Youth Ignite a Movement to Obtain Official Representation in Diocesan Structures
Episcopal News Service. August 19, 1993 [93152]
As thousands of young Episcopalians encircle bonfires at summer camp or journey home from the recent Episcopal Youth Event (EYE) in Massachusetts, young people in the dioceses of Virginia and Maryland have successfully completed efforts to gain seat, voice and vote in the official legislative bodies of their dioceses.
Although youth participate in diocesan affairs on a variety of levels -- including the right to a seat and voice in a few dioceses -- and some young people have been elected by local parishes to represent them in the diocesan convention, the Diocese of Virginia is believed to be the first to set aside a number of official seats for young people as full members in the legislative assembly.
The successful campaign by youth to gain access to the decision-making councils in these two dioceses is a story of flinty determination by young people who demanded that clergy and lay leaders stop thinking of youth as objects of the church's ministry rather than participants.
Youth have been involved in the Diocese of Virginia for a long time. "I began attending meetings of the diocesan council as a sophomore in high school," said Mary Hardy, former cochair of the diocese's parish youth ministries committee (PYM), in an interview. "Many of us served as pages and volunteers at council meetings. During that time we also paid close attention to what was going on in the debate and thought a great deal about the issues before the council. I was fascinated about the meetings...and the debate," she reported. And the youth had "kept up with the issues throughout the year."
Happy Pullman, executive for program in the Diocese of Virginia, said that the diocese sponsors the traditional programs for youth, including weekend retreats, rallies and social events. She said that the youth increasingly wanted to "raise the vision of their involvement in the church as more than just a weekend event." Pullman said that there was "a rising level of frustration" among youth because they felt "adults were making decisions that would have future implications for them and yet they [the youth] had no voice in the decisions."
Hardy credited Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning as the catalyst for a move by the youth to seek formal representation in the diocesan structure. "Many of us had attended the 1990 EYE in Montana at which Browning said that youth are not merely the church of the future, they are the church of today." Pullman agreed that Browning's challenge was "a very affirming thing for the youth. It became their motto," she said.
During Hardy's junior year in high school, the youth committee decided to test the political waters with a resolution it presented to the council. The experience, Hardy said, gave the youth a close-up experience at the political process, but it also served as a poignant example of the obstacles that still closed youth out of the process. Although they could speak at the initial hearings about the resolution, they could not address the subject when it came to the floor.
Diocesan youth began to press for a change in the canons that would give them full membership -- seat, voice and vote on the council. The change required a majority vote by the council in two successive years. Even though the diocese's commission on constitution and canons twice refused to support the measure, the youth of Virginia finally prevailed at the January 1993 council meeting -- although not without opposition.
Opponents of the measure contended that the change would completely alter the basic composition of the council, namely, that it was comprised of representatives of parishes. Extending the franchise to a delegation of youth, critics charged, would give undue weight to a "special interest" and dilute the authority of parishes in the democratic process.
Youth pointed out that the president of the Episcopal Church Women already was a member of the council and that every member of the clergy has seat, voice and vote -- whether or not they are involved in or employed by a parish.
Peter Home, who served as cochair of PYM with Hardy and is currently a sophomore at Duke University, speculated that opponents of the idea "maybe didn't understand what we were doing and how we could benefit the church. I think the young people are aware of what's going on in the world and can offer a different perspective. Sometimes the church gets too wrapped up in internal politics," he said.
Hore said that some members of the council were apparently concerned that teenagers might not be able to fulfill the responsibility. That idea that was particularly irritating since many of the youth were keenly interested in the diocesan structure, albeit from the sidelines. Hardy pointed out that many of the youth had been to more meetings of the council than some of the official adult delegates.
Hardy still remembers the drama of the first reading for the canonical change. "Since we didn't have a voice in the debate, we got priests to speak for us," she reported. All of the priests speaking in favor of the measure had a young person stand beside them at the microphone. "It was an incredible line of people," Hardy said.
Although the change passed narrowly on the first reading, Hardy said that she was elated when it was adopted by a slightly larger margin the second time around. "It made me look at the church differently," Thorne said.
The canonical change in the Diocese of Virginia permits the inclusion of four youth on the council. They are nominated by the 15 regions in the diocese, complete an application, participate in personal interviews, and from the pool of 15 four are chosen by lot. "Drawing their names from a hat is what the youth wanted, and it prevents the appearance that the diocesan council is selecting a hand-picked slate," Pullman said. Hardy admitted that the number of youth who have seat, voice and vote is small, but "the fact that youth feel their voice is being heard does a lot for them."
As a result of the change, Hore said that he "has much more trust in the church because it has shown more trust in the youth. They were willing to reach out to us."
