Dear Friends,

"We live in a ‘cusp time.’ The young adult task of composing and recomposing meaning and faith now takes place in a culture making its way through a similar set of rapids - a turning point in the flow of history…" Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose and Faith
~ Sharon Daloz Parks

Composing and re-composing meaning and faith in a "cusp time" in history is a pretty good description of young adult ministry these days. The search for meaning, purpose, and faith is, of course, the human story, not just the young adult story. But I am most privileged to be able to experience that journey with our third year of Johnson Interns, and so are you. At this writing, we are anticipating their arrival, but soon we will see "face to face" as St. Paul says. What they shall be to us and we to them is still unwritten. But I think what we are increasingly called to be about as a parish is to be a ‘mentoring community,’ not just to our interns, but to our university students, our children, our new members, and especially to our lay and clergy leaders as we chart the course for the future of the Chapel of the Cross.

I am pleased to report that we have a new Johnson Intern Director, Mary Agnes Rawlings, and a new Christian Education Director, Gretchen Jordan, and that are both of them are highly skilled and highly committed to helping our parish learn more about what a mentoring community might be. There are a lot of good models and good resources to guide our hearts and minds, as we pair up new Johnson Interns with mentoring parishioners who bring faith and commitment and sensitivity to the task. But beyond the one-on-one mentoring, we hope that many parishioners will introduce themselves and invite an intern to Sunday lunch or to have a cup of coffee or just a simple chat. Tell them about what you value in your religious life and what things the Chapel of the Cross has offered you that help you find your own place in God’s household, the Church. I hope that we can offer periodic reflective sessions with the interns throughout the year on how they are experiencing our worship, parish education and, community life.

My hope is that there might be some learning and reflection experiences among those parishioners who engage in the sacred trust of mentoring young adults, in Episcopal Campus Ministry and Johnson Interns, and as professors and teachers and counselors, in the university setting. In a broader sense, I hope the leadership of the parish will ponder the nature of our work of spiritual formation for all age levels, with your support and participation, of course. Yes, we are running the rapids through some big transitions in life, but as one of our ECM songs proclaims, "We are here to help each other, walk the mile and bear the load ...." With God's help we shall all seek to answer that call.

Blessings,
- Stephen Stanley