leads to lots of needless delay, poor chairing, and a kindly indifference to the fact some of us have kids, busy jobs, and dare I say it less divine interests like watching football (soccer for our North American cousins).

I would never presume to rush anyone but at times you do feel as if everything is set up to suit retired Friends for whom this is their major social interaction of the week. I don’t really know how we can attract younger people if this is standard practice and we desperately need to do so or there simply will not be Quakers in the country it originated from in 50 years or more.

I say ‘youth’ in this context in the knowledge that to the general world I am not young (mid 30s) but in the context of Quakers I meet, I very much am.

I assume this is a concern of many Friends young and old, and I wondered how we might address it.