Where are they now?

Beloved in the Desert’s first class was at Saint Philip’s from July 2019 through May 2020. Many of you engaged with the Beloved members prior to the pandemic, as well as from a distance during the past year. Thank you for your continued prayers for our first class, our current 2020-2021 group, and the corps members who will join us in July 2021.

Many of you have asked where the first class is now. Here’s a quick update:

Maxine will serve at an Episcopal camp for youth in South Dakota this summer. In the fall she will begin a program of study at Virginia Theological Seminary as a layperson—not on the ordination track. Maxine looks forward to theological study, as well as the rhythm of prayer in an intentional community. It will also be her first time living on the East Coast.

Jess has spent the last year as a corps member of a different Episcopal Service Corps program. In the fall they will attend Union Theological Seminary in New York City to seek a Master’s in Divinity on the path to ordination.

Alex is in his third year with the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. More about his expanded role at Saint Philip’s during Mtr Taylor’s maternity leave is in Fr Robert’s article “From the Rector.”

Elaine will begin school at Simmons University School of Social Work in Boston, Massachusetts, this fall. She will pursue a degree in clinical social work and her focus of study will be trauma informed practice.

More details and other stories about the Beloved can be found on their Facebook page and at instagram.com/beloved_tucson.

Each young adult who joins Beloved in the Desert arrives with gifts, skills, life experiences, and personalities that form the community for the year and beyond. Beloved in the Desert makes a space and time for young adults to serve our neighbors, to learn, to pray, to get to know our community, to practice living in the ways of Jesus, and to be examples in our community of that devotion to action and reflection in his name. Thank you for all that you do to support the Episcopal young adult community in Tucson. Please continue in your prayers and support as we look toward saying goodbye to our second year’s cohort and to welcoming the third year of Beloved in the Desert members.