"I really believe that if you get vocal youth in these positions, it will make people think," Hardy said. "When you have a youth speaking at a microphone as someone who will be a member of the church for another 50 years, that will have an affect," she said. "It is bound to change the way the council will perceive its priorities."
In the Diocese of Maryland, the movement for official representation by youth in the diocesan convention was remarkably similar to the experience in Virginia. "Virginia was a model for us," said Cathy Morell, a member of Baltimore's St. James Church in Lafayette Square and cochair of the diocesan youth and young adult committee (YYAC).
The committee receives program money that supports stipends for staff at diocesan youth conferences, leadership training and a scholarship fund for youth to attend camp, according to Morell. YYAC also provides funds for four youth representatives to attend Province 3 network meetings.
In addition to such traditional youth ministries, the YYAC began developing a mission statement approximately four years ago urging the church to "empower youth to participate in all aspects of the life in the church and community, and to enable ministry for, with, of, and by youth." Almost a soon as the youth completed the mission statement, they began to ask themselves, "How do we implement this? What do we want to do?"
Morell said that the idea of youth seeking seat, voice and vote in the diocesan structure was a natural one for members of the YYAC. "The mission statement almost demands it," she said. "What place is better to get active and involved in the church than in diocesan convention?" she asked.
For two years youth lobbied and talked with priests and parishioners to gather support for the idea. As in Virginia, the proposal required a canonical change -- affirmative votes by the diocesan convention in two consecutive years. Morell said that support for the idea was "overwhelming. The first time around, it went through very smoothly," she said. "However, the second time we knew it was much more serious."
As in Virginia, critics charged that giving a youth delegation seat, voice and vote would set up a "special class" of representatives.
The YYAC and its supporters insisted that youth represent a constituency that rarely get elected by local parishes, and that they do not represent an entrenched "special interest" group. "Youth will grow up and become adult leaders. Special interest groups remain the same," Morell said.
Some priests opposed the resolution, Morell reported, because they thought diocesan participation "had too many responsibilities attached and the youth are not able to handle them." However, when it came time to vote, several persons changed their minds at the last minute. "One priest told me that he was against the idea until he began to recall how his own experience in the church," Morell said. "And he changed his mind."
The movement begun by youth in Virginia and Maryland will have to change many more minds in order for it to catch on in the rest of the church.
The Rev. Sheryl Kujawa, staff officer for youth ministries at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, said that this movement was "a long time in coming," and "has occurred in places that already have a strong youth ministry program. It is a natural outgrowth of those ministries."
Kujawa said that she is "completely supportive" of the movement to give youth seat, voice and vote in diocesan structures. "It is easy to keep youth marginalized," she said. "It is common to give the youth money from the diocesan budget and then say to them, 'Have a pizza party.'" She said that traditional youth ministries -- such as camping programs, weekend retreats, and social events -- are important, but that ultimately such programs can undervalue youth if they are not treated as full members of the community.
"Young people understand that participation in the decision-making process is one of the most important ways that communities recognize members," Kujawa said. "So, questions about how we're structured, how we spend money, how we choose our leaders, how we determine priorities and develop programs -- all these things that occur in diocesan conventions become of interest to youth." For example, "It shows a whole different commitment to youth to say that they will be part of the search process for bishop," she added.
Kujawa said that opponents of the effort represent a kind of hypocritical value system evident in the larger society that is reflected in the Episcopal Church. "We like to say that youth are important," she said. "But then we don't want to put our money where our mouths are. So, we don't support schools, we don't spend money on urban programs that will benefit youth."
"Youth become energized and empowered and begin to look at their place in the whole church," Kujawa added. "Out of that comes a careful look at their representation in the structures," she said. "They begin to reflect on their experience as they learn how to speak with their own voices and then they apply that to the wider church."
When presented with the argument that youth delegations would fundamentally alter the complexion of diocesan conventions, Kujawa responded with an enthusiastic, "Good!" Despite democratic ideals, diocesan conventions do not always represent all the parishes or respond to the needs of all the members in the constituency, she argued. "When young people do not get elected in the customary process, the problem is not with the young people, it is with the process that excludes them."
Hardy contended that the issue is not that the "youth deserve a voice," but rather that "the diocese needs our voice." She said that part of the problem with young people in the church is that they do not feel valued by the church, and therefore stop participating. "I am convinced that if you give young people an active voice they will feel equally valued and continue to be involved," she said.
Hardy echoes the concern expressed by the presiding bishop. In the monthly column in Episcopal Life prior to the EYE, Browning suggested that youth become inactive in the church when "they are not given opportunities for meaningful participation or to help in 'setting the agenda.'"
"Once you raise up the youth leadership and give them an opportunity to be present with their voices, we are all enriched," Pullman said. "There is an energy to their faith and a commitment that we adults don't always bring," she added. "It makes everybody see youth ministry in a different light."