wfn.org | Episcopalians: Chicago conference asks, 'Will Our Faith Have Children?'

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

March 6, 2003

2003-050

Episcopalians: Chicago conference asks, 'Will Our Faith Have 
Children?'

by David Skidmore

(ENS) The four questions are pristine in their candor and 
simplicity, demarcating the baseline of every inquirer's class 
and catechumenal program in the Christian church:

*Do you believe in God?

How did you first learn about God?

How do you tell others about God?

Why do you go to church?

For over 600 faith leaders, Christian educators, and formation 
ministers participating in the landmark national conference on 
Christian formation -- Will Our Faith Have Children? --  these 
queries served as blaze marks for regaining what the church has 
lost through decades of indifference and half-hearted or 
haphazard approaches to forming and enriching the faith of 
children, youth and adults.

The brainchild of the Rev. Robyn Szoke, staff officer for 
children's ministries and Christian education for the Episcopal 
Church, and a network of Christian educators and children's 
ministry advocates, the February 13-17 conference in a Chicago 
suburb plumbed the promises and impediments of embracing 
life-long learning and formation at all levels of church life. 

In four days of worship, workshops, speeches, reflections and 
experiential learning, the participants -- a number of whom from 
other Anglican provinces -- came away with new ideas and 
perspectives, and the resolve to work for change in attitudes 
and structures.

"Every church that has at least one child should be expending 
resources of money and time on helping that child develop his or 
her relationship with God," said Margaret Schaefer, a Christian 
education director from Nebraska, in an interview. "Our children 
should have the best we have to give, not what is left over."

Phoebe Griswold, who with her husband Presiding Bishop Frank 
Griswold was present for the entire conference, said her wish 
was for the church to "be more militant about the importance of 
raising children with hope." She said that other Anglican 
churches can offer us that gift through their witness of living 
through crisis and conflict, of coping with children forced to 
serve as soldiers or labor in sweatshops. 

Center of the church's mission

The question of whether our faith will have children should be 
at the top of the church's mission priorities if today's leaders 
are to "ensure the future of the church by passing on the 
lessons and the legacies of the faith," said Bishop Franklin 
Turner, retired suffragan of Pennsylvania, preaching at the 
conference's opening Eucharist, a celebration of the life of 
Absalom Jones, the Episcopal Church's first African American 
priest.

As an advocate for children's ministry and "ministry with 
children" for over 20 years, Turner said young people "must be 
at the center of the church's mission and be included in and 
involved in the worship, ministry and total life of the church 
so far as they are able."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood this principle, said 
Turner, and made it a point to include children in the civil 
rights marches and demonstrations he led in the 1960s, even 
though he was chastised for exposing them to the bigotry and 
violence then. King was right, he said, because the struggle was 
as much for the children's liberation as it was for their 
parents. Out of their action they formed their faith, and as a 
consequence those same children "are still involved in the 
struggle today for human rights and the dignity of every human 
being," he noted. 

Not there yet

The fear of losing children from the church, and from the faith 
journey itself, primed conversations in the 22 seminar tracks 
and in a series of forums on the conference's final night. In a 
forum on young adults in the church, the Rev. Jan Griffin of 
Washington who	shared a lament common to many clergy: the 
exodus of college bound young adults from the church and 
tradition in which they were raised. 

But for Vivian Lam, a member of Church of the Holy Spirit in New 
York City, the journey has taken her deeper into the church, 
largely because of the leadership opportunities she was given as 
an Asian-American. Her roles include teaching Sunday School at 
her parish and working with Chinese congregations in the 
diocese. A turning point for her was an Episcopal AsiaAmerica 
Ministry Conference where she saw other Asian young adults fully 
engaged in the program.  She acknowledges that this is the 
exception for many young adults. "As much as we would like the 
church to be at the ideal, where everyone has a place at the 
table, we are not there yet," she said.

The churches set the stage for this turnoff, and turndown, by 
not engaging the minds and spirits of its children, said 
convention chaplain, the Rev. Suzanne Guthrie. As a result, by 
age 12 children have lost interest in a church that apparently 
has lost interest in them. "Children want depth and they want 
breadth," she said, yet adults are not prepared to quench that 
thirst with programs like Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and 
Godly Play that respect children's "natural theological 
brilliance."

