I wanted to give a little bit more of an in-depth update about our youth group, after our excellent youth group announcement at the annual meeting about the fundraiser. We tried a new, big thing this year: we moved youth group to its own time and space on Sunday evenings. This change has been great: it gives the youth group its own space, with time for deeper discussions, prayer, and building community. It’s one of the most joyful parts of my job, getting to spend a few hours a week with these insightful, funny, and caring humans at youth group. Like all good Episcopalians, they have excellent questions and a willingness to engage the deeper mysteries of life, and we all seem to be enjoying doing that together. We’ve doubled or more in size, both in participants and in leaders. We’re also adding a summer trip, the first weeklong trip since 2019. The theme we found together was creation care, and we’ll be joining forces with some other youth groups around the diocese to travel to Cincinnati for learning, service, and fun.
It’s been going well—AND this has been a big upgrade to our programs and what our church is offering! It’s a stretch for me to lead a full youth group program along with the rest of my job! I’m so grateful for all who have stepped up in support already, especially the leaders (Cathy Stone, Linda Smith, Eliza Nuxoll, and Myles Clarke) who have added this work to their already full lives and ministries! We’re still kind of rebuilding the plane while we’re flying it, we will definitely need some support and encouragement to keep flying! This is what we do here at St. Clare’s- it’s one of my favorite parts of this congregation, your true care and support and embrace of people of all ages. So please take a moment to sign up at the link below to attend the fundraiser, or just donate to the children and youth fund to help support the cost of the trip. As you heard at the annual meeting, you can be sure of a fun evening and the chance to line up your pet-sitters for the year, or even bid to be music director for a day!
Anne