Community in Times of Change: Common Ground and the Consultation on Ministry to and with Youth
This is a time of excitement and transformative possibilities for our faith community. Many of you have participated in one way or another in the Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth over the past couple years. The Consultation is a two-year process of gathering input from a variety of youth ministry stakeholders about what is/is not working currently and what we can do to build on and strengthen youth ministry to serve all Unitarian Universalist youth. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Task Force on Youth Ministry has gathered input through a youth survey, congregational conversations, district gatherings, conversations within Unitarian Universalist (UU) organizations and committees, and in many other settings.While this process has encouraged energetic and forward-looking dialogue, we are not free of tensions, resentment, anxiety or uncertainty. Such emotions and feelings about the future can have a significant impact on community. I believe this impact is currently being felt in Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) and youth ministry across the continent, as happens in any organization that is going through times of change.
When the Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth is compared to Common Ground (the gatherings in the early 1980s that founded YRUU), this stirs up all sorts of feelings in people. Common Ground symbolizes for many people the end of one organization, against the will of some of its members, and the beginning of a brand new one. Some believe that this is what will happen as a result of the Consultation, but others see the Consultation as more of an awakening and revisioning of the way we do youth ministry—much broader than YRUU.
It is with this in mind that I created an opportunity for current and former YRUU youth to write about their thoughts, anxieties, and hopes in this time of change. Synapse is a point of information and energy exchange by young religious Unitarian Universalists, and is distributed around the continent to thousands of people, so why not take advantage of this forum?! I hope more people will do so in the future.
The call for submissions was sent out far and wide, but not very many people responded. Those who did, however, represent a huge variety of experiences! Contributors include: current YRUU youth, former YRUU leaders, ministers, seminarians, young adults, a Canadian, people from the East/West/Midwest U.S., members of Diverse and Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM), UUA staff, youth advisors, former members of Liberal Religious Youth (YRUU's predecessor), and those who were deeply involved in the transition from LRY to YRUU.
A voice that is missing from this collection of letters is that of younger youth—youth who are just entering into YRUU or youth ministry in their congregation. To all of you out there: what are your hopes for the future of Unitarian Universalist youth ministry? What do you think about community in times of change? Let's continue this amazingly rich dialogue! Send your thoughts and reactions for the next issue of Synapse to yruu@uua.org or Youth Office—Synapse, 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108.
For more information contact youth @ uua.org.
Last updated on Saturday, April 19, 2008.
