High Heat Was No Match for the Energy of the Episcopal Youth Event
Episcopal News Service. August 4, 1999 [99-113]
(ENS) In heat that pressed like a huge hot iron, wilting everything from hapless humans to the tall rows of corn in the nearby Indiana fields, more than 1,300 Episcopal teenagers and adults gathered in late July on the Indiana State University campus in Terre Haute to learn and to celebrate together.
The gathering, the seventh Episcopal Youth Event (EYE), did not disappoint them. Through large meetings and small, workshops and quiet conversations, the youth, who represented nearly 90 of the church's U.S. dioceses as well as dioceses from Latin America and the and the Caribbean, dealt with the EYE theme taken from 1 Corinthians -- "Listen, my brothers and sisters: You are many members yet one body."
"Listening is not always easy for any of us, especially listening to people who are not part of our world," Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold told the teenagers at a plenary meeting. "There is no easy connection." He pointed out that Jesus was direct in warning "that people had better function in reality. We are brothers and sisters, but we hold back on some levels. Jesus says go beyond and engage with each other."
Listening, then, became the main work of the event as it explored particularly the effects of racial and gender discrimination and how they may be overcome.
To volleys of cheers, thunderous applause and exuberant music, the five-day meeting began on a sultry night, in what sounded like a collision of a rousing camp meeting and a rock concert.
Waves of thunderous applause -- and even The Wave -- greeted everyone who spoke, including Griswold, who leapt to the stage to speak to the teenagers. Touching as many geographical bases as possible, Griswold noted that he started his career in the church as a rector in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, served as bishop of Chicago, and on the preceding weekend had attended the ordination of James Kelsey, the new bishop of Northern Michigan. The mention of each diocese drew a cheer from its delegation.
"I see our church in its diversity," said Griswold, surveying the crowd. "You're drawn from many parts of the country and from many cultures, yet you are one body."
Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis, the host diocese, added that what teenagers learned and practiced at EYE could benefit the whole church.
"A year ago I was one of 11 women at the Lambeth Conference," she said of the 1998 gathering in England of 750 Anglican bishops. "If we had had chances to listen, to hold each other in positive regard even as we disagreed with them, the Anglican Communion would be in a very different place now."
Ryan Kuratko, a participant from Lubbock, in the Diocese of Northwest Texas, added, "There's a large difference between hearing and listening. This week is about listening; hearing a speaker and taking it to heart." Makese Motley of Wallingford, Pennsylvania, noted that the task was an urgent one. "There are few opportunities in our lives when we will come together so openly to explore our faith together." He urged his fellow teenagers to ask questions, explore their church, acknowledge each other's talents, think about ways to improve their churches and communities and empower young people not only for the church of tomorrow but the church today.
At the core of EYE's program were plenary sessions about gender and racial prejudice and its effects. Youth watched a video produced by the event's 22-member design team, then were invited to discuss it at small-group sessions and at some of the 70 workshops offered during the event.
To identify gender roles that are learned early in society, design team members Kevin Caruso of Bolton, Connecticut, and Erica Jeglum of Carmel, Indiana, in the Diocese of Indianapolis, first showed a video that included interviews with youth at the event and clips from movies that illuminated gender roles and how they could be used or abused. They then invited youth at the plenary to raise their hands if they remembered wearing Halloween costumes that portrayed Superman, a police officer or a firefighter (nearly all of the boys), or if they were disguised as princesses, ballerinas or nurses (nearly all of the girls).
Rigid gender roles, which have often hardened into discrimination later in life, have played a huge role in the church, they said, noting that women were first ordained as priests only 25 years ago. Currently they make up less than 14 percent of all priests and less than 3 percent of bishops. This despite the fact that women make up 52 percent of the country's population, they said.
At a separate plenary, youth were asked a number of questions about the effect of racial discrimination in their lives. An overwhelming number acknowledged that they had felt the sting of prejudice, and that realizing they were all brothers and sisters was a key part in overcoming prejudice and discrimination.
The lesson actually had begun in the year before the gathering in Terre Haute, when dioceses were strongly encouraged to send diverse delegations to EYE, said Thom Chu, the church's top officer for youth and children's ministries.
During the conference, the focus remained on gender and racial discrimination, although other types were named. The lack of any mention of sexual orientation or physical disability as a basis for discrimination, however, drew increasing concern among both youth and adults as the discussion went on.
Eventually an informal gay and lesbian caucus met on the last two days of the gathering, and on the fifth day of the event, following the final Eucharist, members of the design team appeared on stage and offered an apology to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, as well as youth with physical disabilities, for their unintended exclusion from the larger discussions of oppression.
In the many other workshops offered during the event, youth learned about a range of subjects, from ways to stop youth violence to spiritual growth to how to navigate the Episcopal Church's political system. They also learned how much they shared with teenagers from other dioceses.
"I really don't like how kids are stereotyped," said one girl from Province 8. "Adults think we're all doing drugs or trying to get into trouble." She described how officials in her town had gradually restricted the places where teenagers could gather for skateboarding, inline skating or simply talking. Others around her said they felt the same type of stereotyping.
They also said that many of their fellow students knew little about the Episcopal Church and often assumed that church "is just a lot of people yelling, like they see on TV." The teenagers agreed that the church's youth programs, from the parish level to the triennial EYE, were good places to meet other kids, although they said they wanted more opportunities to meet with youth beyond their parishes.
Meeting others was, in fact, the point of the most colorful part of EYE, the cultural carnival, a chance for diocesan groups to share a bit of their culture with everyone else. It was possible to enjoy a taste of clam chowder from Massachusetts, a race at a mini-Churchill Downs set up by the Diocese of Kentucky or listen to steel drum music from the Virgin Islands.
The entire carnival was set up around the campus fountain, whose jets of cool water spouting from ground level seemed life-giving to the youth, who had been housed in dorms without air-conditioning. Crowds at the fountain grew as temperatures climbed to a high of 103 degrees, causing the local electric power company to request cuts in all nonessential use of electricity.
About 100 took the opportunity during EYE to spend an hour with the presiding bishop who, with his wife, Phoebe, spent the entire week at EYE, to the delight of the teenagers. Amid queries such as the kind of musical instrument he plays -- Griswold said he "sort of plays a recorder and can handle liturgical chant" -- also came some serious points.
Asked his opinion on religion in the public schools, he said that it did have a place because of the role religion has played in history. "It's part of the story of humankind." He said the approach to religion "should not be as though one were proselytizing. But you can't understand people of other cultures without some understanding of their religious grounding."
Asked what the saddest part of his job was, Griswold replied, "When people who disagree won't speak to one another, when they refuse to listen to another point of view."
Later, in an interview, he said that during his week at EYE he "was struck by the generosity of spirit" among the youth and their "capacity to make room for others, to have respect," adding that he would "love to see that more broadly in the life of the church."
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