Dear friends and colleagues,

Another six months have passed since we last wrote at length about our Office’s vision for our shared work with the 18-30 year olds of our church and our world. Many things have changed in that time at all levels of the church. Parishes, dioceses, provinces and the Church Center have all had to undergo often painful transformations responding to economic and cultural changes. And yet, we again are reminded of our call to give thanks, to rejoice in blessings, and to seek out and serve ‘the least of these.’

The disaster in Haiti has reminded us of the incredible prosperity and responsibility we own in relation to huge portions of our world. The U.S. legislature’s struggle to pass health care reform has highlighted both our common vision and our differences. In all this, the body of Christ is called both to serve in humility and to lead in unity. In particular, the generation with whom we minister must learn both to serve and to lead grounded in our faith, our tradition, and our communities. How will we equip them to do so? This is a question before us all. And in particular, the question before us at the Church Center is how best to equip and support you in equipping them.

Reconfiguration at the Church Center

As we shared with you last fall, the Church Center has gone through some major shifts, financially and structurally, following General Convention.  Our work has been reorganized into smaller teams based on commonalities of vision and structure. Young Adult and Campus Ministries has landed on the Life Long Christian Formation and Vocations team along with Children’s Formation, Youth Formation, Adult Formation, and Life Long Formation. Bronwyn Skov, Officer for Youth Formation will lead our team.

This new configuration promises to help focus our efforts on supporting and equipping ministers to address transitions between life stages and to develop a commonality of vision for all of Christian formation and life-long discernment and vocation. It will also aid us in addressing the needs and concerns of the those of you who are asked to take on more than one program area. This new configuration will not exclude ongoing and future collaboration with other program areas. For example our collaboration with Mission Personnel on the Young Adult Service Corps and with Ethnic and Intercultural Ministries on the Why Serve (formerly Does It Fit?) conference will continue. We are also pursuing greater collaboration with Transition Ministry which will allow for the creation of a fulltime Officer for Young Adult Discernment and Vocation.

Communications Update

As you may have noticed, the Broadcast main page has been redesigned to help you access past issues by topic. This is part of our continued effort to improve communications with you and between you. You may also have observed that the Episcopal Church website has undergone a thorough re-design. While Young Adult Ministry can still be found by typing in episcopalchurch.org/youngadults and Campus Ministry with episcopalchurch.org/campusministries, you can also access both pages under the Networking tab on the website. In particular, we invite you to use this site to access event, internship, and employment opportunities under the Inspire heading. We are also working on cleaning out and updating our resources page. If there are particular resource topics you would like to see addressed, we invite you to email us and share your ideas and needs.

Regional Networks

In the world of young Adult Ministry many of you have heard some buzz about the new Regional Networks. These networks consist of small groupings (8-10) of bishop-appointed Diocesan Young Adult Coordinators, one for each diocese. These informal, voluntary, and mutable groupings are designed to spark conversation and resource sharing between geographically and culturally similar dioceses. They are not designed to replace the provincial structure, or be another required meeting, but are simply opportunities for greater collaboration and feedback. Currently these groups are being facilitated by members of the Committee for Young Adult Ministry, but hopefully will take on a life of their own and become communities of support for dioceses and ministers. We invite your questions and feedback on this new venture.

New Campus Ministry Start-up Grants

Dioceses and parishes are invited to submit proposals for grants to assist in the start-up of new campus ministries or the re-start of dormant campus ministries. A total of $300,000 is available in this triennium, and grants will be awarded from that amount over a two-year period beginning in July 2010. It is expected that the diocese, parish, or campus ministry will match the amount awarded in the grant.  Completed proposals must be received by March 31, 2010.  They will be reviewed by the Provincial Coordinators for Campus Ministry and make recommendations to the Office for Young Adult and Campus Ministries.  Follow this link to the application.

Leadership Development Resources

Finally, we continue in our effort to better equip, resource and support you in your ministries. We look forward to “The Art of Resurrection,” at the College Chaplains’ Conference from June 30 – July 3 in Athens, GA, the Diocesan Young Adult Coordinators’ meeting, September 17-19 in Linthicum Heights, MD and the College Student gathering “Gather Around the Table” December 28, 2010-January 1, 2010 at YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park, CO.

These are all opportunities for gathering and sharing our many stories and gifts for ministry while sharing innovative resources and opportunities for collaboration. For those unable to join us we are continuing to explore online training resources for both young adult and campus ministers. Please keep an eye on the website as well as the right sidebar of broadcast as these are rolled out over the coming months.

As always, it is our joy to work with you, to hear from you and to share with you in your frustrations and your successes. We want to help you share your story, to empower those with whom you work, and to uphold you in your ministry in whatever way we can. You are in our prayers and our thanksgivings.

Peace,
Douglas and Jason

Holy Stuff
The Rev. Amy McCreath, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Episcopal worship is full of “stuff.” Candles, crosses, special garments, bread, wine, water, and more. We like to worship God in the beauty of holiness, and we use many things from God’s creation in order to communicate meaning and deepen prayer..... >>>

Tradition
The Rev. Lucas Mix, University of Arizona

Where is our identity? Is it found in millennial march of the church, passing age to age through history, or is it found in the will and feeling of the people gathered? In seminary I was taught to be wary of tradition. Not the Tradition, mind you, that glorious arc of history that binds us together, particularly in the Anglican Communion. No, I was warned about tradition.... >>>

Gathered In
The Rev. David Umphlett, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, High Point, NC

Last week our young adult group met for dinner.  We left convinced that Domino’s new recipe really is better than their old one.  Other than the discussion of the virtues of one delivery pizza over another, I asked the group to name what it was that they liked about St. Mary’s.  The overwhelmingly common answer was its worship... >>>