Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill, NC

This line is used to advertise supermarket tabloids like Weekly World News or National Enquirer, showing pictures of aliens living in western states or revealing the latest escapades of movie stars. In the Youth Inquirers' Class, the Chapel of the Cross tries to encourage questions, not about aliens, but about God, Jesus, the Church, life, death, and faith. We get some hard questions: If Christianity is the way, are all other religions wrong? If we believe in one God, why do we talk about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? What does the Church teach about homosexuality, the death penalty, abortion, . . . ? The class is about discussing these kinds of questions, about learning about the Church and the faith, about young people deciding whether the faith they may have been committed to as infants by their parents and godparents is what they want to take as their own. This is not a class on comparative religion, on setting out different choices on a menu, but about carrying out part of our parish mission: to learn and teach the Christian faith. But it is not a class that is supposed to encourage only one point of view, either - the inclusiveness of our Anglican tradition, even in the midst of conflict in the Church, not only allows but also encourages us to explore these kinds of questions.

Our class went on a retreat in September. In addition to playing paintball and having pillow fights, we got 12 people on a small platform, on a swinging log, and over an 11-foot wall; we planned worship; we sang songs that many remembered from Vacation Church School; we got hurt playing football and volleyball. And we learned about each other and became more of a team going through this year of inquiry not alone, but together.

In January, our class made a pilgrimage to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The trip provided the inquirers with an opportunity to seek their place in the context of national and spiritual identity. We also visited memorials and museums, including the new WW II memorial and the Holocaust museum. The trip was made jointly with students and leaders of Episcopal Campus Ministry, allowing the high school students to make connections with individuals making the same journey from a slightly different perspective

The Book of Common Prayer says that "In the course of their Christian development, those baptized at an early age are expected, when they are ready and have been duly prepared, to make a mature public affirmation of their faith and commitment to the responsibilities of their Baptism and to receive the laying on of hands by the bishop." Following the Washington trip, the class has focused on what it means to live out the promises made for them in the baptismal covenant and which they may reaffirm at confirmation. The students will conclude their discernment process this month and on May 11 they will have the opportunity to undertake the covenant in their own stead with Bishop Curry at the confirmation service.

Regardless of whether or not they choose to be confirmed in May, each student in the Youth Inquirers' Class is a permanent member of the community built in the class over the course of this church school year. The leaders of the Youth Inquirers' Class encourage the entire parish of the Chapel of the Cross to continue to pray for the members of this special community as they continue on their spiritual journey for the remainder of this year - and beyond.

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