wfn.org | Episcopal Youth Event 1999

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Kathryn McCormick
kccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383

Visit our web site at
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-113

High heat was no match for the energy of the Episcopal Youth 
Event

by Kathryn McCormick

     (ENS) In heat that pressed like a huge hot iron, wilting 
everything from hapless humans to the tall rows of corn in the 
nearby Indiana fields, more than 1,300 Episcopal teenagers and 
adults gathered in late July on the Indiana State University 
campus in Terre Haute to learn and to celebrate together.

     The gathering, the seventh Episcopal Youth Event (EYE), did 
not disappoint them. Through  large meetings and small, workshops 
and quiet conversations, the youth, who represented nearly 90 of 
the church's U.S. dioceses as well as dioceses from Latin America 
and the and the Caribbean, dealt with the EYE theme taken from 1 
Corinthians--"Listen, my brothers and sisters: You are many 
members yet one body." 

     "Listening is not always easy for any of us, especially 
listening to people who are not part of our world," Presiding 
Bishop Frank T. Griswold told the teenagers at a plenary meeting. 
"There is no easy connection." He pointed out that Jesus was 
direct in warning "that people had better function in reality. We 
are brothers and sisters, but we hold back on some levels. Jesus 
says go beyond and engage with each other."

     Listening, then, became the main work of the event as it 
explored particularly the effects of racial and gender 
discrimination and how they may be overcome.  

Camp meeting meets rock concert

     To volleys of cheers, thunderous applause and exuberant 
music, the five-day meeting began on a sultry night, in what 
sounded like a collision of a rousing camp meeting and a rock 
concert.

     Waves of thunderous applause--and even The Wave--greeted 
everyone who spoke, including Griswold, who leapt to the stage to 
speak to the teenagers. Touching as many geographical bases as 
possible, Griswold noted that he started his career in the church 
as a rector in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, served as bishop of 
Chicago, and on the preceding weekend had attended the ordination 
of James Kelsey, the new bishop of Northern Michigan. The mention 
of each diocese drew a cheer from its delegation.

     "I see our church in its diversity," said Griswold, 
surveying the crowd. "You're drawn from many parts of the country 
and from many cultures, yet you are one body."

     Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis, the host diocese, 
added that what teenagers learned and practiced at EYE could 
benefit the whole church. 

     "A year ago I was one of 11 women at the Lambeth 
Conference," she said of the 1998 gathering in England of 750 
Anglican bishops. "If we had had chances to listen, to hold each 
other in positive regard even as we disagreed with them, the 
Anglican Communion would be in a very different place now." 

     Ryan Kuratko, a participant from Lubbock, in the Diocese of 
Northwest Texas, added, "There's a large difference between 
hearing and listening. This week is about listening; hearing a 
speaker and taking it to heart." Makese Motley of Wallingford, 
Pennsylvania, noted that the task was an urgent one. "There are 
few opportunities in our lives when we will come together so 
openly to explore our faith together." He urged his fellow 
teenagers to ask questions, explore their church, acknowledge 
each other's talents, think about ways to improve their churches 
and communities and empower young people not only for the church 
of tomorrow but the church today.

Prejudice and its effects

     At the core of EYE's program were plenary sessions about 
gender and racial prejudice and its effects. Youth watched a 
video produced by the event's 22-member design team, then were 
invited to discuss it at small-group sessions and at some of the 
70 workshops offered during the event.

     To identify gender roles that are learned early in society, 
design team members Kevin Caruso of Bolton, Connecticut, and 
Erica Jeglum of Carmel, Indiana, in the Diocese of Indianapolis, 
first showed a video that included interviews with youth at the 
event and clips from movies that illuminated gender roles and how 
they could be used or abused. They then invited youth at  the 
plenary to raise their hands if they remembered wearing Halloween 
costumes that portrayed Superman, a police officer or a 
firefighter (nearly all of the boys), or if they were disguised 
as princesses, ballerinas or nurses (nearly all of the girls). 

