04/18/07
Comments:
On April 5 I asked for help in getting information on the ECW Quilt that was made in the late l980's and today's mail brought me the complete legend, a short history of every square in the quilt ,from Emmanuel Church Rapid City. There was no name as to who sent it, but it is beautifully put together and a treasure. I AM SO GRATEFUL. It is all the information I need and I thank whoever was responsible for my getting it. Thanks and God Bless!!!!
04/17/07
Comments:
Fr. Paul Clark, Rector Emeritus of Grace Church Huron is currently in room 215 of the Huron Nursing Home. We discovered that Paul had a blood clot in one leg and had fallen at home several times. He is undergoing treatment and physical therapy. The address of the Huron Nursing Home is: 1345 Michigan Ave. SW Huron, SD 57350. I am certain he would appreciate a card or note from old friends.
04/11/07
Comments:
As most of you know my husband and I are advocates for youth of any age. We worked as youth ministers for 2 years in Kansas until we were called home to South Dakota to help our youth here once again. Even though we were in an entirely different state the youth here stayed in touch and requested our guidance off and on. When we first came back we sent a letter to the Diocesan Council offering our services on a volunteer bases. Some of the ideas in this letter were to put the past programs to rest and use new ones that are different but the same ex. instead of Happening TEC(Teens Encounter Christ) this is High School age, New Beginnings(Middle School), and Vocar(College). We started out in Kansas with 6 youth and they were our foundation building the numbers to 50, how? Each youth had a ministry supported by their fellow youth, each owned their own program. Developed the program, raising and funds for that program, and budgeted for the program...Mustard seed sound familiar?
We need first to find programs that work in other churches in our individual Deaneries. Once we have a working idea in our church and deanery then we can move on to the state. We have such a diversity of youth in the state that there isn't just one program or idea that is going to work for the whole state so it's going to take a number of ideas to tweak down to 2 or 3.
Listening to what the youth are saying without interruption and putting them in charge of what they want and how they want to do it with adult guidance is all they want.
Enough said as I will get off my soap box now.
04/11/07
Comments:
Greetings:
I have been following the conversation concerning Youth Ministry, particularly the Happening and the cancellation of #18. I think there are a couple of things at work here.
First, it may be that we have hit the saturation point in terms of not having enough 'candidates' to attend the Happenings. I am reminded that in 1985-86, the same thing happened to the Cursillo movement in this Diocese. It got to the point that folks were not signing up to attend and the team would 'beat the bushes' in order to get enough numbers so that a weekend could be put on. I think it was in '86 that a weekend was scheduled and there were more staff than 'candidates' for the weekend, and it was realized that perhaps we were doing the weekends more for the staff and not so much for the folks attending. As I look at the numbers that Holly has put out, maybe that is happening to the "Happening," that we have become more concerned with the weekend and staff that we have lost track of the purpose of the event. I think I read that the weekend would go on if there were five 'candidates' that were committed to attending. Yet there were at least 14 staff members and a community in Pierre that were being asked to attend or support the weekend locally (in Pierre).
For me that suggests that maybe we need to develop a new 'vision' for youth in this Diocese, one that will attract more young folks to events who want and need a 'spiritual reawakening' rather than schedule an event and hope for the best.
A couple of years ago I sent out a letter to about ten folks, which included a couple of youth members, and asked that they meet and have a conversation about what is needed for a youth program to succeed and how that might look in this Diocese. As far as I know they never met and nothing came of these appointments and, like many things, it died out. My hope is that this meeting (conference call) in May will result in something firm and constructive, rather than just a rehash of old things and how we can cope with what we have.
I think the same thing is happening to the TEC program, which is an extension of the youth program in this Diocese. I understand that it takes time to recover from an incident like we had with Ike Swan. But I think it is at such a time that we need to be aggressive if we have a desire to continue a TEC program in any way. Have we made an effort to speak with the youth of the Diocese to see what might be rekindled? If not, why haven't we sought out the opinions of our youth, rather than plan events which youth do not show up and support?
At the Diocesan council meeting in July, there is going to be a discussion about a new Vision statement and Mission statement for the Diocese. Maybe we need to begin to form a new vision for TEC and for Youth Ministry as well, but I think we need to speak with the youth before we begin that project. It seems to me that we have for too long had youth events run by the adults with minimal youth participation, rather than have youth events run by the youth with adult supervision and spiritual direction. Maybe it is time to change our focus for youth ministry.
There, I have said my piece and will now return to trying to clear off my desk with other issues confronting this place.
Peace,
+Creighton of South Dakota
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