Episcopal Youth Event started yesterday at Villanova University in Philadelphia. Here is the sermon given by the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers, canon for missional vitality in the Diocese of Long Island at the opening Eucharist.
So I’d like to make a proposal, especially while we’ve got a stage full of bishops and the President of the House of Deputies back here. We’ve got some great youth programs in the Episcopal Church, where adults teaching and forming young people. I think it’s time for some reverse mentoring? We elders can nurture and teach, but frankly we could use your wisdom and experience on the mission frontier.
We need you to tell us what it’s like to live in a topsy-turvy world where people connect and learn and love across every kind of boundary. We need you to help us navigate a confusing world where Christianity isn’t on top.
We need you to show us what fish and loaves you’ve got in your backpack. Then, together, we can create pathways so you can become the prophets and messengers and leaders that God has summoned for this moment.
And don’t think for a moment you don’t have what it takes. Remember the song we sang at the start:
I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me.
Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see.
Opens prison doors, sets the captives free.
I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me.
You’ve got that river flowing out of you.
You can bear Christ’s healing. You can speak his truth. You can share his love.
Your peers need it from you. Your church needs it from you.
Episcopal Youth, it’s time for you to bring it.
Full text here.