Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

Last Sunday I had the occasion to meet with the Youth Group. I was a bit nervous to start the conversation I was hoping to have, I was afraid that they might find it boring or irrelevant. I was pleasantly surprised, but shouldn’t have been given the thoughtfulness of these youth and those who support them. I wanted to talk about…the Annual Meeting, and the Vestry, and Church leadership on the local and Diocesan and beyond levels. We started with a conversation about the Body of Christ and what makes up the Church, and reflected on what the Church is and what it might be called to be - both little “c” church and big “c” Church. They had thoughtful questions and comments, and when I asked them about the deliberative style of leadership that the Episcopal Church has, and the way that it can sometimes feel slow and steady, I was surprised by a long pause and a few comments to the effect of “good things take a long time” and “it’s good to reflect about important things.”

I think I had momentarily fallen into the subconscious trap of imaging the youngest members of our community as primarily observers and not active leaders and participants, despite my actual thoughts about the matter. Despite this I am grateful that my faith is routinely re-invigorated by theirs and trust that might be the case for you too. The dreams that we have for what this beautiful and broken Body could be may change depending on our life-stage, but at the center of those dreams seems to be reconciliation, peace, care, hope for ourselves, for those we love, and for the world. That desire is met by God’s profound desire to reconcile us to Godself as well.

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. -1 John 3:1

Mtr Taylor