General Convention Offers Focus on Youth and Children
Episcopal News Service. July 19, 2000 [GC2000-088]
James H. Thrall, Doctoral Student at Duke University
(ENS) 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.
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.
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."
An address by General Colin Powell was the keynote event on the concluding day of Y2K4JC. 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."