wfn.org | Student leaders take active role in planning

["Communication Ministries" <wshuffit@cm.disciples.org>]

Celebrate Youth gethering
Date: March 8, 2002
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
E-mail: cmiller@cm.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

02a-20

Contact: Brad Lyons, Director of Communications
314-991-3000     Blyons@dhedisciples.org	

	ST. LOUIS (DNS) -- Young Disciples have a hand in planning
what is expected to be the year's largest ecumenical
gathering of college student Christians. 

	Members of the Student Ecumenical Partnership (STEP)
Leadership Team, a joint ministry of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ,
joined more than 60 other students in February to plan the
"Celebrate IV: Weave Us Together" event, which will be held
Dec. 28, 2002 - Jan. 1, 2003 in Albuquerque, N.M. 

	Members of the STEP Leadership Team, which is composed of
10 college students evenly divided between the two
supporting denominations, traveled to an Episcopal retreat
center in Ellerton, Fla., to meet with campus leadership
teams that participate in the Council for Ecumenical
Student Christian Ministries. Additional denominations that
participate in CESCM include the American Baptist Churches,
U.S.A.; the Episcopal Church; the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America; the Presbyterian Church (USA); and the
United Methodist Church. The National Catholic Student
Coalition will also join in Celebrate, having last
participated in 1994. 

	"This was the first time we had a big tent' meeting,
pulling all the different denominations together," said
Kathy Carson, director of program services for the Division
of Higher Education of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ). "Celebrate occurs every four years, so this is a
significant event for college students. While each group
had time to discuss its own matters, we met as a group to
plan for Celebrate and to get to know each other."

	The five Disciples representatives took active leadership
roles throughout the event. "Our students were always
volunteering, offering the prayers, taking leadership
roles," said Carson. "It's truly a great group and a sign
of good things to come for Disciples and the church in
general." 

	Unlike typical college-student trips to Florida, this
journey recharged spirits for the winter semester.

	"I continue to be amazed by the passion and hope exhibited
by everyone," said Wilson Dickinson, a senior philosophy
major at Transylvania University, a Lexington, Ky.
Disciples-related school. "I am so grateful for being able
to commune with a group like this. The different
perspectives and views have allowed me to once again look
upon the world with reinvigorated eyes." 

	STEP is the national college/university student network of
the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United
Church of Christ. It calls students to: 

	* Model Christian unity in working toward justice, peace,
and the integrity of creation;

	* Provide spiritual nourishment and nurture rooted in the
traditions of faith which affirm God's revelation;

	* Build an open and affirming community by seeking to
support each other and understand others, especially those
who may be different from us;

	* Dialogue with diverse ideas and traditions, and with the
interaction of faith and knowledge throughout the world; and

	* Be in mission within institutions of higher education
and their communities, in cooperation with the United
Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ), to nurture student-church relationships.

	Besides the leadership team, the organization has a
listserv with almost 70 subscibers across the country.
College students can join the free listserv by visiting the
STEP web site: www.stepnetwork.org.

	In addition to Dickinson, Disciples members of the STEP
Leadership Team are: Kelly Dick, Eureka (Ill.) College;
Melissa Fellows, Texas Christian University (Ft. Worth,
Texas); Vy Nguyen. Texas Christian University; and
Stephanie Powell, Culver-Stockton College, Canton, Mo.
Dickinson and Fellows represent the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) on CESCM's council, which includes 14
students from the participating denominations. 

	The STEP network is one of the ways the Division of Higher
Education nurtures young leaders for the church. DHE is
affiliated with more than 80 campus ministry programs
across the country. Fourteen universities and seven
theological institutions in 12 states are in covenant with
the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), serving 24,000
students. In addition, three schools and three theological
institutions maintain historical or associate ties with the
denomination. 

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