     Rigid gender roles, which have often hardened into 
discrimination later in life, have played a huge role in the 
church, they said, noting that women were first ordained as 
priests only 25 years ago. Currently they make up less than 14 
percent of all priests and less than 3 percent of bishops. This 
despite the fact that women make up 52 percent of the country's 
population, they said.

     At a separate plenary, youth were asked a number of 
questions about the effect of racial discrimination in their 
lives. An overwhelming number acknowledged that they had felt the 
sting of prejudice, and that realizing they were all brothers and 
sisters was a key part in overcoming prejudice and 
discrimination.

Diversity encouraged

     The lesson actually had begun in the year before the 
gathering in Terre Haute, when dioceses were strongly encouraged 
to send diverse delegations to EYE, said Thom Chu, the church's 
top officer for youth and children's ministries.

     During the conference, the focus remained on gender and 
racial discrimination, although other types were named. The lack 
of any mention of sexual orientation or physical disability as a 
basis for discrimination, however, drew increasing concern among 
both youth and adults as the discussion went on.

     Eventually an informal gay and lesbian caucus met on the 
last two days of the gathering, and on  the fifth day of the 
event, following the final Eucharist, members of the design team 
appeared on stage and offered an apology to gay, lesbian, 
bisexual and transgender youth, as well as youth with physical 
disabilities, for their unintended exclusion from the larger 
discussions of oppression.

     In the many other workshops offered during the event, youth 
learned about a range of subjects, from ways to stop youth 
violence to spiritual growth to how to navigate the Episcopal 
Church's political system. They also learned how much they shared 
with teenagers from other dioceses.

     "I really don't like how kids are stereotyped," said one 
girl from Province 8. "Adults think we're all doing drugs or 
trying to get into trouble." She described how officials in her 
town had gradually restricted the places where teenagers could 
gather for skateboarding, inline skating or simply talking. 
Others around her said they felt the same type of stereotyping. 

     They also said that many of their fellow students knew 
little about the Episcopal Church and often assumed that church 
"is just a lot of people yelling, like they see on TV." The 
teenagers agreed that the church's youth programs, from the 
parish level to the triennial EYE, were good places to meet other 
kids, although they said they wanted more opportunities to meet 
with youth beyond their parishes.

Cultural carnival

     Meeting others was, in fact, the point of the most colorful 
part of EYE, the cultural carnival, a chance for diocesan groups 
to share a bit of their culture with everyone else. It was 
possible to enjoy a taste of clam chowder from Massachusetts, a 
race at a mini-Churchill Downs set up by the Diocese of Kentucky 
or listen to steel drum music from the Virgin Islands.

     The entire carnival was set up around the campus fountain, 
whose jets of cool water spouting from ground level seemed life-
giving to the youth, who had been housed in dorms without air-
conditioning. Crowds at the fountain grew as temperatures climbed 
to a high of 103 degrees, causing the local electric power 
company to request cuts in all nonessential use of electricity.

      About 100 took the opportunity during EYE to spend an hour 
with the presiding bishop who, with his wife, Phoebe, spent the 
entire week at EYE, to the delight of the teenagers. Amid queries 
such as the kind of musical instrument he plays--Griswold  said 
he "sort of plays a recorder and can handle liturgical chant"--
also came some serious points.

     Asked his opinion on religion in the public schools, he said 
that it did have a place because of the role religion has played 
in history. "It's part of the story of humankind." He said the 
approach to religion "should not be as though one were 
proselytizing. But you can't understand people of other cultures 
without some understanding of their religious grounding."

     Asked what the saddest part of his job was, Griswold 
replied, "When people who disagree won't speak to one another, 
when they refuse to listen to another point of view."

     Later, in an interview, he said that during his week at EYE 
he "was struck by the generosity of spirit" among the youth and 
their "capacity to make room for others, to have respect," adding 
that he would "love to see that more broadly in the life of the 
church."

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church.