Theology is built around questions and adults are there to help 
children frame their questions in a context of creativity, she 
said. "The church should be the playground. The church should be 
the place where the child can still be a child and be a 
theologian, and to be their true selves."

The birth of an idea

In the wake of the 2000 General Convention and just two years 
into her role, Szoke invited members of various Christian 
formation and education networks for a	three-day retreat at 
Southern Ohio's Proctor Center to brainstorm ideas for a 
national event on formation. Her inspiration came from chapter 
five of Walter Brueggeman's Hope within History, in which he 
addresses the tensions in the church's attitude toward children 
by way of two scripture passages: Rachel weeping for children 
exiled during the Babylonian captivity (Jeremiah 31:15), and 
God's assurance that Israel will have abundant children (Isaiah 
54). 

Szoke saw these as bookends for an experience that would pick up 
where the 1998 Treasure Kids conference -- the church's last 
national event dealing with faith formation -- left off.  What 
they ended up with was a palette that emphasizes diversity, 
welcoming worship that includes children, the basics of 
Christian belief and practice, and outreach to people with no 
faith tradition. But to convert these colors into a composition 
they needed a canvas. Szoke decided she needed to go on the 
road.

Accompanied by videographer Karl Schurmann, Szoke set up focus 
groups -- what she called "circles of conversation" -- in five 
cities across the church. From the 48 hours of taping Szoke and 
Schurmann distilled the experience into a 40-minute video 
designed to be shown in ten minute segments. It was a profound 
journey for Szoke. "I am here to say that my whole approach to 
curriculum has been transformed," she said. 

Szoke saw the video as the vehicle for taking the participants 
from grief to exultation within an intense four-day event that 
combined elements of a trade show, revival, teach-in and summer 
camp. 

The need for relationship

The issues were addressed by four keynote speakers: Robert 
Kegan, professor of adult learning and professional development 
at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education; Parker 
Palmer, senior associate of the American Association of Higher 
Education and senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute; Bishop 
Michael Curry of the Diocese of North Carolina; and Vicki 
Garvey, Christian formation coordinator for the Diocese of 
Chicago and formation director for St. Mark's Episcopal Church 
in Barrington Hills.

Palmer, a noted retreat leader, education consultant and author 
of The Courage to Teach, outlined what he termed "the shadow 
side" of the church's approach to children. The indicators, he 
said, include too many parents "eager to be able to drop their 
kids at church for an hour and have someone do religion to 
them"; too many clergy and Christian education directors having 
to coerce lay people into becoming church school teachers to 
ensure "at least one warm body in each classroom"; too many lay 
people operating out of a sense of "spiritual scarcity and 
insufficiency"; and the use of "too many canned curricula"  in 
order "to make up for adult insecurity about not knowing the 
faith from inside out."

As a result too many kids are alienated by religious education 
that is "distant, uninviting, unengaging and lifeless," said 
Palmer.  What they are missing is the one element that children 
most need: a relationship with adults around matters of weight 
and significance. "A living, breathing adventure, hand in hand 
with an adult seeker. That is an adventure in faith," Palmer 
said.

His point echoed Kegan's observation that "your faith will have 
children if they are well held, if they feel well held. If the 
person we are holding is not just a person of our imagination 
but a person who is actually there in front of us." He 
emphasized the importance of accepting the individuality of 
children. Parents can blind themselves by being so fused to 
their children, seeing them "as an extension of ourselves and 
our own aspirations for ourselves."

What should happen?

Will the Episcopal Church have children?  Part of the answer may 
come when General Convention this summer considers a resolution 
from the Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism 
that would commit $4 million to fund a children's minister, a 
youth minister, and a young adult minister in every 
congregation, and an Episcopal ministry on every college campus.

The money would be funneled through the provinces, said the Rev. 
LeeAnne Watkins, a commission member from the Diocese of 
Minnesota, but it will be up to the dioceses and provinces to 
develop the programs and resources to realize the goal.

"What we are learning is that it is easy to get overwhelmed with 
all the things that could happen and aren't happening and should 
happen, and the limited resources and time," she said. Though 
everyone struggles with the worry and weight of passing on the 
faith, "God will survive" and "be present to people throughout 
the generations."

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--David Skidmore is director of communications for the Diocese 
of Chicago and editor of the diocesan newspaper.