Selected Mailings online
Posted Thursday, May 31, 2007
Letter from the Bishop about Youth Programs
June 1, 2007
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Recently I met with our Diocesan Youth Council – a group of extraordinary young people increasingly notable for their love of Jesus, their commitment to the church’s faith, their moral integrity, and their leadership. They come from across all the lines of class and race and school in our diocese. Their beauty rests in the energy they display in their endeavors to help each other be all that God made each one to be. As one girl said to me, "I change everyday, because of my involvement... Everyone in my school and neighborhood looks like me. Through the Youth Council I discover we all are different and look different, and yet we have a common faith as Episcopalians."
That same week I had dinner with students who are active in our work at Temple University, who told me about the experience of God in their lives because of our ministry, how it provides a middle ground for those alienated by the fundamentalism of some and the atheism of many students, and how much they appreciate having our priest's pastoral care available in a stressful university environment.
Later I swung a hammer during a work day at Camp Wapiti where volunteers from across the diocese built the tent platforms where our young people will be over eight weeks this summer. As the tent village beside the tree-line along the beach began to take shape, the excitement of the youth with whom I worked was almost electric.
The most important question the church today faces is, "Will our children have faith?" Our diocese is distinguished among others by its efforts to address that critical challenge.
But we can do so only with your financial support. Now more than ever before we need your help in our Diocesan Annual Appeal in order to continue this vital work. This is an appeal for the sake of the children in our struggling mission congregations and the youth and young adults in our diocesan ministries. To make a secure donation online, click here:
And please, please be generous.
Charles E. Bennison, Jr.