wfn.org | Episcopal General Convention focus on youth

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information:

Episcopal News Service
James Solheim
jsolheim@dfms.org
212/922-5385
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

GC2000-088

General Convention offers focus on youth and children

by James H. Thrall

     (ENS-DENVER) Young people were present at General 
Convention, both physically and prospectively.

     Physically, young people represented each of the provinces 
of the U.S. church in the official "youth presence," while more 
than 1,400 teenagers from the concurrent Y2K4JC youth event in 
Boulder traveled to Denver to join in the Convention Festival 
Eucharist.

     Prospectively, the convention launched a new youth 
initiative by approving a resolution (A007) that will provide 
$250,000 over three years as seed money for an Episcopal Youth 
Corps. 

     Noting that "within the United States and throughout the 
Anglican Communion, there is a great need for servant ministry," 
the resolution urges the church to stop treating "our young 
people as clients instead of disciples with their own ministries, 
their own experiences of Jesus to share." Young people aged 17-30 
could represent a new generation of Episcopalians moving "quietly 
through the Communion teaching, training others to use computers, 
organizing community centers, helping to build houses," among 
other services.

     According to the proposal, the seed money will be used to 
establish networks to support and train volunteers who, with the 
help of Episcopal Ministries with Young People, will be expected 
to fund most of their own ministries through fund-raising.

West Virginia delegation includes young person

     Matthew Holcombe (West Virginia) was one of the youngest 
deputies attending Convention. Having just completed his freshman 
year of college, he said he was pleasantly surprised at his level 
of involvement. Even as a member of the "under-25" generation, he 
said he felt "listened to." 

     As a member of the National and International Concerns 
committee, Holcombe said he found the committee work helped him 
understand the development of resolutions. 

     Faced with the sheer size of convention, "I have a sense of 
overwhelmingness," he admitted. "It's hard to take it all in at 
once. But it's been an eye-opening experience into the political 
side of the church."

     Two youth representatives of each of the church's nine 
provinces exercised their right to "seat and voice" at 
convention, even though, unlike Holcombe, they had no vote. They 
also provided an "honor guard" of sorts in escorting Pamela P. 
Chinnis, outgoing president of the House of Deputies, to the dais 
for an evening celebration of her ministry. The inclusion of the 
youth in such a key role in the program reflected Chinnis's long-
standing commitment to youth ministry in the church.

Kids Hope USA matches schools with churches

     On the edge of convention, representatives of Kids Hope USA, 
an ecumenical organization that establishes partnerships between 
parishes and schools to work with "at-risk" students, maintained 
a booth in the exhibit hall and held information sessions for 
church officials and visitors.

     The program matches a trained adult volunteer mentor in a 
one-on-one relationship with a student, focusing particularly on 
elementary students. Begun in 1995 with three church-school 
partnerships, the program has spread to 112 congregations in 18 
states.

     One mentor, the Rev. Bob Davidson, rector of Trinity Church, 
Greeley, Colorado, said he has seen a dramatic change in the 
children who participate. "They are more confident, more 
trusting, and more open," he said. "It's critical to get children 
at a young age because when they are older they tend to be more 
hardened to relationships like this. Now they are more 
emotionally ready to have someone come into their lives."

Y2K4JC provides high-energy youth celebration

     An address by General Colin Powell was the keynote event on 
the concluding day of Y2K4JC, an international youth gathering at 
the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. Two years in the 
planning, the event was sponsored by the American Anglican 
Council (AAC) and the Diocese of Colorado.

     The event, which drew more than 1,400 teenagers plus another 
150 organizers and college-aged assistants dubbed the "Jesus 
Crew," combined music, drama, personal testimony, workshops and 
worship. Each day began with an opening session that included 
praise and worship led by bands like Undone, Ascension and 
Barefoot. Top Christian rock groups SONICFLOOD and Third Day 
performed in concert as well.

     "This week was reassuring," said Collin Benyo, 16, of St. 
Mark's Episcopal Church in Tampa, Florida. "It's good to come 
together and see I'm not the only one believing in Christ."

--James H. Thrall is a doctoral student at Duke University and 
former deputy director of news and information for the Episcopal 
Church.