wfn.org | Lutheran Youth Organization Elects Nicolette Faison President

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: Lutheran Youth Organization Elects Nicolette Faison President
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>July 30, 2009  

Lutheran Youth Organization Elects Nicolette Faison President
09-172-FI

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (ELCA) -- Delegates to the 2009 Lutheran Youth
Organization (LYO) Convention elected Nicolette Faison, Elmont, N.Y.,
July 29 to a three-year term as LYO president. She succeeds Nathaniel
Viets-VanLear, Chicago.

About 200 delegates of the youth organization of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met in convention July 26-30 at the
University of Southern Mississippi. The LYO is an organization of nearly
100,000 high-school age members of ELCA congregations across the United
States and Caribbean.

Faison, 17, is a member of New Hope Lutheran Church, Valley Stream,
N.Y., and will attend Wagner College, Staten Island, N.Y., as a freshman
in the fall. After graduating from Wagner, she plans to pursue studies at
the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) and become a
pastor. Wagner is one of the 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA;
LTSP is one of eight ELCA seminaries.

Faison said she supports the LYO goal of "uniting the youth and
making sure our voice is heard in the church." She would like to see
youth increase in their leadership skills and use those skills in the
ELCA.

"I have outstanding, young individuals with me," Faison said of the
others the convention elected to the LYO board. "They all come from
different places, and hopefully we can all utilize each others talents to
accomplish what we want to get done," she said.

Delegates elected Matt Wertman, Waynesboro, Va., LYO vice president
and Hannah Knauss, Martinsburg, Pa., LYO secretary.

The convention elected "at large" members of the LYO board from each
of the ELCA's nine regions:
1. Anna McCracken, Spanaway, Wash.
2. Paul Larson, Roseville, Calif.
3. Amanda Bennes, Bismarck, N.D.
4. Nicolas Pierce Conover, San Angelo, Texas
5. Apu Seyenkulo, Chicago
6. Cogan Blakmon, Anderson, Ind.
7. Jillian Foster, Rushville, N.Y.
8. Molly Crouser, Lancaster, Pa.
9. Preston Jutte, Franklin, Tenn.

"I am deeply inspired by the youth," Faison said, especially from
her experience with her congregation's youth group and the LYO of the
ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod. Those experiences led her to discern
her call to become a pastor.

"I am excited not just for my term but for the future of the LYO and
of the youth ministry in the ELCA," she said.

>---

Information about the Lutheran Youth Organization is at
http://www.ELCA.org/lyo on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog